Social networks described as “Very or Somewhat Beneficial” were Facebook (33%), LinkedIn (21%), Twitter (19%), MySpace (17%) and YouTube (15%).

Top business benefits?

• generating leads (50%)
• keeping up with the industry (45%)
• monitoring online conversation about their business or industry (44%).
• competitive intelligence (43%)
• improving customer experience (41%)
• finding vendors/suppliers (38%)
• resolving problems (33%)
• new employee recruiting (27%)
• background checks of employees and suppliers (27%).

This is great news for us, of course, because we have built our business on the notion that small businesses will be using social, digital, and measurable marketing tools more and more as a part of their standard marketing toolbox.  But it’s interesting in a much larger way.  You see, social media is fundamentally local and small.  The things that matter across social media networks are the things that matter to the people within each person’s community.  The really great stories of big companies using social media involve them acting a lot like a small business – personal response, addressing by name, not bringing up policies all the time, letting customers put photos up, acting quickly and acting apart from bureaucracy.  A small business doesn’t have to go through a training to know how to treat people genuinely.  The small business becomes the model when it comes to tending and maintaining a social media environment.

Finally, customers are wanting to do business with people, not companies, and they are gathering in places where the barriers to enter are extremely low.  This report is just one more piece of data that indicates it’s the perfect time for a small business to jump into social media for all its marketing, service, and relationship potential. Seemingly.

However, I am still left wondering if small businesses within a community outside the suburbs or city environment really think these things, and if social media is as effective as it might be with big city types. Is it just a matter of more prolific technology access and more small town folks joining in the social media movement?  Or is it a chicken and egg scenario, where businesses offering added benefits on social media networks work as the impetus to build the participation of local people? What do you think?

And yet, business development took center stage at last night’s 98th gathering of the Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce, and the night’s speakers slowly swelled in a call to the same vision: “a crisis is a terrible opportunity to waste.”

As is traditional, the night began with a slate of awards and recognitions of service. Notable among them were the Ambassador of the Year, Kay Chumbler of Greater Rome Bank, who “never met a microphone she didn’t like” and exuded the sort of bubbly, contagious enthusiasm that makes it obvious why she was chosen for the honor.

Small Business of the Year was R.L Jennings & Associates, whose time in Rome has meant a growth from two to 23 employees, multiple offices, over 2,500 clients across the globe, several previous Ambassador award winners, and a managing partner’s civic accomplishments and efforts that put many to shame. Upon accepting the award, Lee Jennings, encouraged all small businesses to “go for it” even in tough times saying that when he and his partners were “looking at the door, the Good Lord simply kicked us through.” Finalists in the award were Big Time Products, Midian Roofing, and Paula’s Silver & Gold.

After a full slate of recognition for participants in committees, boards, and chamber activities, Randy Quick prefaced his passing of the gavel with remarks highlighting the year’s accomplishments in business and capacity development. “This year has indeed been a year of growth for business and the community,” he urged, noting the $22.5 million in investments pledged by several local manufacturers, the 1-75/411 expansion project, airport enhancement, and enlarging of local education options in the form of Floyd College and Career Academy’s new School of Robotic & Engineering, Berry’s capital campaign to build two new dorms, Darlington’s new middle school, and funds allocated for the new Model High School. After many a heartfelt expression of gratitude for friends, colleagues, and family, he then passed the gavel of chairmanship of the Board of Directors to David Newby, General Manager of Profile Extrusion.

David Newby, an active Kiwanian, member of the Oak Hill Church of Christ, member of the Gold Wing Road Riders Association was introduced by Quick as “the right man at the right time.” His speech began modestly, but soon crescendoed into what will more than likely become the mantra of many a business leader or perhaps the Chamber itself: “a crisis is a terrible opportunity to waste.”

Newby became active in the Chamber’s GREIA after his company transitioned from being an asset of a large corporation with limitless resources to small, privately owned manufacturer. In this group, he found a network of like-situated business leaders who encouraged him to invest even in the uncertain time his company faced.  He did so, leading a multimillion dollar investment in new technologies that is now earning Profile Extrusion new and continued business. While recognizing the uncertainty and the challenge present in the current economic climate, he urged the room to consider that “it’s times like these where managers and community leaders matter most.”

His four hopes for the coming years are to add Georgia Highlands as a four-year limited mission college, the availability of an Associates Degree at Coosa Valley Technical College (now Georgia Northwestern Technical College), the building of an Angel Investor Network connecting investors with entrepreneurs, and acquiring more property and infrastructure to build the city’s capacity for development. Already underway is the release of a marketing plan aimed at attracting retirees and a series of small business seminars and workshops.

