The rapid growth of the Social Networks phenomenon has allowed people and businesses to get connected and interact with each other every day. According to the statistics, the time users spend in Social Networks increased by 82% from 2008 to the beginning of 2010. But there is a lot going on around us in our virtual neighborhood. Thousands of businesses are promoting their products using Facebook’s Ads, Pages and Groups. Others prefer to open a Twitter account to post news and release important information. Likewise, there are a lot of dedicated sites for business networking. Linkedin, PartnerUp and Sales Spider are only three examples of the millions of options available.
For me this is not a possibility, it is a reality. I started using Social Media in my last job position, to promote the company services and trainings. Using this tool, we doubled our sales in five months and all the information was available to the 330 fans and their friends. This is huge for a small business. I decided to use this great tool to promote personal projects after these good experiences. Even my mother has her brand, XM designs, in Social Networks. Using Facebook Pages, she can promote and sell her work in the Internet. 
Do you want more evidence? It’s alright. Some people still think that social networking is only to keep in touch with friends, gossips and play silly video games. But most of those applications come from third-party companies, which make their money from us, users. Playfish for example, is the leader of social game developers worldwide, with more than 200 million installed and played in all countries. The equation is simple: addictive games + attractive characters + easy gameplay = a lot of users. How do they make their profit? The basic functionality of all games is free to use, but all special and really desirable items have a cost…and yes, people pay for them…many people. What I see here is a fabulous tool for promotion, sales and customer support, at very low cost and with immediate results. Here are only some of the advantages:
1. Low cost (no cost if you are your own boss, marketer, designer and coffee guy).
2. Easy to use (to the children of the 20th century)
3. Unlimited reach (you may be at six degrees of separation from China)
4. Advertising by word-of-mouth (or keyword)
It is very difficult for me to think about any real disadvantages, but let’s mention the most popular among critics of Social Networking:
1. Time consuming (as everything in life)
2. Customer may demand a lot of attention (you can create a schedule for customer support or open sessions for questions and answers)
3. The user can post negative comments on your page (you can establish privacy settings and limits for user’s interaction)
4. Confidential or sensitive information could be disclosed in the web (you manage the data that is posted in your page and any comment can be removed)
Do you have your own business? What are you waiting for? Create your own Social Site now. The evidence is there and (if you manage your information wisely) you can obtain a lot more than what you invest.
Hey Paola!
ReplyDeleteIt was quite interesting to read about your stint with social media marketing. It gave me a fair idea about its usability for small businesses and also an estimate about the potential impact in terms of number of fans, and increase in sales over a given time-frame. I have a group of friends who started a venture called 'Design Chords' and they are using Facebook for marketing through creation of a fan page and an application called 'Avatar Maker'.
Also, the concept of using games for marketing is new to me, and I think it really is quite interesting since the addictiveness of games keeps people hooked.
I myself have done some research on this and for your reference, below is the link to my article on the topic:
http://bschool-bizbuzz.blogspot.com/2010/11/when-small-businesses-have-face-on.html
In small businesses, the time consuming factor becomes one of the largest source of costs. This is particularly true when you are your own boss and therefore the only one in the company. Because of this, using a lot of time to check Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others to interact with your customers and advertise your brand, will in the end reduce the time you will have to actually do the rest of the activities in your business such as inventory, sales, meetings with customers (offline), paperwork, and… your life! Scheduling these activities will help, but the marketer-owner must find a balance between the time for online activities, and the rest. This issue becomes even worse if you are a freelancer in the service business since the time do perform the service is usually longer.
ReplyDeleteTherefore, I believe that in the end social networks will benefit medium to large companies with an organizational structure capable of marketing online and at the same time perform the rest of the activities - or at least, I think that social networking is not for lone wolves. Here is an article about the way small businesses should work with online marketing.