Real Social Girl

Small Biz has the jump on Social Media

// February 18th, 2010 // No Comments » // Online Community, Social Media Mamas, Social Media Wizz Bang

Small businesses make up a large proportion of New Zealand businesses. But make no mistake, though these businesses may be small in the number of employees they have, they are in no way small in their business objectives and follow through.

Everyone from insightful mothers, style conscious women, to men who are sick of working for the man are turning their hand at creating and growing companies that have 1, 2 or 3 people on the books. But what may be taking some multinational companies by surprise is that these little guys are blowing them out of the water when it comes to online presence, social media and building relationships with their clients. These 3 things are creating dollars for small businesses that used to reserved for the big guns.

Case in point are Facebook Fanatics Belly Beyond and Vlogging Bag Diva Floozy. Both of these New Zealand based (and female owned businesses) are making use of the real-time web and interactive competitions to get client interest and keep it. So how is it with less than a handful of staff members these companies manage to do what some of the “bigger” brands cannot even wrap their heads around? How do they create successful social media campaigns to propel their brands to the forefront?

I originally wanted to speak to Lou at Belly Beyond at Kate at Floozy and do a little bit of a case study on each of them, but I have had little chance of doing that, and from their online activities I am sure they have been busy too…hopefully they will stop by and add their 2 cents as to what they think makes them successful social media divas

But here is my take on some of the winning ingredients of what these ladies do best as part of their social media marketing. (more…)

Stuck on a feeling

// September 28th, 2009 // No Comments » // Blogging, Online Community, Personal Ramblings

Seems every business owner and their dog is blogging. That is probably because the benefits to your company can be vast if done properly. If you are already blogging, I’m sure you’ve read about how it is good for driving traffic to your site if update regularly (for starters, Google loves all the new content). But what if your blog is just not bringing the sizzle and it does not actually have any readers. Have you assessed who you are trying to attract, is it inline with what you are blogging about? Are you giving them a reason to actually visit your blog?

Often times people forget what I like to call the 1-2 punch of blogging. First, through your blog you want to evoke an emotion or a feeling from your readers. The second part of the punch is to add value above and beyond your normal product offering. (more…)

Creating Community = Creating an Experience

// September 23rd, 2009 // No Comments » // Internet Ramblings, Online Community

In order to create a successful online community, you have to give people what they want, and what they DON’T want is a hard sell. For this post, when I talk about an online community, I am referring to Blog followers/regular readers, Facebook fans, Twitter followers and set community groups such as those built on platforms like Ning.

People join a community to be part of something, not to be just another number in line, a code in a database or a bum on a seat. I have spent several years building up communities for our own online games and for other brands. The common thread in successful communities is the experience that is built into the community. An online community that is successful for both the business at the helm of it and the fans that are part of it, is a community that is engaging and offers above and beyond what the fans expect. (more…)

Connected Mamas

// June 1st, 2009 // No Comments » // Social Media Mamas

Studies have been done time and again about the connectedness of mothers and how we continue to become more internet-savvy as a lifestyle choice. There is a number of reasons for this. Number one being that women are the primary buyers in the family household – and this is an important role to hold. Regardless of whether your full-time job is being a stay at home mum or more corporate, mums are generally responsible for most household buying. We buy the kids’ clothes, we buy the groceries, we keep track of what needs upgrading in the house, we pay the bills, even shop for dad’s clothes and then with the time leftover we sometimes manage to buy something for ourselves. (more…)