I read an article in Business Week yesterday that left me a bit unsettled to say the least. It was discrediting social media as a business or marketing tool, and social media consultants. One issue states was because of the authors desire for proof of ROI.  To address some of the questions raised, I’ve taken an informal poll of some of our group’s entrepreneurial members to find out, is social media helping their business?

The results have been overwhelmingly yes, for those individuals using social media. We’ve even gotten yes’s from people who admit to only marginally using it, proving you don’t have to be an “expert.” To address the author’s concerns, we don’t believe there is such a thing as a “social media expert.” There is so much to know, and it changes, daily, that you can’t possibly know everything. There are, however, people who are very good at understanding social media, how to explain, describe, and advise in strategy and philosophy. There are also people who can teach the use of the tools.

Here are a couple of entrepreneurial and small business stories:

A cake designer in Howell, MI, has been using social media for about a year now. She reduced her advertising expenses to 1/3 of what she spent in 2008 and has seen over 100% increase in her business. She moved her website ranking from page 3-4 of a google search to page 1. She gets calls and orders from around the world, which an order coming in from Iraq for local delivery. She has also serviced customers in California, Texas, Georgia, New York and Indiana as a result of her online presence, which she attributes to social media.

Another member who has relied on referrals in her 17+ year drapery business has fielded calls and set appointments from people seeing her blog, and being recommended by a friend to check it out. She uses her time on Facebook to say hello to current and past clients, reinforcing her relationship. She also has had people see her on Facebook and instant message her to schedule an appointment. She’s getting business from social media, and admits she’s not using it much yet. What happens when she really get’s started?

A LinkedIn enthusiast in the consulting and training fields has been using that tool to increase his number of recommendations from current and past clients within the system. He can then take these with him anywhere he goes, including into the community at networking events.

A member of our Organic Marketing Club, in the construction industry, focusing on basement remodels was referred to as a result of someone posting a question on Facebook, “who do you recommend for…” and landed a $25k job, which is considered small for this company.  She’s using social media, but only kinda sorta so far. Watch out when she is truly using it!

One of our favorite graphic designers, who did the CD covers for the InSights Group was also referred through Social Media when someone asked for a recommendation of a graphic designer. She was referred to the same person six times, and three of the recommendations came from people she didn’t even know.

I’ll even cite the InSights Group. We exist solely because of the marekting and promotion we’ve been able to do in social media to raise awareness that we are here. We’ll be telling more of our story as we celebrate our 2 year business anniversary in January of 2010. We’ll share real examples about how using social media every day can help a business get off the ground without huge marketing or advertising budgets. We’ve done it. We also teach it, since we’ve found the tools useful and can explain them to people with some relevance. We are very strategy and philosophy focused. There are many valuable resources available to people, and there is no one way to use social media. That’s also the beauty of the system. Information is available everywhere, and it’s up to individuals to decide who they want to listen to. It’s not about the one who has the most money to create the best campaign. It’s real, authentic, and people are willing to listen.

For the entrepreneurs we know that are using the tools, social media seems to be working. How do you measure ROI on tools that are free? We can try to measure our time investment as it translates into dollars. That’s only one way. The even more important, and harder to measure results are in the increased strength in client relationships, strategic alliances, and top of mind awareness in people.

You can read about some methods of measurement over at Sazbean:
Breaking Down Social Media Measurement

Reasons to Measure Social Media and Marketing Efforts

A smart investment is to work with someone as a consultant to figure out a strategy that can measure results. The key is finding out what the goal is, and then determining how to define or measure the success.  Invest in training, the time to research what is going on in social media, and in continual learning and monitoring of a strategy. It will grow and change, so it’s natural to assume the results and measure of those results will grow and change as well.

These stories are from an hour long conversation with a handful of people today, and a couple of stories from Monday of this week. If I asked the hundreds of people I know personally that are using social media, I am sure that each would have success stories to share.

So I’ll ask you, what is your experience with social media? Do you have a success story to share?