This past Tuesday at the annual CM Summit hosted by Federated Media as part of Internet Week, Marcy Shinder, VP of Brand Strategy & Marketing at American Express OPEN (M Booth client), credited small business owners with inventing “social networking” long ago in the off-line universe. Shinder pointed out that for small business owners, “success has always relied on their ability to connect with others for advice, support and networking.”

It is this very essence of the SBO that would make them natural adopters of the type of social networking occurring on-line. But are SBOs making the switch and taking their old-fashioned methods to today’s digital space?

A recent article in the NY Times reports that most small businesses have not yet fully embraced social networks, but their numbers are growing. The article goes on to reference data from a recent study commissioned by Sage North America which found that that 65% of small businesses currently on social networking sites said that they felt more comfortable doing so this year than last year. In total, more than 260,000 North American businesses currently use social networking to promote their businesses, according to the “North America Small Business Social Networking Study.”

Furthermore, SBOs aren’t just limiting themselves to connecting on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Nearly 40% of business owners are increasingly tapping other niche sites (i.e. women entrepreneurs) that have been sprouting around the web, looking for more tailored and cost-effective marketing and networking opportunities to build their businesses during the economic downturn. Using the CM Summit as a launching pad, Shinder unveiled the new OPEN Forum 2.0, currently in beta and scheduled to go live Q3 2009, to the sold-out audience of tech savvy and innovation leading entrepreneurs. The revamped social networking site combines its popular small business content from some of the top bloggers in the space, with a greater focus on connections through the new “Connectodex” feature. Shinder described “Connectodex” as an online tool that is designed to connect OPEN Forum members with companies that offer complimentary services and expertise.

Perhaps most appealing about what the new OPEN Forum site promises to offer is its focus on bridging the gap for many SBOs who have a high business relationship IQ, but need to boost their social media IQ. Many of the conversations that will take place on OPEN Forum will be geared toward educating today’s entrepreneur about the power of social media to grow their business. Rob King, VP for strategic marketing at Sage North America, said it best in the NY Times piece,  “small businesses have a 12-month window to figure out online social networking…I hate to say it, but if they don’t, they’ll get left in the dust.”

- Danny

Here’s an excellent article on a very important trend I keep telling my friends and colleagues they should pay heed to: Personal Branding.  Courtesy of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania (M Booth’s oldest client).

Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Jim MacMillan is profiled as a succesful example of someone who re-invented himself though social networking.

While still employed as a staff photographer at the Philadelphia Daily News, he had launched his own web site — jimmacmillan.net — for posting his photos and linking to related stories in the news. Like many professionals, he also created a profile on Facebook, Twitter and every social network he could learn about, roughly 40 in all. Eventually, he took a severance package from the newspaper and threw everything into social networking. Today, he has close to 14,000 followers reading his posts on Twitter — a number on a par with some celebrities — and keeps in touch with about 475 friends on Facebook. He believes he reaches a larger and more engaged audience than when he was at the Daily News.

Jim is part of a growing mass of professionals — including musicians, writers, artists and even business experts — who are engaging large audiences by making songs available on a MySpace page, sharing their expertise on Twitter or building a national readership by blogging.

With today’s tough job market and struggling economy, people need to differentiate themselves and start to employ the same kind of branding techniques used by many of today’s top businesses.

- Danny

A new study shows that search giant Google accounted for 72.11% of all U.S. online searches conducted in February, an 8% increase over the same period last year, according to online information company Hitwise.

Google’s February performance extended its search dominance over Yahoo (with 17.04% of all U.S. searches, down 17% from a year earlier), MSN Search (5.56%, down by 20%), and Ask.com (3.74%, down 10%).

- Danny

I’ve recently been following the social media-related posts of MaineBusiness.com’s Carl V. Natale, aka “Duke of URL.” His latest entry might seem contradictory to what we here at FWD have been saying all along - “IF YOU AREN’T ALREADY ON TWITTER, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!?!” Especially if you are in business and want to amp up your marketing. But all the “Duke” is really trying to say is that you don’t have the jump in the Twitter pool with both feet. Social media-shy entrepreneurs should feel free to just dip their toes in before they get their “twim” on.

