Great Leap Studios works with a lot of small businesses, startups, and sole proprietorships on their content writing and online marketing needs. Many of these companies have small marketing budgets, and often we get into a discussion about whether or not it is worth investing in social media.
Often, the answer is no.
On a very limited budget for a very small business, social media is simply not that likely to provide the payoff that content writing is. It is hard to create a well followed social media account. We work with large businesses with websites that receive over 1,000,000 hits a month, and they only grow by 35 followers a week without advertising. A small business without that type of reach is unlikely to grow their social media at a speed that is beneficial.
But there are situations when, even on a very small budget, investing in social media is worthwhile. These include:
- Social Media is the Future of Your Business
Any company that may depend on social media for the core of their business as a result of the industry that they are in may want to consider social media. Examples include apparel companies and craft companies, which depend on sharing and visualization for growth, and are unlikely to compete with big brand apparel companies in search. If social media is more likely to generate you business than your website is, it is worth investing.
- You Have Money for Ads
Facebook is a closed system. It doesn’t grow automatically. Twitter is a little more open, but even then, it is not easy to grow quickly in most industries. The ability to invest a lot of money in ads can make social media more worthwhile, since you can reach your target market directly, but not every company has that investment available.
- You Can Help
For new social media accounts, there is a limit to what we can do without advertising or help. Your willingness to promote your social media to your customers, clients, and friends will help. If you are going to keep your social media profiles a secret, and not try to get your friends or clients interested in following you, growth will be slower.
Electing for Social Media
That said, social media can be a highly advantageous marketing tool, and companies with a larger online marketing budget should strongly consider investing in some type of social media presence. Even if the investment is small, keeping your social media updated regularly can give you a head start if you ever plan to increase its use in the future.
