Are Large Corporations Beating Small Business At Social Media?
By
Sometimes I feel like I’m living a slightly schizophrenic life. As a marketing consultant specializing in social media, I spend a large chuck of my life immersed in the online 
World. I’m connecting with other online experts, and using each of the tools. I’m looking at how other businesses are marketing themselves online. I’m online for hours a day. And even when I’m not talking to other marketing experts, I’m dealing with online business people who know what they’re doing.
But occasionally I need to get off my ass and actually leave my office. When talking to business owners in the real world, I see an entirely different perspective. In the last several weeks I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had with business owners were still trying to decide whether or not they need to bother with a website, never mind things like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
These two extremes in my life, have got me to thinking. One of the big rallying cries around social media is that it levels the playing field. Because most of these tools are basically free (as in no cash is needed to use them) it meant that solopreneurs and small business owners could easily compete with large corporations.
And on the surface this is true. After all, we can all create a Facebook account and set up a fan page, but only major corporations can run a television spot during the Superbowl.
However, when we dig deeper I believe social media is actually widening the gap between large corporations and micro business.
Why?
I really think it’s the pace of change that is causing the problems. Things are changing so rapidly in the online world that it’s hard for someone like me to keep up. But small business owners don’t have ten, twenty, or more hours a week to devote to learning about these new tools and ensuring that they’re using them properly.
I’m hearing it every day. People telling me they know they need their business to be on Facebook but they don’t know where to start. They don’t have time to learn the ins and outs of online marketing.
Large corporations have a marketing budget. In fact they have an entire marketing department. They can afford to have someone like me (or lots of someone’s) on staff working full time on their social media marketing strategy.
Yes there was a short period of time where solopreneurs had the edge over large corporations because they could make the decision to get online sooner. But now that corporations have jumped on the bandwagon, the gap is widening again.
Corporations are producing polished, and entertaining online videos. Their Facebook fan pages are flashy, and updated constantly. Corporations are tweeting up a storm. Many of them have multiple people engaging with their customers in the online world, and some of them are doing it really well.
In a world where small local businesses with niche markets are competing with global brands; where Amazon can get their products into the hands of customers more easily than driving to a neighborhood store, can small businesses really afford to ignore these marketing tools?
Andrea J. Stenberg
What do you think? Is a case of change causing large corporations to leave small business in the online dust? Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts.
I think this is spot on…
What many entrepreneurs/small business owners lose sight of is the need for fresh content (& the resourcing that requires)…creating a page is just day one.
A large chain can spread the time/cost of an assistant brand manager or agency over 1000 stores while the single shingle spreads it over one.
That said, the opportunity for the single shingle is to make sure the new content is LOCALLY relevant to the market in a way that big corp. can’t. Different media…same playbook.
I think one of the problems is that too many small business owners are trying to wear too many hats and marketing, particularly social media marketing, gets lost in the shuffle. They deal with things on a crisis to crisis basis or as the next advertising sales person comes in, rather than making a marketing plan and sticking to it.
But if they were to have a plan, implement it, and be sure to focus on local content, I think you’re right. They can succeed in ways big corporations can’t.
You raise some excellent points. From my experience, some small business owners don’t grasp that marketing is a field that requires real skills & experience. It’s really not something that you can do casually. So business owners really need to hire a good marketer to assist them, especially in internet marketing. They’ll receive a good “return on investment” as well.
Nancy, I agree small business owners are well served in getting marketing help. The issue, whether it is internet marketing or more traditional marketing, is $$money$$! Sadly, that is why often they end up DIYing it.
Sadder though are businesses that do outsource their internet marketing but are penny wise, pound foolish and end up with nothing but a glorified posting service that does little to actually drive business.
Then, to add insult to injury, many small businesses don’t invest in metrics to track marketing effectiveness. The result is they don’t realize they are pissing away what they are spending…
The solution: invest in developing a strategy. Insure that you have metrics that can track your effectiveness. Only then invest in executional help.
Nancy, so true! I started out as a copywriter and found that too many people had the attitude that because they had a high school diploma or a university degree meant they could write and didn’t need help with their marketing. But they forgot that marketing is a very specific type of skill.
But also, strategy combined with metrics is key. I see too many people spending time on social media, with no goals in place, never mind a way of measuring them.
Create a strategy, set some measurable goals, implement the strategy and give yourself time to see results. If after an appropriate period of time you’re not getting results, revamp your plan or get advice to see if your implementation is off.
I view social media less as marketing and more as a strategic tool — a way to start and build relationships. The challenge with that approach is the ROI is difficult to measure, or it has to be measured over a long period of time.
Twitter has been O.K. for me, but right now it doesn’t touch the ROI of smaller communities like Third Tribe.
Larry Keltto
Larry,
I think social media should be one part of an overall marketing strategy. And yes, ROI can be problematic. Mainly because it can’t be measured in the usual way. For example, when I started on Twitter, I saw a jump in traffic and subscriptions to my blog by 30%.
For other businesses the measurement can be more subtle.
Consider a marketing person for University A. Suppose she monitors Twitter and sees someone mentions they’ve been accepted to University A and is trying to decide whether or not to go there. This marketing person could begin a conversation that makes University A become more personal. This student suddenly feels like he knows someone at University A. If this student chooses to attend University A, this could mean thousands of dollars of revenue over the next four years, and perhaps longer.
Is Twitter the reason this student decided to attend University A? Not entirely. He had already decided to apply. But a conversation on Twitter could have been the straw that got this camel to make the final decision.
The problem with these types of metrics is it is very hard to measure. But the impact can be profound. And we’re all still trying to figure it out.
Andrea
Hi.
You make excellent points. I feel much of the problem is also in knowing how to find the talent you need. And, mostly on a limited budget unlike the big corps that can pay well.
Trying to get my business up and running is a task. And, trying to find talent to produce a youtube video, engage my
fan page is out of my league.
Thanks
Lynn,
Don’t give up on social media, just start slow. Pick one tool and give it a good try. If you only have 1 hour a week, spend it on that one tool. For example, you could decide to spend an hour a week on your Facebook page. Just make sure you have some goals in mind for what you’re trying to achieve.
Best of luck.