Later questions for Mr. Newby as well as Al Hodge, Chamber CEO, revealed that the Angel Investor Network is indeed becoming a reality with the chamber facilitating the organization of local investors and training in best practices from other successful networks.  This approach to investment is one aimed to encourage entrepreneurial and technological advances locally.
>Rome Retirement
>Profile Extrusion

Thiel spoke from his experience as a successful American entrepreneur, hedge fund manager, and venture capitalist. After founding PayPal in 1998, he certainly enjoyed his share of the financial boom of yesteryear selling the successful internet commerce business to eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002.  The person-to-person (or P2P) transaction manager was a groundbreaking concept which allowed safe financial transactions online between individuals.

Peter Thiel as appearing in Fortune Magazine (Image Link)

The Chinese and Japanese have the “corner market on labor,” India is “chief of services,” and “France and other European countries control the market on luxury goods,” he said.  America, however, is defined by the “frontier,” an important concept he finds unique, saying that “in most countries, people are not of the nature to do new things.”  This nature of Americans to innovate or participate in an entrepreneurial capitalist system works, he said, “so long as there is some sort of frontier.”  He fears that the mistaken belief that the metaphorical frontier is closed might lead to “ordinariness” and the positioning of United States commerce against countries that are “simply better” at manufacturing, labor, services, and luxury goods.

No matter how Americans fall on issues of politics or religion, he said, most still believe that the country retains the ability to do unique and extraordinary things. This industriousness is what unites Americans above race or creed and ensures that, while the economy may get worse before it gets better, it will indeed bounce back.

Thiel believes that recent implosions in the financial market and pending failure of large automobile manufacturers will lead to a return to a spirit of entrepreneurship on the local and industry-specific level “not just in Silicon Valley and Los Angeles, but across the country, wherever a frontier in business can be found.”

He argued that the current financial crisis is indicative of the problem of change on a policy level due to special interest groups and lobbyists. A firm believer in the power of the market, he conjectured that “maybe the way for the right change to occur is for the whole thing to break.”

While these are alarming words, they were couched in a deep sense of optimism in that which he does not think can be broken or changed—the American spirit of inventiveness, productivity, and industriousness. Of course, Thiel himself serves as the prime example of what inventiveness brings.  President of Clarium Capital Management, LLC. and Managing Partner of The Founders Fund, he invests in other small and start up businesses with the more than $6 billion in management capital the company has control over.  One such business was Facebook,  a phenomenon he instantly recognized as “frontier-type thinking,”and he still serves on its Board of Directors.

Read more from Peter Thiel:
Policy Review, The Optimist Thought Experiment, Feb/Mar 2008

Maureen Scumacher

Oct. 26, 2008 | ROME, GA. When Sergey Brin and Larry Page began work on their Stanford doctoral project to create a search engine that would better connect users to relevant information, it’s possible they envisioned the kind of global success their brand would have just ten years following their first $100,000 investment from Sun Microsystems even from their home garage office.  As Maureen Schumacher clearly articulated at Berry College’s Executive Round Table Dinner, the company is founded not just on the concept of connection to information, but on the notions of innovation – nine of them to be exact.

Maureen Schumacher is a  “googler” –the term used by employees of Google for themselves–of three years who comes to the company after sixteen years in marketing for the corporate giant, General Electric.  After a short, high-impact film visually showcasing the company’s growth from 10,000 searches a month in 1998 to over three billion in 2007 and a veritable cornucopia of corporate purchases and partnerships in the same time, she very calmly explained the philosophy behind the technological and workplace trendsetter.

The secrets of Google’s successful business model lie in the infrastructure, consumer products and applications, and media platform.  Over 450,000 servers in clusters worldwide make possible the speed that Google holds top priority. “Speed trumps perfection in today’s technological environment, and Google honors that priority by releasing as quickly as possible, and improving as quickly as possible following release,” Schumacher said. This willingness to try new things seems to be the common thread running through the development of consumer products and the ever-expanding brand marketing.

Because “innovation is imperative” Google lays out the kind of principles that make innovation possible beginning with staffing. “You are brilliant, and we are hiring,” Schumacher said of the company’s goal to hire only the best employees who will be “A people” and team players, willing to innovate both personally and corporately. This notion is complemented by the notion to “share everything you can,” the goal that guides Google office design to be entirely anti-office. “Every workspace is the size of a garage with shared workspace of teams of five to seven,” said Schumacher, “that way information is shared the most efficiently.”  But, don’t worry. Employees are also entrusted with the “license to pursue dreams” and given up to one day a week to work on ambitious projects separate from their given job responsibilities, in addition to the infamous free snack bar and cafeteria and access to a variety of recreational activities all on-site.

