John Battelle of SearchBlog

The confirmation of Karen Mills as the new head of the SBA marks the beginning of a new era for the federal government’s role in the growth and sustainability of American entrepreneurship. I will be moderating a panel, hosted by American Express OPEN, of small business experts (see full list below) who will provide insights on how the SBA and federal government should help business owners lead the US economic recovery effort.

 WATCH THE PANEL DISCUSSION LIVE on SBTV, Wed. April 1st, 1pm EST. 

WHAT:

• Spurred by the confirmation hearing of Karen Mills as the new administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA), the panel will discuss:
• The state of small business
• What business owners need to know about government programs aimed at helping them
• What nominee Karen Mills and the Obama administration can do to help small business owners pave the road to economic recovery

WHO:

Insights from OPEN Forum panelists:

• Jeffrey A. Carr, Clinical Associate Professor of Marketing and Entrepreneurship and Executive Director of the Berkley Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at New York University Stern School of Business
• Barbara Kasoff, President and CEO, and Co-Founder, of Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP); co-creator of Give Me 5: Education and Access for Women in Federal Contracts (www.giveme5.com)
• Ken Yancey, CEO of SCORE: Counselors to America’s Small Business
• Sharon Brown, Small business owner representing EOSS, Inc., a New Jersey-based environmental engineering firm; Make Mine a Million $ Business awardee (www.makemineamillion.org)
• John Battelle, Moderator; small business expert and founder and chairman of Federated Media Publishing

WHEN:

Wednesday, April 1
1 - 2 p.m EST.

WHERE: 

www.sbtv.com/SpecialPrograms/AmexOpenForum

The debate is as old as the web itself – what is the role of marketing in a medium that is so clearly driven by interaction and communication? I have a lot of thoughts about this topic, but a recent Ad Age article roused me to address one of the most irritating myths out there: That somehow social media and marketing don’t mix.

Titled “P&G Digital Guru Not Sure Marketers Belong on Facebook,” the article quotes Ted McConnell, Manager of Digital Marketing Innovation at P&G in Cincinnati. The money quote: “What in heaven’s name made you think you could monetize the real estate in which somebody is breaking up with their girlfriend?”

As I read on, I became certain that the article, which has gotten a lot of attention given P&G’s profile in the marketing world, took what was clearly McConnell’s nuanced view and gave it all the subtlety of a Michael Bay film.

“Social networks may never find the ad dollars they’re hunting for because they don’t really have a right to them, said Ted McConnell,” the article begins. It then goes on to lay out the reasoning behind such an assumptive lead: McConnell doesn’t like random banner ads, and Facebook’s targeting, which purportedly solves the issue of randomness, leaves him cold. Given those two things, Ad Age drew what I must say is an extremely lazy conclusion: Advertising on social networks doesn’t work – look, a senior guy from Procter says so!

Well, I’m here to call bull on this myth.  And I’m pretty sure McConnell would agree with me. read more

Search expert Danny Sullivan has written a great piece on small business and local search, echoing my own words here on the Open Forum blog. From his post:

I spent the past 12 years living in a small English village, where there was little need to turn to search engines if I needed help with my home. Everyone in the village knew who the plumber was, the two people who painted homes or that if you wanted a meal delivered, only one little Chinese food place would make the trip out. Dominos Pizza? Forget it.

Now I’ve just moved back to where I’m originally from, suburban Southern California. Getting my new house in order has sent me to search engines again and again, leaving me almost in shock at the mess I find out there.

I have something of a rant in me - and it has to do with politics. But this isn’t a partisan rant, it’s a rant about leadership in troubled times.

Like all of you I’ve been riveted by the unfolding financial crisis - as have my employees, all 86 of them. It’s clear they are worried, as are my managers and my investors. The Valley, often immune to milder swings in market conditions, is starting to feel the pain more acutely - earlier this week one of the most respected venture firms in the Valley called all their CEOs to a meeting and told them to start cutting back, conserving cash, and preparing for a long downturn. All of us have to take responsibility for our businesses at this moment.

