Ryan A Graves.com

Tonight I launched a new venture that I’m really excited about. In an effort to get a business going now, that could make money now, but that has a lot of potential for tomorrow, I launched SocialDreamium. SocialDreamium is currently just a consulting service for people who are looking to unleash the power of the social web for their ‘any size’ business. But, in the future SocialDreamium will be a collection of tools for the non-techy, Joe-six-pack (as Palin would say) business owner to create an online presence.

Please contact me if you any questions about what SocialDreamium is or will be. Also, if you’re a developer looking for some freelance work I will be looking in the near future.

And, most importantly, if you’re a small or growing biz looking for a web presence but just don’t quite know how…please contact me at graves.ryan[at]gmail.com Let SocialDreamium help you realize the power of the social web.

“93 percent of Americans believe a company should have a presence in social media, while an overwhelming 85 percent believe a company should not only be present, but also interact with its consumers via social media.”

Comcast, the case study business for using social media, has done a wonderful job of creating a online presence by using Twitter to interact and answer questions from their customers. Social media today provides huge opportunities to win over customers by giving a company a personality and a presence by just being available. People don’t want to just buy a product and be done, people want service. People spend huge money on extended service plans and warranties for that continued contact after purchase.

The notion that the customer is always right now goes one step further: The customer must be the highest priority of any business and social media allows businesses to truly take advantage of that customer expectation. As web 1.0 or non-web companies begin to realized this and as the non-techy spends more and more of their time online the value of being available online will increase exponentially. This is a wake-up call to any slow adapting companies to react to this movement or be left in the dust  of more innovative competitors.

The quote above is from an article in the Boston Globe.

Anyone into web technology, web 2.0, or the startups that support this social web movement knows that not everyone “gets” it. Whether you’re constantly browsing on your iPhone, or sipping tea and plugging away at your MacBook in a hipster coffee shop, the constantly connected, “plugged-in” life style, is becoming more and more common. However, not everyone is as dependent on an internet connection as others and there is huge value in the companies that find ways to pull in the non-techies into their online communities.The number one thing that will increase the use of the internet to the non-techies is good hardware (i.e. the iPhone). If people have devices that they don’t associate with a computer, but they can still get on the internet, it will grow…and fast. Devices like the iPhone or Google’s Android powered G1 have and will continue this effort.

That’s great and all but what about the web? What about those sites that want to reach users in other ways? There is still huge opportunities for companies to figure out ways to bring their online value to offline communities. I’m going to write a series called Taking Web 2.0 Offline where I suggest different opportunities for web based startups to tap into offline customers. First up, Yelp.

Yelp, if you don’t know, is “the ultimate city guide that taps into the community’s voice and reveals honest and current insights on local businesses and services”.

Every six months or so, without fail and without request, a Yellow Book shows up on your door step. The Yellow Book seeks to provide people with the most complete source of local buying information in print and online, but without the social contribution aspects of Yelp it will never have the best local buying information.

If I were Yelp I would sell my data to Yellow Book. Keeping the Yelp name on the reviews, Yellow Book could print the book to include, “local customer reviews by Yelp”.  This partnership adds value for Yellow Book by differentiating themselves from other publications in their space. Yellow Book now would claim the “most local” of any other business directory. This partnership is incredibly valuable for the readers because they get a non-bias opinion of each local business establishment (something that offline they aren’t used to). This partnership would benefit Yelp by reaching the enormous and valuable offline community without ever having to absorb the costs of reaching out to this offline market; they essentially use Yellow Book as there growth vehicle at a negative cost.

It is this type of offline focus that will eventually pull new user to the web and to internet based social software. Most people don’t use these tools because they are unaware they exist. Bleeding edge technologies are fun and receive VC funding, but companies with sustainable growth, consistent cashflow, and large customer basis will last. It’s all part of taking web 2.0 offline.