Last week, I had the pleasure of presenting on "new communications tools" to a capacity crowd of business leaders at the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce Business Expo.
These weren't the CEO's of large corporations — they were the owners, operators and managers of small, local community businesses.
The size of the crowd took many by surprise, and numerous folks had to be turned away at the door due to fire code.
The crowd wasn't gathered there because I was the speaker — they were gathered because they are hungry for guidance on how to communicate online.
Many of the people in the room were those who, perhaps just a few weeks or months ago, were pooh-poohing "social media" as merely a fad, or a playground for college students and teens.
But now they realize that they can't afford not to be using these new communications tools.
Unfortunately, much of the information out there (social media guides, online publications) is geared toward tech geeks, social media insiders, or larger companies. That's why many small businesses owners feel left out.
There's a big learning curve here — and a large communications gap in providing the right, credible advice to this vital audience.
In the coming months, my firm is going to focus on helping demystify and explain social media tools to these folks — keeping in mind that they're not tech-heads or Web geeks ... but ordinary people just trying to keep their businesses afloat.
For the communications revolution to truly be, well ... revolutionary ... we need to make sure it doesn't pass by the small business owners who create two-thirds of the new jobs in our American economy.
They're hungry for guidance. Let's make sure to provide them the sustenance they require.
Oh, and by the way, here is the PowerPoint I presented to the Hilton Head Chamber Expo last week:
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