Social Media is Good for You, Social Media is Good for Your Business

By Chris Metcalf

Social media can be scary—scary to set up, scary to learn and scary to manage in everyday life. But that’s only those who have not faced their fear and explored the multitude of rules and benefits of social media. After all your accounts are set up, using social media can be as simple as using a phone. In fact, it is much easier to keep track of all your conversations. But you must be careful when using social media for your business and for personal use. Your personal and business account will become a limb of yourself and your business.  The words you say over the internet on social media will be a reflection on both you and your business. With all things, there are good and bad aspects about it. Although there are some bad aspects of social media, there are a lot of benefits that can come from social media.

In today’s era of web 2.0, social media plays a big part in marketing, networking, and customer relations. It is now the way of life for most of the population and a great way to reach out to people all around the world. Your local mom and pop business can now expand their clientele from their hometown to the other side of the world if they choose to do so. This is just a sample of the great adventures that you can take your business through social media. No longer do you have to go door to door, buy billboards on the side of the road, rent out expensive advertising space in newspapers and magazines. In today’s era, we are a pull marketing generation. No longer do we have to use push marketing techniques to get the public to try our product. Social media marketing is like fishing, set your bait and wait. But when you feel that bite, that is when you start to pull. Depending on how good of a salesman you are will then determine your success from there.

So now you are interested in opening a social media account and growing your business, but you are still concerned and you have some questions that need to be asked. Well let’s start with the first one. How much does it cost to market my business on social media? The answer to this question is that it will cost you no money to market your business. But it will cost you your time, and today we all know that our time is valuable. To go more in-depth about the cost of social media is to say that yes, you can spend money on advertising. The price differs depending on the platform that you use for your business. Personally, I have never paid any money to market myself. I have only put in hundreds of hours to grow my audience on different platforms. Well if its free, why are you saying there are different prices for different platforms? That’s because the different social media platforms don’t charge you to create a personal and business account. To create your account and grow you audience is all free. You could post about whatever you want and keep your audience up to date on you and your business all for free. The problem with this is that you will have to put in the man hours to grow your audience and get the word out about your business. If you are trying to keep your costs low, you will want to stay consistent with your involvement on social media.

Of course, social media platforms have caught on to the need for businesses Now what about the paid accounts? Well the paid accounts to reach a larger audience on social media. Word of mouth referrals will allow your audience to grow at a steady rate, but is there a short cut? The answer is yes, in the form of paid accounts. Paid accounts on social media allow you to reach a wider audience at a faster time. Depending on the social media site, a paid account will also allow you to pick the area in which you would like to market. For example, if I were trying to promote my new clothing company in Los Angeles, I would pay the fee to market my product in the Los Angeles area. I would also pick a few other major cities such as San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Bakersfield to increase interest and brand awareness. Also, how the platforms charge is per click, not per advertisement. What this means is that you create an advertisement and then post it up on to the platform you are using. It will act like a billboard on the side, top, or bottom the screen. Each time someone clicks on your advertisement, that social media platform that you are using will charge you a fee. Now the great thing is you get to set the amount of money that you are willing to pay for that month of advertising. So, let’s use Facebook as our example: if you choose to do it yourself, you can expect to pay on average $0.27 per click (99 dollar social, 2016). So, doing the math, let’s say you say you only want to spend one hundred dollars on marketing through Facebook. At this rate you will be allowed three-hundred and seventy people to click on your advertisement. With only $100, you have reached 370 customers. Keep in mind that this number is just the amount of people who are clicking on your advertisement, not the amount of people who also see your advertisement and become familiar with your brand. Now let’s say you only get one hundred and fifty clicks out of the three-hundred total your allowed. Will you still have to pay the full hundred dollars? The answer to this is no, you only pay for what you get. So, if you only get one hundred and fifty clicks, then that is what you will pay for.

 As any new business owner knows, there are many different facets of starting your business. As the owner, you have many responsibilities and obligations and your time is valuable. It is quite possible that new business owners feel that they do not have the time to market their business. When will you have time to learn how to manage market, and provide customer service on your business’ social media account? Well that is simple, do you have a family member, friend, or neighborhood kid that would like to make some extra money? You could hire them as a contractor to run your social media accounts for you. The great thing about doing this is that it will free up your time to concentrate more on your business. You just should decide how much you trust that person with your accounts and your audience. From there you get to decide how much freedom you want to give them with your accounts. Even if you delegate a portion of the social media marketing responsibilities to a contractor, you are saving time and money. “On average, social media advertising costs for this media are about $2,500-$5,000 a month. Again- this is for paying someone else to open and maintain your advertising. It costs, but it is well worth it considering the amount of people you can potentially reach with just one post” (99 dollar social, 2016). Depending on where you live and how much work you want the companies to do for your business, the price can increase much more than $5,000 dollars or be much less the $2,000. I personally would only recommend such a service for a business that already owns a few locations and has hundreds of clients. Because at that point I feel such a service would be worth it.

