How Small Scale Business Benefit From Social Media Even in the Philippines

And so I was researching for my local business establishments who have twitter, linkedIn and Facebook page and oh boy, I am having a hard time locating one small scale business that bothered to have keep a good social media presence. Okay, I can understand that Social Media can somewhat look like a noisy and at time irresponsible place to put your business in. I mean, how can a reliable business man, or woman, want to put your business credibility on social media?

And what more, why should you invest time and yes, if you are serious, money just to have a social media presence for your business? What is the point, REALLY? Isn’t it enough that you are bombarded with nonsense post in your personal profile timeline, why should you start a page that will likely lie fallow and be filled with nonsense stuff as well? And how about twitter; how could it benefit your business to have one?

And yes, social media marketing works well in the US, UK and other countries whose citizens are often online; you might think that most of Filipinos don’t bother to go online. So really, if you are a small establishment that rents out a gown or a service based establishment or a small school, social media or anything online might not benefit you at all.

If you think that is so… then answer these questions.

1. How is your revenue? Are you getting your target sales?
2. Are you servicing more clients than you can handle?
3. Do you have a steady stream of customers?
4. Your company is progressing as you need it to be?

If your answer to most of the questions is “No” then I would say that you need to promote your business in all ways that you can. And the good news is that, social media is among the cheapest way in marketing your business. And at times, if you know how to navigate your way through the social media world, you can easily promote your product locally for free.

So, specifically, just how having social media set up benefit you and your business?

1. Social Media is the Mall or market place online. This is the crowd builder online. And what’s so amazing is that these platforms are built to help you reach out your target market. According to wiki.answers.com, there are 22,316,340 million Filipino who are on Facebook. This is about 22.34 percent of our total population and about 75.14% of our total online population. And mind you, this is growing every day. Two years ago, a little bit of a history I know, Philippine Inquirer said that there are 9.5 million Filipino on twitter and I bet it has grown for the past two years.
2. Another means in reaching out your target market. I was supposed to speak in a Woman Empowerment seminar sponsored by DOT region 3 but we had some family event that day I was not able to make it. But the organizers were my friends and I asked them what happened that day. And oh boy, I was really sad because I was not able to make it and answer this question (I am paraphrasing) “Did you mean that now there is an Internet marketing that traditional marketing is obsolete?” Of course not! Whatever works for your business is still the best. At the end of the day, you look into your ROI. These figures will tell you if you have promoted your products or services well. However, as a strategist, you would see the light of utilizing whatever resources are available to make your target market know you exist. That you can provide this kind of service. That you are there for them. Would it hurt to use traditional and use Social Media marketing or digital marketing at the same time? If you know how, wouldn’t you want to try it for your business too if it would mean you could reach your market better?
3. Be friends with your prospects. Today, we don’t just wait for our clients to drop by out of the blue because we are at the right position providing service. Because communication is cheaper these days, Social Media is free; you can now reach out to your clients. You have now means to know what they think, how they feel and how you can improve your service.
4. Encourage loyalty. If you are in the Social Media, if you have a strong online presence, it is easier for you to share your FAQs better and distributing it in a larger scale. If done right, you can show your clients that you can be trusted. Of course, this comes with a great effort on your part as you need to be consistent with your words and show that you rock at what you do. But hey, this is why you are in business, to provide the best service. All you need to do is show it to your clients. At the end of the day, they will stick with you because they know you deliver what you say you will.

Filipinos are sociable being. We live to entertain and to be entertained. We are among the top social media users in the world. This is why, as an entrepreneur, you just have to look into the social media and think how you can utilize this to leverage your business. If you have more question about how to use Social Media for your business or profession, just leave a comment below or drop me a message in my Contact Me for and I will be more than happy to get in touch with you.

P.S

Sorry, this blog post is not so much for VA aspirants, but you can still read if you are an online freelancer. Share your thoughts! I would always want to hear from you! Just comment below.

Blog and Social Media Entrepreneurship Day – My Take for this Great Online Event!

Gone are the days – and I can see a lot of things needed to let go – of spending hours in a very expensive flight just to attend a Seminar and listen to speakers you just heard about. Now, with the internet, you can attend it at the comfort of your home listening to a WEBINAR.

Since this January, I have been to a lot of those especially Webinars Ms. Janette Toral conducted. The learnings just made my head SWELL, hopefully not literally, with new found knowledge about Blogging, Influencing and Internet Marketing in general. And yesterday was no different, I have learned BIG time too. And to think that I have been doing nothing these past months but researching and making it to a point that I heard all the IM jargons I need, but I realized yesterday that there are a lot to learn still. You just don’t know how dumbfounded that was so Kudos to my favorite people online who moderated the event, Ms. Janette and Mr. Genesis Reonico.

What is there MORE on Internet Marketing?

To be honest, I was sleepless the night before that I really don’t have any plans to finish the webinar, the longest that I attended so far. And once I sat to listen, can’t let go. And I was early too.

So, what new things I have learned and SM marketing supplements I needed provided in that five-hour web event?

