Recent Changes to Social Media Advertising

In the last week, several announcements have been made that change the landscape for many small business owners who wish to advertise through social media. The first comes indirectly from Facebook; the other is from #2 social media site, Google Plus.

FACEBOOK
The first announcement was actually a shift in stance at Facebook that was noticed and published in a recent article on Advertising Age’s website. Facebook is shifting. They want to make the posts that appear when users log in to be useful, interesting, and relevant. As more marketers jump on Facebook, that means more attempts to get a user’s attention from brands, and therefore the number of times one of your business posts will show up in the timelines of your followers will decrease over time because otherwise everyone’s timeline will be covered with business-page posts rather than your cousin’s wedding or best friend’s baby pictures. Last year, I saw statistics that on average, 15% of a page’s followers would see any given post. Now they’re expecting that to drop into the mid-single digits as they try to make the timeline more relevant to users. That means if you manage to get 1000 followers, perhaps 40 of your subscribers might see what you post.

The solution, according to Facebook, is to pay them more money. They argue that the reason you should pay them for more followers is twofold: first, 4% of a large number of followers is more people than 4% of a smaller number; also, it makes the ads you run more effective by increasing the connectivity and breadth of your audience. Once you’ve built that audience, you should pay them again to increase the percentage of people who see it back to what they’ve already been offering.

Of course, critics of this change (this article being only one example) point out that if a brand is posting irrelevant things, a user can just revoke their Like and the problem is solved--no need to change the algorithm. And that it’s hardly fair to charge a small business to get more followers, and then charge them again to talk to the followers they paid to get, particularly when the restriction on who gets to see the post is an artificial one.

It seems to me that Facebook is becoming less and less small-business friendly. If you’re a famous national or international brand, you’ve got the budget to do this. For a small startup or family-owned shop, it just doesn’t seem worth it. Why not invest in building an email newsletter list instead? Then you get to contact 100% of your "followers" any time you want. For free. For businesses that can do well with short text posts, Twitter can also be done for free without restricting the audience. The value of Facebook as a small business marketing tool seems to be eroding fast in comparison to other social media outlets.

GOOGLE PLUS
The news out of Google is that they’re changing policies, too. Previously, there were no display ads permitted on Google+ and you couldn’t pay them to change how your content was displayed. Soon, that will change. There will still be no display ads on Google+ but they will soon be launching “+Posts” which seem like they will be sort of like promoted posts, only with a twist: when you promote a post, they will be displayed not on G+ itself, but throughout Google’s online ad network.

What will that look like? Well, judging from the video about the upcoming feature it seems that your G+ post will show up instead of ads in places around the web as a whole, with all its interactivity intact. Knowing how important relevance is for Google, I’m assuming it will show up in places where there are content matches. Reading a blog post about chocolate? There, instead of an ad along the side, is an embedded G+ post from Cadbury. And it appears you’d be able to comment, +1, share, join a Hangout, instead of just clicking on the ad to be taken to the target page. In other words, it blurs the line between “advertising” and “social media.”

Since building an audience on G+ is still free, and that building authority around a topic there helps you to rise to the top of Google search results, and soon those posts can also be promoted through Google’s ad network if you choose to pay, it seems like these changes are making Google Plus a far more appealing place than Facebook for a small business owner trying to grow their business.

Brown Bag Series: Customer Development with Zac Cohn of LIFFFT

by Michael J. Coffey

Earlier this month, Zac Cohn of LIFFFT, presented our latest brown-bag lunch workshop entitled Customer Development. In particular, Zac took us through a series of techniques to use when interviewing customers--particularly if you haven’t got customers yet. The idea is that if you interview people in general about what their needs and concerns are, you may find that your product or service doesn’t have as large an audience as you might think. If that’s the case, you’ll save time and money by changing direction and offering something they do want.

Once participant said that he basically knew the general area he’d like his business to be in but not the specifics of what he’d offer. Zac said that’s the perfect place to start interviewing people. He suggested just going out and stopping people on the street. Usually you can get some good feedback by simply saying “Excuse me, I’m working on a project and I’m wondering if I could ask you a couple of questions.” You might want a question or two to make sure they’re potentially a customer: “Do you have a dog?” if you’re thinking of pet products; “Do you have children?” if you’re thinking about youth-related services; “Do you own a car?” if you’re considering something in the automotive industry. Now you’re interviewing a potential customer!

