Top Social Media Questions of Today’s Small Businesses

April 12, 2011

With social media success stories gaining popularity, group-buying, location-based services, SEO, blogging and others have become part of a small business owner’s marketing strategy. Erica Swallow of Mashable, who previously managed the social marketing strategy at The New York Times, wrote a great blog about 5 particular questions that she’d repeatedly seen come up in her training sessions. All of the questions revolved around how to grow small businesses using social media and other free or low-cost tools on the web.

Here are the first two questions:
Question 1: Should I use group buying services to promote my business?
Group buying is one of the latest trends in social media. Popular sites include Groupon, LivingSocial, Tippr and BuyWithMe. Most deals last no longer than 24 hours and after the deal ends, the company is cut a quick check by the site. The top two pros of using group buying sites include quickly generating additional revenue and getting a mass of new customers to sign up for your product or service. A lot of businesses these days will have deals on these websites, but does this mean that your business should too? 

Here’s a good way to think about this. Most group buying sites take up to half of the revenue from a deal. Let’s say you have a small neighborhood gym. On average, a gym membership earns you $600 a year. If you decide to do a deal on Groupon for 50% off on the annual gym membership (that is $400 per customer/year), you will actually end up losing 75% of the retail membership. Through Groupon, the deal is now $400 and if Groupon keeps 50% of $400, you will ultimately be left with $200 per gym membership. So, make sure to rethink these costs.

Secondly, make sure that you are able to reach your target audience through such group buying sites. There isn’t a lot of research available on the demographics of people using these sites, but one can assume that a large percentage of the people are those who are attracted to deals and do a lot of coupon-centric shopping. Do take into account that these people might not necessarily be drawn to your product because they love it, but more so because they’re getting a deal on it. So, be aware that they might not pay the full price for your product or service the next time. 

Thirdly, be cautious of your brand image and how you want to come across to your audience. If you’re doing too much of it, it might make some people skeptical. 
Having taken the above into consideration, if your short term goal is to generate some quick cash and get some new customers to try your product or service, group buying is a great way to start. 
Question 2: My social media following is barely growing. Why is that?
Some of you might already have a social media strategy in place, but might not have had much luck with it. Here are a few common reasons why:

1) Your messaging is too promotional. When people read your blog or your Twitter page they don’t want to be sold or bombarded with marketing messages all the time. Try to provide meaningful and relevant content to your target customers.

2) You rarely update your page or you update it too often. My parents always tell me that too much or too little of anything is bad. That’s exactly the case here. Try to update your social sites a few times a week or daily if possible. If your customers are complaining about the frequency of interactions, take that into account and adjust accordingly.

3) You aren’t interacting enough. It’s social media. Engage in discussions, comment on articles and blogs, answer your customers’ and prospects’ questions, and interact in social media. Engage more with your community.

4) You aren’t offering much value to your followers. Clearly define the value proposition for each of your social media efforts and make your customers and prospects aware of them. Do some research to understand what your customers want and customize your offerings accordingly.

5) Finally, you might not be promoting your profiles enough. This means that your customers and prospects might not even know that you are using social media. So, make sure to point it out to people you interact with, put it in your business cards, put it at the end of your email, broadcast it in your website – put yourself out there.
To learn more about social media marketing for your small business, follow @coreyolo, our Marketing Analyst and social media expert at OpenView Venture Partners. 

Stay tuned for my blog next week for the other top social media questions of small business owners. Follow me @fariarah.

Co-Founder

Faria Rahman is the Co-Founder of <a href="https://www.treemarc.com/">Treemarc</a> which, uses machine learning to make it easy for businesses to order custom packaging and product nesting in a few minutes. Previously, she was a Senior Associate at Northbridge Financial Corporation, a leading commercial property and casualty insurance management company offering a wide range of innovative solutions to Canadian businesses. Faria also worked at OpenView from 2010 to 2011 where she was part of the Market Research team.