It's cliché to talk about the rapid growth and change in technology. What is critical, however, and growing in importance is how small and midsize businesses deal with these transitions. We are firmly planted in the digital age. In particular, the last ten years have brought dramatic change to how businesses communicate their message. The power of the internet and the rise of the social media age have pressed us into new categories of thinking and doing.
It used to be that marketing and communication and sales were about trying to get the right product in front of the right person at the right time. That happened about 1% of the time and you didn't worry about the other 99%. That is not a strategy for this new era. Now, the consumer controls what communications they will receive and whether they will even hear your message. Smartphones, DVR, and YouTube (to name just a few) have flipped the entire grid to consumer control of what they will allow to get through to them. This requires a significant shift in how you engage existing and potential customers or supporters.
In this brief post, it might be best to introduce some of the changes in business and communication by defining a couple of buzzwords that are important to understand:
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"Social Business" or "Social Business Model" — There are probably as many definitions for social business as there are Facebook games that your friends annoyingly invite you to play. For our purposes at 21 grams media we prefer this definition:
Social Business is a business strategy that includes seeking to capitalize on contemporary trends in technology and social interaction to further connect, engage, and collaborate with your audience.
Notice, Social Business doesn't mean you are a business that has a Facebook page or Twitter account. This is comprehensive strategy that goes far beyond the use of a couple tools. -
"Content Marketing" — This term describes a shift in how companies reach their audience. Again, despite variations, at 21 grams the definition we prefer is:
Content Marketing is a marketing strategy that focuses on creating valuable content for a current and/or prospective audience in order to gain connection and loyalty and the opportunity to serve and reach them for an extended period of time.
The idea in content marketing is that a strategic way to cut through the noise in the digital age is to reach your customers with information and content that is not just the features of your product or the principles of your cause. You serve your audience with content that will help them in their lives, in ways relevant to your work, but far beyond your product or service.
Let's make it concrete:
- A non-profit might create content to help a potential supporter understand how to gift stocks or estate gifts.
- A business that serves independent small businesses might create content to help those resource-strapped businesses know how to use relevant software or technology — or direct them to help in dealing with ever-changing insurance matters.
- A freelancer who builds websites and does graphic design work mainly in a particular industry (let's say churches) might create videos or articles on how to get caught up to speed while on a budget.
These are but a few examples. For any particular situation, there are a multitude of possibilities once you do the work of figuring out your audience, your role in their story, and a strategy that makes sense.
For many businesses, it simply becomes a fight to keep up. But that fight has eclipsed the real opportunity to capitalize on the tools that open up new worlds of communication with your audience. At 21 grams, we hope to be a company that comes alongside other organizations — regardless of size or stage — to help them see and implement these new realities as unprecedented opportunities rather than headaches to avoid.