As more and more businesses jump into social media, case studies and success stories are becoming more prevalent. Yet despite the fact that small businesses are often just as entrenched as big business, the little guys are significantly underepresented when it comes to case studies. Today we’re going to fix that. I connected with Ann Nolan of Baby Sitters Directory earlier this year after compiling my list of Aussie businesses on Twitter (yes… it’s severely outdated now!). I was immediately fascinated with how a niche businesses such as hers was using social media. And I recently had the opportunity of talking to her about it, albeit after months of procrastination on my part. It gives a fascinating insight into why and how a small business uses social media.
Firstly, what is Baby Sitters Directory?
Baby Sitter Directory is Australia’s leading babysitter and nanny directory. While living in Queensland in 2006/07 for a year with two young children, far away from family and friends and my usual babysitters, I found no online services that allowed me to easily and cost effectively locate and contact babysitters directly. Hence Baby Sitter Directory was formed and launched in June 2008. It is the most effective way to find a babysitter, and the most social online babysitter and nanny community, connecting parents directly with babysitters and nannies.
Why did you decide social media was appropriate for your business?
Given that the vast majority of Babysitterdirectory’s members are women and given women’s use of social media, it becomes clear why social media is something we see as important! In June the “2009 Social Media Study” a US study from BlogHer, iVillage and Compass Partners found women are turning to social media for fun, entertainment and connection.
- Fifty- three per cent of the US female Internet population of 79 million actively participated in some type of social media at least weekly.
- Of the female social media participants, 75% took part in social networking and 55% used blogs.
- Twelve million posted to blogs and 8 million published them.
This is an impressive use of social media. Granted the findings are for the US market but it would not be presumptous to assume that Australian women’s use of social media is on par with their US counterparts.
How do you use social media for your business?
We view it as a medium to deepen our connection with the parenting industry, be it an individual parent, a nanny, a babysitter or a business seeking to connect with parents.
The social media platforms – Blog, Twitter and Facebook – we use tend to compliment each other. Ideally it would be great to engage equally in every social media platform that exists but reality and resources dictate that decisions have to be made about where to invest time and energy.
As Alex Bogusky, Chairman of CP&B said:
“You can’t buy attention anymore. Having a huge budget doesn’t mean anything in social media…. you’ve got to be
willing to play to play…”
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
What considerations should small businesses make before jumping in head first?
There is the aspect of how companies manage the expectations of fans/followers and communicate with them. When people follow you on Twitter or become a fan of your Fanpage on Facebook, I think there is an expectation by many people that they can engage in some dialogue with the company or at the very least the employee of the company.
The danger is when companies and even ‘celebrities’ create a profile, people follow and try to engage with the company or celebrity and there is a deafening silence. No re-follow, no response to messages. It’s as if this ‘celebrity’ or company is saying to their follower “Nothing you say is or ever can be of interest to me”. The dilemma for companies is that if they have a lot of followers replying to every single message, it ends up being time consuming and costly. It will be interesting to see how companies respond to this challenge of balancing followers and fan expectations with communication versus the cold hard fact of resources and allocation of time.
What other practical applications are there for small businesses?
Firstly, there is job search. LinkedIn, Facebook and Social Media are gradually taking over the role of traditional job boards like SEEK and recruitment agencies. Only three years ago if you were looking for work either as a freelancer or consultant or even as a paid employee you would check the main job boards, your contacts of course and recruitment consultants. Now if you are looking to pick up some work or extra projects you tweet your availability. Within minutes you can have followers retweeting your availability and suddenly your whole networked has expanded. Smart recruitment consultants are leveraging this.
Secondly, there is sourcing information and referrals. Twitter has become a de-facto search engine and with the recent announcement by Google that its results will now integrate Twitter data, the reach has rapidly increased. People using social media to put out good quality, relevant and informative messages have more likelihood of visibility in search results for relevant keywords. And for companies, and even independent bloggers looking to build or expand their brand, this can only be a good thing.
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Ann Nolan is founder of Baby Sitter Directory, an online community connecting parents directly with babysitters and nannies. Baby Sitter Directory hosts the Australian Nanny Network – a social networking community for nannies and babysitters. She is also founder of a new concept website – Generous Party, due to be launched in January 2010. You can follow Ann on Twitter here.
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IN THIS HOUSE, EVERYONE GETS WHAT THEY NEED EVEN MOM! And don’t forget it.Surely you can affrod to have a babysitter come in one evening a week so you can get out for an hour or two (or hubby if he’s in the picture, or baby’s daddy if he’s functional). Sign up for a course for something that you’ve always wanted to do and do it! You are important. And here’s another message that I LOVE!The way you treat yourself is the instruction booklet you give others for how they should treat you So if you don’t take care of yourself and make your time a priority, why should anyone else???I know it’s hard being a full-time mom, cook and chief bottle washer. No one ever said it would be easy. But you can make it better. You just need to remember that you too are just as important and then treat yourself that way.If you want to talk sometimes, just email I’ll listen.