One of the concerns after designing and creating a social media group is to attract your ideal audience. You have to make sure that you get the right people involve — the people who will value what you have to offer, as well as who will participate in the forum. In the design of my group — Women in Business — one important design features was having a social interactive component, to encourage social interaction where women can make meaningful networking connections to grow their business. In addition, it also included an educational component, in which members are expected to respond to discussions, share their thoughts and experience in order to contribute to the knowledge development of their peers. I strongly believe in the collaboration of knowledge and the generation of ideas leading to the creation of new knowledge. It was therefore important that my membership meet these criteria.
It is recommended that you understand and identify what design features you will need to carry out your objective. If you will be the only one allowed to share information include those parameters. In addition, if your space is simply for members to join to promote their products and services, let that be a part of your design. You must also think about your design features in keeping with your goals and objective, proactively.
When an individual ask to join your group, you can either use a matrix of questions to create a check-list or you can create a questionnaire before making a decision to accept their request for membership. Using either way will help you to determine if the person is a good fit.
- Observe what type of information they are sharing — is the information focused on business or empowerment or just trivia?
- What other groups are they involved in? Examine the groups that they belongs to identify their interest.
- Check to see how many of their friends are members of your group
- I also examine their "about page"
- Observe if they have a business website
- Identify if their business type is in keeping with your requirements
- Check to identify their interest whether they are a games enthusiast
- Check to see if the have a business Fanpage.
- Find out if they have legitimate business that they birthed for the initial stage of development though growth and sustainability.
- Observe what level of education they have? This sometimes plays an important role in determining people's seriousness regarding your group's purpose
- Overall try to get as much information that you can possible get to make an informed decision.
If the individual meets your criteria, he or she is accepted into the group. On entering, it is welcoming to send out a "welcome message" with directives to introduce themselves.
In spite of the criteria that you have, you could also inadvertently include individuals into your group who are not a great fit for your group. My group for example is designed for women with a business that they have birthed and developed from a budding idea, but sometimes other business women wander into the group. Sometimes, it is only after they have made their introduction or posted on the wall that you may fully understand what type of business they are involved with. At this point, they are given the choice to accept our other two membership statuses. I hope this helps.
Author: Dr. Cheryl Cottle
When I first heard about social media, I thought that it was a forum that was dedicated to meeting people on a social and personal level where people made connection for the purpose of dating and marriage. It was only after being invited by the third person that I decided to take a look at Facebook. On looking closer to what Facebook was about, I found that it had greater implications than making friend connections — connecting with long lost friends and making familial connection and bridging the generational family gap.
Some of the wider implications that I discovered was that it has great business potential with great opportunities for meeting with and networking with like-minded business people across the globe and transcending various business industries and sectors: Connections that could also lend themselves to valuable opportunities for partnering and collaborating in joint projects.
I also found it to be a great space where you can learn about others and their culture. Social media enables you to connect with people in places that were once seen as far away. I have had the privilege to connect with and chat with people in India, Africa, Italy, Lebanon, the Caribbean, Latin America, to list a few places. Social media has brought the world closer together.
Social media also affords us with the opportunity to share experiences as they occur. For example when the Haiti’s earthquakes occurred, the catastrophic effect was quickly broadcasted keeping us informed of every aspect of it devastating effect. Similarly, when the miners trapped in Chile were rescued; news of that was broadcast to the world, and we were able to celebrate when they were freed and united with their families. More recently with the earthquake experienced in Japan, followed by the devastation of the tsunami and an imminent radio active explosion that threatened their way of living and possible opportunity for rebuilding; people globally were able to live the experience as it unfolded in Japan.
Social media, while it exposes us to what is happening across the globe; it also heightens our awareness and sensitivity towards each other. These experienced, though they might be far away, with social media there is a shared experience that also occurs. People are able to identify with each other's pain, suffering, happiness, disappointments and accomplishments. Our sensitivity towards the pain and suffering of others makes us more human: we become more empathetic.
Besides, providing a platform for businesses both small and large corporation, social media also helps people to connect with friends and family members to maintain a social connection. I also found that it serves as a great political platform for many governments across the globe. Both developed nations and developing countries a like use social media to keep their people informed, to garnish supporters and to maintain sociological and political positioning. It is a conduit for getting information across the globe regardless of the issues and institutions within society.
