“Social Media for Small Businesses.”
There, I said it out loud. Have you run screaming in terror or muttering to yourself that, “it’s all just a fad,” yet?
If you are using social media to gain clients in your small business, believe it or not you are still in the minority.
I’m currently working with a lovely direct marketer over in Manchester, we’re collaborating and putting together a business online marketing download – more about that soon (I’m really excited, it will be great!). However, he “doesn’t do social media.”
Small businesses whom I have recently worked with don’t seem to do social media either. When I ask if they’re members of any social networks or want to include a blog, I get the look and, “Ohhh, no no. Social media isn’t for us.”
I really shouldn’t be so surprised, we in the UK are a bit slow off the mark compared to other countries when it comes to using social media for business in general. We’re also the least likely to be impressed by audio/video presentations on a company’s social profile, (I can understand that, give me a pdf download any day!)
Globally,between half and three quarters of businesses responding to the Regus survey last year use social media.
In the same survey, 40% of companies globally have successfully used social networks to find new customers and yet only 27% assigned any marketing budget to social media marketing.
Given that it is estimated that 88% of the UK population is connected in one form or another to a social networking site, what exactly is the UK’s problem with using social media for small businesses?
Well, based totally on my own experiences so far, I think it’s fear holding small businesses back.
Not particularly of social networks in general, since many of us use them in our personal lives. But a fear of change, a fear of getting it wrong.
The only way to get it totally wrong is to not use social media in our businesses at all.
The worldwide web is changing. Search engines are already putting more emphasis on social markers. In the not so distant future I do believe search will become social based, it’s only a matter of time.
- Last week Google released its own social networking hub Google+ to an invitation only testing group.
- Facebook has grown to the point that if its 750Million members were all in one country, it would be the second largest country in the world.
- It’s no wonder Twitter occasionally croaks with a massive growth, from 65million tweets this time last year to a 200million tweets at the end of June 2011. That’s tweets per day!
- LinkedIn continues to grow with a new member every second.
- Foursquare reached its 10million members milestone and is rapidly making its way across the Atlantic. If you haven’t heard of it yet, you will do soon.
These are just the big players, there are hundreds if not thousands of social networking sites, from country based to sector and interest based sites. It’s easy to be overwhelmed. Remember, your business does not need to be on every social network site you can find.
Social media is all about connecting and building relationships.
It’s about being human. People do business with people and I believe that small businesses have the edge there. In general small businesses aren’t faceless, social media is where you can really excel.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on why British businesses seem slow to use social media in their marketing mix. Does your business use it? Share your opinions.
No Social Media Please, We're British by Jan Kearney
It's infuriating isn't it? You put all that time and effort into growing your fan base on your Facebook Page and now your updates rarely reach anyone...
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I believe now, its a “shop window for any business, person, to be out there, world wide, but it is still time consuming, sitting down, at a computer. still its better then having the time wasted, knocking on doors, getting parking tickets, trying to sell what-ever to your customers! or getting orders for your business! and then be told, we are getting a cheaper service-goods- on the internet! regards Marilyn.
Hi Marilyn,
I think it’s easier to think of social media as word of mouth on steroids rather than a selling mechanism.
For example, if you meet your friends down the pub for a sing song, you wouldn’t walk in and immediately start shouting, “buy my book”. You’d go in, have a chat, catch up on news and gossip, maybe meet a friend of a friend. At some point in the evening you may mention that you have a new book out and where people can buy it, but it wouldn’t be the focus of the evening. A few days later those friends and friends of friends who you met up with, may go out and meet other aquaintances and say to them, “I met Marilyn down the pub on Sunday, did you know she has a new book out?”
Whether it’s using a blog, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or any of the other networks out there, it’s platform that allows your circle of contacts to get to know you better, your values, how you work and build up trust. It’s connecting on a human level through an online medium, relationship building. Sharing news, stories, information, just like you would in the real world offline without the focus on selling, is the best way to use social media. That’s not to say you wouldn’t occasionally post or update a status stating that your book is now available to buy – of course you would, you would do that down the pub too!
Great post Jan! It is so true about social media being something us “Brits” feel is not for us! The trouble is that many businesses will get left behind, like dinosaurs, because the conversation will be going on without them.
Like it or not their business and performance will be commented upon and if they are not there to control (as much as you can on the internet) the responses, manage reputation, the image that they want to portray may not match the image that is already out there.
Taking it one step at a time is valuable advice – you never know, you might like it!
Thanks for the post, I really enjoy reading your articles.
Hi Helen 🙂 Thanks for the lovely words and taking the time to comment.
So true, businesses will be talked about online, whether they are being social or not. With the pace of change these days, hopefully businesses won’t take another 10 years to realise this is not a fad…