How Small Business can Use Social Media More Successfully

Haven’t you heard?  There is a recession going on!!  Nobody is spending any money on marketing!  Everyone is broke!

Well, this just isnt the case.  According to Marketing Sherpa’s Social Media Marketing Benchmark Survey, almost every niche surveyed is increasing budgets.

I know a lot of small business people. That’s why I blog about their experiences and their issues because these people are often viewed as the backbone of any true economic recovery that might take place.  If we are to recover from this recession, it is going to be by small business and the innovations that they create.  While big business still use the “bad economy” as an excuse to cut jobs at record pace the little guy is trying to make it happen. Heck, as a result of the continued layoffs from the big boys more small businesses are being born every day. As a result, social media adoption by SMB’s has increased as well.

A study reported by the Center for Media Research which was done by Network Solutions and the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business tells us

….social media adoption by small businesses has doubled from 12% to 24% in the last year. Small businesses are increasingly investing in applications including blogs, Facebook and LinkedIn profiles.

It’s crucial for the small business to get more involved with social media. Unlike paid search marketing, social media allows for some true creativity and because of its relatively low cost (notice I didn’t say free) the small business has less of a chance of getting burned. I can’t tell you how many times I speak to SMB’s who bemoan how much money they have spent on paid search and have seen no return. Social media opportunities are a breath of fresh air to these people. Plus, it isn’t all that hard to create viable strategies that work for small business owners. But, they have to keep in mind, it’s not just the TOOLS… you have a to have an actionable strategy to make social media worth your time. Randomly sending out tweets, will not likely yield you any additional revenue or new customers. Your strategy has to be tight.

The chart below tells the story

This kind of activity is something that will reinvigorate a struggling SMB and can even lead to cost savings as they learn what is really working with their advertising.

Dr. Alan Glazier, CEO and Founder of an eye and vision care center, said “… I was forced to consider alternative options to keep my business visible… with a very small investment in social media marketing, I was able to generate new business opportunities… (and) most importantly, my marketing budget has been reduced by more than 80%… “

So you need to be creative. It can work out great for your business… or it can go NOT so great.

Small and Mid size businesses struggle more with some of the downsides of the social media “effect” because they may not have enough people to help out with the social media load… Also, some companies are scared of social media “time suck” that could happen without effective strategies in place.

50% of small business social media users say it takes more time than expected. While social media adoption has doubled in the last year, there are still some roadblocks to small businesses fully exploiting its potential. Another 17% feel that social media gives people a chance to criticize their business on the Internet. Related to this, only 6% feel that social media use has hurt the image of the business more than helped it.

While it is never the silver bullet or the “automatic win” that many SMB social media snake oil salesmen, er… social media experts proclaim it to be there is a lot of opportunity for the SMB to be promoting their business and finding more business than ever before. While most times, it is NOT free, you can do a lot with a minimal budget. You just have to get continual education on the space and keep learning effective strategies for marketing your business online.

If you want to check out what has worked for some other businesses with social media, make sure to check out Peter Kim’s Social Media Wiki of all kinds of corporate social media case studies.

The odds are not stacked against the SMB in social media as they can be with other marketing options but the old adage “you gotta be in it, to win it” is more real than ever.

Tell us a good example of SMB social media or encounter you had with a SMB that did something to impress you. Some really creative ideas never get the notoriety they need because they never told anyone. Let’s share!