The value of transparency and an environment where “information isn’t hoarded” leads to the kind of attitude that allows for “ideas to come from everywhere,” said Schumacher.  In the earliest of days, colleagues would share ideas verbally to either a “boo or applause” from their teammates. This has since been made a digital process, but still includes the willingness to share a dumb idea or be wrong.  “We expect everyone to contribute, from our consumers to our finance team; there’s no acceptance of stagnation,” Schumacher said.  And the words “I like and I think” are not allowed. The company asserts that employees should “not politic” or operate by force or assumption, but instead “use data” to understand a problem or postulate a solution.

These four dos of Google corporate culture are met with three don’ts: “creativity loves restraint,” “users

Google founders Larry Page & Sergey Brin

come first, not money,” and “don’t kill projects; just morph them.”  While other search engine companies followed the revenue-driven ad model, said Schumacher, Google makes every effort to keep “relevant data” as the top priority for its users, as well as a clean, simple interface.  “We aim to get the user on and off the page as quickly as possible,” a different approach from those who gauge their success on the time spent on the page, said Schumacher.  This value is punctuated by the reality that Google does not enter into contracts with advertisers, but instead seeks to continually provide value to both consumer and advertiser in a way that will prolong business relationships.

Lowell Pratt, Small Business Development Coordinator for the Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce, was excited to return to the Chamber with ideas for working with small businesses. “So often, you see too much structure and rigidity in business, which is stifling to actual productivity.  Lasting businesses learn to build creativity into the structure, “ Pratt said.  He indicated plans to work with the Small Business Action Council to bring the Google philosophy to more Rome business leaders.

Schumacher briefly “opened the Google kimono” so to speak and profiled just a few of Google’s current undertakings including the new G-1 phone through T-Mobile, Chrome open source browser, 1-800-GOOG-411 free directory, and AdWords marketing tool.  She advised the audience to check in on Google Labs, the place where new ideas are showcased in their infant stage. Here a user will find search statistics on any term, street view maps of the entire world, searchable public transit schedules, as well as other social and commercial applications.

With such a host of actions never before possible, it is no wonder ‘google’ has officially become a new verb.

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David Wright, CFO of Freedom Flight Center, as he presents the history of aviation with the Rome Kiwanis Club.

Oct. 21, 2008 | ROME,GA. Freedom Flight Center wants you. Executives announced plans to begin accepting flight students in two to three weeks at this week’s Rome Kiwanis Club meeting. CFO, David Wright presented an entertaining history of aviation, including the real story of Orville and Wilbur Wright – after a coin flip put Wilbur in the driver’s seat first that fateful morning, he wrecked and left Orville with the history making flight.  As he continued with tales of the aerial feats, it was easy to see just how much this man loves flying.

As he worked his way from the NC-5’s of the early twentieth century to the Super Sonic Transports of the 1960’s to the Cessnas of recent years, his military background fused with his obvious interest in economic development. After the “quantum leap” cockpit technology took in 2005 towards multifunction displays, “the same technology running the F-15, F-16, and F-22 is now going in and out of Rome everyday,” Wright said, “and we are going to need people to fly them, but we’ll also need folks to fix them and teach them. The possibilities for education, jobs, industry, and taxable funds are huge.”

Fred Barasoain, CEO,  said that the Rome airfield is in a unique position as the only one in the region with room around it for development, and plenty of it: “If a manufacturer wants to come to the Southeast and have access to air travel, they have to look at us; there’s no space left anywhere else in the region.” They plan to begin with just a few Cessnas and let the business grow to eventually become more than just a school, but also a pilot center for long-distance flyers and the place for aircraft rental, management, and maintenance of private planes.  The inevitability of a hangar is also on the horizon.

The center is mutually exclusive from the CVTC campus, although there’s an obvious symbiotic relationship between a flight center that will eventually need mechanics and a school training them.  The focus for now, though, is on flight school.  The rates will depend on exactly which model is settled on in the next week, although Barasoain said that someone could expect to pay $130-160 per hour for lessons, a price that is comparable to regional competitors.

Past Kiwanis Club President and Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce Chair-Elect, David Newby, heaped praise upon the entrepreneurial pair saying that they are “building on a vision to develop an under-utilized facility” and he hopes that the business community will support the endeavor.

Information can be found at www.freedomflightctr.com.

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The Kiwanis Club of Rome meets Mondays at Noon at the Forum:
www.romekiwanis.com