Does Social Media Marketing help small businesses?
Short answer = yes
A longer answer is covered in this eMarketer Article
In Explanation: Small businesses (fewer than 10 employees) typically serve a local market. Reports from multiple sources all concluded that 90+% of Internet users use social media and search engines to look for and assess local products and services. Search engines are used the most, but social media is not far behind and growing in usage.
There are 127 million USA Internet users of social media. The chances are customers of small businesses are among that number.
And it is important to realize that ads show up by different methods in social VS search. In search, an ad shows up when a person (AKA prospect) types a search term into an inquiry field. That is inbound marketing as that person is looking for a specific product. In social sites like Facebook an ad shows up based on the interest profile of the person (prospect). This is outbound marketing where the business is getting in front of a likely prospect.
For example: If a person was looking for hunting gear they might type hunting clothes into a search engine and find a local sporting goods store. In social media, that same person might have indicated hunting was one of their hobbies when setting up their profile. While that person is in a social media site an ad for a local sporting goods store would show up automatically, based on their profile, and thus alert that person to the local sporting goods store where he can buy hunting clothes.
So… yes social media marketing works for small businesses if its social media presence is optimized and setup properly. Want to learn more? Contact me
Tags: Digital Marketing, Internet Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization
