Chicago Startup Brings Social Power To Small Businesses

  Chicago startup Social Power Hour held its third networking event Thursday night to wind down social media week. The company brings social media solutions to small businesses, while holding events to help bring more followers through the door. The plan is to “get people to engage with the stores online and offline,” said Matt Hensler, founder of Social Power Hour. Hensler said brick and mortar locations and restaurants often don’t see the digital aspect of driving people to their stores. He has worked in public relations with businesses small and large, and has found traps that small businesses often fall into with social media. He has three tips for social media success:   1) Avoid “me me me” — Brands often talk about themselves too often. Content will make or break your social media presence, so try talking on social media like you would in your store, restaurant or by phone. Social media should serve as another tool to help you communicate to your brand advocates with a mix of content. 2) Don’t be everywhere — A business needs to decide which social media outlets most represent its voice and its customers. Knowing where your customers are online will help your business save time and money. 3) Don’t post too often — Quality over quantity. Many businesses aren’t sure when to post or how often to post. A good rule of thumb is to post once per day.   But Hensler is setting out to prove that who you are online and who you are in person go hand-in-hand. He’s helping businesses put their “best foot forward” with events. “You can be a good company and have 4 million Facebook fans and they use your brand once every two years,” he said. On the other hand, you can be a small business with 1,000 Facebook fans that keep coming back. “Consumers have other things going on in their lives that the business can relate to,” he said, wanting to create a mixture of content about the business, the neighborhood and things going on in the community. “It gives you an opportunity to hear from consumers and help build value,” he said. Companies can subscribe to different plans that Social Power Hour offers. Hensler said he aims to keep prices affordable, because the goal is to help small businesses do what they do best, while allowing his company to take care of the digital outreach. And at the end of the day, the consumer wins out, he said. He said he caught himself going to the same stores and restaurants, and hopes his company will get people to try new things by introducing consumers to new businesses online. “It’s a good way to try something new for the consumer,” he said. “The mission is to discover new things.”