A recent study by Citibank shows that a whopping 86 percent of US small businesses said they have not used social networking sites for information or business advice. Ten percent said they have sought business advice and information on expert blogs. Three-quarters of small businesses said they have not found sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn helpful for generating business leads or expanding business in the past year. Not sure about the UK numbers but I reckon they are even higher.
SMBs often think that social media is more for big corporations and premium brands. However social media is useful for almost every type of business. Pubs, retail stores, and even professional services can leverage their online reputation and increase credibility. Here is why:
Small Businesses are personal – they often rely on personal business relationships, a small business that invests its time wisely can improve customer (or client) loyalty and traditional word of mouth marketing efforts.
Small businesses are local – the use of local social networks can make a real impact. Sites like Yelp allows businesses to create listings with all the necessary information for a consumer to find you, while other customers can review and comment on your business. Needless to say consumers prefer to listen to their like-minded peers (in form of reviews) any day of the week when it come to order the local plumber. They can also experiment with hyper-local advertising on facebook. It’s possible to target customers based on the language they speak and where they live/work. This means that a bakery can now advertise specifically to people who live within a certain mile radius of the bakery. It is also important to remember the impact that social media content has on the search rankings of a small business and their ability to manage an effective ranking in search engines (SEO) – I think lots of local businesses are searched for in Google.
Small Businesses adapt and experiment – they don’t need to change 10 different business processes to introduce a new marketing strategy. It’s easy, create the social media accounts and start. However there’s a danger in jumping into social media networks, without a strong "hub" foundation of a blog or content portal. It’s difficult to convert someone from the awareness that might be gained through Facebook to the trust needed to make a sale. Hence the existence of a social hub in form of a company website or a blog is inevitable.
Small business focus on cash-flow and less on long term branding strategies – the good news is its free and the barrier to entry is low! I would consider social media as a high return opportunity marketing/branding opportunity for small businesses to build up their micro brand. Companies that know how to use social media correctly can reach millions of customers and potential customers directly without shelling out thousands of dollars to run TV, radio, or print ads. Using tools like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn which cost nothing can potentially free up advertising dollars to be used elsewhere in the company. A good example of a company called naked pizza(!) using Twitter to build up a local brand can be found here.
Small businesses need to focus – Of course, small businesses have only a handful 
of employees, the amount of time taken up by even one of them to engage in social media interaction could represent a great loss of productivity in other areas. Also, if you fail to plan properly with targeted messaging and focus, you could be producing content that does not accurately reflect your business… and once it’s out there, there is no way to take it back. Yes, there has to be some sort of strategy and also one has to set some meaningful goals. I will talk about strategy and and goals/metrics/ROI in a later post. Still the reach of millions, the opportunities you gain (remember social media can used amongst others for watching competitors, customer relations (e.g. create a custom wiki!), crisis management, event activation, issue advocacy, product promotion and sales) and the ROI outweigh this loss in SMB productivity, again, any day of the week.
At last there’s a one positive thing about the little adoption of social media for SMBs and why the door is wide open: it’s the time now to jump on the bandwagon! Get a head-start to your competitors, join twitter and get followers. Create a facebook page and advertise locally. Do it before your competitors do it…
If you were to take on, say, one social networking site per month, by the mid of ‘10 you would be ahead of 90% or more of your peers (and your competitors). If you do, I’m convinced you’d have at least one new customer, product idea, or other business-building asset to show for it within weeks. Give it a try. Pick a site, log in, and get started.
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