No one is arguing the power of Social Media (SM.)

Established players are getting involved heavily in SM: blogging, Facebook (and other social communities) and microblogging (like Twitter) to name a few.

What these sites facilitate are conversations; discussions about the product, service, product attributes, marketing, even customer problems and issues. Companies that “get it” know having a presence is not the end of their SM program. It’s the beginning.

So after you get that nifty, exquisitely designed, cutting-edge blog up and running, companies who thrive using SM realize it’s not enough to have the blog regularly updated. They start to listen. To respond. To react.

With Twitter, this listening can be much more active. It can actually be valuable customer service and sales tool.

For example let’s look at ComcastCares, the Twitter SM program run by Comcast Cable.  Tweet (that’s a Twitter message and it’s ≤140 characters) you have an issue with Comcast, within a minute you’ll get a message “Can I Help You?” from one of the ComcastCares team (mine was from @ComcastBonnie.) Helpful, unsolicited, almost immediate, it is a frank example of great customer service. 

Twitter is also great for selling.

Take how Dell Computers utilizes Twitter as a sales channel. First they made over $1 Million through their @Direct2Dell Twitter address, mostly by alerting followers of sales. Then they started offering exclusive Twitter discounts through the @DellOutlet Twitter address. Their 370,000+ followers basically get a sales email and are happy to receive it. It has been a huge success for Dell both as a sales and PR tool.

Twitter can be a research and sourcing resource.

Sometimes you just need to fine something. Fast. The early adopters of Twitter are from the creative, media, PR, marketing academic, investing, technology, and finance. Think these people can help you? Probably. And most are happy to help. You can tweet a question and get an answer back sooner than later. There are also “hashtag” (#) groups- some are dedicated to small businesses, PR, journalists, and investing for example. All are there to connect you to tweeps who share similar interests.

There’s some great tools to use for marketing and communications.

Many second party apps allow business to listen, sell, communicate and market themselves more effectively. Applications like Co-tweet, Seesmic, Tweetdeck enable companies to listening (what @ComcastBonnie used to “find” me, apps use a filter to find key words or phrases.) Another nifty thing is Tweetdeck  has a language translator, you can tweet (and translate) from 32+ languages including French, German, Japanese, Chinese (both simplified and traditional), even Indonesian and Slovak. Imagine if you were trying to research new markets for wine in Germany, France or Spain or find a new manufacturer in China. Planning a business trip in Indonesia? Just imagine what markets could you open up if you had 32+ languages at your disposal? Well you now do. For Free. 

You have to find the right mix of Social Media to fit your company.  If any at all. Sometimes a small business owner just doesn’t need a blog, or a presence on Twitter or Facebook. For most, some sort of presence is a good idea especially if you are in creative, consultant or intellectual services.

Learning if Twitter should be a part of your mix isn’t that hard, there is a lot of information out there. There’s information specifically tailored about Tweeting for business - the best thing about Twitter is that Tweeps (people on Twitter) pretty much just love to help.

Other Twitter for Business resources:

Small business advisor Duct Tape Marketing’s Free e-book “Twitter for Business.”

Liz Strauss- put up “30 Twitter Apps We Actually Like to Use and 140 After That” 

Copyblogger did a piece on “Use Twitter to Grow Your Business”

New York Times’ piece “How Twitter Can Help at Work”

Plus here’s is a great little video (and there’s a bunch on YouTube):

Make a referral week starts next week– are you ready? March 9-13, John Jantsch (Duct Tape Marketing) and some other really great sponsors including Inquisix are getting geared up for it… are you?

Did you take the pledge?

Did you sign up for the conference call?

Did you schedule yourself to listen to the other speakers?

How about the most important? Did you get yourself ready to make a referral?

Seriously, make a list of the people you know that need a solution for their business and make a list of the people you know that can fill that solution. (or make it easy on yourself by joining Inquisix!)

The goal is 1000 small businesses receive 1000 referrals.  This is not just about getting a referral but giving one too.  Some call it “giver’s gain” but we at Inquisix call it smart.  

For example, let’s say your good customer Bob (or Sally or Sanjiv or Fido or whomever your customer might be) told you they were in desperate need of a solution to a particular problem they might have. You run into or connect (on Inquisix!) to someone who does EXACTLY what your customer needs. Now what do you think happens when Bob (or Sally or Sanjiv or Fido) is introduced to EXACTLY what they need by you– your relationship to Bob just got better.  Your business just got stronger. Your a networking star (and now Bob or Sally or Sanjiv or Fido will recommend you to anyone they know!)

So as we begin Make a Referral Week make a point to GIVE than GET– you might find that it benefits you more in the long run!

Follow the action on Twitter: add #MARW09 to the end of your tweets!

Jump start the economy.

No we’re not talking about recently passed stimulus bill. Or even a bailout.  We’re talking about something more tactile, more visceral– more like an A+B=C.

John Jantsch, of Duct Tape Marketing, and Inquisix have joined forces (with some other amazing sponsors) to promote Make a Referral Week, this March 9-13th.  The goal is to generate 1000 referred leads to 1000 deserving small businesses.

This is a good thing.  For you. For the economy.

So take the pledge.

It’s tough times. Everywhere you turn negative economic indicators are released, reports on recessionary fears, and opinons on the impact of the economic stimulus package crowd the news.  Overwhelming problems and few solutions.

It is time for small businesses to take matters into their own hands.  Positive changes in small business can have a positive impact on the economy. Hey, it’s no biggie surprise to the rest of us that small businesses basically drive the economy.

As a class, small business:

• represent over 99.7% of employers;
• employ over half of all private sector employees;
• generate between 60%-80% of new jobs in the last decade; and
• produce more than 50% of non-farm private gross domestic product, or a GDP of roughly $6 trillion.

As John Jantsch sees it, “Make a Referral Week is an entrepreneurial approach to stimulating the small busienss economy one referred business at a time.  The goal is to generate 1000 referred leads to 1000 deserving small businesses in an effort to highlight the impact of a simple action that could blossom into millions of dollars of new business. Small business is the lifeblood and job-creating engine of the economy and merits the positive attention saved for corporate bailout stories.”

It’s Inquisix’s hope is that this one week further highlights the power of the referral. Referral prospects are less price sensitive, and, as Joanne Black, author of “No More Cold Calling,” points out “[a] referral is pre-sold on you … and [you] get a new client over 70 percent of the time.” We believe that by highlighting the high ROI benefits of referral networking, more businesses will permanently adopt this as a new strategic marketing tool, which will translate into healthier bottom lines. Good for them. Good for you. Good for the U.S. economy.

So be among the 1000+ small businesses to get new business the week of March 9- March 13, 2009. Take the pledge. Give a referral. Get a referral.  There will be an exciting schedule of programs to tune into featuring Ivan Misner (founder of BNI, author of Masters of Networking,) Bob Burg (Author of Endless Referrals, The Go-Giver,) Bill Cates (author of Get More Referrals Now,) Guy Kawasaki (author of Reality Check,) Scott Allen (author of The Virtual Handshake) and Susan Solovic Wilson (of SBTV.com) to name  few.

And for the social media savvy, follow the action on twitter and connect to tweeps partaking in Make a Referral Week (Add the hashtag”#MARW09″ to the end of your tweets!)

Happy Connecting!