Mike Charbonneau of the Revue Cinema said he uses Twitter as a 'digital marquee.' (CBC) But while the technology may be new, some small business owners see the idea behind social media as old.
"We speak to each other differently. So for us it makes sense to explore the possibility to use those networking opportunities to create some buzz around our business."
For Willie Cromack of John Henry Bikes in Vancouver, using social media is about informing his customers — many of his company's tweets and Facebook posts include tips on riding — and maintaining an online reputaton.
"We do a lot of talking on our social networks to get people to understand that we're good people, and we're not going to mess them around," said Cromack.
Lewis Hilsenteger of iUpgrade, a store selling pre-owned Apple products that opened in June 2008, said using Facebook and Twitter is about survival.
"I don't think we would be around within this year without social media," said Hilsenteger.
Because he's selling a specialized high-tech product, Hilsenteger said his customers need to know what's in his store at a given moment. Many of them receive his tweets directly to their iPhones, he said.
"Most of [our customers], either through Twitter or through our website, find it important to know what our inventory is and how quickly it turns around, particularly because the inventory is changing so often. They don't know that there will always be another one," said Hilsenteger.
Use Twitter, Facebook for different tasks
Twitter and Facebook offer services that are in some ways similar — a stream of updates delivered over the internet — but businesses tend to use them for different purposes.
'We do a lot of talking on our social networks to get people to understand that we're good people, and we're not going to mess them around.'—Willie Cromack, John Henry Bikes
Twitter updates are just text, and no more than 140 characters, but they can include links to web pages. Twitter users can follow these updates so they can see them as soon they're posted.
Dooher said Twitter is great for daily updates delivered quickly.
"We do use Twitter every day before lunch service, and we tweet out our quickie [lunch special] of the day.
"That's just helping them make a decision. If they choose to come down, that's great. They know exactly what they're going to get. If it's something that doesn't appeal to them, they move on," she said.
Mike Charbonneau, marketing director for the Revue Cinema in Toronto, said he uses Twitter as a "digital marquee" for his community movie theatre.
"That's really what we use Twitter for, to let people know on a daily basis what's playing," said Charbonneau. "If they don't check us out at the website, if they don't check us out in the magazine we publish, if they don't check us out on Facebook, well, hopefully they will on Twitter."
The updates, or tweets, are public and searchable, so it's possible for anyone searching Twitter to find posts there. Charbonneau said that feature has helped expand the Revue's audience beyond its Roncesvalles neighbourhood.
Mildred's Temple Kitchen earned a mention in the blog of Peter Merholz — who coined the word "blog" — after someone recommended the restaurant to him over Twitter. A member of the kitchen's staff saw the recommendation and thanked Merholz's friend for the referral.
Facebook, on the other hand, offers more options for its posts. There's no limit on the size of the updates, and they can include photos and video. Links to other websites can include more information on the content there, including a thumbnail view. As well, discussions are more intuitively organized on Facebook, so they're easier to follow.
'A good place to go'
However, Facebook updates will more than likely only be seen by users who become fans of the Facebook page of a business or join its Facebook group.
A fan of the Revue Cinema started a "Friends of the Revue" Facebook group, which Charbonneau subsequently took over.
"People can go there and have a discussion, post pictures, so for people who are big fans of the Revue, that's a good place to go," Charbonneau said.
Willie Cromack of John Henry Bikes said he uses the company's Facebook fan page for prizes and communicating with his customers, but his posts can get lost among updates from friends.
"More conversation can take place [on Facebook], but it takes a more entertaining comment to get the responses," said Cromack.
"You can't just say, 'We got some boxes in today.' You have to have a video, a picture, a link that says, I'm going to be more entertaining today than the next guy," he said.
Cromack uses other social media sites, like Flickr and YouTube, to host his business's pictures and videos, and links to them from Twitter, Facebook and the company's blog.
Businesses can also invite their Facebook fans to special events, and Facebook will remind them when the date is approaching.
"The really good thing about Facebook is the events component. We frequently have special programming at the Revue," said Charbonneau. "Facebook's great for that."
Facebook and Twitter also differ in the number of people who use them. Facebook has over 300 million users worldwide, while Twitter, a newer service, expects to have 25 million users by the end of 2009. However, the businesses we talked to all had more Twitter followers than Facebook fans.
"We try to use Facebook for some special offers. Sometimes we'll have a discount provided strictly for members of the Facebook group that only they would know about," said Hilsenteger.
Free advertising
Because Twitter and Facebook are free services, they're especially attractive to small businesses in a tight economy.
"As a non-profit organization, you can imagine, the more ways we can get our message out about what's playing, the easier it is for us to fill the seats with people," said Charbonneau.
"Social media has allowed companies like ours to reach a significant amount of people with little or no cost at all," said Hilsenteger.
Cromack said Twitter, Facebook and his company's blog allow him to compete with bigger companies on a more level playing field.
"This is a great opportunity for us to be best-in-class, first-in, to have the same size of screen that Coke and IBM work with, and I could be as good or better than them without spending a ridiculous amount of money," said Cromack.
Dooher said social media offer an attractive alternative to traditional advertising media.
"We were being pushed to look at online advertising, print advertising, radio advertising, which really is a big investment of money, and it's very hard to get a return on that investment," she said.
"But word-of-mouth is always been the best way to promote a hospitality facility. And it's free," said Dooher.
However, tweeting every day and updating Facebook pages does take time, and the small business owners we talked to cautioned against getting lost in social media.
"We have a website, we have a newsletter, we have Facebook, we have Twitter, and sometimes I think, 'Oh, and we cook! Oh yes, I forgot about that!'" said Doohan.
"I find it's important to remember what you do, and not to get too caught up in [social media]. And we were getting a caught up in it. We were losing our minds, and we thought, 'What are we doing? Why are we doing this?'" she said.
Doohan said he found delegating some of the social media responsibilities to other members of her staff helpful.
"I will confess to you, I am 55 years of age, so it's not technology that I'm very comfortable with or familiar with, and I have engaged the services and the consultation of many of the young people that work with me," she said.
Cromack also recruited his employees to help with writing the daily biking tips for Twitter, recording videos for posting on YouTube and writing reviews of new products.
"Once I worked out the system that I wanted, and the plan I wanted in place, then I could delegate sections of it to staff," said Cromack.
"It is time-consuming, but in the end, so is talking to a customer, so it depends on where you think your time is valuable," he said. ( cbc.ca )
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