Some good questioning techniques? Well, you don’t want to be bias or lead the person you’re interviewing. And no asking “ice cream questions” (questions that really only have one answer--who in their right mind would turn down ice cream?) Instead, the goal is to get the person talking about their own, real-world concerns. A great way to start would be “Tell me about the last time…” and finish it with a situation that might be a pain-point for your target customer. The answer will typically reveal something interesting. “Yes, and…?” “Tell me more about…” “What do you mean by…?” These open ended questions help the other person to express things you might not have asked about. I started asking my partner for one exercise, “Tell me about the last time you had a cup of tea.” By the end of the 5-minutes, we were talking about Chinese politics and ads for milk. Let the other person lead the conversation. Just show interest and ask for more--evoke the stories they tell about their lives--and you’ll probably end up with more information than you would get from a carefully planned questionnaire.

Another useful question was “How are you dealing with your problem now?” The answers to this question allows you to learn more about how important the problem is, or how much time and money they are willing to spend on addressing the problem. If a person says, “Oh, I just try to ignore it if it comes up” there’s a different level of consumer need than if they say, “So far I’ve spent thousands of dollars on specialists and nobody seems to be able to fix it.”

Finally, we looked at some questions for a different take on developing your product or service. It’s a framework to help you develop your own questions for customer interviews, and looks roughly like the scientific method:

1. What is your problem statement? (Be sure not to include your specific take on the answer. “People in X neighborhood have to travel 5 miles to get a haircut” is better than “There isn’t a salon in X neighborhood” because the first problem statement might evoke multiple ways to solve the problem, whereas the second can only be solved in one way.)
2. Do you have a hypothesis you’re testing? (This is your idea--the way you’re considering to address the problem. It might be a salon in the neighborhood, or it might be mobile, in-home haircut house calls.)
3. Who has this problem? (This will help you with that first question or two of your interview. In the haircut example, it might be “people who live or work in X neighborhood”)
4. Where can you find them? (This question will help you find good people to interview, and later to plan where and how you will market your product or service. The answer might be geographic, like a ZIP code, or it might be places they tend to go, like a dog park or day care centers)
5. What are some good questions you can use to explore this problem? (Brainstorm a list of questions that will evoke stories about the area you’re thinking about)

The feedback from participants was positive. Some of the comments included “I’ll use the problem statement and develop good questions.” “Will be interviewing current clients as well…” and “Attend if you need to validate ideas.” We’re glad we were able to host Zac for this workshop and look forward to bringing him back to talk about other topics as well!

Interview with Karyn Gold-Reineke, Founder of Pirouette

Interview with  Karyn Gold-Reineke, Founder of Pirouette

By Grace Robinson-Seim,
www.pirouetteessentials.com ◆ info@pirouetteessentials.com

Business is going well for Karyn Gold-Reineke, founder of Pirouette, an artisan perfume and natural spa luxuries company based in Seattle. You’ll find her exquisite line of handcrafted perfumes, soaps and lotions in a number of stores around the area, including Town and Country Markets and Whole Foods. However, when Karyn was laid off from her comfortable, full-time job at an art museum at the height of the financial collapse in early 2009, her future was anything but certain. Encouraged by friends and family members to expand on her soap making hobby, Karyn initially decided to make ends meet by selling the artisan soaps she had previously enjoyed giving out as Christmas gifts. She started out with a simple Etsy shop, which she managed easily while working out of her 325 square foot cottage home in the woods. When she introduced her perfume line, however, her orders began to pick up. Karyn found herself working twelve hour days, seven days a week. While the progress was exciting, the work load was daunting. Her creative background did little to prepare her for the complexities of running a business on this scale.

“I’m so much more of the artist in this,” says Karyn. “I think of myself as more of a perfumer and a scent creator. I haven’t really ever been a very business-minded person, even though I’m very entrepreneurial.”
A friend introduced Karyn to Community Capital Development, where she got the support she needed to keep up with the demands of her rapidly expanding business. Karyn benefited from free counseling through CCD’s Washington Women’s Business Center on topics ranging from building a business plan to basic accounting.

“I wanted to have a long term plan for my business,” Karyn explains. “I have been working a lot with Nita Conlin, looking at my sales and profit margins for each item and doing cash flow projections. It was really enlightening for me to be able to project where I would be and plan ahead. You can see so much more clearly, and it was so simple! Even though it was kind of crazy getting all the numbers together, it was so empowering being able to understand. It was like getting a crystal ball!”

