Business - Business News

POSTED: Sunday, Jun. 28, 2009

Whatcom business owners learn how to reach customers on social networking sites

Chuck Robinson has spent decades talking about his book store to Whatcom County residents face-to-face, but lately he's been busy learning new tools to talk to an even bigger audience.

Robinson, owner of Village Books in Fairhaven, has spent more than a year posting regularly on Facebook. For the past two months he's been trying out Twitter, letting his followers know about upcoming events, summer reading lists and anything that might be happening at the store. Even though he is the owner of a well-established business, he recognizes the need to communicate through social networking sites to maintain and build his customer base.

"What has surprised me is what happens when something goes viral. If someone finds (a post or tweet) interesting, it gets passed along and suddenly it is getting an incredible number of people seeing it," Robinson said.

Social media and networking sites continue to grow, and it's impacting local businesses of every size. Last week Derek Johnson, CEO of Bellingham-based Tatango, held a Social Media 101 seminar to give an overview of what's out there, and people from more than 60 companies and agencies attended. Whatcom Community College has also seen quite a bit of interest from the business community and is offering at least five classes this fall specifically geared toward social media.

"I think there is a critical shift taking place on doing business and networking," said Johnson, whose company provides group text messaging and group voice messaging to connect any group through mobile phones. "It used to be you go to an event, shake hands and pass out business cards. Now it's all happening on the web."

Because of the speed of this "critical shift," business owners are left with many questions, trying to figure out what sites they should be using and how often they should be doing it. Johnson believes the important thing to keep in mind is that the sites out there - including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google, MySpace, even the company home page and blogs - are all tools to interact with current and potential customers.

"The key is to figure out which one is effective for their business, then tie it all together," said Johnson. "What customers want is changing. More often, they want to see the real you."

For Johnson, his immersion in social networking sites has caught the attention of other companies. Johnson was one of 100 people across the U.S. given a 2011 Ford Fiesta for free, because the auto maker wants him talk about the new car.

"They are taking a chance letting people talk about the Fiesta, but they get it because the discussion of this car is quickly happening across the country," said Johnson.

The number of people using social networking sites is huge. On Facebook, there are more than 200 million users. There are currently 52,680 Facebook users within a 50-mile radius of Bellingham, said Andrew Dumont, vice president of marketing and business development at Tatango. Bellingham's population as of April 2008 was 75,750, according to the Washington state Office of Financial Management.

TRANSPARENCY A BIG ISSUE

The most common dilemma these days from business owners is how much they want to reveal about themselves or the company. Employees at Tatango push the envelope: They have cameras set up in the Bellingham office so anyone can log on anytime, to see what's happening at tatango.tv. Employees also spend quite a bit of time writing about what's going on whether it's on Twitter, Facebook or posting videos on YouTube.

How much company employees and owners reveal about themselves or the business should be based on what they feel comfortable with, said Greg Marshall, director of Community Education at Whatcom Community College. While there are privacy concerns that need to be dealt with, offering insight about themselves or the company can have its advantages.

"This (transparency) can allow small- and medium-size businesses a chance to really get their message out there," Marshall said. "There is a social media rule, however: You have to give something into this universe in order to get something back. It won't work if the only message is an advertisement to buy something."

Robinson said he's a bit cautious about personalizing himself on the social networking sites, but he's happy to talk about having he and his employees talk about what they are passionate about - books.

"What we're seeing the most about social media is feedback," Robinson said. "We have people posting comments as well as coming into our store and talking about what we've been doing on Facebook. We're engaging people in conversations, and that tells me our message is getting out there."

As fast as social networking sites have burst on the scene, the expectation is it will continue to go through a lot of changes. Marshall believes current technology will begin morphing, perhaps combining the strengths of Google with the strengths of a Facebook. For example, he sees a time not far from now where someone will be walking down the street, use their phone to ask about nearby coffee places and get a variety of coupons and specials of places that are within a few blocks of where that person is standing.

"It will get to the point where business owners will have even more one-on-one communication with potential customers," Marshall said.

Reach Dave Gallagher at 715-2269 or dave.gallagher@bellinghamherald.com.

Here are some tips from local business people on how companies should handle being on social networking sites:

Getting involved: The best way to get started on something like Twitter is to simply sign up and then find some people to follow, said Chuck Robinson of Village Books. "You don't have to say anything at first. Just watch what others are doing to get a feel for it," Robinson said.

Time commitment: Social media sites can quickly suck up a person's time, hurting productivity, but it doesn't have to be that way. Patrice Valentine, president of Net Solutions North America, needs to keep track of these sites so she can advise customers, but the time she devotes to it is sprinkled throughout the day. What's important is staying focused on business. "The goal is making yourself available to customers, and this is a great way to do that," Valentine said.

Robinson likens checking in on Twitter and Facebook to checking phone messages. "I wouldn't call it a huge part of my day, and it doesn't take long to write 140 characters (the maximum number you can use in a Twitter message)," Robinson said.

How often to post: With Twitter, it's part of the culture to send out quick messages about what you're doing several times a day, but don't get carried away with it on Facebook, said Andrew Dumont, vice president of marketing and business development at Tatango. If a business owner posts too often, or if all the posts are just advertisements, Facebook friends will just start blocking or ignoring the posts. For businesses, two or three posts a day on Facebook seems to be a rule of thumb.

Who should post: Dumont suggested it should be someone who is most passionate about being on the sites who is also enthusiastic about the company. He believes in transparency, but acknowledges that some companies may want to set guidelines about what is said.

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