Many people believe that social media is the best thing thatβs happened to businesses, but thatβs not entirely the case. Hereβs why BRIDGET BROWN thinks otherwise.
Do I hate social media? No. Do I think small businesses need social media? Also no. Thatβs a wild perspective for a small business marketing specialist. It also seems hypocritical, because I use social media, and the vast majority of my clients use social media.
The question though, is whether they need social media. Need is very different than want or use.
First, a caveat
Some small businesses may indeed decide they need social media, especially if youβre selling products. In that case, social media might even be foundational to your business. However, this means youβve turned your social media into a sales channel, which is quite different.
I think of my local stationery shop and its gorgeous Instagram feed. I often see something I want on their feed, and I buy it. I donβt need further conversion. Thatβs not social media marketing, thatβs sales.
If you sell high-ticket items, products that take further consultation, or services, social media is not a sales channel. Itβs a marketing tactic, and at that point, itβs a nice-to-have, not a necessity.
If itβs working, keep doing it
If your social media is bringing in the business, then of course keep at it. If you enjoy using social media, then, by all means, leverage your social profiles to generate leads for your business.
BUT! If you donβt enjoy or have time to use social media, then why on earth would you choose it as a marketing strategy? There are so many marketing strategies that no single small business can possibly use them all, so donβt waste time on those you dislike.
In fact, I advise my clients to only use marketing tactics they like. Thereβs one social media platform, in particular, you need to quit right now if you donβt enjoy social media.
How did I learn this?
I used to be a runner. I even completed a handful of half marathons. No matter how much I trained, I never got much faster. The reason eventually dawned on me: I hate running.
I created elaborate playlists, even carried candy on my long runs to reward myself for each kilometre logged. It never became more enjoyable, and I never became better.
So I quit. Sorry if you were hoping for some βRemember the Titansstyleβ inspiration, but thatβs not what happened. What happened is, I found other fitness pursuits I like better, and they keep me healthy without making me miserable.
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Quit tweeting
Unless you love tweeting, you should quit Twitter. This is especially so in the case of jewellery and fashion retailing. Twitter does not have a robust shopping platform like, for example, Instagram.
The likelihood that someone in your target audience is there to buy, or even cultivate an affinity toward your work, is low. Twitter isn’t designed for that. That’s why it’s the one platform I feel has more risk than benefit for small business.
In particular, you can probably quit Twitter today. Almost no small business needs Twitter.
Twitter is the one social media platform I feel has more risk than benefit for small businesses.
There are five reasons:
- No one wants to follow you
- They DO want to yell at you
- Youβre only one tweet away from disaster
- You need to tweet a LOT for it to be worthwhile
- It doesnβt make you money
If youβre on Twitter already, think about the people you follow. Most of us donβt follow businesses on Twitter unless weβre already raving fans. Do you care
what your dry cleaner or your gardener has to say on Twitter? Probably not!
If they have something cool to show off, theyβll do that over on Instagram or TikTok.
That’s not to say that itβs compulsory for you to have Instagram or TikTok. No social media platform is a βmust-haveβ.
In fact, the stakes are higher than ever for being selective about where to have an online presence.
A US report called βThe 2020 National Customer Rage Studyβ found that 55 per cent of angry shoppers head to social media to vent.
The risk of this is especially high on Twitter because Twitter is designed for conversations.
Twitter is for conversations. You have to build an amazing Twitter persona to get people to interact with a brand, like fast-food chain Wendyβs has done. Its followers actually try to get roasted.
A labour of love is still labour
First of all, you can tell the people behind Wendyβs account actually love social media. More importantly, it takes an entire team of people to make something like this happen.
The Wendyβs social media team actually released a hip-hop album, mocking the brandβs competitors. Thatβs an effort level most small businesses could not sustain. Yet, itβs vital for businesses to keep a constant eye on their mentions.
The number one way people interact with brands on Twitter is to publicly call them out on a problem, according to a 2019 Australian study. Worse, a 2018 study by MIT showed fake news is 70 per cent more likely to be retweeted.
That means your reputation can be affected more easily on Twitter which is why it requires 24/7 diligence that some other social platforms do not require. People try to use automation or scripted answers to get around that.
The best-case scenario when someone complains about your business (or if you tweet something stupid), is that no one else notices the tweet in their timeline before you correct it.
This βbest case scenarioβ is another reason Twitter isnβt great for small business. The timeline goes by fast.
Twitter means feeding the beast
There is basically zero chance that someone who logs on at 5 pm will see what your brand tweeted at 9 am. Thatβs thousands of tweets ago in their timeline.
You need to churn out content all day long in order to ensure your followers see it. This level of feeding the beast just isnβt feasible for most small teams, at least not for quality content.
This brings me to my final reason to ditch Twitter. It doesnβt have nearly as much money-making potential as other marketing tactics.
Think about it, if you have to pay someone to create click-worthy content that can be posted throughout the day, and that person also has to respond to other customer tweets, that are a significant cost to your business.
If you manage to find someone whoβll do it for cheap, youβre unlikely to get quality content and more likely to get mistakes and brand faux pas.
Thatβs why I object when people describe social media as βfreeβ and βorganicβ. Itβs a huge time suck, so itβs far from free.
Plus, getting good engagement requires a ton of strategy and planning. Thatβs hardly organic.
Marketing revenue source
Iβd be interested to examine the ROI of Wendyβs Twitter account. Do its followers see them troll someone on Twitter and get a hankering for a burger? I mean, sure, maybe. But itβs more likely that the reason behind their Twitter account is to cultivate a brand persona that Wendyβs is a cooler alternative to McDonaldβs.
Or perhaps the accountβs purpose is to lure media attention for being so sassy. In other words, the Twitter account is a cost of doing business.
Some organisations set up their marketing department as a cost centre, but donβt hold it accountable for raising revenue and/or making a profit.
I think thatβs a mistake. I believe marketing can and should be a revenue source. The only way to do this is to make sure the value of the leads youβre generating is higher than what youβre spending on marketing.
And thatβs why I remain skeptical about social media for small business. Itβs very labour intensive to do well and can be expensive. You need to capture a lot of leads for marketing to be a profit centre.
To me, the only marketing activities in which you should participate are the ones that turn a profit.
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