These days, personal branding, online branding, and company branding are extremely important. Especially for building your online presence. But how can small businesses compete with he big brands?

By having a presence online, being active in social media and social networking, and starting a marketing blog about your products and services are the first steps.

I had the pleasure to meet Dan in person at the Gravity Summit event in Harvard i attended, and Dan was nice enough to conduct a brief interview dedicated to the small business community. As you know, Social Networking San Diego has been providing small and mid-sized businesses social media consulting for the last year, and we understand the challenges small businesses are facing. We have seen these items as the main challenges:

1. Limited budgets
2. Limited Time
3. Limited resources

So how can a small business get involved in establishing/ building their online brand?

Listen to some advice from Personal Branding expert Dan Schawbel our CEO Justin R French had the privledge to interview. Enjoy

Any thoughts on how your small business is growing its online brand?

Social Media for business is still the current trend and for us to stay competitive in our businesses, we must know the “who’s who” in the social media world. We all know, to be the best, we must study and learn from the best.

So who are the Top 3 Social Media Authorities you follow? Here are mine in no particular order. I will explain reasons as to why i choose these Top 3 as my favorites because first and foremost, after learning from literally thousands of social media authorities over the last couple years, I can honestly say these 5 really communicate in a way i can relate to not only personally but professionally and i appreciate their story.

It is important to know that everyone has a unique story, and i mean everyone. Social media and social networking allows every one of us to have a voice, to let our story unfold on a blog, and build our businesses through relationship selling or as i like to call it “educational selling”. Think of this as you are investing time and building your personal brand. And know that as you go through this social networking and social media for business journey, your personal life and professional life continue to come together online. You suddenly see you start to associate with and migrate to good people online who share very similar passions / interests which is the foundation of social networking.

Here is a list of my Top 3 and the date (according to www.twitterholic.com when they started on twitter)

1. Chris Brogan
Date started on twitter: 10-23-06
Why? One of the first blogs (extremely valuable information) on social media and social networking for business I started reading last year and consider him a mentor. Plus he is one of the nicest and genuine guys you can meet online, and Chris actually engages, interacts, and converses with you. Just amazing how he keeps up with all his comments on his blog and followers on twitter. P.S. I just started his new book Trust Agents and it is awesome! (Video review to come- stay tuned)

2. Justin Parks
Date started on twitter: 6-08-08
Why? One of my closest / very first friends on twitter, and we constantly keep in touch and help each other out by exchanging global economic news (he is in Spain) and things we are experiencing in our businesses and how we can improve in service delivery, performance, and customer satisfaction. Not to mention, I consider him an SEO guru.

3. Gary Vaynerchuk
Date started on twitter:5-04-07
Why? I saw his web 2.0 video from last year and another ah-ha moment again. His passion somehow transferred into me and I haven’t looked back since. Plus I got to meet him at Harvard Gravity Summit and he is just one of the most brilliant Entrepreneurs of my generation that I am just amazed by. I can only aspire to be as successful as Gary Vee someday, but in the mean time, I’m working on crushing it!

Now, who are your Top 3 social media authorities and why? Please leave a reply below, I am really interested in hearing your choices
Thanks for sharing
Justin R French
CEO Social Networking San Diego

Want to connect with me on linked-in? Go here

Principle 5-
Carefully look at the tools available and decide collectively with Authorities which tools you will implement
There are thousands of tools, mediums, platforms, social networks, blogs, etc. that you can consider to use as you start your social media engagement. Talk to the authorities and usually they will give you some insights on what some of the main/ well known tools you might want to use. My first suggestion is start with Google’s products/ services. But remember when discussing with these authorities to value their time, because at the end of the day, being in business, it always comes down to time=money.

What principals would you add? Do you agree/ dis-agree with some of my principals? I am interested in hearing from all businesses (large and small)

Principle 4- Don’t try to be something your not
If your corporate culture isn’t big on being transparent, focused on integrity, or critical on providing excellent customer service, and good at communicating, then social media might not be a good fit for your company. If you look at all the examples of big companies using social media effectively, it fit EXACTLY with their corporate culture! This is a key principal to understand. And if you company is trying to “Act” like it cares just for the sake, it will not work. Know that this takes us back over to Principal 1- Listen First, Time investment, etc.

