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Social media marketing for small businesses refers to how a small business creates content to promote itself on social media sites. Small businesses can use social media sites to advertise, market, provide customer service, news, announcements, promotional campaigns and contests at little to no cost. Social media sites let customers directly interact with the company.

A survey of 500 small business owners by the University of Maryland showed U.S. technology adoption rates doubled from 12% to 24% from 2008 to 2009. It is estimated that one in five of all small business owners use social media for their business.

Word of mouth marketing

Typical small business marketing plans are comprised of customer referrals, word of mouth, yellow page placements, TV or radio spots, print ads, email marketing, and the Internet. Greg Sterling, an analyst who studies the Internet's influence on shopping and local businesses, says small businesses get over half of their business from just one of these, word of mouth. Ivan Misner, the founder and CEO of BNI, the world’s largest businesses networking organization, says that word of mouth is the “best known marketing secret.” Social media is essentially an extension of word of mouth marketing as customers can connect with others online to post, discuss, and rate a business.

Benefits

Social media marketing is valuable to small businesses for several reasons. First, social media is cheaper than traditional advertising methods that small businesses typically do not have a budget for. Second, social media allows customers to learn about a business through friends and family, not through the business itself. A study by Nielsen reports that 9 in 10 consumers trust their peers more than marketers. Social media sites also provide direct interaction between the business and the consumer, leading to customer empowerment.

Social media marketing can increase a company’s exposure through online advertisements and build its presence in the local community through current customers. SocialMediaExaminer.com conducted a survey of 2,000 people. Close to 75% of the respondents said social media marketing improved their companies’ search engine rankings on sites such as Google and Yahoo in addition to increasing traffic to retail locations.

An effective social media marketing campaign can increase customer loyalty and customer engagement, leading to increased sales and revenue. Forty-five percent of University of Maryland’s survey respondents believed their social media efforts would pay off financially in the next year.

Platforms

There are always new social media sites, but the following are some of the most popular and useful for small businesses.

Website/Blog

A website or blog serves as a central digital hub for the business. To be most successful, all listings on social media sites should redirect back to the business’s own website. Small businesses can use their blog to promote customer-to-customer discussions or business-to-customer discussions.

Yelp

Businesses can create directory listings, consisting of their location, phone number, hours, and menus. Customers search for local businesses and read and share reviews.

Twitter

Twitter is an instantaneous microblog that allows businesses to simulate face-to-face conversations. Small businesses can listen to customers’ opinions, market their business, share relevant links, provide customer support, and hold promotional contests. Twitter is one of the best platforms to target customer service issues as customer complaints can be responded to immediately.

Facebook

Facebook has over 500 million users. Over 100,000 small businesses have a presence on Facebook. Facebook’s fastest growing demographic is people 35 and older, a demographic targeted by small businesses due to their purchasing power . Small businesses can create a Fan Page with their business’s information, create content, and respond to customers’ posts.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn allows business owners to identify new business partners, new employees, and build their presence by connecting with other professionals. LinkedIn users can post a recommendation to a business’s profile, fostering word of mouth marketing through social media.

Foursquare

Users check-in to local businesses with Foursquare, a location based social networking site. Users’ check-ins are broadcast to other social media sites, including Twitter. Businesses can run special promotions for their most frequent customers.

YouTube

Small businesses can upload video content to this multimedia site such as an inside look at their business, an advertising or marketing campaign, or customer-created content.

Wiki

A wiki allows customers to read, edit, and review postings about the business.

Groupon

Small businesses gain exposure from this daily group coupon site by offering a coupon deal for their business. Being featured on the site increases exposure, customer volume, and sales.

Successful campaigns

Kogi BBQ

Kogi BBQ is a Korean Barbecue food truck based in Los Angeles. The company started using Twitter to communicate the truck’s location and the daily specials to its customers. The business now has over 67,000 followers on Twitter.

Emerson Salon

This hair salon based in Seattle, WA, reopened under new owners in 2008. By 2010, 75% of their business came from Facebook, Twitter, and their blog. Emerson Salon’s website is linked to all the salon’s social media profiles, all its stylists’ profiles, and its blog. Customers who book their appointment online can share with their Facebook friends or Twitter followers. The owners found traffic to their site tripled after linking to other social media sites.

Butter Lane

Butter Lane is a New York City cupcake bakery with a presence on several social media sites. The bakery posts updates on Facebook and Twitter, maintain their Yelp listing, write blog posts on Tumblr, and run coupons on Groupon and LivingSocial. Yelp is used especially to manage customer service and monitor their staff’s performance.

Wiggly Wigglers

Wiggly Wigglers, a UK company, sells garden equipment and worm composters. The company features a company blog, video demos of their products, podcasts, specialist information, and daily deals on their website. Wiggly Wigglers also tweets garden tips and updates. In 2008 the business was the Global Winner of the Dell Small Business Excellence Award due to their social media strategy.

See also

• Social media
• Social media marketing
• Small business