Become a Socialpreneur

There's no denying the impact social media have had on the small-business landscape during the past four years. The phenomenon has changed how companies view and interact with their markets, represent themselves, and generate and sustain revenue streams.

However, what I've noticed is that social media have also changed how entrepreneurs build and sustain businesses. I've dubbed them socialpreneurs--entrepreneurs who have leveraged the power of social media to start and grow multiple businesses.

Case In Point
A few weeks ago, I sat down to speak with Angela Jia Kim about her socialpreneur and serial entrepreneur status in hopes of sharing how socialpreneurs are successfully building business after business when most entrepreneurs can barely manage one business.

If Kim were a Hollywood personality, she'd be considered a triple threat. In addition to being a concert pianist, she owns two businesses: She's CEO and founder of Om Aroma & Co., a luxury organic spa and skin-care line, and co-founder of Savor the Success, a boutique social network and public relations co-op for female entrepreneurs.

I first learned about Kim while watching an episode of the truly tasteful Tim Gunn's uber-popular reality TV show, Tim Gunn's Guide to Style (I've met Gunn in person and he's just as poised off camera as he is on camera). Although Kim was not allowed to plug any of her businesses, she's a clever marketer and was able to squeeze in her skin-care line's tagline: "Sexy Green Has Arrived." That phrase was the only thing I needed to plug into Google to locate Kim. I saw how she was using social media in business and knew I had to interview her:

Lena L. West: You've gotten a lot of coverage on the web for Om Aroma & Co., your skin-care products. How have you managed that?
Angela Jia Kim: This whole social media thing is so intertwined. You're interviewing me because you heard about me somewhere, and then you heard about me another place and then you're saying to yourself, "This woman's everywhere." Which isn't really true; really, it's social media at work.

When you were creating your companies, did you have any idea what role blogs and social media would play in the marketing of your companies?
For Om Aroma & Co., no, I didn't. The way that company started was, I was about to walk out on stage to play the piano and I used this lotion which had a bad reaction on my skin. So I started playing around in my kitchen and coming up with all-natural, organic formulas. Then my friends started buying my products and, suddenly, my products are being used at luxury resorts--and I'm wondering, "How did I get here? I'm a concert pianist!"

I don't have an MBA, I didn't have a background in business, and I don't know the slightest thing about starting a company. I was making decisions based on what I thought was best and using my intuition.

I knew that I wanted to connect with other business owners, but I also knew that I just didn't have time to sit in a class and learn about starting a business. So that's when I thought about social media. It's perfect for businesspeople. You can ask your network questions, which leads to quick phone calls, and it's really just easy for busy businesswomen.

Then I started thinking, "What if there was a social media website--sort of a Facebook meets LinkedIn--for female entrepreneurs?" Because we do business very differently from men, I find.

I wanted to build an online community that really appealed to the feminine senses--cafes, community message boards . . . a safe place where you could ask questions, get advice, learn from others, teach others and have blogs. A really cool place where you could do it all online, which would lead to in-person meetings in a fresh, fun and focused way. And that's what led to Savor the Success. I couldn't find this type of community out there, and the greatest inventions come from necessity.

We launched four months ago [six months ago at the time this article goes live], we already have almost 4,000 members and we're growing like wildfire with seven chapters and counting across the United States. So clearly social media works, and I was onto something when I decided to use it as the basis of Savor the Success."

This is good because you're showing the progression of how these companies came to be and the role that social media have played. So then it was your idea to use social media as a marketing tool? Did your PR or marketing people advise you to use social media or was this something you decided on your own?
Well, with Om Aroma & Co., the salon owners were older and so I found they just weren't using social media as much. But people in their 30s and younger definitely are--it's like our own language.

Digital Natives vs. Immigrants
Yes, it's very much like the concept of being a "digital immigrant" vs. being a "digital native."
Exactly. Good way of putting it. I'm very Web 2.0 savvy. My husband specializes in building social media websites, so we partnered to create Savor the Success. And, yes, my PR people were supportive but weren't quite sure how to do it.

I think it's a puzzle. I think a lot of it is businesspeople trying to figure out: How do you use Twitter to build your business? How do you use Facebook and all these social media websites to build your business without wasting your time?

If you had to give other entrepreneurs advice on how best to deal with traditional agencies that might not have any social media experience, what would you tell them?
The advice I would give is--and this is even more important for product-based businesses--the focus is always on getting your products into magazines. But to be honest, I don't know if that's where all the power is anymore. Print is not dead, but entrepreneurs who want to build multiple businesses just can't afford to ignore the online space.

You'll notice that Om Aroma & Co. products are featured or mentioned on a lot of blogs, and that's what's helping to increase our sales exponentially.

And, of course, with Savor the Success, we're all over the web. We have a strong web presence, and that's how we get a lot of our memberships.

So print is great, but put some emphasis on getting your products and services mentioned online. You do want to make sure that the blog owners are reputable, because there are a lot of bloggers who just want free product samples. That's a reality, unfortunately.

You have to be careful. The blogger needs to have a following and you need to analyze it.

So how are your companies planning to use social media in the future?
We're doing a blog tour. There is a lot of potential that's untapped in social media and, within the next year, I think it's going to explode, if it hasn't already--but in a much bigger way.

Social media is our trumpet, our megaphone.

Have you found that certain social media tools work better for one of your businesses? For example, does Twitter work better for Savor the Success . . . has there been any correlation for you?
We use social media a lot for Savor the Success. The social media focus for Om Aroma & Co is definitely getting mentioned on popular blogs.

I don't really use Twitter for Om Aroma & Co. because I haven't grasped how to do it in a non-obnoxious way--where it wouldn't seem like I'm always just trying to sell products.

All of my companies are based around a core concept of abundance--abundance in your soul and abundance in your business--so when I do use Twitter, I try to focus on giving and tying my communication into abundance as a guiding concept.

How are you managing what I call "social media spaghetti"? You've got three companies and you're using social media in some way, shape or form for both of your brands. How are you managing everything tactically? How are you processing the requests on Facebook, Twitter followers, etc.
It doesn't take so much time. It's very controlled the way I do it, though. I have a system. First, I decided that I didn't want to answer the "what are you doing now" question on three social media networks. So, on Savor the Success, you can have your updates automatically post on Twitter. And believe it or not, that one step-saver is huge.

Twitter is not that time-consuming for me because I don't respond to everyone all the time. I've noticed that some people are on Twitter and they talk about coffee and what they're eating, and sharing that level of detail is what's time-consuming.

What has been the most unexpected result of your company's use of social media?
I am stunned with how fast we've grown. Seriously "on the floor" shocked at how fast Savor the Success has grown; to be profitable in the first month is unbelievable.

With Om Aroma & Co., it's been how effective getting written about on other blogs has helped us grow.

One thing that I'm still reconciling is how people can band together to make things work. The masses are getting together online, and they're turning the tide. I really believe that within Savor the Success, we can help turn the tide of the economy. I really believe that.

Something so seemingly superficial, like social media, can create a movement. That I think is very surprising.

How much of Savor the Success' success has been because you've equipped women with top-of-the-line technology tools to do one of the things we do best--connect--instead of shying away from technology as most women's communities tend to do?
We're the Web 2.0 generation and my thought is: Why shouldn't something work as well as Facebook? There are no excuses anymore. Make it work. Make it work for my business. Make it efficient. We're just not putting up with less anymore. And I knew that if I wanted this, there would be hundreds of thousands of other people who wanted the same thing from a social network. Mediocrity is not part of the Web 2.0 vocabulary at all. To settle for anything that kinda works? No. That's not my style.