How should SMBs with small geographic markets use social media?

Given the nature of the business in question - regional IT services - I would respectfully disagree with a number of these suggestions.

Many of the various "places" oriented services like those from Google, Facebook, Yelp and others are heavily oriented to physical location, either for the sake of customers finding and coming to that location, as for a restaurant or retail location, or for the sake of the speedy delivery of goods or services to the customer's location, as for a florist or plumber. An IT services organization with a hundred mile target service area is not a business that people usually will visit to receive goods or services, nor is it one where their actual distance from the service's base location is very significant.

Locally oriented groups on sites like Linked In might be a good place for people from the business to circulate to make contacts, but I have found the signal to noise ratio of many of them quite high and, depending on the purpose of the group, direct promotion of businesses to be frowned upon.

As for starting a group that focuses on your topical domain, people will only join such a thing if you are going to continually present compelling content and initiate and foster informative discussions. And, in most cases, people have to join a group before they can see what kinds of things go on there, so "driving traffic" to a group site is even harder than to a regular blog, which is plenty hard.

Setting up a social network of your own is not technically hard, but only makes sense if there is a compelling and obvious reason for existing customers and prospects to communicate with you and with each other on an ongoing basis. This could be for sharing ideas, getting help or accessing special promotions, for example. Regional IT services doesn't seem like an obvious business for that sort of thing.

Morgan's point about local IT-oriented user groups makes more sense, especially if the members are representative of your end-users and decision-makers, not just enthusiasts or competitors. Regional chapters of established national organizations are best in this regard. Depending on the exact nature of the IT services being delivered, this could be role-oriented, e.g. CIOs, industry-oriented, e.g. realtors, lawyers, etc., or business-oriented, e.g. Toastmasters.

Networking contexts that blend on-line presence with physical meeting events, like chambers of commerce and professional associations are especially good for regional service businesses, as they are usually hungry for content and speakers and will gladly let you plug your business if you wrap it in a timely talk on cloud computing, mobile workforce, etc. Also, such groups usually expose member's contact information, which makes prospecting easier.

Great question Lauren,
1. Set-up the proper social sites. Facebook will be a great tool for this if Facebook has created that index. You'll also be able to use the ads manager to see how many people Faceboo thinks are in that area based off of user data.
2. Connect current customers. This is a huge area that people forget about. Setting up a Facebook is the first step, connecting people to it is entirely different. That the initiative OFF Facebook to actually connect people. Promote the page in-store, online in other areas and through traditional media. You'll notice larger brands don't use their websites to sell anymore, they use their Facebook address. It's just letting their audience know where to connect.
3. I agree with Google Places, but would add the Facebook Place to the list. I'd also look in Yelp and other location-specific areas. Anything that can drive traffic to the site is excellent.
4. Create a blog. I know, I know, it takes time to blog, but creating that stream of content over and over again with keywords linking it to that smaller demographic area can help boost search-engine traffic and overall web hits.

If you need any more help, feel free to ask.

With Google Places now putting emphasis on local businesses (http://www.blogstorm.co.uk/the-google-geolocation-nightmare/), a small business should, at the very least, register itself with Google Places, and start asking for reviews from it's customers, as that's apparently how Google ranks your site when displaying local results.

I'd also use Facebook, as you can advertise to people from a specific location, and there are sure to be groups that you can join that are associated with your location, making it easier for you to focus on the specific geographic area you want.

@avi_kaye
www.butterknife-marketing.com

Try joining (if one exists already) or create your own local group in Linkedin pertaining to your expertise and in your geographic area--start looking for people in the correct geography, role and invite them to the group. use that as your forum to discuss the industry etc that's what I would do...

I agree with Morgan that building a base across multiple social networks and with geographic groups is a great start. We have a platform which allows SMBs to identify and recruit advocates, see location on a map overlay and offer incentives to run in stream ads for the brand, take surveys, disseminate offers or recruit more advocates. CTRs for in stream ads are several multiples greater than traditional ad unit CTRs and advocate generated content and offers are seen by friends as coming from a trusted source. By recruiting your own advocates OFF the social networks, brands can own these groups and not be dependent on the social networks for interaction, and group ownership and management.

For incredibly short money, you cana promote your page on Facebook to people in nearby areas who like similar types of businesses. It costs about $10 a day to run a simple yet effective campaign.

Then make it interesting. Offer specials to fans who bring in new customers...this has proven to be very successful as well, both on Twitter and FB.

I would recommend you use twitter, facebook, and linkedin in an effort to engage with local businesses who are actively leveraging social media just like you. The key here is to think outside of the box and have a call to action.

My recent success leveraging social media to sell to an SMB:
A little background: We sell to hotels and hotel management companies. My sales team is typically creating lists of hotels and executives and then navigating through call lists in an effort to setup in person meetings.

I recently decided to think outside the box and attend my first TweetUp (a local meeting of twitter users who are looking to get out from behind their computers and meet people in person). The event was held at a local tavern and about 30-35 people showed up. I made it a point to meet as many people as I could and came across a RotoRooter type company, which performed commercial plumbing services in about a 100 mile radius. I initially thought "ok, seems like a nice guy, let's find out more about his business". Well, after a few minutes of speaking with him I find out that one of my primary prospects was one of his best customers. He was the plumber on contract for a number of years at this hotel and happened to know every executive very well. Needless to say, I was able to get an onsite meeting with the decision maker and even better, it was from a trusted third party introduction. That prospect is now a customer and has provided even more introductions in the local market.

This is just one example. It doesn't necessarily have to be in person, just as long as you are not letting social media box you into your typical categories or targets.

Use social media to meet people!

Most of the recommendations I would make have been covered, but I'd also like to mention that setting up alerts on Twitter, Facebook and Google (or whatever platforms you use) for keywords which include location and interest, will help identify your target market. It goes without saying that you must then engage and be consistant.

Social Media is more than Facebook and Twitter. To get past the noise and have a better chance at making an impact, you need to actively seek niche social forums. There are always active forums concentrating on local topics - for example, here in Austin the hot local IT forum is Door64.com. Local newspapers and media outlets also promote local forums and blogs - getting active in these connect with readers. Check Meetup.com for local groups and often offer ways to connect directly with their participants.

Social media platforms are continually integrating geo targeting and 'check-in' functionality which allow users to identify their location and the place of business they are near or doing business with at any given time. Utilizing this information and and honing in on who is near you, what they are doing exclusive of interacting with your business and identifying ways to attract those in close proximity are all things that these platforms aim to enable. Apps like FourSquare, Facebook, Yelp, Loopt and a plethora of emerging apps are all competing to provide the most user friendly experience and they are looking for way that you, as the business owner; hoping to attract clientele, can reach out to users via their applications.
It is important to remember that social media is ultimately a tool for giving, and as such offering frequent shopper discounts or specials to new members attracted via these apps is a great way to utilize them to drive new and return customers. Contests and events orchestrasted via these platforms is a great utilization in my opinion.

Use of social media, regardless of geographical or industry/product/services considerations, should be guided solely and exclusively by the goals and objectives the organization wishes to achieve.

One primary objective is to use the platform as a means of creating a truly meaningful customer experience. There are other important objectives, far too many to list here, but social media should be guided by goals and objectives.

Specific tactics and platforms will then naturally evolve.