As a matter of fact, the “Duke” says small business owners are the face and voice of the business. So they NEED to project those roles to a virtual space. Here are a few baby steps the “Duke” suggests SBOs should take before the big leap:

Start commenting on blogs. Find a blog you like and start leaving comments using your name.

Try forums. Start out commenting again. When you have a feel for the environment, start a thread.

Now blog. It’s not such a big step now. Create your own domain (preferred) or try a network.

Twitter away. This is big league conversation. Millions of people talking back and forth.

- Danny

Here is a post from the WSJ’s Independent Street blog profiling Kogi Korean BBQ-To-Go, a Los Angeles steet vendor that sells Korean tacos out of a truck that has “capitalized on emerging technology by sending out Twitter alerts so fans know where to find it at any given time.”

The result? 400 customers each night. A wait of sometimes two hours.

-Danny

Our social media-savvy client American Express OPEN, along with Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence, the leading national not-for-profit provider of business resources and community support for women entrepreneurs, have announced the launch of the Make Mine a Million $ Business RACE (M3 RACE) – a year-long business growth marathon bringing together thousands of women entrepreneurs to network online and compete in a race to grow their businesses and create jobs in the United States.

The M3 RACE inspires women to challenge themselves and each other to realize their vision for the company and reach their revenue targets. Just like walk/run marathons, women can choose their own pace for their 2009 business revenue goal: $250,000, $500,000, or $1,000,000 or more. The Grand Prize winner will receive a $100,000 cash prize and a year of marketing, advertising and media opportunities.

By leveraging social networking and creating an innovative online business growth assessment tool specific to the needs and challenges of women business owners, the 2009 M3 RACE initiative will extend its reach to thousands of women across the country.

- Danny

He’s too modest to mention it himself, so I will…our very own Danny was featured on Small Business Trends’s Ultimate Small Business Twitter List! Danny was listed under his client, American Express OPEN. If you want to discuss any aspect of entrepreneurship or small business, Danny’s your man(ny)!

—Alyssa

Soccer = Passion. Even the digital kind.

Passion and civic pride motivated more than 4,400 people, mostly fans of the historic Italian soccer team Napoli, to join a Facebook group in four days to support one of the team’s besieged star players, Marek Hamsik. According to a recent post from the EndlessPlain blog published by the Serengeti Communications team, the footie star “has been linked with a big money move to teams across Europe.” To make matters worse, “Mr. Hamsik was out for a stroll when he was robbed at gunpoint of 800 Euros, and his Rolex watch.”

Concerned that Hamsik’s departure was eminent, and consequently creating a huge dent in Napoli’s championship hopes, “fans of the Napoli team jumped onto Facebook and created a group with the sole purpose of saying “Sorry.” Three quick weeks later, the group boasts more than 5,700 apologetic and supportive Neopolitans emploring Hamsik to stay.

Upon hearing about the passionate Facebook effort put forth by his faithful and tech savvy fans, Hamsik replied “Don’t worry, I am not leaving.”

Forza Facebook!

- Danny

USA Today small biz reporter Steve Strauss, aka Mr. AllBiz, recently posted his annual Top 10 Trends in Small Business.

Last year, Struass ranked social networking as the No. 1 trend for 2008. This year, social networking remains a top trend, according to Strauss, but drops down to No. 3. Mr. AllBiz also lists the Web 2.0 category as a whole in his top five for 2009, and proclaims that the social media set has reached its tipping point.

-Danny

Everyone’s favorite marketing guru, Seth Godin, recently blogged about the idea of viral marketing and how the term is often misused.

“Something being viral is not, in an of itself, viral marketing” writes Godin. “Who cares that 32,000,000 people saw your stupid video? It didn’t market you or your business in a tangible, useful way.”

Many companies launch viral marketing campaigns behind the idea of creating a picture, video or website that will spread around the Web like wildfire. But many of them fail to capitalize on the Internet lovefest. Or they will focus too much on trying to monetize an idea, and end up with a Web dud.

The correct answer might lie in looking at examples such as YouTube, where the viral element isn’t an ad but the product itself.

