A Balancing Act

Quite often the owner of a small business is also the face and voice of the business. You attend Chamber of Commerce events, ribbon cuttings ceremonies and are active in the community in which you live and work. In public you conduct yourself in a way as to show your business and you as an individual in a positive light.

But when it comes to social networking, do you take the same precautions? Is the line between who you are and your business getting blurry? Most likely you’re “FaceBook Friends” run the gamut from business associates, to high school friends and the coach of your daughter’s youth soccer team. “Fans” of your business are there for any number of reasons, they could be employees or customers, or they may simply support you, yet have no other connection to your business.

Your Twitter “followers” can be anyone who for what ever reason like or are interested in what you have to say.

Many are finding that social media websites are making it difficult to discern between personal and business life. Does it matter? In a world without social marketing websites, what do your clients and partners already know about you? Do they know about your family, political and religious views or hobbies?

If you were to take a step back and look at all aspects of your business, how you present yourself, your website, printed materials and especially what you do with social marketing, are you about perfection and glitz or about being authentic? Would you be better served by being “revealing” than by using catchy one-liners and big bold colors.

FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs and podcasts all allow business owners, nonprofit groups and individuals the opportunity to “reveal”. They provide a chance to worry less about tag lines and elevator speeches and more about telling the story of you or your business.

One of the biggest mistakes a business owner or nonprofit executive can make is to not fully engage in these opportunities. Don’t start a “fan” page for your business and do nothing with it. Don’t create a LinkedIn account and never update it. You would be better served by not having a presence in these locations than giving the impression that you are not doing anything. Would you go to Chamber Breakfast, sit alone in the corner and not talk with anyone? Of course not. By having a static business presence on social networking site, you give the same impression.

Social networking sites provide a venue for you to tell the story of your business, the way you want it told. The photos you post, the news stories you link to, your status updates and the conversation you engage in on “LinkedIn” all tell part of your story.

There are very few businesses who can afford to not take advantage of social networking sites, integrate them into your full marketing or business plan. Avoid getting caught up in the hype, take time to see how these sites fit your business plan and as importantly, how do they fit into your life.