Despite the appearance of a down economy, some businesses are surviving, and even thriving more than they ever could have imagined! It’s no coincidence that many thriving businesses are also aggressively marketing whether they can afford it or not. Though marketing in a shifting economy to sustain and even grow your business isn’t a new concept, the social media revolution is creating a new paradigm in the marketing equation: Organizational Buy-In.

Organizational Buy-In is the absolute faith in/and voluntary adoption of an organizations vision, mission, and policy with the genuine intention of improving and growing that organization by any reasonable means. In other words, you have an organization filled with employees who believe in what you’re doing and are willing to do what it takes to make that happen even if the if the end result means your business will become so efficient their job will no longer exist.

Employees taking pride in their profession and figurative ownership in their company isn’t a new concept either, but until now, marketing has mostly been up to business owners, sales people and in larger companies, the marketing department. The introduction of social media as a business tool adds a new twist to what businesses consider marketing and how they use word of mouth through social media to generate brand awareness and revenue.

Now more than ever, businesses rely on more intelligent, harder working, and loyal employees to stay afloat. Employees that meet this criteria are great for maintaining and even growing a business but inside those people is an untapped wealth of potential: they are your new marketing committee.

When was the last time a ‘behind the desk’ employee actively marketed for your business? Is that even possible? Marketing is hard work, and employees are working hard enough as it is to keep their jobs. Why would they go out of their way to get involved in marketing?

First of all, lets talk about loyalty:

Loyal employees tend to be loyal because of relationships they develop with ownership and/or management. Believe it or not, your employees like you, believe in what you’re doing, and want to help you do it better.

So your employees actually like you! Who knew? But saying they like you enough to start marketing; That’s a pretty big leap. Now before you building a bridge to nowhere STOP! Believe it or not, this is going to be a lot easier than you think! Most of your employees are already using the major social networks like Facebook and Twitter, so getting them to use it isn’t step one, and many of them are already talking about their jobs so that isn’t a major hurdle either. The trick is getting your employees to say and do the right things.  With the right education and company policy, your employees can become your main source of new and recurring business and a constant marketing committee.

I know that you’re excited about educating your new marketing committee and turning them loose on the masses, but before you do, consider this: Organizational Buy-In creates a relationship between the employee and the business that forces a win-win that if left unchecked could have a negative effect on your brand.  Once your employees start talking about your business and how awesome it is, they become an active component on the face of your business.  If you’re afraid of this, its too late, they already are. Their friends family and neighbors already know where they work, but now they are actively posting information that will entice people to your business without selling.  For your employees, this new tool can also be used as a weapon. If you treat them badly, they can use this those same methods of marketing to attempt to damage your brand.   So the win for the business is expanded marketing with proven effectiveness and the win for the employee is the necessity for a better work environment driven by ethics, and fairness and an environment that acknowledges the importance of every team member.  This is refresher of an old principle: treat your people right!

I know this concept sounds scary but the business of today is about internal and external collaboration.  Marketing for small and mid-sized businesses especially, will rely more on the efforts of everyone in the organization.  Start thinking about how your team players fit into your marketing model and how they can be maximized in getting the word out about your business.

For a small business just starting out, budget is a primary concern. A big expenditure in a business’ budget is marketing.  You have to get your name, face and brand out to the masses, and using traditional advertising methods like print, TV, radio, and even new media strategies can be expensive.

Have you considered social media? I know there are a lot of questions out there about social media, how it works and why it’s a good gateway to business marketing, so here are a few reasons why I think it can be a great place to start for a small business.

1. It’s Free: When your on a budget, nothing beats free. The majority of social media outlets are free to use. Though there may be a time commitment, there is a great deal of value in the fact that marketing can be allocated elsewhere while you grow your business.

2. It’s Easy: Most social networking sites walk you step-by-step through the setup process and many even let you know how complete your profile is and what you can do to make it a more complete profile. For Blogging, WordPress has its Famous 5 Minute Install that for beginners can take longer but still very reasonable and straight forward when following instructions.

3. Unlimited Exposure: With Social Media platforms like Facebook averaging 25-30M new followers per month, the possibilities of exposing new potential customers and clients via social media eclipses rival marketing methods in the short and long term. You can’t search a TV or Billboard audience for potential connections.

4. It Builds Lasting Relationships: The sole purpose of using social media is engaging and building relationships. People want to do business with people they have a relationship with. Using social media platforms is an excellent way to build relationships that foster respect with your target audience. Lasting personal relationships, lasting business relationships!

5. SEO Power: When it comes too online presence, SEO is king. Everyone wants the Google Juice that puts them at the top of the charts. Blogging the right way can play a significant role your business’ search engine presence.

So what are you waiting for? Give FREE social media a try today. You wont regret it tomorrow and neither will your business!

If you couldn’t tell, Social Media is hot right now! A lot of people are now connected to others via some social media outlet these days. Be it a Social Networking Profile like Twitter or Facebook, a Blog, or even a YouTube Video channel, people are loving this easy and effective way to communicate.

One of the things that makes social media so darned attractive is the fact that it’s usually completely free to use.   Anyone with a little time and patience can set up a Facebook page or a Twitter and immediately start engaging people and sharing info and as a result something amazing is happening: Accelerated evolution!

Free information is making it so easy for people to share ideas, learn, and grow, personally and professionally at such a high rate! Creativity and success are thriving in the social media realm and it can be directly linked to the ability to share information freely and easily!

Recently, Justin Williams and I did a presentation at one of the most well known Social Media Events in Real Estate REBar Camp.  Justin focused on the 80/20 rule of social media which says 80% of your updates should be personal, 20% should be business.  This rule also applies to free information. If your 20% business is filled with rich free information, you will reap the benefit of the 80% personal connection in business!   I can say from experience that the law of reciprocity is in full effect. The more you give away freely the more that will come back to you!   I cannot begin to count the referrals I have gotten from those eager to help me because I have freely shared information with them.  So with all that being said, don’t stop sharing what you know…. freely!