November 9th, 2009

Small Businesses, What Are You Waiting For?

Here’s a marketing riddle:

What’s fast, easy to use, incredibly inexpensive, and has the potential to reach millions of new customers instantly?

Answer: Social Media. But you knew that, right? Then what’s the hold-up? Why are small businesses so slow to adopt these power-packed marketing tools?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. You plan to incorporate Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn – even a blog! — into your marketing mix next year!

Have a look at these stats, according to the Social Media Examiner’s published results of a BIA/Kelsey report:

When asked about their current social media experiences, results showed many businesses are slow to adopt social media:

Have used Twitter to market in the last 12 months: 9%

Have used social sites in the past 12 months: 23%

Have incorporated video into their website: 16%

In addition, according to the survey results, adoption of social media by small- and medium-sized business is more prevalent among younger businesses:

Businesses 3 years or younger: 16% report using Twitter

Businesses 11+ years: 2% report using Twitter

We small businesses are supposed to be nimble, agile, resilient and strong — able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Why are so many of us afraid to learn new marketing tricks?

Tonya Thomas says:

November 9, 2009 at 10:04 am

I’m not that impressed with Twitter. So far, it seems to be a huge waste of time. There are a few people that are using it well, but others are just using it for the sake of using it:

example: “Watch for a new blog post shortly.”

I’m supposed to take time to read that? Or react to it?

No.

Lyn Chamberlin says:

November 9, 2009 at 10:11 am

I agree with you. I don’t care whether someone’s tired or what they’ve had for breakfast. But what I do see is a wide-open opportunity for small businesses to brand themselves very, very effectively with a ready and willing audience, just by using twitter to broadcast content and to answers questions in one’s area of expertise. it’s not an overnight solution. it takes time to build a following. but if you’re good, they WILL come.

Diane Danielson/CEO, Downtown Women's Club says:

November 9, 2009 at 10:18 am

It is all about the strategy when it comes to social media. And I agree with you Tonya, re: wasted posts. This is why I recommend use the “coffee room chatter test”. Would you really say to someone “watch for a new blog post shortly?” You might say “working on a cool post about XYZ.”

However, one way I’ve been working with companies is “start building it now” because we’re noticing email newsletters getting less opens and clickthroughs and twitter/facebook are good ways to reach people who may not have time to open and read a newsletter.

Social media is also a good way to “test” things quickly and cheaply, do market research, etc. So, don’t give up on it yet. Create a strategy and stick with it!

November 9, 2009 at 12:18 pm

Diane makes some great points. And this is where I think the link between branding and your social media usage is critical. Your brand will become more and trusted as people find you on Twitter etc — but only if you have something worth reading to say!