Within marketing, there are three basics that you need. You need a destination, audience, and traffic. What do these have to do with business and social media? Well let’s break it down. The destination is your place of business. That means it is the building in which you are running your business. This includes the website that you have created for your business, and all the different social media accounts that you have created for your business. Well look at that, you now have multiple stores open and you did not even break a sweat! Next is your audience, this is the amount of loyal customers that you have coming to your place of business. But now that you have accounts on different social media platforms. Your audience would be known as followers and contacts on these different platforms. Next is traffic, this is all the people coming and going from your business. These are also the conversations that you are having with customers and potential customers through social media. Traffic is the people on the internet that see your advertisements and are going to your webpage and social media accounts. Now ask yourself, how are you doing in these three fields of marketing? With social media, you can cover all three of the fields from your home computer. As of 2017, records show that there are around 38 million home based businesses in the United States alone (Gran, 2017). That means there are around 38 million businesses that started with a website, social media, or both as their destination for their business. In today’s day in age, if you are just starting your business, there is almost no need for you to go out and start renting an office or a building. You can do everything from social media alone.

Be a Purple Cow! Yes, I said a purple cow. How can you be a purple cow? They do not exist. Well yes, they most certainly do. In the book, Purple Cow: Transform your business by being remarkable It discusses that you are either a purple cow or not. According to the book, if you are not a purple cow, you look just like all the other black and white cows in the farm. Think of all social media as a big farm with a lot of cows in the field. As a child, the first time you see a black and white cow you were in a state of awe. They’re big, they’re smelly, they really do go “Moo”. As a child, you enjoyed looking at the cows in the field and if you could you would feed them and pet them. But as you got older you started to lose interest in the cows and they just became another animal. Well that’s what happens with social media. Using T-shirts as an example. There are thousands of t-shirt accounts on social media. As of the past few years people have been able to buy your products straight from your social media account. So now you want to open a t-shirt store on your account. Well are you going to be a purple cow and stand out, or are you going to blend in like all the other cows. A purple cow is the one who stands out in a filled of black and white cows. As an adult, if I were to see a purple cow I would stop to take pictures and tell all my friends and family about what I have seen. So, what I am trying to tell you, is that with your business, be a purple cow and stand out (Godin, 2009).

As a business owner, I know your plate is full. You are busy running day to day operations and you think you don’t have time for social media. But what you need to know is that you don’t need to have your business on every platform. There are many different platforms out there and your business will not be successful on all of them. So how do you find the best platforms for your business? Well it’s as simple as doing a little research and knowing the type of clients you want to reach. The top three social media platforms that your business should be on are Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google plus. With Facebook Audience Insights, you can combine your follower’s information to learn as much as you can about their demographics, interests, and activities. With Facebooks targeted ad options you will be able to create better advertisements that are showing to a more targeted audience, thus increasing your chances of starting up more conversations with clients and future clients. Google Plus is a great site for generating media search results for your business because it contains: the name of your business, the location if you want it to, consumer reviews, contact information, and photographs of your business. Now on to LinkedIn, LinkedIn is a bit different than the other two main platforms. Through LinkedIn you will show that you are the owner / CEO of your business. You will be putting your face out there and meeting with other likeminded people such as yourself. One way I like to explain LinkedIn is by comparing it to Facebook. Look at it like this, Facebook is the community pin board when anyone can post whatever they want. Whereas LinkedIn is the board room where the professionals come to meet and discuss business. Through LinkedIn you are able to show your credentials, create relationships with future clients and continue ones with clients you are already working with. The next three platforms I will mention are optional if you want to put your business on them. You have Twitter, which is great if you want to know if there is anything being said about your business. Twitter is also a great way to have short conversations with your clientele and anyone wanting to know more about your business. Next is Instagram, Instagram is a much younger audience. This platform is all about taking pictures and sharing your adventures with your followers. The majority of people on this platform are between the ages of 18 to 29 years old[CM2]  (Musler, 2017). The last platform I will mention is Pinterest. “Pinterest works best for businesses in particular industries. Unless your business involves food, travel, DIY crafts, health, beauty, or fashion, you can eliminate this platform from your early social media plans” (Musler, 2017).

