Rachel Ma

IM II/6/12AP
3/20/18

Hashtag, Like, Retweet: Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses

Small businesses constitute over 50% of America’s economy, yet over half go out of

business within 5 years, according to Bandyopadhyay (2016). While this statistic can be

attributed to a variety of factors, one of the most prominent reasons for business failure includes

lack of proper communication to customers through marketing. Today, the rise of technology has

greatly encouraged and allowed small businesses to flourish through social media marketing

(SMM). The rise of social media in the 21st century has drastically reshaped the field of

marketing, and its benefits have been widely recognized. Through analysis of former cases and

various sources, this paper aims to analyze the impact and successful methods of social media

marketing (SMM) to aid small businesses in establishing a healthy social media presence.

The recent rise of social media has led to a redefining of traditional marketing methods.

Social media are “online platforms that facilitate global collaboration and sharing among

users…. [and] give retailers a wealth of options for reaching potential customers, communication

and collaboration, and creating values to customers” (Carlson, 2015). SMM is a highly attractive

option due to its extreme efficiency in marketing and minimal entry costs. Several studies have

been conducted on various industries examining their usage of SMM. Momany found the bed

and breakfast industry to feature Internet visibility as a strong indicator of competitive advantage

(2016). Similar correlations have been found and discussed in industries ranging from

opthamologists to law firms. This wide range of businesses benefit from a variety of features

SMM has to offer, including spreading information, expanding a customer base, establishing
brand image, and address customer problems, all while limiting costs to almost nothing. In

return, customers are able to “interact and gain information from businesses, provide direct

feedback, and leave recommendations or reviews” (Momany, 2016). This two-way relationship

is the cornerstone to which a healthy and successful SMM plan should be formed upon.

Due to the financial difficulties of the initial stage of running a business, small business

owners should successfully turn to social media to communicate and expand their outreach.

However, because it may be difficult to find a marketing specialist, small businesses usually

must find their own strategy and plan for running SMM. First and foremost of importance are the

basic logistics in beginning a social media plan. Determining one’s brand and audience comes

first. Finding the “personal mission, vision, and values in one’s brand” (Meadows, 2014) can

help focus the brand’s overall image, style, and culture, as well as identifying the specific group

the brand is aiming to market towards. In result, choosing the correct social media tools that

“match best with your firm's culture and the image you want to portray to the public”

(Schiffman, 2010) is imperative. After determining the business’s brand, one must also create an

timeline for SMM and personalize their goals, creating SMART (Specific, Measurable,

Attainable, Realistic, Timely) goals as a guideline. Establishing such a company-wide schedule

and timeline also creates accountability, sets the basic guidelines of engaging in social media and

communicates the vision to the whole organization while providing employee regulation.

Maintaining engagement and expanding its audience comprise the next step for a

business’s SMM plan. Detailing an outline for what to post is imperative; the 70-20-10 rule for

producing content can be a great rule of thumb: “seventy percent is helpful content, 20 percent is

original content, and 10 percent is you being you, letting your audience get to know you”

(Duysen). The latter category involves engagement, essential towards the informational and
promotional benefits of SMM, as it is a strong predictor of online sales and goes hand in hand

with proactivity (Momany, 2016). Letting go of jargon and just being real, engaging with

readers, can allow them to know the business and become a part of the conversation. companies

can “no longer afford to ignore their customers' specific needs or complaints when the

conversation can so easily be made public… the qualities that would make you popular and

likeable at a party--listening carefully, being transparent, being responsive, being authentic, and

telling great stories--will also make your organization likeable on social networks” (Gibson,

2013).

Although small businesses may find it beneficial to focus on organic growth on their

platforms, audience expansion should always be considered and factored into the growth plan.

Social media campaigns can be utilized: waging an “active advertising campaign to promote a

product or service” will draw traffic and engagement to the business (Shafigullina, 2016). These

campaigns can simply involve hashtags, giveaways, and paid promotion.Targeting local media

for exposure is another efficient way to spark interest in the surrounding area.

Responding to feedback in various ways comprises the last major step in an effective

plan. Analytics, are built-in metrics for measuring effectiveness of social media, “platform-

provided analytics [that] collect invaluable demographic data about your followers and how they

engage with your channels” (Tonyan, 2016). Referring to analytics can help one glean the social

network website that referred users to one’s site, along with the number of sessions and

pageviews those users generated, their average session duration, and the average number of

pages they viewed per session. Email marketing to inform and advertise to one’s audience can

also be monitored closely through feedback, such as “track[ing] performance through metrics

like open rates, click-through rates and return on investment (ROI)” (You’ve got, 2017).
Understanding the effectiveness of messages and how to improve them, through means such as

reviews and comments, are additionally important.

In the future, the long-term impacts of SMM will constantly evolve and develop.

Questions regarding the sustainability of print media may push SMM further into the spotlight.

Over-saturation of digital information is rampant, and consumer perceptions are changing to

accommodate this change. Cross-cultural issues should be taken into account when analyzing the

impact of media, placing it accurately into context. While there is no concrete algorithm or

formula to optimize SMM, further research will help elucidate the mysteries behind SMM

success.

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