Providing customers with an interactive online face is important in the success of modern small business.
This was the message behind Social Media is Simple president Brenda Dumont’s Wednesday, September 21, presentation to Cowichan Lake area business owners.
Dumont spoke during the Cowichan Lake District Chamber of Commerce’s General Dinner Meeting.
“It is strictly another way to communicate,” she encouraged.
“It brings in customers that may not have otherwise known about your business.”
Interactive online communication can be accomplished through free websites such as facebook.com and twitter.com.
“Put it on your business card, your store front, on your website, so people know to go there,” she said.
Websites like Facebook provide an excellent opportunity she said, noting a handful of local politicians in attendance at the meeting.
“Facebook used to be about kids holdling up a bottle of Jack Daniels in their hand... Now there’s the advent of the Facebook fan page.”
The Facebook fan page is a means of providing customers or constituents with whatever up-to-date information the business or politician is interested in providing.
“Instead of Google, the first inclination is to go on the Facebook fan page,” she said.
When customers find out a business doesn’t have a Facebook page, she said, “They are thinking that these people are behind the times.”
The bottom line behind her presentation is for businesses to create a Facebook page.
“The only cost it takes is time,” she said.
“Get into it, otherwise you’re going to get lost in the dust.”
With the Chamber of Commerce having shut down for the summer, this was the first dinner meeting since May.
The next meeting will take place Wednesday, October 19, at 6 p.m.
The location is yet to be determined. BC Hydro representatives are to give a presentation.
“The Smart Meters is a hot topic, so BC Hydro’s going to come up and tell us about the Smart Meter issue,” Chamber of Commerce president Jim Humphrey said.
The wireless Smart Meters, which will replace traditional hydro meters, have been accused as being a health hazard due to the radiation they purportedly emit.