Business - Dave Gallagher

POSTED: Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009

Bellingham social media entrepreneur catches eye of national publication

Social media continues to have a growing influence in business, and a Bellingham entrepreneur continues to be a part of that change.

Derek Johnson, founder of Bellingham-based Tatango, was named one of 25 finalists in America's Best Young Entrepreneurs by BusinessWeek magazine. The magazine is holding an online readers' poll and will name the top vote-getter next month.

In putting together the list, BusinessWeek searched the country looking for young business owners, and interviewed Johnson. He initially didn't know what the interview was about; he was told they wanted to find out more about his company.

"I was surprised when the editor dropped me an e-mail, saying that I had made this list," said Johnson, 24.

Johnson's company, Tatango, is a group text-messaging service, allowing people to send text messages to an entire group. When he launched the company in 2007, it was a free service. Earlier this year the company started charging a monthly fee and the company reached profitability last month, one month ahead of schedule.

Today, more than 1,000 groups are registered in the plan, and so far more than 20 million messages have been sent through Tatango.

Johnson's other venture is Derek Media, which helps businesses start and maintain their social media presence. He started the company earlier this year after he kept getting questions from business people who either didn't have time or didn't know how to get going on Web sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. It's already starting to draw interest from national clients, he said. The two companies employ about 10 people.

In looking through the list of BusinessWeek's young entrepreneur finalists, it's interesting that more than half of them started Web-based/online social media companies. It's an indication this is still fertile ground for innovation and opportunity. In the social media realm, Johnson said just keeping up with the changes is a challenge because it is happening at such a fast pace.

What he's noticed lately is businesses' reaction to being involved in social media. There's more thought being given on a company's potential return on investment.

"It (ROI) is a huge part of the discussion right now. Business (owners) are spending more time figuring out their objectives on the Internet," Johnson said.

Moving from the "happy to be here" phase to the "let's make money at this" arena should be an interesting one for companies. Right now it seems the biggest impact is strengthening the bond with customers, whether it's by telling the company's story or handling feedback by direct interaction. That's hard to quantify as a number for the bottom line, however, so I wonder how companies will build on customer interaction.

Whatever the case, social media doesn't appear to be slowing down. For those who thought it might be a short-term phase that would quickly disappear, it's starting to look less likely that will happen.