So when President Bush made a speech today addressing the financial crisis, I made a point of listening. And what I heard really made me angry.

Why? Simple: Nowhere in his remarks did President Bush take responsibility for what is happening.

And taking responsibility is what leaders do in troubled times. Own the problem. Apologize for any actions taken that may have led to the trouble at hand. And then provide, with confidence, a prescription for addressing the screwups.

If leaders don’t take responsibility, we lose faith in those leaders. And in a market like this, a loss of faith, a loss of confidence, means a spiral downward.

My view is simply this: President George Bush needs to apologize for allowing this to happen on his watch, he needs to own the problem, and then, and only then, can the American people have faith and confidence in his administration’s prescriptions for recovery.

My two cents.

Every so often it’s worth the risk to break the fourth wall and talk about why we’re all here. Thanks to American Express Open, folks like me, and Anita, and Guy, and many others, get a chance to step outside our everyday lives and think out loud about business. For Guy and Anita, this is somewhat second nature. For me, however, it’s not - I’ve been part of starting nearly a dozen businesses, but until American Express asked me to think (and write) about it, I was pretty much focused on my own world - presently, that means running Federated Media, itself a small business, by pretty much every definition but my own.

Today marked another shift in the way I think. The folks behind this site asked me to weigh in on the ongoing financial crisis, what it meant for small business, and what advice or thoughts I might have. I’ll admit, I’m captivated by the events unfolding in Washington and across the world - but what might *I* have to say about it? Turns out, I have a lot to say, and I bet you do too. So consider this post an invitation - I’ll tell you what’s on my mind, but in return, I’d really like to hear what’s on yours. Then we’ll fold that input into this site, and see where it takes us. I think we’re living in pretty remarkable times, and … wait for it … remarkable times are when people like you and me can make a real difference. read more

(image credit Marin IJ)
What do people think of when they are considering Corbet’s Hardware, a local business near my home? For that matter, what do they think of Ambrosia restaurant? Or Alex’s Dry Cleaning? What about Embarcadero Physical Therapy, or Peter Levi Plumbing?

Well, if you’ve read my previous writings on the subject, when someone wants to know about a local business, the first thing they’ll do is put those names into Google and see what happens.

Besides the fact that I’ve done business with each of these establishments, (and written about a few in this series), it used to be the only thing that connected these companies together (besides geography) was the Yellow Pages. Now, all that’s changed with search, and in particular, local search.

And when you drill down into it, what’s really a game changer is that the best local search tools all have become platforms for conversation - in this case, conversation about the products, services, and intangibles of each small business.

So let’s use Corbet’s as an example, shall we, and see what we learn?

Corbet’s Hardware is my neighborhood hardware store, it’s something of a local legend. Let’s see what happens when I put it into Google (I omitted the apostrophe, as most folks do).

Interesting. First up is a link from “zinsser.com”, which appears to be some kind of a shellac company (no, really, a company that makes shellac). Corbet’s probably carries their products - the Zinsser site lists its distributors - but man, what on earth is that doing being first? Clearly, Corbet’s has not exactly joined the conversation economy quite yet.

Put another way, the very first link for Corbet’s is not Corbet’s own website (the store does not seem to have one), it’s some random supplier of Corbet’s. This is not a good thing.

Second up is a very nice profile of Corbet’s in the local paper. Third is another link from the paper about the store moving. A credit to the store, for sure. But it’s not really very conversational (for more on why I think “conversational” is so important, read this).

Fourth is a link from “ziphip.com”, which looks like some kind of listings directory (or more cynically, an Adsense honeypot). Nothing really useful for a potential customer of Corbet’s - nothing conversational or particularly trustworthy.

