Our team at PitchEngine has spent many weeks and months visiting directly with small business owners and marketers. I have personally listened to at least 100 business people, many of them here in Wyoming, about their experience and challenges with social media, specifically, Facebook. Believe it or not, Wyoming is very social media and web savvy. We were the first state to go Google and according to a recent Google AdWords study, Wyoming’s small retailers are moving online faster than any other state.

I believe in many ways, Facebook isn’t working for small business.
Before you jump to the defense of our generation’s most transformative company, try to understand where I’m coming from.

• I’m not talking about paid advertising – which I’ve heard positive feedback about.
• I’m also not referring to Facebook’s most powerful asset – the ability to connect brands and consumers. This is obviously an incredible advantage.

I am, however, talking about business. And, it’s business that businesses are looking to do. We recently began to conduct a series of day-long workshops for small businesses sponsored by the Wyoming Business Council and Wyoming Entrepreneur. The title of the day one workshop is, “My Business is on Facebook, Now What?” That title has seemed to resonate with business owners more than anything we’ve talked about to date – even more than the term “social media” in general. Why? Because they’ve gone there, they’ve tried it and they’re already done with it. If this is a trend outside of Wyoming, I think that’s a scary sign for Zuck and company.

I have always been a huge proponent and advocate for the power of social media, but I also have been a realist about it. I think (for obvious reasons) that social media is only part of the equation. Content creation is the key to success and that’s going to take a major shift in mindset for small businesses. But, you can’t blame these businesses for their frustration. Every article they read, every blog post they bookmark exclaims the author’s enthusiasm for the platform and the urgency that you NEED to be on Facebook. For many years, I have agreed. In fact, I still would agree that you need to be on Facebook. However, we need to dispel some misconceptions that some small businesses have.

• There are 901 million people for me to reach on Facebook. 
  - When you create a page on Facebook there are 0 fans there. You can only connect with the ones that “like” your page.




• If I post something on my page ALL of my fans will see it on their walls.
  - Wrong. EdgeRank is Facebook’s version of a filter. This means when you post on your brand’s page, 12% or fewer of your fans actually have that content posted to their News Feeds. Want your fans to see what you post? Pay up.
• I can do business on Facebook.
  - Facebook has tried and failed at f-commerce.  If you’re not a deal closer in real life, you’re not going to be on Facebook either.

My intention with this article is not to be down on Facebook. I’ll continue to use Facebook for my brands, organizations and on a personal level. I do think it’s imperative that brand’s be there to interact with consumers and fans. However, the misconception is out there that Facebook will somehow serve as a business tool – instead of just a place to network. This is super-misleading for small businesses who are having enough trouble trying to keep up with it all.

Why the interest in Small Business?
We’ve been researching small businesses, their tools and their needs as we build out the next iteration of PitchEngine. I’ve always wanted it to empower people. We did this for early-adopters who came mostly from the PR and marketing space and now we want to do it for every passionate business owner, organization and entrepreneur. More on that to come.

What do you think? Has Facebook lost something for you?
– @jasonkintzler 

It’s been a few weeks since we turned on our Pinterest integration, which enables PitchEngine users and their readers to pin their favorite pitches. I really like how people have kicked-up the engagement and taken a little extra time to create better content. You can check out pitches from multiple authors as they are pinned here.
I like the Pinterest tie-in for a variety of reasons:

• Those that are pinning have usually taken the time to develop their content beyond simple text – like a traditional press release you might find on a wire.
• Pinned pitches always have images, which help tell the story and create engagement.
• It reinforces to us that our users are the most “social savvy” in public relations and marketing.

One of the big pluses to our Pinterest integration is that you can use the service as an online newsroom to display your PitchEngine content in a creative and unique way.
As an example, we created a board for MGM Resorts International, one of our PitchEngine users who always seems to have  appealing content (go figure)!

It’s a simple concept and very easy to implement.

Here’s how:

1. Go to one of your PitchEngine pitches and click the “Pin it” button (Note: your pitch must have a photo for the button to display).
2. Create a new board. Call it something like, “My Brand’s News.” For example, we called our “MGM Resorts News.”
3. Once you’ve created the board you can pin other pitches and add them to the same board creating a hub for all of your updates and announcements.
4. Lastly, post a link to your Pinterest News Board on your site, on your PitchEngine content and share it with your audience and contacts.

That’s it. I bet you were just looking for another reason to use Pinterest at work. Right?!

My favorite line: “Being able to stay in Wyoming and pursue what I love. It’s like a dream.”

Yesterday, we activated our Pinterest integration by adding the “pin-it” button to pitches. Because Pinterest grabs photos, we had to do some actual legwork to get the pitches to play nicely with or without images. Anyway, the integration got me thinking…

Why Pinterest for PitchEngine?
Pinterest is about content discovery and curation. I love the potential of Pinterest and I think it’s a signal of things to come. PitchEngine is about content creation. It’s my goal to usher every professional communicator into the new era of PR, marketing and advertising via better content creation tools. So, that’s the rationale for “pinnable” pitches.

Why not Pinterest for Traditional PR?
I’m predicting the rest of the collective PR industry will begin adding “pin-it” functionality in the next few weeks. My guess is, they’re going to learn a bit more about the challenges they face. Why? Because press release aren’t social – I will say this until I’m blue in the face. Just because you can share it, doesn’t mean it’s “social.” Good content requires creative writing and in some cases, multimedia and other elements. Most press releases also aren’t going to be pinned, because they aren’t the same as branded content. See my last post, “Want to See The Future of PR“.

I’m all for PR pinning left and right, but I think it’s also an opportunity to look at the forest through the trees. Want to be relevant in the next 3 years? Start creating content, not just press releases.

With love, the PitchEngine guy.

One of those savvy PR pros published a beautiful pitch this week that exemplifies exactly what I’ve been getting at – throw out what you know about press release templates, wire distribution and weak-sauce efforts and shake what your mamma gave you. Exercise your writing chops and create something great.

In this case, ironically, Dogfish Head’s Justin Williams happens to be a former journalist and he knows how to tell a story. Click the image to read the full pitch.

So, as Google continues to crack down on third-party sites with duplicate content and put the squeeze on SEO platforms, it’s high-time you start focusing on content, not distribution.

Foster and cultivate your own, home-grown networks and start being a publisher. The sooner you transform your mad press release writing skills into something more consumer (or customer)-facing, the longer you’ll be relevant.

Just sayin’.