Social Media for Business: Why Social Media Marketing for Small Local Businesses?
Wondering why business social media is hot news in the media right now? Here’s a balanced take on social media and social media marketing.
Fortunately, whether social media will work for your business begins with a decision that many small businesses have made in recent years. There is a lot of information to help you decide how social media marketing could work for your business and if it is worth it.
Who uses social media? Have you already released?
Are you using social media marketing strategies and tools to develop your local business, market your products, programs and services, to serve your customers? Your competitors are.
They make sure their clients (and potential clients) are served 24/7 with:
- Location details, maps, website links, and product or service details on Google.
- Customer reviews and recommendations on Yelp.
- Ads for events, contests and coupons on Facebook.
- Valuable information and education on your website.
Tough Economic Times for Small Businesses and Local Businesses
These are tough economic times for small local businesses. If you are a small business owner, you may be wondering what to do to find new customers, keep customers coming back, and still have wallet profit in YOUR pocket. Are you spending money on yellow pages ads, newspaper ads, and making more discounts or sales events than ever?
More than half of the US economy is powered by small local businesses. Your business is one of many that spend money on advertising, or are you just surviving on word of mouth marketing, some face-to-face traffic, and the occasional customer who crosses your path because they saw your ad in the ad on the ” Old School”?
“Old school marketing” VS. New media strategies
But while you wait for your “old school” advertising to attract more customers, hundreds of thousands of potential customers have chosen to search for most of their information online. Your fingers are no longer in the yellow pages.
Increasingly, your potential customers buy products and services only after being reassured by the recommendations of others, something that online social media and recommendations presented online offer the most discerning buyer.
Small local businesses adopt social media marketing strategies
According to a report published this week by the Small Business Success Index (SBSI), small businesses are increasing their use of social media. Over the past year, the adoption rate went from 12 percent to 24 percent, doubling usage.
The report was sponsored by Network solutions and the University of Maryland Smith School of Business Center for Service Excellence. It found that small businesses have turned to social media as a result of the economic downturn and are using social media to identify and attract new customers, build brand awareness, and stay engaged with customers.
So now that we’ve come this far, what’s next? As Abby Johnson explains, up to this point, social media has been more about fun than business. Now that the novelty has settled down a bit, Chris Brogan, the president of New Marketing Labs, believes it is time for social media to be taken more seriously.
Why participate in social networks? What are the benefits?
There are many ways your small business can benefit from participating in one or more social media sites. As a business owner, you can:
- Increase awareness
- Maximize exposure
- Increase credibility
- Build community and brand loyalty
- Multiply the winnings
- Learn more about your clients
What are the drawbacks?
No matter how hyped right now, social media is not a perfect vehicle for marketing or business building. There are some major drawbacks, including:
It can take a very long time.
It can take a long time each day to participate in social networking sites. The key to success is usually the amount of interaction you have with other members of the network. Small business owners generally don’t have hours every day to participate on social media sites. Posting and commenting on other people’s posts can consume valuable business day time.
It can be slow to generate results.
Depending on your goals, the social media route can take a lot of time, effort, and patience. It takes time to build an online network. And, if you’re short on time, the small amount of time you have may mean taking the turtle approach to building a following and boosting your business.
It’s just another marketing tactic to learn and master.
Every marketing tactic that you add to your marketing plan is another method that you must learn and practice. This learning takes time, energy, and sometimes some money. The learning process can be overwhelming, especially if you are short on time, energy, and money.
There are so many options.
With literally hundreds of social media sites attracting all kinds of different participants, you’ll want to focus on the networks where your efforts will pay off with reaching out to your target audience for your products or services.
Good news.
With the right plan and approach, many of these issues can be overcome or eliminated.
Out with the old, in with the new
You have focused your time, money on being a business owner or a specialist in your field of practice. Small business failure statistics illustrate that you may not be in control of your marketing. Even in this economy, 60% of small businesses spend the same amount on advertising, mostly “old-school” marketing (such as print media, brochures, and business cards), and 26% want to spend more. 69% of companies want to spend their money on online marketing.
