December 14, 2009

Hands on Small Business

Five things I learned from Hands on Small Business:

1. No one thinks they need virtual office space until they walk through Office Live. And then they are completely won over, because everything you could possibly need is right there in front of you — no filing cabinet or thumb drive required.

2. Building a web site is daunting for most people; they assume that they will have to use a blogging platform to have a business website, even if they don’t really want a blog. Having all the tools to click and build right in front of them — for free — opens up a whole new world. Throw in free hosting and they’re sold.

3. People love the idea of Twitter, but they don’t love the basic Twitter interface; they find it overwhelming, all those status updates lumped together. Introducing them to clients like Brizzly and TweetDeck changes the way they think about Twitter, and the way they see themselves using Twitter.

4. The same people who don’t love Twitter (see above) love Facebook, because of the way it contains discussion — but they’re not sure how to use it for a business. Getting them to think about Facebook — and Twitter — as communities rather than technologies changes their whole approach.

5. Social bookmarking is baffling to people — until they see Kirtsy in action. Then it all makes sense. The Internet is a big place, after all, and it’s hard to find the best stuff. That’s why you need a community! Especially a really smart, savvy community like the one at Kirtsy.

The bottom line for me was this: I loved the Hands on Small Business workshops because they gave me a chance to evangelize about something I deeply believe in — the power of social media to form viable, authentic communities — and to share tools that entrepreneurs (like you!) can use to do just that.

Was there a downside? Yes — I wish more people had come out for the workshops. There are a lot of businesses in Oklahoma City that could do more with social media, or do social media better, just by making a few small adjustments. I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to do this again, and that more of you will come out and learn something.

And maybe teach me something, too.

RSS feed for comments on this post.
TrackBack URI

5 Responses to “Hands on Small Business”

1. December 15th, 2009 at 12:50 am, Cindy Says:

   Susan, I loved our HOSB session. Thanks for spending time with me and teaching me some new things - like Brizzly.

2. December 15th, 2009 at 10:56 am, Sheila Says:

   I’m waiting for this to come to Wisconsin! Thanks for sharing some of the tips– I feel like I had a mini-course (or an appetizer, if you will) just now.

3. December 15th, 2009 at 2:53 pm, Kate Says:

   Thanks for participating in and blogging about Hands on Small Business, Susan! So glad you had such a positive experience. You and your readers should come join the community and conversation on the Office Live page on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/officelive

   Cheers,
   Kate
   Office Live Outreach Team

4. December 15th, 2009 at 3:09 pm, kimberly/tippytoes Says:

   Thanks so much for posting this. San Francisco is a long way from Oklahoma City to make the session, so this was great.

5. December 16th, 2009 at 3:54 pm, Keli Says:

   Most people who use Twitter regularly are using it for conversation as much (if not more) than facebook. If people are only using Twitter to give status updates, then they’re ‘not doing it right’ (as the saying goes)

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website