How Small Businesses Can Improve Their Relations With Customers Through Social Media

Also published by Search Engine Watch on September 2 2010

he big question for small business owners five years ago was, “Should I use Google instead of yellow pages to attract new customers?” NowGoogle is commonly used by SMBs and that question gave way to a new one: “Do I need to be using social media?“

Social media is a much more complex issue than the Google versus yellow pages debate. With dozens of options, most small businesses can’t decide where to invest their limited time. Many become overwhelmed and end up doing nothing. So, what to do?

Do You Need to Use Social Media?

The world was not ready for Haiti. Again.

Haiti earthquake is one of the biggest natural disasters in the recent years. Just like with all other disasters, the world was willing to help instantly. Willing, but not ready. Americans are opening their hearts and pockets, doctors and rescue teams are flying from all four corners on the universe, but they can only save that many people. Why? Because the efforts are not coordinated. Year after year we are facing similar situations and every time the word reacts with a chaotic response in the first days and weeks, that gives way to organized response after it is already too late.

This situation begs the question- why there is no central disaster command under the UN supervision that sits idle 364 days a year, and get into action the second when a disaster strikes?

The Tale of Many Bubbles

You are living in a bubble! This is a claim that many Silicon Valley entrepreneurs often hear. To some extent it is true. It is always sunny here, and new technologies are introduced every day, so we tend to be more cutting edge, just by diffusion. I want to argue though, that there is a bigger bubble than the geographical one: the Twitter bubble. Wait! Before you stop reading hear me out. I am not saying Twitter is over hyped, nor that it is not great. I am saying something different: Twitter creates a bubble for its heavy users and creates a virtual global world, in which Twitter is the main mean of communication.

Take Robert Scoble, one of the most admired new media evangelists in the valley. In a blog post posted recently claiming that Twitter worth 5-10 billion he said:

The one thing branding can’t do

We are planning a branding expertise this week and in the spirit of all good workshops the moderator sent us some pre-work (AKA homework if you ask my kids). One of the questions were:

What are your thoughts on what makes some brands inspirational while others struggle?

In order to answer the question, I listed the brands I like: Apple, Amazon, Virgin Atlantic, SPG and Facebook to name few. When I thought of these brands, I found one thing in common: All are brands I like talking about with my friends and colleagues. A great brand is one that its target audience wants to speak about.

Why does it matter to my branding exercise?

The Well Known Secrets of the VC world (Part 2)

OK, it took a while since part 1. It is kind of busy here in Project-X and weekends are the only time left for some writing. Before it gets too far from my VC days, I wanted to write the promised (but perhaps not anticipated) part 2 of my post, and get it out of the way. The last post covered some basics: What’s a good VC, getting meetings and the strange habit of VCs not to pass on deals. Today we will focus on what’s important- what will a VC look into when  meeting you.

Apple Destroys iPhone Apps Credibility By Encouraging Bad Ratings

I tend to have great level of appreciation to Apple’s ability to design amazing and easy to use products. In most cases, there is a lot of thinking behind each feature, but here is one which is far beyond my understanding: Apple intentionally destroys third party apps credibility by encouraging bad ratings.

Workday Raises $75 Million- Good Sign for the Business Software World

Workday, a financial and human resources SaaS provider, has secured $75 million in Series E funding. In my humble opinion, this is a very good sign that investments in business software are going to get a boost in the next few years.

Look back 15 years ago and compare the progress in “consumer computing” to the progress in “business computing” – the differences are amazing.  Consumers moved from 14K modems to cable, from one inbox per office to unlimited mail accounts and storage, from backing up files on floppy disks to box.net, from from Rolodex to manage their personal lives to Facebook, from expensive and complex Photoshop to Picasa, from mail orders to Amazon and from paper atlas to Google maps. Our lives as consumers are almost 100% digitized now.

The Well Known Secrets of the VC world (Part 1)

The news are all grim about VCs recently. They can’t raise money, they don’t invest…While it is not the best time for VCs and startups (and for the rest of us), money is still invested.  I spent the last 6 months as an EIR (Executive In Residence) with a venture capital firm, classically located on Sand Hill road. Destiny (and network) got me to spend my winter with Storm Ventures, one of the finest VCs I got to know. During this time I saw dozens of startups, attended many internal discussions and learned a lot. And, as my old grandmother used to say: “learning is solidified by writing”. So here are some of my learnings that many people know, but more don’t…

• What’s a good VC?:

The Problem Facebook does solve

More than a year ago I spent time thinking about Facebook and the problem it solves. Back then, Facebook was growing in a staggering speed, adding 1 million users every week. This week, Facebook turned 5 and with 15% of the world internet users on Facebook, it is clear they are winning the game of user adoption. I made two claims about Facebook back then and I am happy to say I was very wrong about one and only somehow right about the other. Not much of a record…

I was wrong about the problem Facebook is solving. I thought it was a fun product that did not solve any real life problem. With 15 months of perspective I feel that I have a better idea: Facebook is so successful because we are all absolutely horrible in managing our social relations.

The Smart Layoff

Today’s economy leads to many layoffs across all sectors. According to TechCrunch’s layoffs Tracker, over 132,000 employees lost their jobs from August 2008 in the tech sector alone. Reductions in force (RIFs) are commonplace now but there are few best practices out there when it comes to doing it right strategically. While HR already mastered the process from their side, executives often fail to creatively think of the best way to reduce the number of employees, without destroying the company.

There is a smarter way, but let’s first understand how it is done today.