1. Social Media Monitoring. I never even thought that you have to monitor tweets for a purpose of knowing how your market is seeing you. Really. But the way Mark Delgado put it, it is VERY important especially for big brands like Globe. A single tweet that says something against you can go viral and really, if this happens, no public relation offer can prevent or even minimize the damage. One up for Mark for sharing this. For an IM wannabe like me, this is a very important input. Now, I can add this to 100 checklists that I did to INTERNET MARKETING proof your BUSINESS WEBSITE – this will make it 101 checklist now, doesn’t it?
2. Using Blog and Social Media to Serve SME Needs. Admittedly, I didn’t listen as much on this topic cause my son was driving me crazy but what I managed to hear really got me thinking hard. Vanj Padilla shared that businesses today should really realign their marketing strategy and realized that Social Media is a very, very important part of it. I know of a business man who chose to still with the gulf clubs and casinos on closing corporate business as that is the only place businesses are done. I don’t want to play greater than thou but working as a VA in very successful business online working on processing leads for businesses with services or product that has nothing to do with the internet, I’d say, corporate deals in the Philippines can use a lot of help using the internet.  But this is what I and my like-minded friends online are advocating for so there is still hope for the future.
3.  Effective Graphic Design for Blogs and Social Media Campaigns. This one I agree 100% and thanks to Infinityhub.com Gilmar Padua, I have to give up on making my online graphics for my upcoming website – it has been upcoming for a month because I can’t do graphics the way Gilmar does. The mind doesn’t think in words, it sees images. When I was a book addict, I see words as images. So one thing that makes a website great is its graphics. Besides, if you just can’t express your thoughts in words, images will do, it can even be great if you know how to.
4. Using Online Video to Create Engaging Content. A new thing to consider. I think that video on a website rocks. And while Randolf Novino’s internet connection didn’t make it easy for Randolf to explain what he got, I read the tweets #bsmeday and listeners were getting it. I noted that if you want to start using video for your content, you don’t need to buy DSLR for it nor do you need the light effects big gun tools. Just do with what you have. The most important thing is you keep the content short and sweet.
5. The Three Rs of IM. Yes, didn’t use the exact title of Ms. Fleire Castro’s slide because I think this is the meat of her presentation: Reach, Resonance and Relevance. Her story gave me goose bumps because I can relate. I was, in a way, fired because I was caught writing while working. Ironic, I really was not writing, I was proofreading past work because I want to improve my article. Well, that was in the past and all was forgiven. But Flare’s story gave me a hope that it is possible to achieve something thought to be impossible. And yes, not a short journey nor is it easy but if you don’t stop, you will get there. Two thumbs up for Ms. Fleire and if I have more thumbs, I will hold it up too.

I just want to give it to Genesis, a very inspiring person I met online, for coming up with this event. And I will continue on learning more in the hopes that someday, I can contribute to the advocacies Ms. Janette has been working on for our e-commerce. I will be waiting for more webinars like this. Thank you and more power!

PS. I tried to post this in my new website but it is not ready yet, so maybe next time… 😀

IM My New Interest

Hello, yes, I haven’t been here since November and really, I should have a lot to say to you right now. Yes, I do have a lot to share but as of now, I am still thinking what to share to you first!

So I decided, I will just have to tell you about what I am up to right now.

I have mentioned in my last blog post here, Blogging 101: Where to Start, about blogging and how you can try out Ms. Janette Toral courses for it. I was not really planning to take it myself because I have to pay for it and I don’t have that much at the moment. Besides, I am not so privy with paying things online. Heheheh, hearing that from me…

It is still hard for us Filipinos to believe what we see online because everything just seems surreal. But anyways, last December, after months of deciding what niche I would like to have on my personal website, I launch www.sunnyjeanblogging.com, my own personal website. I got so excited about it that I began to reach out to people and share about my site.

Amazingly, my site is just about a month’s old and I have written more than a half blog as compared here….

But that’s beside my point….

To cut things short, I began meeting people. I met Ms. Grace online. She told me about Ms. Janette and her free webinars. Of course, when I heard the word FREE I grabbed to opportunity to register and I am now into the 23^rd webinar for E-Commerce Bootcamp and 2^nd webinar for IM Digital Influencers.

What I have learned so far?

To tell you honestly, I learned a lot that I can’t seem to write them right now. I need to try them out. if I have learned it, I would have to test it. But basically, Ms. Janette was able to share the following:

1. SEO techniques (the basics)
2. Creating business model canvas and mind mapping
3. Creating the business vision and scope
4. Creating buzz with social media
5. Understanding affiliate marketing

And of course, a lot more.

If you are interested, you can register too, just click the links below:

http://digitalfilipino.com/2012/12/30/free-digital-influencer-boot-camp-digital-marketing-workshop-online/

http://digitalfilipino.com/2012/11/13/free-digitalfilipino-e-commerce-boot-camp/

I now fully grasp what Internet Marketing is all about. Now, I just need to apply it. And by the time I was able to generate income from doing it, that is the time I will share this stuff. I am not being selfish; I just want to share what I have experienced.

So, stay tune. I will be writing here more now that I am working at home FULLTIME!