Small Business Trends

Astoundingly, with the coming of social media and all that it implies for small business, there are still people who don’t quite understand yet that it’s all about the people. Of course, that’s what small business has always been about, but today it is perhaps even more the case. Multi-million dollar advertising campaigns aimed at demographics as opposed to real flesh and blood customers are slowly becoming a thing in the past. In this new market, being people focused is the key to success. There’s no better time to start:

Social Media

10 dos and don’ts for good social media citizenship. Ignoring others and working too hard to promote your own products or services instead of helping others can backfire. This list shows the difference between best and worst practices in which every human you interact with could be a future, customer, a future partner, or a future source of bad publicity about your business. BizSugar Blog

Facebook

You can’t have a relationship with a logo. Something to think about next time you have that overwhelming urge to create a big corporate looking fan page with a fancy schmancy logo in the middle of it. David Siteman Garland did the research (he posed a question on his own Facebook site) and lo and beyond, no one wants to be friends with Brand X. The Rise To The Top

And speaking of Facebook. Blogger Wong Ching Ya shows us how to create individualized tabs for your fan page that give your site a bit of individuality. Sure people prefer relating to people rather than cool looking graphics, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make your home on the biggest social site n the planet attractive as well. Social@Blogging Tracker

Business Models

Even a business model should be about the people. Take Aayush Phumbrha, founder of Chegg.com, who says his own struggles affording text books in college made him realize the importance of making this aspect of education more affordable. His solution? A business that allows students to rent text books at lower cost. Beyond the Pedway

Sales

Sales is a people business. For those who doubt this, check out Tibor Shanto’s post which compares the process to either hunting or politics. But wait! Don’t be turned off by the examples. Tibor reveals sales to be, like the rest of your business, a truly human activity about engaging with your customer not just about adding up closed deals. The Pipeline

Increased sales is about relationships. That’s right. Not advertising but building long-lasting relationships. To do this any small business must reach out to its community, whether offline or online, and start appreciating what building these connections with real human beings instead of targeting them as demographics can do for your business. Angel Business Advisors

Marketing

Do you think the Internet is making business less human? Not so says, of all people, SEO Stoney deGeyter, who insists that, newfangled search engine ranking aside, marketing your business successfully still depends upon good old-fashioned customer focused ideals. Do you know who your customer is? Do you have the right location to engage with them? Search Engine Guide

Human Resources

Managing employees in a social world. Social media may be a tremendous tool for marketing, building brand and forming new partnerships, but it can also be a place where employees and dissatisfied customers can complain about you. Banning this interaction may not be wise since socializing is a human activity and, of course, your employees are human too. What is your plan for addressing employees who use social media before this happens to you? Yahoo! News

Self-development

Choose your own role models. Contrarian Yvonne DiVita is sick of hearing about who she should accept as mentors in the world of innovative women executives. The leaders mentioned by leading publications just don’t seem to have much in common with her and are too far removed for her to connect with. Her answer? Choose her own role models among the blogging and Tweeting women she networks with every day, a real human connection. Open Forum Innovation

Blogging

Business blogging is not about analytics. Creating great content on your business blog is a wonderful way to draw traffic and attention, but again blogging, like everything else in your business, is about…you guessed it, people. And using social media to create a community of people around your blog is a great way to market. As blogger John Paul explains, “Treat it as a real life conversation.. ex.. you bump into a friend in the grocery store..now do you jump in and start telling them about everything in your life, new things you bought, new things your doing?” Money Dummy