And there’s nothing worse than having to tell that client to holster it back up because they aren’t ready to pull the trigger.

That is sometimes the situation we find ourselves in when our small business clients are interested in implementing social media strategies before they have made sure that the location they are driving traffic to – usually their Web site – is prepared to handle the traffic.

When it comes to marketing their own brand, many small- and mid-sized businesses are working with limited resources.  So a decision to increase focus in one area often inadvertently becomes a decision to decrease attention in another.

Embarking on a social media strategy is a major undertaking for any company, an effort that often manages to soak up a lot of internal resources.  This can mean that the more mundane efforts it takes to update the company Web site can often go ignored, leaving the place you are trying to drive more traffic to looking something less than its best. Why is this a problem?  Because social media efforts are just a means to an end, with your final goal being to convert traffic into sales.

It’s important that the first step of your social media strategy be taking a look at your Web site and making sure it is an effective end-destination for every tweet, blog post and shared video.

• Are there clear “calls to action” throughout your Web site?
• Are your products and service pages current, accurate and complete?
• If you are targeting a specific audience with specific services/products needs in your social media efforts, are those services/products easily found?
• Are your contact pages updated and complete?  Is it easy for customers to continue the dialog that you started with a social media vehicle?
• Is your Web site content of interest to your social media audiences?

Pages that need simple corrections should be taken care of right away.  Any section that needs more extensive effort should be avoided as landing pages for social media traffic.  Once you are comfortable that your Web site is ready and able to do handle the new traffic, your company can feel comfortable in taking its first shot at social media success.

Karen Dale Gordon was born in 1950 to Ellen R. and Melvin J. Gordon. She is married to Barry Gordon (an attorney), who graduated in ‘72 from Bowdoin College in Biochemistry and Government, got his PhD in biology from Syracuse University (“Cuse – Go Orange”), and got his JD from Columbia Law School in ‘79. He is currently the president of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. They have 3 sons, William, Henry and George. Karen did her undergraduate work at Harvard in Economics in 1975 and got her MBA from Harvard Business School in 1977.

Karen’s father Melvin J. Gordon (88) has been the Chairman of the Board of Tootsie Roll Industries Inc. since 1962 and serves as its Chief Executive officer. Mr. Gordon serves as the President of HDI Investment Corp., a (Gordon) family investment company. He has been a Director of Tootsie Roll Industries Inc. since 1952. He serves as a Director of HDI Investment Corp.

Karen’s mother Ellen R. Gordon (76) has been President of Tootsie Roll Industries Inc. since 1978 and serves as Chief Operating Officer. Her father William Rubin originally bought the company from its founder, Austrian immigrant Leo Hirschfeld, in 1935. Mrs. Gordon is also a Vice President and Director of HDI Investment Corp. Prior to her election as President, Mrs. Gordon served as Senior Vice President of Tootsie Roll. Mrs. Gordon has been a director of Tootsie Roll Industries Inc. since 1969 and is a Member of the Executive Committee. Mrs. Gordon has been a Director of Unilever – Bestfoods since 1991.

Tootsie Roll Industries is a top 1000 company and has been very good to the Gordons. Mr. & Mrs., have a reported and combined annual income + options of more than 8.4MM.

So, Karen comes from money (or candy), a lot of it. Is it any surprise then that she went into the Venture Capital industry? She has served as President of MMP Group, a private equity investor and advisor since 1993. From 1999 to 2007 she was a founding partner and a managing director of Solera Capital, a late-stage, ‘controlling interest’ VC firm with $250MM+ under management. “Our operating philosophy is to invest about $15-20 million in each deal and take a controlling interest,” noted Mills.” We like to be the capital that comes in to grow the business to the next level – build the next plant, make an acquisition, or expand the brand.” (…and then flip it and get our multiple.)

The media is reporting that Karen has taken a leadership role in the growth of more than 20 companies in the consumer products, food, distribution, textile and industrial component sectors since the mid 1980s. That’s less than 1 (one) deal per year. Not exactly aggressive lending by any stretch of the imagination. We’ll see how (if) that translates to her role with the SBA.

I am very hopeful that Karen can step up and reform a government agency that is in desperate need of leadership. That she can see her way clear to developing conscientious funding policy, developing flexible and easy to access funding for the majority of small businesses, not the sweetheart deals that she is used to working with in her current life.

At this point, the jury is still out on Karen Mills!

Unfortunately, small businesses have never recieved the type of support that they are due given the percentage of the economy that they truly represent. According to the SBA – Small Business Administration small businesses:

1. Represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms!
2. Employ about half of all private sector employees
3. Make up 97.3 percent of all identified exporters…
3. Have generated 60 to 80 percent of net new jobs annually over the last decade
4. Create more than half of all non-farm private gross domestic product (GDP)

Here’s the gist of it; these small businesses that have such a marked and profound impact on the US economy, employing the majority of our workforce, are failing at an alarming rate! More statistics from the SBA: In 2007 there were an estimated 637,100 new businesses started. Approximately 560,300 small businesses were closed with approximately 28,322 ending in bankruptcy. Do the math… And here’s the epidemic part. It’s been this way for a very long time and it’s getting worse!

Here’s something else. Again according to the SBA a full one third of new businesses close their doors within the first two years. Fifty six percent close their doors after just four years and sixty nine percent go out of business by year number seven. In summary, our economy is dependant to a very large and growing extent on small businesses, more than half of whom never make it to their fith year anniversary. This, as stated above, is a problem of epidemic proportion and demands immediate attention. 

We will endeavor in this blog to provide information, tips, methodologies, concepts, plans, resources, contact information, success stories and critical thinking in an effort to overcome the small business epidemic in America.

We thank you in advance for your interest and consideration and welcome your comments – It’s going to be an interesting trip!