When Small Businesses Have a Face on Facebook

It is just another day when Lucy logs into her Facebook account for her usual daily social networking, which is as indispensible for her as her square meals. She 'likes' a few status updates of her friends, comments on a few photographs and then notices an invitation from Mark to a new Indian restaurant, 'Namaste', in her neighborhood. The invitation takes her to the 'fan page' of the restaurant, where she finds a link to the restaurant's website. She browses through the menu and is excited to try out their spicy snack - 'Raj Kachori' with the milk-based drink - 'Meethi Lassi'.

With almost 500 million active users, Facebook provides one of the most powerful platforms for small businesses to build an online presence. Linkedin, with 35 million users and Twitter, with 50 million users are other important tools to leverage social media. A marketing methodology that barely existed a decade back is now one of the most effective and inexpensive ways for small businesses to do online marketing.
The below video is an advertisement for the firm Constant Contact, that helps more than 400,000 small businesses to build successful, lasting customer relationships through e-mail marketing, online surveys and event marketing tools.



Today, social marketing is being used not just by small businesses, but also by larger ones like Dunkin' Donuts, which has found value in microblogging using Twitter, and Johnson and Johnson, which has established its digital footprint using Youtube, Facebook and blogging. Some of the direct benefits of social media are Search Engine Optimization (SEO), for higher ranks on search results, and access to a broader base of supporters. Tools like Google Analytics can help companies to accurately evaluate the success of their marketing efforts, through analysis of detailed statistics of visitors to their website. Considering the low cost and skill requirements, it definitely makes sense for businesses to utilize the available tools to encash on the benefits.

However, a company needs to strategize how to make the best use of the tools. For instance, a company needs to have answers to questions like:

• What are the goals we aim to achieve through the marketing effort?
• Who is our target audience?
• What 'image' or 'personality' would we want our company to have on the social media channels?
• What resources (e.g. man-hours) are we ready to dedicate to this?
• What tools should we use?
• Is there a particular medium that the target audience prefers over the others?
• How can we monitor and act upon the audiences' responses?

Since businesses today have a number of options like online networking websites (Facebook, Linkedin), blogs (Wordpress, Blogger.com) and mobile social networks (Foursquare, Yelp), answers to the above questions will play a critical role in determining a company's success in its social media marketing efforts.

Other Sources: Small Business Marketing, BusinessWeek