More Reasons that Small Businesses Excel at Social Media

After my last posting on small business and social media, Chris Brogan was kind enough to tweet my blog and attract some savvy writers.

At the same time, Ann Handley was a welcome visitor to ye old blog.

A surprise for me: all of the comments were positive and relevant (except for the guy trying to sell me on doing business on Costa Rica).

Before we take a closer look at some of the comments, I wanted to share with you the question that I asked during the Forrester webinar and Laura Ramos` interesting response.

Q: Robert Lesser: It appears that smaller B2B companies are more successful with their social media marketing than large B2B marketers. Is this showing up in the data? If yes, why?

A: Laura Ramos: We have not looked at the data from this perspective, but it is possible to do so if interested in exploring this further. Anecdotally, we have seen social media and online tactics favor smaller companies in general because small companies are more agile, less constrained by legacy, and able to "look bigger" than they are in the digital realm (emphasis provided).

So it seems that we all are in agreement, at least at a conceptual level, on why small businesses are excelling at social media.

And now let`s feature some of the top reasons submitted from those who read the blog:

• Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs
  "Got passion? (Actually, this could be considered a part of the "megaphone" and "sweat equity" reasons, too.) But so many small business owners have real passion for what they are doing, and that converts into the energy and authenticity necessary to commit to doing social media right."


• Ann Kingman, Blogger, Books on the Night Stand CEOs are the Public Face - "In most small businesses, the founder/CEO *is* the company, or there are a few key employees who play that role, and so it's much easier to put a human face on the organization than if it were a huge multinational corporation.
  

• Giles Crouch, Partner & CEO, MediaBadger / Blogger, Webconomist
  "Building Loyalty: Small biz can engage customers more directly, leading to product innovations and increased loyalty through conversations."

One fine day in Chicago

This afternoon I flew into Chicago from Toronto.

The weather was ideal for my plans before the MarketingProfs Conference began: sunny and warm with a nice breeze off of Lake Michigan.

With the blessing of my family, I flew in early today to take the Architecture Cruise on the Chicago River in picture perfect conditions.

My newfound knowledge of Chicago architecture came in handy at 6:00 pm during the speakers cocktail party. We stood on the third floor patio of the Renaissance Chicago and talked of the behemoths that lined the river.

It was great to meet and chat with the MarketingProfs team: Allen Weiss - Founder, Roy Young - President and Ann Handley - Chief Content Officer and employee #2. The MarketingProfs team was hyped about their first conference and the 300 attendees.

Ann Handley, Paul Dunay (my presentation partner) and I spoke on the patio, amongst other things, about blogging and Twitter. According to Paul, master blogger / podcaster Robert Scoble was surprised that he was not inundated with baby product pitches after covering the personal event online.

My response was that it seems odd that with rampant privacy concerns such as identity theft, bloggers are not more guarded about their private life. If Robert and his family are at the hospital, who is watching his house?

Would-be burglars no longer have to watch the newspapers and mail pile up. Its now as simple as subscribing to an RSS feed to know when no one is home.