Starting and owning your business is exhausting. As I business owner, you have to go out and prospect new clients. You have to put on a smile for people and recite your pitch just to have them refuse my business. Does this seem wasteful of your time? Well another great trait of social media is networking. Although it is still a good idea to go out to chamber gathering, wine mixers, and all other social events going on around you, with social media, you don’t need to leave the house as often. With the era of web 2.0 you can now prospect new clients from your computer desk. The greatest part about it is that for some people it is easier to do. If you are someone who has a problem starting conversations, social media is great for you. Why? Because on social media you don’t have to start a conversation. You are able to join in on conversations that have already started and add your perspective to them. Are you scared to talk to people face to face, but you only do it for your business? Well guess what, you don’t have to talk to anyone face to face. You get to chat with through the platform you have chosen. At that point if you get to meet with them face to face then you have done a good job getting to that point and have yourself a potential client. So now you’re looking for people with a common interest, or you are looking for a certain demographic. With social media, you can do that. You can join and start groups with your interest in mind. For example, your business is a home construction business. Well then, I would recommend you to join other construction groups, architect groups, realty groups and tourism groups. Why tourism groups you ask, that has nothing to do with home construction. Well in a way it does, because people are taking trips all over the country and there’s a percentage of them that might want a new home built in your area. From my own personal experience, I worked for a new home construction company. I was part of their social media team and I would get them into groups. Well this company was located in Pismo, California, which is a great tourist destination. Not only did I have them in construction groups, I also had them in tourism and wine lover groups. Through social media you are able to reach out to people you have never talked to through joining groups. Like I said earlier, start a conversation or join one. Next thing you know you are talking about your business and all that you have done. BOOM, there is another potential client.

If I want to get in with a company and do business with them, how can you do that with social media? This is where LinkedIn comes in to play. Remember when I said LinkedIn is the board room where all the professionals come to meet? Well that’s because LinkedIn is a great place to meet other CEO’s and other top people in business. Thru LinkedIn you are able to look up different companies and find out who is working for them. Once you find the people you are looking for, you can do one of a few things. You can either look at their profile and see what groups they are in, join some of the same groups and hope to run in to them through conversations. You could send them a personal message and hope that they read it and reply. You can even sometimes ask them to connect with you and then converse with them. Finally, you can become friends some of the people they are friends with and ask them to introduce you to that person. Business owners all over the world are getting connected all over the world with help from LinkedIn and other social media platforms. Now I know I’m going on a lot about LinkedIn, but that’s because it such a great platform when it comes to networking. As of 2016 LinkedIn has over 433 million users across 200 countries (Blake, 2017). As of 2016, 39% of CEOs are active on social media, not all of them are on all six platforms though. Out of that 39%, LinkedIn is leading with the most active CEOs, with Facebook falling far behind with the second highest number of active CEOs (Nusca, 2016)

As of today, there are billions of users across the different social media platforms. Because of that, now it is much easier to create what is called “weak ties”. What these are, are connections that you have were you can get information, assistance, or a chance to collaborate. These are people that as of now are acquaintances, but you are able to build strong relationships through. The relationships will typically form around related interest, last for a short period then go back to acquaintance. But that is ok, because through social media you are still connected to them if they ever need to contact you again. The down side to creating relationships through social media, since there is a lack of face to face and phone conversations. It is now much more problematic to grow and maintain “strong ties” with other businesses associates. Nevertheless, technical advances and the evolution of social media has also made it possible for ground-breaking methods of interaction between businesses and has been actively linking together new types of business relationships. All of these relationships have mostly been based on “weak ties.” Which may mean that the conventional distinction between strong and weak ties is no longer so relevant (Schroeder, 2013).”.

With all that being said, it has been reported that upwards of 1.5 billion people are using social media globally, alongside that there is at least 70 percent of businesses using social media. Numerous significant and internally related advances related to social medias growth also have a great connection with business relationships. Some of the major effects from all this advancement in social media has been the requirement of new relationship-based associations with clients and other social media partakers. Even more so when it comes to building brand loyalty and keeping control of the outside online conversation involving your business. Furthermore, business owners must be content with all the information overload when surfing the internet and roaming different social media platforms. Always remember to make your content interesting, entertaining or thought-provoking, to capture and hold their attention.

