When you’re a small business, it helps to make the web feel like home base

If you want to be a successful small business, you’d better have a prominent address in the Google neighbourhood. “The attraction to Google is pretty simple,” says Daniel Wheaton, one half of the pair behind Flipside Marketing, a Saint John-based small business that advises other small businesses on digital marketing. “If you want people to find you, you better make sure Google can find you first.” 

Wheaton and business partner Jacques Desjardins are both advocates and users of Google’s slate of products, most of which are free, which is the perfect price point for a small business. For instance, Google Places is a free business-listing service that allows owners to register their address, contact information, video images of what they’re selling, and other pertinent information. Google then incorporates and highlights the information in its searches. So if you search “shoe stores Charlottetown,” Google will produce a map of Charlottetown with 10 lettered “tacks” indicating the locations of various shoe stores such as Proude’s Shoes on Saint Peters Road and Wright’s and Redshoes on Queen Street. These are companies that are registered with Google and earning front-page placement without spending a dime.

However, Wheaton cautions that there is no set playbook for selling and marketing products online. “It’s different for everyone,” he says. “We always start by asking the client what it is they want to accomplish.” If it’s a straight-up hard sell, small business owners might be disappointed at the reception they get—or don’t get. It is, as most social media evangelists like to say, about building relationships. At Flipside Marketing, they advise clients to apply the 80/20 rule to social media: spend 20% promoting the business and the remaining 80% developing a rapport with friends, followers, and fans by offering advice and commentary that establishes you as an expert in your field. “It’s something a lot of businesspeople struggle with,” says Wheaton. “They get on and start hard selling themselves and then wonder why they’ve only got 12 followers on Twitter.”

Sarah Jones has been there. Three years ago, the Saint John-based visual artist became the co-ordinator of the Emerging Entrepreneurs program at Enterprise Saint John, the region’s economic development agency; today she also runs a storefront gallery in the city’s uptown. She uses social media heavily to promote both projects, and does so with great success. “Facebook is a gift from the marketing gods,” she says. “You would pay so much money for that kind of exposure in regular media.” For example, a recent free seminar on Google marketing was booked within 24 hours after being posted on the Emerging Entrepreneurs Facebook group page, which has close to 400 members.

But this do-it-yourself marketing does come with a cost: your time. That’s because, well, you have to do it yourself. Jones pauses when asked to describe the advice she gives to newcomers to the digital frontier. “Some are extremely hesitant to set it up,” she says. “If you don’t already work in that space, social media and the web feel so huge, like an enormous task.” She advises clients to set a regular schedule for social media participation and to seek guidance from other entrepreneurs who have already taken the plunge. 

Here in Saint John, there are several great examples of small business owners engaging with the public. Kiera Fraser of Je Suis Prest Boutique uses Twitter, Facebook, and a blog to reach customers with news, photos, and videos about the emerging designers featured in her shop, sometimes inviting regular customers to model their new look. 

Pete Stoddart, the owner of the Saint John Ale House, is the would-be star of a short weekly video segment on the SJAH TV YouTube channel. There he talks about cool things happening in the region, visits local farmers with executive chef Jesse Vergen, and, if you’re a Saint John Ale House fan on Facebook, he’ll even wish you happy birthday on air. Because when you’re strolling through the worldwide web, it’s always nice to return to that place where everyone knows your name.  

Lisa Hrabluk is a Saint John-based freelance writer and editor. Connect with her at www.hrabluk.com or on Twitter @lisahrabluk.