Despite their popularity with the masses, social networking sites aren’t exactly clicking with small businesses in the U.S. It is for this reason that Twitter invited many of the country’s small-time entrepreneurs to the annual National Small Business Week, as an opportunity to show them how Twitter can boost their bottom lines. A Digiday article written by John McDermott explains why small businesses and social media don’t seem to mix well:
Local businesses need simple solutions and don’t have the time or sophistication to become digital marketing experts. Small businesses devote only 3 percent of their advertising budgets to digital channels, compared with the 15 percent national marketers allocate to digital, according to a March 2013 study from Boston Consulting Group.
That means education is paramount.
“There are a lot of small businesses that still resist online advertising in general,” Eric Liguori, vp (sic) at the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, told Digiday. “A majority of small-business owners didn’t grow up in the digital age. Digital still seems a little nebulous to them.”
Such apprehensions, however, are understandable; about 89 percent of today’s online marketers are still looking for ways to measure social media returns on investment. In other words, social media marketing can take some time before they can yield favorable results. That said, companies, big and small, have no choice but to eventually embrace social media since this is the best way for them to promote their business online. They only need experts like Spark Local Marketing, one of the best advertising agencies in Greenville, SC, to help them make the most out of Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. Without professional assistance, companies risk falling into social media pitfalls that can potentially ruin their business for good.
One fact about social media that companies should never forget is that everything they say or post online is public. Scandalous statements, offensive comments, racial slurs, and the like should be avoided at all costs because everyone will see them and associate them with the company for a long time. The reverse is also true: positive content like encouraging statements, informative trivia, and interesting news stories that can be shared among friends are also preserved and remembered; perhaps indefinitely. Good content is something that reliable Greenville, SC advertising agencies can provide. If companies don’t have the time and resources to manage their social media content regularly, ad agencies can also step in.
The important thing is that social media marketing isn’t forgotten. Who knows, maybe creating a Twitter account is just the first step towards a small company’s success.
(Source: Why Facebook and Twitter are courting small businesses, Digiday, May 14, 2014)
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