Six steps to get new media working in your business

In the modern, new media era, you are the media. It's "social" because we participate in it, talk about, research, respond and purchase through it it's two-way, back and forth. We are observing and shaping it at the same time gone is the old school, one-way broadcast or distributed media model.

Yes, we still have traditional media sources like this issue of Northern Nevada Business Weekly, as well as television and radio, and each continues to have their place in our lives while evolving and morphing into interactivity, which is what the social web is all about.

Individuals and small businesses have unprecedented access to create any of the aforementioned media and more on our own, at our fingertips from almost anywhere on the planet at any time, and in many cases for free.

Consider: Any small business or individual can create video and audio for posting and commenting; email and faxes; real-time location-based marketing; social video with real time brand metrics for tracking purchase behavior; push notifications; text messaging; voicemail distributed messaging; blogs and vlogs; Twitter conversations; Facebook status updates; Pinterest boards; Google reviews; on demand variable data printing ... The possibilities are endless and virtually all of it can happen on your smartphone.

It can feel overwhelming, but it doesn't have to be. Your business must do six things to use new media for sales and profit. Consumers are making purchasing decisions through more marketing platforms than ever before. Here are six actions to take today:

1. Decide who you want to reach.

2. Decide which vehicles, or channels, will reach them best.

3. Create the message or offer and populate your channels.

4. Build a database in your company. Start now! Without a database, you don't have a business.

5. Skinny up a mobile version of your Web site.

6. Measure, analyze and feed back through the loop starting at No. 1.

Decide who you want to reach. This seems so basic doesn't it? It is still the first question a small business must address. No matter what type of marketing strategy you plan, the first question you must answer is who do we want to reach.

Next, deciding on the vehicles or channels isn't too hard. According to a recent Nielsen Social Media Report, in the U.S., social networks and blogs reached nearly 80 percent of active U.S. Internet users and represent the majority of Americans' time online. Social networks and blogs have a tremendous influence on purchase decisions. For instance, 60 percent of people who used three or more digital research tools for product purchases learned about a specific brand or retailer from a social networking site. Forty-eight percent of these consumers responded to a retailer's offer posted on Facebook or Twitter!

Nielsen research further states that games, weather, and social networking take up the top three categories of apps used by smart phone owners. You don't have to create the research. It's already been done! Find and use the information to help you when deciding how to reach people.

Incredible YouTube stats:

* 72 hours of video content uploaded to YouTube every single minute.

* Traffic from mobile devices on YouTube tripled in 2011.

* Over 800 million unique visitors visit YouTube each month.

* 500 years of YouTube video are watched every day on Facebook.

* Over 700 YouTube videos are shared on Twitter every minute.

* 100 million people take a social action on YouTube every week.

* In 2011, YouTube had more than 1 trillion views or around 140 views for every person on earth.

Doesn't YouTube seem like it might be an excellent way to reach people by finding them where they are? What if your gift boutique, auto repair shop, law office, dental practice or cake and muffin shop posted a video a couple times a week with important and interesting information for your clients or customers? What if you send it out as a link through your Twitter account? What if you posted it on Facebook? Why not send a YouTube link to your email list?

Facebook stats:

* As of October 2012, Facebook has over 1 billion monthly active users.

* Facebook has 552 million daily active users on average as of June 2012.

* 600 million monthly active users who used Facebook mobile products in September 2012.

Now let's talk about Twitter ...

Twitter is a real-time information micro blogging network stories or messages, known as tweets, are sent in 140 character bursts.

* About 15 percent of online adults use Twitter.

* Overall Twitter usage has nearly doubled since November 2010.

* The proportion of adults who use Twitter on a typical day has quadrupled since late 2010.

* Residents of urban areas are significantly more likely to use Twitter than their rural counterparts

* One in five smartphone owners are Twitter users

* The growth of smartphone adoption is highly correlated to the growth of Twitter usage

If you don't yet have a database, you are far behind the times. It's easy to collect and manage data. Start building it today. It is a crucial business asset.

A mobile Web site is the most basic unit of digital life today. When your site is visited by a mobile device, automatic detection takes it to a more streamlined version for easy on the eyes and fingertips usage.

Try visiting SqueezeIn.com from a mobile for an example you'll be directed to the mobile site and can visit the full site for comparative purposes.

Once you've run your campaign, do the metrics and start over. Repeat what worked and toss the rest. Marketing is math. Don't get hung up on the emotions of it.

Most social accounts are free. Setting up a basic presence takes only a few minutes. Gaining followers is as easy as interacting, commenting, posting and checking in with people. Start by listening. Your brand must be social to be relevant in the digital age.

You are the media. You control the message, the delivery, the timing. As a small business owner, don't you owe it to your customers to be where they are?

Misty Young is president and chief marketing officer of Squeeze In, a diner chain headquartered in Reno. Contact her at misty@squeezein.com or through www.squeezein.com.