Now in her own studio space in a vintage brick building in Pioneer Square, Karyn is eager to continue on her upward trajectory.  “It has been really good for me to get some of those skills and understand what people do,” she says. “I’ve told so many people about Community Capital Development, too. It’s so great, and it’s free!”

Letter from Nita

Dear friends,

It’s not often we find our dream job, leave it and then get to come back.  However, that’s exactly what happened to me.  I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with the many clients of the Washington Women’s Business Center over the past 5+ years.  I have had fun teaching many Launch and Grow classes, QuickBooks and other classes and it has been exciting to see so many of you launch your very own businesses.  

To those of you still working towards that direction – keep going! 

I feel confident that the Washington Women’s Business Center will go to new heights under the new leadership of Jennifer Teehan along with staff, Michael Coffey and Justine May.

As Henry David Thoreau said,  “I learned this, at least, by my experience:  that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”

I wish you all continued success in your entrepreneurial endeavors and look forward to our paths crossing again.

Best regards,

Nita Conlan

Class Summary: Growing Your Business with Email Marketing

Two weeks ago, Dana Pethia of Constant Contact presented a workshop about the use of email as a marketing tool for entrepreneurs and small business owners. Attendees commented that the information she presented was "very informative," "a great resource," and "practical, up to date marketing." 

The course presented information comparing what Dana referred to as "ISP email" such as Outlook, Gmail, and so forth, with email delivery services such as Constant Contact (and there are others) that do more than just send and receive email, but also include tracking of how many messages are opened, archiving past email newsletters on the web so they can be linked to later, and other statistics that help you to understand how your subscribers are interacting with your communication.

One of the big things that she stressed throughout the workshop was the idea of permission. It's important to be sure you have permission to send your messages to the people on your list.  Not doing so is spam. Not having that permission (and not reminding people that they gave you permission) can get you reported, leading to a dramatic increase in the number of your emails that go strait into the junk mail folder.

The other general topics covered included tips for increasing responses, statistics about what is common or average (including the most common times and days of the week that email newsletters get opened), best practices, good and ethical ways of building your list of subscribers, content that can be used for your messages, designing both the look and the delivery information of your emails, and additional resources for things like finding good colors and writing subject lines.

Full Disclosure:  Constant Contact allows Community Capital Development and the Washington Women's Business Center to use their services at below the regular rate as an in-kind contribution.

Seattle University is beginning it's 8th year of the Community Development Entrepreneurship Clinic and we are excited about the prospects for the upcoming year!

 Goals: 

The goals of the CDEC are for business students and law students to work together to develop the practical, interdisciplinary skills required to identify clients’ needs accurately, and to work effectively with clients to provide them with meaningful, practical business and legal advice that will empower these entrepreneurs to succeed in their business ventures long after the clinic has ended.

Description:

 Business students and law students are teamed together as business consultants and legal advisers to local small business people. Teams will consist of two to four business and law students. Teams will be supervised by one of the two clinic faculty members (lead faculty); the second faculty member will provide supplemental assistance in the particular specialty (business or law). In addition, each team will be assigned two mentors – one law mentor, and one business mentor.

Mentors volunteer to meet regularly with the student-led teams to provide additional guidance, coaching, issue-spotting, and trouble-shooting. There are a variety businesses advised by the clinic. Some clients are current clients who come from one of three local micro-enterprise counseling organizations: Community Capital Development, StartZone, and Washington Community Alliance for Self Help (CASH). We recently expanded clinic services to more established firms that seek assistance in growing their markets or addressing some particular business challenge.

This course also seeks to contextualize the work of the clinic and that of the entrepreneur in a broader societal framework—how can (and do) business ventures aid in the development of communities? What should customers expect from small business owners? Do entrepreneurs have broader community responsibilities beyond the provision of the business goods or services at a profit? What does the concept of sustainable business development and growth involve?

 

 The application deadline is Friday, August 24. Please call (206) 325-4330 x100 for more info or for an application, or email ashleym@seattleccd.com

Please find a copy of our client application attached.

Newest Graduating Entrepreneurs

Congratulations to the newest group of entrepreneurs to graduate from our "Launch & Grow Your Business" series! Good luck in your businesses.

 

If you would like more information on this series, please visit our webpage at wbc.seattleccd.com, where you can view our monthly calendar for all upcoming events here at the Washington Women's Business Center.