WHAT WE LEARNED THIS WEEK: Social media engagement is more important than your follower count

Small businesses are all about getting the most fans and followers on different social media sites. There’s nothing wrong with that, except two separate pieces of research from the past week suggest it’s not necessarily the most important game.

One report found that although some businesses have the highest number of fans, they aren’t actually making up most of the conversation in their industries. And the other found that retailers can actually be pretty bad about engaging with their customers – especially on Twitter.

In fact, that report, by online reputation management company SR7, found that many Australian businesses took longer than a day to respond to customer enquiries.

That’s not good. You need to ensure that you’re responding to customer enquiries on social media. But more than that, you need to be giving them some extra information.

If they ask about whether a store is open, give them opening hours, location, and then ask if you could help them find anything. They’ll remember the transaction, and you’ll get some good word of mouth out of it. It doesn’t hurt to take that extra step.

If you don’t like your telco, complain

According to a report released by the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman this week, the number of complaints registered against telcos by small businesses has grown a lot – by 52%, in fact.

Over 22,000 complaints were made to the TIO by small businesses. These could range from anything like not getting a bill issue sorted out or being charged twice for the same transaction. Like residential customers, businesses have a lot of telco troubles of their own.

A lot of businesses don’t realise just how much the TIO can do. As ombudsman Simon Cohen pointed out to SmartCompany yesterday, changes to the TIO’s jurisdiction means it can act as a mediator for telco disputes.

If you have a problem, and it’s not getting solved, then take it to the TIO. You may think it’s unnecessary, but if the TIO receives enough complaints then the industry starts to notice. Take your problem to the TIO and get it sorted out – the rest of the industry will thank you for it when eventual changes are made.

Be nimble enough to pursue success

Australian entrepreneur Ben Keighran has already built several successful technology businesses, earned a spot on the BRW Rich List and is now an Apple employee – all under the age of 30.

Earlier this week it was revealed Keighran had sold his app discovery business, Chomp, to Apple for a reported $US50 million. This comes after Keighran was involved in the sale of Aardvark to Google in 2010 and, before that, he had already built up social messaging platform Bluepulse.

This is all to say that Keighran is a master at identifying successful opportunities – more entrepreneurs should do the same.

There are plenty of gaps in the online marketplace, and the industry is waiting for them to be filled. If you’re working online and you think you spy a lucrative opportunity, then don’t wait. Get on it straight away, put some effort into it and you may end up being more successful than you think.

Don’t venture too far from the pack on pricing

This week Telstra made a bit of a splash on the Whirlpool forums when it announced its pricing for the NBN. The prices were a little higher than some users were expecting and, as a result, have drawn some criticism.

Pricing is a tricky thing. Too high and you’ll lose sales, too low and you’ll devalue your brand. But it’s also important to pay attention to trends in the industry.

iiNet, Primus and Optus have already released plans that give a fair amount of freedom to mix and match. Telstra has none of this, and will even charge a higher price for that.

Don’t be afraid to set your prices higher than most people might like, but also be aware that diverging too much from the industry norm can bring some bad attention.

Online sales peak in November – adjust accordingly

NAB released its inaugural online retail sales index this month and found some interesting results, such as online sales representing 4.9% of all spending, and that while groceries are actually the most popular retail category, this is the least popular category online.

But there was another interesting finding – online retail sales actually fell in January despite bricks and mortar going up 0.3%. The sweet spot for online retail was in November, when shoppers figure they have to act quickly so shipped items can make it in time for Christmas.

If you’re an online retailer, you need to take note of this. The bulk of online spending is being made in November, so you need to prepare for it. Work on your SEO, work on your sales and move a lot of your effort into that period. December is still important, but November is becoming even more crucial.

If you’ve been focusing too much on December, move a little of that effort into November and see if your sales improve – the data suggests it might.