When social media experts say :Small businesses should… or small businesses must, followed by some imperative that you have to use twitter, or facebook or any social media, they are either lying or too stupid to be credible. Seriously.
There are many things small businesses “should” do, some of them required by law, but one of the joys of small business, and perhaps a reason you got into small business, is that you have to find your own path to success, in your own way. Yes, you consult experts, but not faked ones.
A social media presence “may” help your business, in the present or the future. No matter what “experts” tell you about social media remember the following:
Data to support the claim that small businesses “must” be on Twitter, or Facebook, or on any social media platform is non-existent. Period. There is some isolated anecdotal evidence that some small businesses have profited by doing so, but there is also a lot of evidence suggesting that the HUGE majority of small businesses will not gain a penny, and just waste resources being on social media. By the way, surprisingly, the same could be said of websites.
There are many ways to reach and interact with customers, and again, always keep in mind that contact involving a machine is never going to be as effective as contact face-2-face. Never ever replace your personal contacts with machine contacts, no matter what some guru tells you.
Keep in mind that the people who you hear talking about the power of social media for small business (or for anything, really) make their livings by telling people how good social media is for almost anything, and that the fact that you hear them is a tribute to their marketing ability and ability to manipulate social media, rather than any knowledge about your business.
Lots more coming in this series.
