The prevalence of social media in everyday life presents a powerful marketing tool for any small business.
It can offer business owners the unparalleled opportunity to interact with their customers. Social media can give business owners real-time feedback on customers’ responses to products and services.
Social media can in some cases be a gold mine of information about customers’ habits and this information can be a good starting point for marketing strategies.
Guerrilla Marketing
Small businesses do not have the deep pockets of bigger corporations to spend on huge marketing campaigns. Facebook, Twitter and other online social media have leveled the playing field for small businesses. In this day and age of viral videos which can be seen by millions of viewers around the world businesses who may not want to spend millions to gain market awareness. Small business owners get good publicity by joining online communities and talking to people about their company. The company’s consumer base then acts as advertising prophets, spreading the word about the values of the company to their own social networks.
Challenges to Social Media Deployment
Despite advantages to social media many small business owners have pulled away from the added social media workload. According to a study from online marketing firm Vertical Response, most small business owner believe that they need to be on social media but at least one-third of the respondents said they would like to spend less time on social media. One potential reason for this response is the lack of immediate results from social media marketing.
Content Writing for Entrepreneurs
Lack of time to create quality content seem to be the biggest factor preventing solo entrepreneurs from committing fully to social media. Only half of the owners in the study said that they have a blog indicating a lack of quality content on their social media platforms. The bloggers responded that they spend hours on their blog posts and spent more time looking for good content to share.
Owners may be pulling away also because they may not have a clear idea of what they get out of their invested time. Only 36% of small business owners paid analytical or scheduling tools which means that owners have little insight whether their social media activities brought in more clients or which forms of social media activity is more helpful.
What Business Owners Should Know about Social Media
To make campaigns more meaningful, small business owners can be more selective about their activities. A successful social media strategy is not just about marketing or sales but it is about meaningful engagement and relationship building with their consumers. There can be a significant cost involved with social media but social media marketing can greatly benefit from strategy, research and planning beforehand.