What principals would you add? Do you agree/ dis-agree with some of my principals? I am interested in hearing from all businesses (large and small)

Principle 3- Start with Customer Service- and Actually Care
Many big companies like Comcast, Southwest, Whole Foods, and especially Zappos are some big brand examples that small businesses can learn from. Yes the small businesses don’t have as many departments, resources, or budgets, but try to implement little things here and there and you will see a difference in building your company up as what many in social media would call an “authority.” I define authority as someone who has been actively participating in the online social community to one extent or another, and everyone has a different authority level in this space (some higher than others because of how long they have been active in social media- and this is ok- people are accepting to honesty usually, and willing to tolerate your learning curve as long as your respectful of others opinions of course).

What principals would you add? Do you agree/ dis-agree with some of my principals? I am interested in hearing from all businesses (large and small)

Principle 2-Community-
Obama used to be a community organizer. He used social media and social networking to get elected (my opinion), so what your small business can consider is building an on-line community around your products and services. This is the simplest analogy I could come up with because everyone hopefully can resonate with this example. The benefit of online communities provides a way you can listen to customers wants, needs, pains, and feedback on your products and services in real time. Imagine if before you launched your next product you could get instant feedback on branding, colors, look/feel, benefits, likes, dislikes, etc. all from your existing or potential clients. As long as you are HONEST with people, this feedback can be extremely helpful before a new product or service launch. But just know that you will have to give up some form of “control” on your part to actually “hear” the positive aspects of your products/ services and the negative. But the main point is engagement and a feedback mechanism for your benefit.

What principals would you add? Do you agree/ dis-agree with some of my principals? I am interested in hearing from all businesses (large and small)

First- What is Gravity Summit?

An almost 1 year old Social Media Authority that supports educates and empowers businesses on how they can add social media marketing into their business strategy. More on Gravity Summit Here:

Where was the Conference: Harvard Faculty Club, Boston Massachusetts and was actually streamed LIVE by CNN!

Length of the conference: 8 hours

Basic Outline: Actual Business Case Studies of how companies are using social media from companies like DirectTV, Red Cross, Intuit, Southwest, Dominoes Pizza, and many others. Keynotes from McHammer and Gary Vaynerchuck

Why did I go? I wanted to get a taste for the Harvard Experience as some of my instructors I had in college graduated from there, and brought some of the Harvard teaching principals into our classroom environment. I thought this would be a great opportunity for me to see what life was like in Boston (My first time to the east coast) & also get some great information to bring back to the small business community we help support, educate, and empower with some of our social media campaigns that are sold now on a per project basis only for simplification.

Principal 1- Listen First-
This may sound simple for business people, but believe it or not, it can be very time consuming and require a lot of internet research. If you don’t have the time (I would suggest a minimum of an hour a day to start off getting educated and listening) then you may want to wait to get into this game/ landscape. You would be surprised at how many small business professionals I run across that have even a hard time with internet research. Mostly because they don’t have the time, but if small & mid-sized businesses are to start growing again, they MUST look for new innovative ways and out-side the box thinking to sustain. When your business is considering jumping into the online marketing space, social media marketing, or any form of marketing for that matter, know first where your customers are engaging online, what their concerns are with your products or services, and problems they may currently be facing. This helps you filter out a lot of the internet “noise” that exists. Then once you know this intelligence, have a solution/ better mouse trap or product/ service to provide, state your facts/ opinions, and engage the audience, but always try to provide VALUE to the community. Speaking of Community, that takes me into my next principal (stay tuned for tomorrows principal- this will be a series of 5 posts)

What principals would you add? Do you agree/ dis-agree with some of my principals? I am interested in hearing from all businesses (large and small)

