I recently came across an article on CNN’s website titled, “Facebook launched my startup” talking about entrepreneurs who relied exclusively on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to start their small businesses. The story featured five small businesses and, as I flipped through each of them, up popped a picture of a friend and her business partner and their Dallas-based, three-and-a-half-year-old business Smocked Auctions. Their success in a short period of time is a true testament of how social media alone can have a profound effect on businesses.
After they used their initial investment to buy inventory to sell, Smocked Auctions had no extra money for marketing and advertising so they turned to Facebook and began weekly auctions to sell their goods. Almost instantly they attracted 20,000 followers and the rest is history. They now have more than 450,000 followers on Facebook, 10 full-time employees and are on track to do $5 million in sales this year. And although they have added an e-commerce site, Facebook still generates 65% to 70% of their sales.
Now, it’s hard to think of life before social media even though many sites aren’t even ten years old! But it has become pretty clear that social media is a must for all businesses. There are many benefits of social media marketing including increased exposure, competitive advantage, increased traffic, new leads, increased sales and improved search ranking. But I think the biggest benefit of social media compared to traditional marketing is the ability to communicate with customers and a target audience on a daily basis.
With so many social media platforms available it’s important to be educated about each of them and know which is best for your business as far as reaching your business goals. Here is a list of the most popular networks:
- Facebook – Still the leading social media network
- You Tube – More popular than cable television
- LinkedIn – The largest professional business network
- Google+ – Now the second largest social network
- Pinterest – The fastest growing social network
- StumbleUpon
- Digg
As powerful as social media is, it really is crucial to succeed in today’s business environment. Make sure you take a strategic approach to your social media plan and make sure it works with your other marketing initiatives.