Twitter offers lovely surprises when you least expect it. I had no idea I’d banter intelligently with Neicole Crepeau (@neicolec) and invite her to a phone chat which resulted in both of us describing ourselves as SMBs frustrated with the health care reform situation. Nicole runs Coherent Interactive and blogs on social media here.
My initial thrust in reaching out to Neicole was oriented to “what can we do as bloggers” to fight back?
Neicole, idea person that she is, suggested a Facebook page. That put the wheels in high gear. I’ve been avoiding starting a Facebook page for Soulati Media, Inc. because the Web site is still not where it needs to be (my designer is in la la land and not responding), and my blog pages need to be built with informed content. Why open yet another channel when my house is not in order?
Rather than Facebook about me and be so repetitive and boring, Neicole and I briefly addressed a Facebook fan page for small business owners struggling with high emotion about taxes, insurance, finance, and all other issues that form the backbone of our businesses.
Several years ago, I registered a domain name that would address the administrative inside of a business; the site would be a plethora of resources for all SMBs to tap and enable a smooth sail for these issues that plague us. My dream is still a dream, but this Facebook page is more a reality and easier implemented, too.
Here’s the invite…
We’re seeking SMBs (that’s small-to-medium businesses) to join us on this venture. Our aim is to create a forum for us in business to voice our concerns, share tales, and lend support to our peer groups. The role of those who engage would be to add links, content, comments and encouragement to anyone stopping by.
There’s no monetary gain here unless you get a lead from a prospect eager to engage in our conversation. The commitment is one of intellectual stimulation, some time, and the ability to freely say “I’m ticked off that SMBs continue to be gouged for more taxes, higher premiums, and more accounting demands…etc.”
As Neicole and I run successful ventures that keep us hopping (see above), we’re eager to find like-minded folks to launch this yet-to-be-named forum.
If you deem this cause and our mission agreeable, please join in. Just a note below is all we need to engage. If you think the Small Business Forum worthy and you’d participate, please also give me a nod here.
From the pod of a seed, big ideas come and a community is generated.
Love it and so onboard!
What?! That means you’ve got to re-up the FB thang, Lady! Safe travels in so doing and on other fronts, eh?
Great idea, Jayme! I’m in!
I was just telling someone the other day that the older I get, the more libertarian I get. But I think it’s more business-related than age-related!
Michelle Quillin for New England Multimedia & New England HD
I’m thrilled! FAB! Stay tuned for more, Michelle!
Thanks, Jayme! I am definitely on-board. Let’s get it set up and announce it to some LinkedIn and Twitter groups for small business, too.
The best part of all of this has been meeting you and reconnecting with Davina. Now, I get the chance to meet even more amazing, small business owners!
This is going to be good; I’m so jazzed, Neicole! I do want to have a chat though prior to setting it up; you’ve got the back-end skills. I’ll create an outline of what it looks like and share with some folks. Perhaps we’ll do the open source thing and I’ll post it to the blog; we can all contribute there. Eh? (That’s for your Canadian heritage!)
Brilliant! Count me in.
Thanks for being a part, Jon! Hopefully, we won’t rant and rave too much about U.S. issues with SMBs. We’ll seek your perspective from your country! Awesome.
Jayme and Neicole, Small business owners could always use a good community to share ideas and resources. I wish you well in your new venture. Good luck!
This will be a needed factor in the whole biz/social media sphere… there are plenty of people capable of building said web sites, yet developing content across several platforms can continue to be a struggle. We’ll be happy to address ongoing debates as well as offer suggestions on pulling together all the parts that make a cohesive whole for a small to medium business in this environment. Techy stuff? I was heavily involved in the background tech stuff in 2008/2009 and took a bit of time off from that until recently, so it looks like the timing is right. Thanks for the idea, Neicole, and thanks to you Jayme for bringing the issue to the forefront.
@ginakayRE on Twitter (real estate focus)
@ginakayeveryday on Twitter as well (personal/creative focus)
Can’t wait to tap your expertise, Gina! Another lunch is in order as i see you’re catchy domain is working for you. Thanks!
Hi Jayme and Neicole from Shropshire, England!
Our new coalition Government is implementing seismic changes to SMB support landscape in the UK ….radical cutting of quangos ( in the name of budget deficit reduction) – that will fundamentally change the nature and delivery of much needed support to small and micro businesses in a v. difficult economic climate.
In Shropshire, UK, we have a really strong small & micro biz community and a good Shropshire Business Group on LinkedIn (350+) actively discussing the impact of these proposed changes.
I’m wondering why you guys feel that LinkedIn is not the platform for you to create a similar SMB community to harness solidarity and best practice, and why you feel SMB discussion/content etc would be better served through a Facebook group page?
I’m really interested to understand your rationale and get the inside track on where you two see the relative merits of FB over LI.
Given that PR & social media are much more respected and sophisticated disciplines in the US I’d love to participate in your group to learn from your experiences and maybe offer a SMB perspective from the UK. Particularly interesting given the economic challenges faced by both the US and Europe.
I’m reminded of a Winston Churchill quote from another era of global financial crisis: [paraphrasing] “When the United States catches a cold the rest of Europe gets pneumonia.”
Maybe the conversation will lead to some genuine ‘special relationships’ on the ground – and maybe too, we’ll get the heads up on when the ‘cold’ starts getting worse!
What say?!
Before I comment, Jools, I MUST know from where you have that name? “Jools” is the nick name for “Julie” spelled Jules in the States; at least in my book. Love that.
You’re right; LinkedIn is the better platform for something of this nature. What started as Soulati Media needs a Facebook presence and did not want the repetition of a blog or Twitter content morphed into thought about which platform exactly. As for Facebook, there are many SMBs there who may be intimidated by the more professional LinkedIn networking.
My blog is less than a year old; still working on voice and to Gregg’s point (he’s been a great support from day one) I’ve been gravitating to SMBs anyway; why not keep it here.
I’d like to invite you to be a guest author here, Jools, to give opinion/perspective on your side of the Pond. To quote a new tweep, “What say?!”
Jayme I would love to guest author on occasion. Many thanks for asking.
It’s fascinating seeing how your SMB group concept is evolving. Watching closely and admiring from afar.
Oh, by the way, Jools is indeed a nickname for Julie – origin of spelling unknown….probably a typo that stuck!
Hey, Jools! AWESOME! Nothing more to day than that. Will get the house in order with Neicole’s help and off we go to the races. Thanks for the support from your side of the pond!