How are you building your online business brand or personal brand? I have had the privilege to connect and communicate with Brian Solis on MANY mediums such as Facebook and Twitter, and him and Chris Brogan are one of the most responsive social media and social networking for business authorities who actually respond and communicate with their audience. I know there are many individuals who communicate with their audience as well, but these two have really impressed me in how quickly they can respond and demonstrates they really CARE! Not to mention, they usually respond right back within 3 minutes! this is unbelievable! I can barely keep up with 2600 followers (very humbling by they way- people who actually have taken an interest in me, my company, my thoughts, ideas and opinions about small business, technology and social media for business purposes.) Obviously this is my passion, and that is crucial to building your personal brand- follow your passions EVEN if you are not making money at it YET. Also helping the small business community right now as Chamillionaire mentions is crucial.

Imagine, communicating real-time with actual “people” and engaging in conversation, building relationships, all around a common interest on-line. This is what social media is all about, whether you are building a personal brand or company brand.

Here is some footage I taped on Brian Solis (see his website here) today on Fox Business discussing some good insight on personal branding, building a community around your brand, and actually and MEANING something to the people you are connecting with so you can stand out and build your brand. “This helps transform connections with people from just a fan base to an actual community”- Brian Solis

Here is the video of Brian on Fox- enjoy, and congrats again Brian! Your thoughts? Feel free to leave a comment- Justin CEO Social Networking San Diego

By now your business should be on twitter, have a facebook fan page, and hopefully your on linked-in networking. For the small business market (which is where we have been providing most of our consulting services) it is still struggling with social media and social networking for business because of the 3 reasons i have seen:

1. budgeting requirements
2. time investment required for training on their part
3. being afraid of change.

Now i have to say that years ago i had the same concerns, but the point is that i started EDUCATING myself. Once you as a small business owner start getting educated (and hopefully you’ve signed up on our coaching program for social networking and social media for business here: SIGN UP ) you can begin the educational process.

Here is quick video that explains how to implement a social media marketing system into your company (enjoy) and leave a comment on your thoughts (its helps our blog ranking out 🙂

Everyone especially business professionals (rightfully so) keep talking about how to monetize social media and social networking. As of now, you should know how out-of the box my thinking is when it comes to business. I assure you that during these times, I am not the only business professional trying to think outside the box for innovative strategies. For better or worse, I am really going out on a limb on this one. Let me know if i am going over-board on this.

I will predict what the future holds (and how we can all make some money from not only social media consulting services for firms that “get it”) but possibly off things we are “Passionate” about. Besides, who wouldn’t want to make some extra money right now right?

Now hypothetically, lets say you drive a Prius. And you love it, you tell your friends how much you love it on facebook, twitter, linked-in, etc. So in a sense, you are now a brand ambassador for the Toyota prius. Now because you are so much in love with your prius and you happen to be marketing it for them “online” whether you know it or not, why couldn’t you reach out to Toyota, state your case, and charge them a small fee to write something about your experience (like or dis-like) about your Toyota prius fully disclosed of course? Believe it or not, that is what Ted Murphy @Izea has done and it is not a bad idea. I give him credit for coming up with this concept and starting to put bloggers in touch with corporations to write fully disclosed reviews. Brilliant!!

I would even take it a step further and really start reaching out to companies and demonstrating the power of these “word of mouth” brand ambassadors by providing case studies. This is already going on. Maybe even get a sales team doing B2B. This is writing on the wall for more business models that will monetize social media because at the end of the day, we don’t want all this hype to implode like the 2001 dot com bust right? If businesses don’t get educated on social media soon, they may not be around next year when things start to pick up again.

As for facebook, here is what i would tell Mark to do. Start charging a small fee for businesses to use facebook (just like twitter should do) because this demonstrates to business people the value of social media and social networking tools for corporate use. Those business leaders who STILL DO NOT see the value, will continue to be lost in translation. Or maybe schedule some twitter training from one of our internet marketing strategists by going here for our twitter for marketing training: Just one mans opinion. What are your thoughts on this post?