Comments on: Small Business Social Media, Online Community Marketing Examples

By: Cynthia Trevino

Cynthia Trevino — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:20:47 +0000

Hi John–Thanks for reminder about NIng. Can you share small business examples of how they’ve used Ning? For example to generate leads, increase email newsletter signups, etc.?

Thanks,
Cynthia

By: John

John — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 17:13:41 +0000

Yes – I do. And I have seen it work. In fact, this is essentially what the business model of Ning (ning.com) is based on. People and businesses building their own niche communities to connect with their friends or customers. If you have the time, I’d encourge any business to build a community starting with their existing customers, sharing their knowledge to attract new customers and connecting online.

By: Small Business Social Media, Online Community Marketing Examples | Industry News

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:35:55 +0000

[...] Read Full Article var addthis_pub = ”; var addthis_language = ‘en’;var addthis_options = ‘email, favorites, digg, delicious, myspace, google, facebook, reddit, live, more’; [...]

By: Cynthia Trevino

Cynthia Trevino — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:35:24 +0000

Hi John,
The article you reference is talking about existing online communities for small biz owners–useful as a starting point. I encourage small businesses to build their own online communities. Not as a campaign, as a way of doing business. And to become a trusted source of help, knowledge by “hosting” an online resource. Then online visitors to the trusted source will become customers.

Your thoughts? Do you think a small business owner can benefit from building her own online community, around her customers and prospects?

Cynthia

By: John

John — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:46:17 +0000

Interesting article! Learning customer needs from existing community discussions is a great way to create targeted campaigns. People often underestimated the value of local, industry and online communities to their business. Here’s a great article I came across that highlights how to use each of these communities to build a business – expanding on what was said here.

http://www.sbimonline.com/content/small-business-community-using-your-local-community-and-online-community-build-your-business