Small Businesses And Social Media

Last night, I slept at my parents’ house, so I could make it into the city early to attend Jeff Pulver’s social media breakfast in Cambridge. My parents run a small jewelry business, featuring wire-wrapped gold and silver products, cameos, porcelain discs with custom dyed images, and all kinds of neat products. In talking with them, I felt so many connections to the things I’m doing both in social media and in my new job, and how they’re doing the same kinds of things in a different setting. It relates almost directly to yesterday’s post about media making strategies, so I wanted to carry the conversation over another day. Here’s my thoughts.

Small Businesses Experiment

My Mom commented that watching my flit around between Twitter, Facebook, Seesmic, Magnify.net, BlogTV.com, and a dozenty-two other sites is wild. She said that it’s so hard to keep up. And yet, when I pointed out that I’m experimenting with different products to understand which ones would work well for which business, she got it right away. Mom and Dad experiment with how each piece of jewelry they make draws a reaction (hopefully a sale) or doesn’t get noticed.

Sounds like what I do with comments and engagement on my posts and media.

Small Businesses Explore

Mom and Dad are small business 2.0. They don’t have a storefront. They go out to events, where the crowds gather. They’re living RSS. And they evaluate the venues where they do business. Are the right people coming? Do I feel heard? Am I seeing value for my efforts?

Sounds like questions you could ask yourself about Facebook or MySpace or anywhere you’re spending online time, right?

Small Businesses are Personal

My parents ALWAYS tell me more stories about fellow exhibitors from these events than anything else. While I’m bugging them for how many bracelets they sold, Mom’s telling me all about the girl’s boyfriend who painted for Disney, who makes these amazing custom holiday ornaments. My parents LOVE people. They want to make a living selling jewelry, but they want to do this by making people happy they’ve spent time with them.

Sounds like the best parts of social media, and why we bother doing half or more of what we do, right?

Small Businesses Adapt

I’ve not walked into my parents’ house in the last year and a half without seeing a completely new product they’ve created. The most recent aren’t even on their website, they’re so new (GORGEOUS stamped copper bracelets my Dad’s working on). I never know what they’re going to come up with, either in their products, or how they present them. My parents buy these gift bags in bulk and they’re clear. This means they can put a little bit of holiday paper inside each bag and it looks suddenly appropriate to the season at hand. The end presentation is amazing. It looks like you spent good money on someone you loved when you see their products presented in this way.

But that’s not how they started out. Each iteration of their products, their presentation, the venues they choose, the ways they choose to spend their time, comes from spending time learning, adapting, and learning from the community around them what works and what doesn’t.

Not unlike social media, eh?

Just a Little More Gushing

My parents are my biggest fans. They LOVE reading my blog. They watch the videos. They are up to speed on Twitter, and know what’s going on in my world.

But I’m a fan of them, too. My Mom and Dad are doing something SO risky and so huge. They’re both working on this jewelry business as their sole income with no previous experience in this field. Mom worked for Verizon. Dad worked for various IT companies. But they’re taking a chance, being entrepreneurial, and exploring the world of small business, in some of the same ways I dove into social media.

They’re smart, full of amazing advice, and lately, the conversations we’ve had are so energizing to me. Because even though they look at what I do in technology and wonder at all the permutations, we’re talking the same language. I see how they’re approaching their business, and it’s a lot like how I’m approaching mine. I care about my community. They care about theirs. I want to find a way to make a living doing these things. So do they. We are passionate about people.

Summing it Up

I guess, in the end, this post is about pointing out just how alike we are, people trying to figure out social media, and people running small businesses. There’s nothing elite about us blogging or making TV shows or whatever. It’s just tools. We’re still doing the same base things.

What do you think about that?

Oh, and in the utterly outright plug department, please browse around at my parents’ website at what they’re making. Kinda cool, when you think about what goes into it.