Anatomy of Small Business Social Media Marketing: Chronicles of a Business Coach

Real people, real lives, real stories, real businesses. The ‘Anatomy of Small Business Social Media Marketing’ is a series of interviews with small businesses (like yours) to discover how they use the imperfect marketing tools of social media to gain friends, fans and followers. If you’re a social media consultant or a small business owner looking to take part in future installments, please contact us.

About the Small Business Owner…

Babette N. Ten Haken, President of Sales Aerobics for Engineers®, LLC, is a management consultant and business coach. Babette develops business, technical and engineering professionals of worth. She remodels startups and small-to-medium manufacturing and service companies experiencing difficulty with unpredictable revenue streams. A recognized Top 50 Marketing & Sales Influencer, Babette’s blog won the 2014 Bronze Medal, Top Sales & Marketing Awards, Top Sales World. Her book on leadership, communication and collaboration strategies, Do YOU Mean Business? is available on Amazon.com.

What Inquiring Minds Want to Know…

Describe one social media tip that has worked for you to drive traffic to your website and grow followers.

Choose one social media platform to master, at a time. Then offer consistent, high-quality, relevant content. I blog at least 3 times a week, consistently. I’ve grown my personal brand and thought-leader positioning in this manner. I’ve also grown increased website traffic and, at the same time, my subscriber base.

[Editor’s note, notice the pattern of “consistency”.]

Looking back, what do you wish you knew sooner when you started marketing your business online?

It takes at least three years to get to where you want to be re: brand, image, positioning, products, and revenue. More like five.

What resource do you turn to when you need inspiration or are in need of a spark to grow your business?

I’m a lifelong learner. To evolve as a businessperson, and constantly offer valuable insights to others, you have to read. I read business books and magazines like Fast Company, Inc., Wired and WSJ for starters. Read source material, too, not just infographics. Stay up on current real-time data on politics, science and economics. Then mix it all together and innovate.

What company or person always amazes you when it comes to social media and why?

CharityWater.org and Kiva.org. They are two organizations spreading social good and economic development via a well-oiled mechanism for communicating via social media. They communicate the good you do when you donate. They remain in contact with you after you make a donation. You become part of their ongoing, human story.

Why is social media important?

Communication is the hallmark of humanity. Social media, at present, brings people together from all over the world. There’s a lot of social noise going on that requires you to be selective, yet experimental. I’d like to think we could find common denominators and pathways for global, economic and societal improvement. A tall order.

What do you like about dlvr.it?

What is your favorite feature? dlvr.it is reliable and consistent. I travel all over the world. I know that my own content, as well as the content of nearly 40 other bloggers that I support, will be automatically distributed to social media platforms without my having to be hands-on. My favorite feature is the ability of dlvr.it to allow me to stagger scheduling of these posts, throughout the day, instead of in a huge blast once a day. My readers appreciate this feature, as well.

Thanks Babette for the fabulous insight! I encourage you to visit Babette Ten Haken’s website at http://babettetenhaken.com and follow her on Twitter: @babettetenhaken