Now we here at Smmee have been showing many small business owners that a presence on line is a must. That Social media is a force multiplier for them and a great way to help save money on advertising.It can also take their advertising to the next level. But we also like to show them that sometimes a great idea can backfire. This article by Stephanie Marcus the other day on Mashable is a great example of what to do and not to do when you respond to customers and potential customers online. You can see the article here. She has done a great job on showing three companies who’s online presence was affected by negative feedback and those companies responses. Enjoy.

Great article from Information Week on the latest reports from a Neilson study on Americans usage of the Internet. You can read the whole article here from Alison Diana.

It is rapidly apparent that Americans are utilizing Social media portals/sites far more then they are using their email. Not only are they forwarding their thoughts and deeds and accomplishments to their friends. They are also using it to forward the best deals that they find along with what they have recently bought and from whom the purchased it from. What is interesting is that we are still seeing a larger growth curve in the baby-boomer population

In fact, U.S. Internet users spent 22.7% of their time on social networking sites — up 43% from the 15.8% they spent in 2009, the research firm found. By comparison, Americans are dedicating fewer hours to the once-ubiquitous e-mail: In this year’s report, users spent 8.3% of their online time reading and sending missives, down almost 28% from last year’s 11.5%, Nielsen said in its Aug. 1 report, “What Americans Do Online.”

Users of all ages are adopting social networking, the research firm found, with double the number of Americans ages 50 and above visiting these sites than the under-18 age group. The report tracked 200,000 users in June 2010.

So the under 18 population is rapidly transitioning to a mobile interface and Neilson found this information to be accurate here:

 The picture changed when Americans described their online usage via smartphones instead of computers. Americans spent 42% of their online time using e-mail when they accessed the Internet with their phone, Nielsen found. Last year, they spent 37% of their phone-accessed Internet time on e-mail, the study said. Portals were the second most used category, according to the report.

So we are seeing that any business today needs to have a presence not only on Social media sites ( Facebook, Youtube,myspace, etc) but regionalized sites as well ( craigslist, oodle, olx, etc.) and now a presence on mobile devices ( www.appinkling.com) .

But its not the same as having your own branded  smart phone app. In this economy not many want to shellout $10,000 or even $5000.00 for these apps.

NOW you don’t have to. For under $1000.00  Appinklingallows you to have a branded image for both the I phone and Android phones. This now allows your customers and potential customers to see who you are and what you do without having to find a computer and looking you up. Self help guru’s you needs this… Service oriented business’s should find this as a must have to proclaim themselves to the world… Artists, Authors, Publishers and especially Musicians should all have one of these. There is alot of flexibility in the template offered by Applink. Also to get placed in front of other customers just mention to them you heard about this from Seth Crofton at Smmeenow and you will get placed in front of the line.

So the uses of QR codes are vast but this was a great idea in using them as graffito. Now of course graffiti is frowned upon but think of the many flyer’s you see downtown advertising bands/activities/groups and performances. And if your at a convention what a great way to get people to see what you have to offer by placing a few of these as posters up on the walls to the convention area.

Your Size Works in Your Favor

As a small business, your size is your friend in social media channels. Use your small size as an advantage and respond to each and every person that mentions you. Since you’re working with a smaller customer base, you can also build customer Twitter Lists to separate different categories of customers into groups, which should help you offer more personalized customer service — something the big businesses don’t have the time or resources to support.

Here’s an easy example: Who are your most frequent customers? Make a Twitter List called “Regulars,” and add your regulars on Twitter to it.

In doing so, you’re associating patronage with prestige. Your efforts could even inspire semi-regular customers to frequent your business more often just so they too can get added to the list. This tactic might also serve as a catalyst for one regular to connect with another, though you could also facilitate customer-to-customer connections with introductory tweets. So if a customer tweets for a recommendation, you could respond with something simple as, “@customer1 good question, I like the cheesecake but @customer2 really loves the custard.”

These types of personal exchanges highlight the advantages afforded to small businesses using social media

We here at Smmee have spoke in the past of the future of the Internet going from saturation to localization. Myspace preceded by Second Life has experienced this last year and is trying to re invent itself. Virtual worlds like Habbo.com and social media platforms like Ning.com have entrenched themselves in their niches and have been successful. Disney is embracing social media and virtual worlds to the point where it is re modeling their theme parks to incorporate it. But where does the future lay?

I believe it will lay in localization. Where users will play online in smaller fields of social media that revolve around who they are in the real world. They will spend far more time in forums that arouse their interests, loves and beliefs. We still see Facebook being the giant whitepages in the sky but it can only grow so far. So taking that in mind take a look at this great article  from I wanna Express with User generated content stats and forecasts and see where you can best put your companies brand online.

So what you say? 

 Well in visiting their site you can not find the paper template listed. The only way to get to the template is to know the URL for it. The only way to get to the URL was to buy the magazine or go to a magazine shop or bookstore and copy it down. Now they did a great job in only allowing the color version of their characters in the magazine so to get them you have to buy the magazine. The blank templates to design your own are on Behemoth’s website…but color is not available on the website only in the Giant robot magazine. Thus the customer must buy the magazine and go to Behemoth’s website to get all the models. Great!!, both the magazine and the game company win with this.

However there is no way to show off the user generated content. It appears that Behemoth and Giant robot forgot that people like to show off what they do. There is no place or website listed to upload images of your redesigned Castle Crasher. NO contest to show off how creative you are or how big a fan you are. Was this done intentionally or just not thought all the way through? Don’t know but hopefully you the small business owner can take this idea and spend a little more time in your marketing meetings to see how you can really engage your audience and get them more interactive with you products and services.