Social Media for Small Businesses

24 Jun Social Media for Small Businesses

Social Media was once the playground of those cutting-edge small businesses who are considered high-tech early adopters. Today social media is as important as traditional mainstream media. As a small business owner and CPA based out of Weaverville, NC it is important for me to embrace the shift from main stream media to social media.  Social medial is a platform that is either free or  low cost while giving potentially a very good return on advertising dollar invested.  Based on the fact that magazines and newspapers are going the way of the dinosaurs, it could be argued that social media will soon eclipse mainstream media.

Facebook: Launched in 2004 and as of March of 2015 it boasts 1.44 billion monthly active users. Facebook became a very efficient and free way to share promotions and to demo new products.  When the business pages were initially launched, it gave a level playing field for huge companies like Cocoa-Cola and niche companies like Burt’s Bees. If you can build a following of “likes” all of those potential customers were already tapped into your brand‘s message. Facebook became a very efficient and free way to share promotions and to demo new products. Of course, a service like that cannot stay free forever. Everything changed recently with their “Pay to Play” format. Now that everyone is hooked on having a business Facebook page, Facebook will only share your updates with approximately 10% of your Facebook fans. If you want your message to have a broader reach, you have to pay Facebook to “boast” your post. To their credit, they have a sophisticated demographics which allows you custom market a post to the people who meet your very specific ideal client demographics. For example, I could pay Facebook to boost my post to married women who live within 25 miles of my business, who have a college degree from UNC-Chapel Hill, like Starbucks coffee and drive a Honda Accord. You also have the ability to set a daily budget for how much you are willing to reach this customer, and they will estimate how many additional views or likes your post will reach.  Since Facebook is such a huge part of over a billion people’s day, it is almost a requirement for a brand or company to have a Facebook page. As a small business owner, you just need to decide how you want to spend your marketing budget and how much of the budget will be allocated to Facebook. With Facebook, you do have to be careful about making sure that your likes are authentic – meaning real people who do like your product or service. In a recent Washington Post article, this blogger paid Facebook to promote his page, and he got 80,000 bogus likes instead. Buyer beware.

Twitter: This social media platform was created in March 2006 and has more than 100 million users who post more than 340 million tweets (140 character message) as of 2012. While Facebook is the land of your real life friends from work, high school, college or social circles, Twitter is where you interface, real-time, with anyone and everyone with no thoughts of privacy. If you want to keep up with your favorite Hollywood star, your favorite sports team or favorite companies or brands, then this is the platform for you. Twitter allows you to have a real live conversation that anyone and everyone can see. If you are having an open house or a new product launch, Twitter is where you want to be. You can have an employee, or you, live tweet the event giving all your Twitter followers a “feels like I am there” experience. Twitter also allows you to have real-time conversations with your followers. If you are interested in trying to get your brand to “trend” or you might have a product that a famous person might endorse then this might be your preferred platform. Just keep in mind that people are paid to tweet. Celebrities, like Kim Kardashian, are paid large sums of money to tweet about a product. For example, it is speculated that Kim received $20,000 per tweet for typing “Pregnancy lips….@EOS to the rescue! LOL”

YouTube: As many people know, Google is the world’s largest search engine. YouTube, owned by Google, is the second largest search engine. If a picture is worth a thousand words then how much is a video worth. According to the book Likeable Social Media, the author recommends keeping your videos from 60-90 seconds long. Use your creativity and have some fun. These short videos are ways to demo new products, share information with customers, allows the president of an organization to share an upcoming event, give a company tour or wish their customers a Happy Holiday. YouTube will also pay your to play. If you monetize your channel, and your video gets a lot of likes, then your will start receiving a commission for each ad seen. It’s not big money, but hey it isn’t a lot of hard work either. You will have no control over who’s ad is playing before your video so if you are very brand loyal or want to control all aspects of your brand, you may choose to not monetize your account.

Pinterest: launched in March 2010 this relative newcomer to the social media scene has completely captivated the middle-class women’s market. Pinterest is where women look for the perfect cupcake recipe, ideas for their kid’s birthday party, learn new crafts, decorate their home or plan their perfect wedding. It was reported in 2012 that 83% of the global users were women. If your product appeals to women and you can take a beautiful photo that represents your product/service, then Pinterest is the place to be. For some websites, Pinterest is one of their primary referral sources as you can embed your company’s website link into the photo that is pinned. You can also use Pinterest to help connect with your clients. Say you are a photographer, you may create boards of samples of your photos, but you may also create boards showcasing styling and clothing tips for family portraits (unless you want everyone to come in tan slacks and a white shirt). A professional designer could create boards for customers to look through to get inspirations for their new living room, or kitchen remodel. The key to Pinterest is beautifully crafted and well-lit photography. Sorry, that iPhone photo app will not get it done.

Google +: Google completely dominates the search business, but they are a late comer to the social media scene as this platform was launched in June 2011. If you wish to be easily found by being “googled” you will need to create a brand or company page here. This platform is a bit of a dust bowl as there are relatively few people (300 million users as of March 2015) who are active users. The high-tech community is the one group of individuals who embrace this platform. Most of their user bases falls in the male 24-36 year old range. If you have a physical location, having a Google + is pretty much a requirement as they integrated Google maps with the Google + pages.

Linkedin: This social media platform is focused on connecting the business community. Launched in 2003 it now has 364 million users in 200 countries as of March 2015. It’s a great place to upload your digital resume, look for a job, and network with others in your industry. Before any client meeting or interview, it is an excellent idea to look up their LinkedIn profile. That way you can learn a bit about the person’s background and can customize your presentation to their background or preferences. You wouldn’t’ want to make pro Duke comment to a UNC fan in the middle of March Madness.

WARNING: Nothing on the internet is ever really private…so be careful what you post. My opinion is that if you are not willing to show that photo to your grandmother or make that comment in front of your best friend’s mom then it has no business being put on social media.

Other Blog Posts of interest:

Which Type of Start-Up are you?

Negotiation with an investor

Three ways to structure your new business

Methods Investors Use to Evaluate Companies

Funding for Small Businesses

Small Business Retirement Plan Options

Women in Business

New Business Start-up Tips from a CPA