You Have What It Takes by Allison Miller

My first class toward my  Master of Arts in Contemproary Communication at the Notre Dame of Maryland University titled Digital Marketing Strategies. This course opened a whole new world for me and literally changed my life.

Let me explain.

It’s no secret that technology, the Internet, and social media have taken the world by storm.

Socialnomics 2014 by Erik Qualman

What has been a bit more nebulous is the best way for businesses to take advantage of this phenomena.

Attribution: www.business2community.com

That’s where my esteemed professor David Beaudouin comes in.

Through this class, I learned that developing a focused social media strategy is just as important as developing a marketing strategy and that the two should go hand-in-hand.

Similarly, I learned that there is no end to how to best use varying forms of social media content in enhancing a company’s brand.

This year I have furthered my studies with a course titled Blogging for Business. While I spent several years blogging for personal reasons, I have since learned about blogging as an inexpensive yet powerful marketing tool for small business owners. There are a host of ways small businesses can benefit by creating informative blog posts on a consistent basis that build brand loyalty and customer trust.

Beyond the marketing benefits small businesses can gain from social media marketing, I quickly discovered that designing a social media management (SMM) program as well as effective content is a viable business line for a budding entrepreneur.

That’s where my life changed.

Because of Professor Beaudouin, I was inspired to take that leap into the small business world as a proposal developer and technical / marketing writer, and now see that I can expand my business offering beyond technical writing and proposal development to social media strategy and blogging.

While social media strategy and blogging may not be complex, it is by no means easy.

Professor Beaudouin emphasized that the primary skills required to launch and maintain a successful social media strategy is diligence, attention to detail, and sweat equity.

Tools like an editorial calendar help determine which types of social media posts to craft  (including blogs) as well as track topics and measure analytics.

Attribution: www.capitalizesocial.com

Born to Blog authors Mark W. Schaefer and Stanford A. Smith note that with just a little effort and coaching, we all have what it takes – a willingness to be tenacious, passionate, flexible, consistent, and courageous (See Chapter 1, The Common Traits of Successful Bloggers).

Blogs should be authentic and speak to their target audience by providing substantive information that readers find valuable and just entertaining enough to keep them coming back.

There are a host of blogs that tout the benefits of blogging for small businesses and emphasize that it is definitely worth the time and effort. Here are a few principles I've learned along the way and a few examples of blog posts that echo these sentiments.

Blogging yields greater rewards than you may think.

Many small business owners may question if a concentrated social media strategy is worth the time they could be spending drumming up business. What they may not realize is their social media presence my bring in more business than they realize relative to the amount of effort required. These blog posts offer some reasons why.

The Hidden Benefits of Social Media Marketing: Why Your Strategy May Be Working Better Than You Think by Stephanie Chandler

There are benefits to social media marketing that can be measured.

The small business owner’s mantra is to create the most bang for its buck when bucks often require stretching. These posts provide statistics that measure the benefits. 

5 Benefits of Social Media Business Owners Need to Understand by Peter Roesler

Top 8 Benefits of Social Media Marketing for Small Business (Infographic) by Jomer Gregorio

There are specific tools to measure those benefits.

In a world where money talks, metrics are king. These posts offer free resources as well as products for purchase that measuring social media analytics. 

Social Media ROI: 11 FREE Tools for Measuring Social Media Success by Chuck Price

50 Top Tools for Social Media Monitoring, Analytics, and Management by Pam Dyer

These blog posts as well as my coursework have confirmed for me that we absolutely have what it takes to cultivate and sustain a viable social media strategy for ourselves or our employers. And should you take the entrepreneurial leap, we can also creatively grow our business using such strategies by sharing our perspectives, information and resources while offering our own expertise.