Having a Small Business – Social Media Saga; Part 1

This is a ongoing endeavor to learn about Social Media and how it will help my business.  In my research, it seems that everyone has it figured out and then they post / blog / twitter/ facebook / stumble / tumble / and gain links from it.  This is my story of going from Social Media idiot to (hopefully) figuring it out and being able to share some tips and encouragement along the way. 

I’d like to think I’m a reasonably smart person.  My household touts multiple computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones.  My husband and I can reasonably get around Microsoft Office Products without intimidation – knowing that if we run into an issue with how to do a query in Excel or how to format something in Word, a Google Search is all that is needed.  Once entered, a YouTube Video, multiple online tutorials, or Microsoft Knowledge Base will pop up with a quick and easy solution.  We have a home server in our house and we (my husband – maybe I’m the weak link here) has hooked our TV’s and computers to it so we can access our photos from any device in our house including the AppleTV box, Sony Box, Xbox and DVD player.

I’m giving you this background so you know we aren’t total fools when it comes to technology… although this may be more telling for you tech savvy gurus out there than I realize.

According to Wikipedia (launched 2001), Facebook started in February of 2004; Twitter in March of 2006; LinkedIn 2003; Instagram 2010; Google+ 2011; Tumblr 2007; StumbleUpon 2002; and my favorite – Pinterest in 2010.

Ten years.  Facebook was launched just a mere ten years ago, and when the world found out that humans love to communicate – constantly – everyone jumped on the bandwagon.  As a small business owner, it seems like a do or die proposition.

In order to get my product out there, it seems that the Internet is saying to get on Social Media and have my voice be heard above the cacophony of voices screaming for the consumer’s attention.  At the same time, it seems as if my message is going out into the black hole of cyberspace, or like throwing money into a deep, dark, bottomless well without being able to hear the ‘plink’ of it hitting the bottom.

image from freeimages.com

This endeavor is daunting.  I also have a sneaking suspicion that I’m really annoying my friends on Facebook, my past business colleagues on LinkedIn, and (gasp) my kids friends on Twitter.  Add that to the postmodern mindset of “is this really making any difference at all?”  Kind of like the age-old question of “Why do we study Algebra/Trig/Calculus – we never use it in real life!”  that our kids query when asked to do their homework.

Status Quo of my Social Media outlets today:  Etsy, Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, Instagram, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, Tumblr and Google+.

Not that I understand how all these work – yet.  But things will get better!

Please post your comments and feedback!