Fifth is a link from Yahoo Local about the store. Now we are getting somewhere. When you look at it, you find three reviews of the store, all of them quite positive (including one from someone named John Battelle from back in 2005. Who is that guy?). Regardless of my own bias, here’s a conversation about the store folks are likely to trust. Three reviews, all glowing.

Sixth is an entry from Topix, a local news aggregator owned by a consortium of large newspaper companies. In short, the Topix entry declares that local residents are in support of the store in some kind of controversy surrounding a move to a new location. That’s good!

Seventh, and just before the all-important “above the fold” (the results you see before you have to scroll down), is an entry from Yelp, one of the leading local review sites on the web. There’s only one review, but it’s a good one.

I’ll stop now and offer a few thoughts. First, the fact is (and I speak from experience), Corbet’s is a well-loved local institution, but if your first view of the place is through search, you have to work way too hard to find that out. Second, it’s clear that no one at Corbet’s has given the web a second thought, because Corbet’s doesn’t have a website, and clearly no one has joined the nascent conversation that has sprung up around the store (in the first seven links, there are four unsolicited and positive reviews. It’d be great if someone from Corbet’s joined the party and said “thanks for caring!”). And third, there’s a tremendous opportunity to be had by joining that conversation, in the process branding Corbet’s as quite possibly one of the most beloved local businesses in all of Marin.

Turns out, Corbet’s could really use that love. Remember that sixth link, the one about “some kind of controversy surrounding a move to a new location.” Turns out, Corbet’s landlord is raising the rent, and the store is trying to move into a new building nearby. But the city planning commission is making it hard for the company to get the zoning it needs to make the move. Corbet’s has mounted a pretty good grassroots campaign through snail mail and petitions in the store, but to really win, it needs to harness the power of the web.

So far, it’s failing miserably.

But imagine, if you would, that Corbet’s had a blog, and used that blog to talk about its business. The folks at Corbet’s could post about weekly specials, tips on home improvement, best approaches to pest control, and all the stuff that brings customers into the store. Oh, and by the way, it could leverage all its built in good will to drive its customers toward the Larkspur City Council, who, in the end, will determine whether or not Corbet’s will continue as a business - if Corbet’s doesn’t get that zoning change, it can’t afford to stay open. Ouch!

Given how sparse and poorly connected the first few links for “Corbets hardware” currently are, it’s clear that such a blog would come in first, and possibly second, third, and fourth, in any Google search. Add a Twitter account, and you’re nearly guaranteed to be a major force in any web-based conversation around your business. (In fact, I’d be willing to bet that within a few weeks, this blog post may well rank in the top ten for a search about Corbet’s…).

In short, by joining the conversation, Corbet’s would get a chance to shape it. And by shaping it, it just might ensure its future. Which leads me to ask: Has your business joined the conversation? You might consider doing so, before it’s too late.

“Marketing is not only much broader than selling; it is not a specialized activity at all. It encompasses the entire business.” – Peter Drucker

Over the past several posts I’ve been talking about the role of search, conversation, and media in your business. While not explicit, each of these posts was about one thing: Marketing.

Marketing is one of the most misunderstood practices in business today. For most of us, marketing is about convincing potential customers that our product or service is worth their money. And while that’s certainly partly true, it never struck me as the whole narrative.

Where does marketing really begin? As management guru Peter Drucker stated it, “Marketing is the whole business seen from the customer’s point of view.” Put another way, every single interaction the customer has with your business can and should be seen as marketing.

I’ve argued elsewhere that a truly successful business is one that is an ongoing conversation. Those conversations are marketing – if you add value and connect to your customer, you’re succeeding. If you don’t, you fail. read more

Earlier today I wrote a post about a new policy we’re implementing at my business. I thought readers here might enjoy the post, so here it is in its entirety:

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In the past few years, the weekend has taken on a new meaning for me. In short, it’s now defined by work. The weekend is when I catch up on work I can’t get done during the week, in particular work that requires long form thinking, the kind of thinking that powers drafting considered memos and strategy documents, even posting to this or other blogs. read more