In addition to the many effects that social media has on our social interaction and social connectedness, the implications for businesses are great. Large organization are using social media as a marketing and branding platform for their products and services. Similarly, many smaller businesses and micro businesses are also introducing social media into their business strategic plan to ensure that they get their products or services before their niche market. Women-owned businesses are also a part of that change, in the way business is done; and they too are introducing social media into their marketing plan.
As a small business owner, it is important that you develop a social media plan proactively before integrating it into your business plan. Therefore it is important to consider the following:
- Determine if this is something that will work for you right now? Do you have the resources to implement it?
- Identify which social media sites you will use in the short-term and in the long-term. You can use a combination of sites.
- Identify a strategy that you would be using and come up with a schedule of activities for at least weekly, monthly or quarterly.
- Identify how much time you can dedicate to social media that will not affect your production and operation time
- Identify whether you have the personnel on board your team to facilitate your social media plan or whether you have to recruit or access outsourcing
- Consider training or education in social media
- Identify some of the benefits you will like to achieve with social media
- After identifying some key design elements that you want to include, develop a plan if you are seriously thinking about integrating social media into your business plan
- Implement it and remember to evaluate it after six months or one year to know if you are making a return of your investment
This article was first written and published by Dr. Cheryl Cottle in 2011. This is a revised version written by Dr. Cheryl Cottle, 2014
Author: Dr. Cheryl Cottle
Entrepreneurs regardless of gender need to be thinking about taking their business global regardless of geography. Canadian business women for example should think of taking her business from her tiny enclave within the province she lives in to neighboring communities and to other provinces overall. In addition to this level of expansion, she can also take her business global to other countries across the globe. The same applies to women in business in the USA. You can exploit the marketplace by going outward from your small community to others and extending to other States; as well as expanding into other parts of the world. Similarly, women business owners from other parts of the globe including the Caribbean, for example can also expand their market to other parts of the Caribbean, into Europe, North America, Latin and South America, Africa, India, and China to name a few of the world's market.
In today’s global economies with the advent of computer technology, the internet and social media, you must change, or you will be forever left behind; and this is not a cliche: It is a fact. Businesses regardless of size must get onto the bandwagon of technology. You no longer need a mobile phone and a fax machine; you also need a website, e-mail, access to the internet over all, and high speed internet connection. Technology is here and it is here to stay. With the advent of computer based technology business has become more competitive, but it has also provided people with greater opportunity to leverage what they can do ― their services and products. If you are also into selling your product and you will like to take your product and services to a wider market, then you will have to think about integrating e-commerce into your business strategy. This allows your customers, regardless of their geographical location, time, and currency exchange, to access your product and make a purchase.
What technology, the internet and social media have done for the entrepreneur?
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It has opened up connections and removed the barriers between individuals in different countries and continents who want to trade with each other.
- You can easily conduct a detailed search of a company so that you know with whom you are doing business.
- If you are looking for that special product or services, a search of the internet can put you in direct contact with the best in the market.
- The internet and computer-based technologies enable you to do business twenty four hours a day from where ever you are in the world and with whom you want to.
- It also enables you to make contact with people with whom you might never have met.
- The internet also puts you in direct contact with your supplier, or buyer thus reducing cost and time as in traditional business transaction.
- Essentially the internet removes national boundaries thus opening a global gate-way to commerce.
The advice that I will give to small and micro business owners, particularly those with a special commodity, is to extend your market globally, regardless of where you are located geographically. You will no longer be stuck in your small village in a remote part of a third world country relying only upon some of the local people to buy from you. Or perhaps a foreign visitor, who by chance has come face to face with your work, or that foreign agent who promises to take your work internationally claiming to give you international acclaim; and often times never seeing them again after entrusting them with some of your best pieces of creations. Accessing the internet and the technology available will provide you with the tools to take your business global.
I will also like to advice small business owners and micro business owners, the time has come to adopt some structure and formality to your business, if you are expected to achieve maximum benefit from the technologies available to the twenty first century entrepreneur. I will like to recommend that you do the following:
- Register your business
- Give your business a name.
- See your entrepreneurial venture as a business and not a hobby
- If possible trade mark your product. Create a signature emblem of your work
- Create some marketing material for your work including business cards, flyers or brochures is a great place to start
- Get a telephone number associated to your business
- Open a business account
- Get a social media account
- Build an online presence
- Let people know you and your work. Brand your work and you
- Get exposure through your local radio programs, television and newspaper
- Attend local craft shows and community events
- Join your local Chambers of Commerce
These are some things that you can do to gain visibility and be known for your product.
This article was first written and published by Dr. Cheryl Cottle in 2010. It has been revised for this publication.
