The Teckki Says

Over the years businesses and organizations have flirted or experimented with a number of social networking sites. From bulletin boards and chat rooms to Facebook and Twitter, electronic networking has evolved from the technical proficient to the what-did-we-do-without-it world. I've been to many packed seminars where excited evangelists preach the benefits as if they were holding tent rallies. "This will revolutionize your business and increase your sales," or "this is how you reach the next generation," they bark. With audiences filled with first-time entrepreneurs, continuing technophobes, and outright Luddites, messages like these resonate. With less cash and more work as the result of flattened organizations, many of us are looking for anything, a spark, gold nuggets, any lead that will get us to the next day and beyond.

Is social media our savior?

The quick answer is no.

The long answer is that is probably part of the solution.

I, like many of you, have dabbled if not delved head first into social media, with varying degrees of success. Some mediums, like email marketing and blogging, I am a devotee. Others are still in various degrees of experimentation, amusement and outright indifference. Some will eventually be integrated, others ignored. Still others presumably have potential, but it is not yet obvious from a business sense to me. To the preachers in those churches, I continue to sit in the pews, appreciating the message, but I remain firmly among the unconverted.

This does you no good.

In following posts, I will present articles with interviews of people from businesses and organizations who are using social media to enhance their communication and marketing efforts. I know that most of you have tried or want to try some or all of the various social networking media, and many of you have experienced many varying degrees of success or failure. Some of you have found it a huge boost to your efforts. Others have quit too soon.

Over the next several months, I will cover social mediums of main concern - Facebook, Constant Contact, Linked-In, YouTube, Flickr and others. Some of these stories will come from people just like you. Others will come from you.

I invite your questions, comments and thoughts. In many cases, you are more of an expert than you think. Most of us don’t have the zeal of an evangelist and we tend to fence-sit rather than become part of the flock. However, an enthusiastic congregant is someone we can relate to, the person who can help us make the choice by being an example we can relate to. You can be the witness someone needs to walk down the aisle and commit their lives to the conversion.

Then the real work begins. Enjoy the articles.

In a series of articles exploring the use of social media for businesses and organizations, this first one will cover Facebook.

Have you used or are you using Facebook for business?

I interviewed a couple of business persons who I knew used Facebook in their businesses. While I’ve heard the stories we’ve all heard of successfully lucrative connections and the potential to reach millions, the stories I am hearing from many main street businesses is a mixed bag of results. Are businesses better for trying and using social networking media? Yes, and I say that emphatically. Are they better off? While the recession has been obscuring the picture somewhat, many whom I talk to always wish for better results.

Darryl Crawford, owner of Kimbark Coin Laundry in Chicago, has been using Facebook since the Fall of 2009, and has over 150 fans on Kimbark Coin Laundry’s fan page. He has found that the experience has been mixed. "You have to go out and do other things. You have to drive people to your website, then hit them with product [sales. Facebook is] still used for social," says Crawford. Although he’s not sure how much business it has brought in, he realizes that his venture with Facebook has a long way to go, "We're like pioneers trying to figure it out," he says.

Sid Barsuk, of Barsuk Group, Inc, has been a Facebook user for about a year. While he is not actively promoting his business on Facebook, he has had remarkable results. He began his experiences into social networking as purely social, starting out with Classmates.com, connecting with old friends. He eventually to migrated to Facebook. About a year ago, he was contacted by a former student of his Facebook regarding a project.

Barsuk, who is active in the Chicago Southland Chamber of Commerce, pursued this as a chamber project at first. At some point, Barsuk and his former student discussed other areas in they could collaborate, and a contact was drawn up. He's been working on the project since mid-August. If it goes forward, it will mean significant business for Barsuk Group, Inc.

Barsuk is obviously enthusiastic about Facebook. "What do you have to lose? It doesn't cost anything but time and effort - it's one more avenue of getting out there," he says.

Crawford puts a perspective on all media that is worth taking note, "Your website should be the centerpiece," he says. He states that all other pieces, email marketing, Facebook, blogs and twitter, should draw people to it. It is a perspective typical of the way most marketing efforts work, traditional or digital. "Facebook will get people's attention. It won't do what many people expect," he says.