How the other half lives

So much of our social media conversation is focused on businesses that have the time to market themselves in traditional ways. But the mom and pop, small businesses that are often owned by the same people who run them day to day and might only employ a few people don’t have this luxury.

I didn’t realize to the degree that this was an issue until I did a bit of informal polling dealing with the business owners of places I frequent in Denver. My favorite bakery hasn’t updated their Twitter feed since early November, my regular barber cites a review I wrote on Yelp in February as a huge source of business for them to this day and added, “I had no idea it had that much influence over people’s decisions.” One of my regular coffee shops uses Twitter to post updates regularly, but it’s no accident that they have the biggest staff of the three places I mentioned and spend the least amount of time running their business from day to day.

Coming from higher ed, it’s an interesting contrast. But the real payoff is showing people how a little inertia can go a long way. For instance, a conversation about how having a web site is good, but how having one that showcases your best assets is better.

More than anything, satisfying customers is the trick to inducing new business and giving people a platform to showcase what your business has done for them can be a huge boon to sales for a small business. I never realized how much I’d taken for granted about what people know about the tools out there until I spurred these conversations, but it’s all about showcasing what they do well, while showing them it doesn’t have to take over their lives and detract from what they are passionate about doing with their time.

Crisis & Opportunity: The future of college athletics marketing

An article from The Economist entitled “Should American tax university sports” coupled with a host of other scandals like a major university supposedly being informed of a student-athlete having possibly cheated on the SAT to qualify to attend, makes you think there’s something of a crisis in the marketing of college athletics these days.

Joe Favorito does a great job of covering stories on college athletic marketing and branding and his latest post, In his latest post, he mentioned the brewing crisis that a number of mid-major schools are having over student athletic fees to support their sports programs due to declining revenues and he makes five prescient points on college athletic branding and the future and his recommendations are spot on:

First, colleges of all sizes must learn from the best practices of minor league sports, which are able to translate every opportunity into year-round community branding and brand building.

Second, colleges should invest wisely in staff, especially in the communications and marketing areas. Effectively spending money on staff to make money back will go a long way, as opposed to the usual turnover that occurs in many places with inexperienced and underpaid staff.

Third, having a university’s athletic group in lock step with the overall school communications and marketing group is important. In many places the two groups have no contact, and the lack of open communication makes it an us vs. them workplace which makes small problems huge.

Fourth, encourage networking within the industry. Many times colleges do not consult with local professional brands or teams on best practices and resources, and by staying a part of a professional network both sides may learn and benefit from the other.

Five, prove and merchandise value to the school.

But in the midst of this turmoil, what can small, non-revenue generating college programs do to reach out to their fans? What about schools that play in Division 3 or even schools that offer athletic scholarships to students who actually have to go to class and might never step foot on a professional court anywhere except perhaps as a spectator?

Perhaps college athletic conferences need to do a better job of marketing in the communities where their teams play? Spend more money on allowing streaming of games online, rather than charging for them. I’ve seen small time athletics and it’s generally very community based, but there are some real takeaways that would allow institutions to showcase student-athletes, especially since they make up a large percentage of the population at some small liberal arts colleges.