“The more people use them, the more people see them. The more people see them, the more people use them. The product or service must be something that improves once more people use it.” In other words, viral marketing is a perpetual cycle because the product or service is inherently valuable. No one will share your product with anyone unless they feel it has value. And the inherent value of your product is the foundation of brand loyalty.”

However, Seth does point out a particular marketing campaign that spread that wasn’t the product itself.

“Shepard Fairey’s poster of Barack Obama was everywhere, because people chose to spread it. It was viral (it spread) and it was marketing (because it made an argument—a visual one—for a candidate.)”

- Danny

A new study being conducted by the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) reveals that “while journalists across all age groups and beat assignments are rapidly adopting social media tools into their everyday work, the greatest usage is shown by young ‘Millennial Generation’ journalists.”

What is striking about this survey is that it is very clear that the ‘Millennials’ – the younger journalists entering the workforce – are adopting new media and social tools more readily and seeing their value, especially in terms of collaborating with their peers and strengthening their relationships with their audiences and the people in the areas they cover. While it’s not entirely surprising that this younger generation of journalists are users of these new communications tools, it’s interesting that they understand how to use them effectively in their work, and are pushing the journalism profession as a whole to create a more collaborative, reciprocal, interactive, and fluid form of journalism.

Key findings among youngest versus older journalists:

* 100% of Millennial respondents (i.e., 18-29 year-olds) believe new media and communications tools are enhancing journalism, versus 40% in the 50-64 demographic

* 87% of 18-29 year-olds believe bloggers have become important opinion-shapers, versus 60% of 50-64 year-olds

* 87% of 18-29 year-olds confirm that new media and communications enhances the relationship with their audience, versus 42% of 50-64 year-olds

Key findings among all journalists:

* 48% of all respondents use LinkedIn, and 45% use Facebook to assist in reporting

* 68% of all respondents use blogs to keep up on issues or topics of interest

* 86% of all respondents use company websites, 71% use Wikipedia, and 46% use blogs to research an individual organization

The survey was launched in September 2008 and is still in progress. Respondents to date include 160 editors and reporters from print, broadcast, and online news organizations.

All journalists are invited to participate in the survey at: http://www.surveytracker.net/scripts/survey.dll?AHID=03100D

Download the preliminary findings here.

- Danny

PR pros often forget who they are really trying to reach with their message. Perhaps today’s bottom-line approach has created a PR industry too focused on media that they have “elevated placements above the people we’re actually trying to reach.”

Over at PR blog Communications Catalyst, social media junkie David Mullen talks about how integrating social media into communications strategies should be about redefining the “P” in PR, renewing a focus on people, not the public and much less the media.

Do we pitch stories to outlets that don’t target our “people” for the sake of increasing impression numbers?

Do we send stuff out on newswires because you get some automatic online “placements” and “impressions” that real people could never find by searching the news site, even with perfect keywords? (We can only find them because we’re sent a direct link.)

…Media outlets are vehicles – tools, if you will – not the end goal. But I think the conversation needs to take an even bigger step back. In Yesteryear, we could get away with simply thinking about “publics.” I think, though, that might not cut it these days. Today, it’s all about People Relations.

- Danny

Want to be that much closer to Barack Obama or Kevin Rose status on Twitter?

Read supercool entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki’s blog post on how to get more people to follow your tweets on Twitter.

Topping his tip list is the idea of following “smores”:

Tip 1: Follow the “smores.” They are the folks with large number of followers and seem to be the opinion leaders (and perhaps even “heroes”) of Twitter.

Numero tres talks about your all-important visage:

Tip 3: Create an effective avatar. Your avatar is a window into your soul, so you need to create one that doesn’t look like you shot it with a camera phone while you were drunk. In most cases, use a simple, informal straight-up photo of just your face—not you and your dog, car, kids, or surfboard. Increase the exposure to brighter than you think it should be.

Way down at number six is another helpful tip on establishing yourself as an expert:

Tip 6: Establish yourself as a subject expert. One thing is for sure about Twitter: there are some people interested in every subject and every side of every subject. By establishing yourself as a subject expert, you will make yourself interesting to some subset of people.

Now go and give President-elect Obama a run for his money.

- Danny