As we have previously talked about, relationship building on social media will likely need to come from a wide range of skills and characteristics, from company to company each will have their own requirements to follow. Nevertheless, there are a few key points that will work with any business and can be a good starting point. First off, it is now more vital for all of your employees to have some type of skills needed for social media marketing. This is a good practice because most, if not all of your employees have social media accounts. What this means is that whether you want it or not, your employees have become social media ambassadors for your business. So, as a business owner it would be in your best interest to teach them some proper skills when posting on social media. In return you get free marketing whenever they talk about your business. But you must understand that there may also be negative discussions about your business coming from your employees. So, you must keep track of what is being said about your business so that you may address any problems that will arise. Second, you will want to maintain a strong and positive online presence personality. One way of going about this is to hire or create social media management roles with in your company. That way you do not need to be the one monitoring everything on social media. You can do this by hiring an outside organization (which will come at an extra cost), hiring a new employee, or giving a current employee an extra role in the business. Keep in mind that whoever you select for this role will need to be able to respond to feedback in a pleasant, yet authoritative and consistent way. This person will become the face of your business on social media. Third, you will need to find a way to build and maintain you presents on social media. This has been one of the many challenges for other business on social media. One of the ways to go about doing this is to “develop connections with key influencers or critical enablers that are likely to help maximize the value of networking  (Schroeder, 2013).” For example, in the B2C context, offering free products or service can become key influencers, in return you may receive free press from your clients as they talk about your business and what you are doing at that time. B2B circumstances will need a different approach, it will be more effective to start an online conversation or recommend sometime of conference call to have a better chance at finding a common interest. Forth, culture and structural changes will be sometimes needed to support the skills needed to build relationships. This could include a change in management styles to promote a more open environment. Potential customers today appreciate a business that can be transparent. Providing your employees with more responsibilities can inspire them and help them fell more empowered. Just make sure to give your employees the training needed before putting them in any such role involving social media. The fifth key point, “Developing a trusted expert or key influencer position within a particular niche will automatically generate a network of followers (Schroeder, 2013).” From this you will at least create some strong tie relationships, but most will become weak tie relationships. Your ability to engage your targeted audience with well written content that is tailored to their characteristics and interests will be in your businesses best interest. Finally, the last key point to relationship building on social media. A more qualitative and longer-term approach is needed to understand and evaluate the benefits of investments in relationship-building through social media. As mentioned earlier, traditional ROI measurements are no longer appropriate; these must be based on an understanding of the value of customer engagement with the brand and its longer-term outcomes (Schroeder, 2013).” People and companies are always developing new studies with metrics, measurements, figures, and graphs. All of this to find out what works best when using social media to market your business. Doing your own research on all of this will help in the long run, but I recommend that you keep and track all your own data. That way you can create a better marketing plan for your business. (Schroeder, 2013)

There is so much to read and understand about social media. But you should not be afraid of the different platforms out there. There are many different ways to find help on using the different platform to market your business. Some platforms will have tutorial videos teaching you how to best utilize their social media site. There are hundreds of how- to videos on sites like YouTube and Linda.com that can show you how to set up your accounts and show you the best marketing tips. You can also go to your employees and or family to teach you, or do it all for you if that is your choice. Social media does not have to be scary, it can be an adventure for you and your business. It can also be a great way for you to create great relationships with your clients. Even though social media is forever ever changing with the times. Take comfort in knowing there will always be someone out there who will be able to teach you. There will always be someone writing a book, research paper, or article talking about the ins and out of social media marketing. So, in the end, just remember to have fun and play with the different platforms to find which ones work best for your business. I’m positive that you will find the right ones.

Works Cited

99 dollar social. (2016). The Average Social Media Marketing Price In 2016. Retrieved from 99 dollar social: https://www.99dollarsocial.com/average-social-media-marketing-price/

Blake, K. E. (2017, August 17). The 2016 LinkedIn Stats You Should Know - Updated! Retrieved from LinkedIn: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/2016-linkedin-stats-you-should-know-updated-katy-elle-blake

Godin, S. (2009). Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable. Gildan Media,LLC.

Gran, B. (2017, March 21). Shocking US Home Based Business Statistics. Retrieved from incfile.com: https://www.incfile.com/blog/post/shocking-us-home-based-business-statistics/

Musler, G. (2017, May 22). WHICH SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS SHOULD MY BUSINESS BE ON? Retrieved from Big Mouth Marketing: https://www.bigmouthmarketing.co/which-social-media-platforms-should-my-business-be-on/

Nusca, A. (2016, Jan 25). Social Media Use By CEOs Is Increasing—Slowly. Retrieved from Fortune: https://fortune.com/2016/01/25/social-media-ceo/

Schroeder, H. (2013, April). The art of business relationships through social media. Retrieved from ivey business journal: https://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/the-art-of-business-relationships-through-social-media/