Social Media Marketing for Entrepreneurs and Small Business

Much of the social media successes we read about online are about big brands and corporations who have winged it in social media and made a huge success. We talked about how Ford Fiesta increased their car sales by having a social media savvy group of people test out their product and talk about their experience in social media. It would interest you to know that there are also many cases of small businesses that have enjoyed the benefits of Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Flickr, Myspace, in other words, the benefits of Social Media.

So as a tribute to the hardworking small business owners, we have collected a list of social media case studies for small business, those who have unlocked the wealth that social media participation can potentially bring.

• Curtis Kimball’s Crème Brulee Cart in San Francisco
  • Curtis ingenious small business idea was to create a “taco truck” of sorts and people loved it! He serves line after line of hungry crème brulee enthusiasts and has been told by customers that they found his business on Twitter.

Indeed, Twitter is a very useful tool for budget conscious small business owners. Claire Cain Miller of the New York Times writes:

“Small businesses typically get more than half of their customers through word of mouth, he said, and Twitter is the digital manifestation of that. Twitter users broadcast messages of up to 140 characters in length, and the culture of the service encourages people to spread news to friends in their own network.”

• Umi Sushi Restaurant in San Francisco
  • Umi gets an average of five new customers a night from Twitter. He tweets about the fresh fish of the night with colorful hunger-inducing descriptions that pulls his customers off their couches and into his store.

• Caminito Argentinian Steakhouse
  • A restaurant in Massachusetts that uses a blog and YouTube and constantly monitors social media.

• Cynthia Sutton-Stolle’s Silver Barn Antiques
  • Cynthis uses Twitter to find suppliers and customers nationwide. She has sold a few thousand dollars of products to customers outside her area with Twitter alone, and has made connections with other people who make candles.

• Scott Seaman’s Bed and Breaksfast
  • Scott Seaman operates his business in a town of 1,500 residents, and uses Twitter to expand his reach. He uses TweetDeck to talk to people who tweet with keywords related to this business, and more than once has drawn a person to stay in his bed and breakfast.

• Chris Manna’s Woodhouse Day Spa
  • Christ tweets about special discounts and offers for massages and manicures everyday. Twitter is a popular source of coupons, deals and discounts, and many flock to the microblogging site to get their bargain fix.

Social Media indeed is a perfect avenue for small business promotion with little or no money investment. All you need is determination, research, guidance (we’re happy to help), time and of course let’s not forget, an internet connection! Many have achieved success with social media, step up and reach for yours.