If you’re a small business owner, then what do you spend nearly all of your time on?
I’m going to argue that the #1 problem small business has with social media is TIME!
If you’re like me, or the small business owners I know, then you are almost exclusively consumed with your day – to – day operation. From the time you wake up, until the time you go to sleep, your small business operation is absolutely dominating your time.
And it’s even more difficult to commit the time and effort to social media marketing, blogging, and other “online brand building” activity because of the patience required. I mean, you can’t build a new blog for your business, product, or service and expect it to have a large following over night.
Building an audience for your blog, on your Facebook Fan Page, and on your Twitter profile takes many months of concerted effort.
So what’s a small business owner to do?
Get Started Right Now
My advice is this – you need to build a blog, business a Facebook Fan Page, and get your Twitter profile up right now. And then start putting whatever time you can into these platforms by writing about your business, products, and services.
Getting start right now means everything. It means that your online presence has started, even if you don’t have a lot of time right now to put into it. It also means that compared to your competition, you’re already 80% ahead of the curve. This is because the majority of your competitors are small business owners just like you and aren’t building an online presence for the same reasons you aren’t.
The Snow Ball Effect
Your presence, and your audience, on the web will grow a lot like a snow ball rolling down a hill. It starts off really small – it doesn’t hold together real well – it’s very difficult to get going – and the effort to get the snowball rolling across the ground to grow is exponential.
BUT…. once that snowball starts picking up even a little bit of momentum, it quickly takes form into a nice round ball. This now makes it easier to roll, requiring less effort along the way. And not only is the snowball becoming easier to roll, with each full rotation, the snow ball is growing in size at an exponential rate. And soon enough, you have this massive snowball that can literally be launching pad of a self sustained avalanche.
The Take A Way
I want you to know that starting a blog, a Facebook Fan Page, and a Twitter profile, and then working these platforms for your business is not easy. It will require a lot of your time, effort, and patience, and at the beginning, you’ll not see a whole lot of production from your efforts.
Sure, building these things are not difficult, and in most cases free. But as I’m sure you know, when it comes to the web “if I build it they will come” strategies absolutely do not work.
But if you get started now with these things, start putting what ever amount of time you can into them (even if it’s a little bit here and there), you will eventually start seeing the return on your efforts.
And ultimately, as your snowball (your online presence and brand) grows from something small and insignificant in to a large snowball that can cause an avalanche, you’ll own a platform that can literally dominate your niche market.
2 replies on “The #1 Problem Small Business Has With Social Media”
I understand the benifits and importance of Social Media sites, but i do find that using them for promotion is dreary and time comsuming.
I would much rather spend time on building and maintaining content that my users truly appreciate, content that actually helps them and content that draws in organic traffic.
Just my thoughts.
You’re absolutely right! And thanks for adding your comment. As a small business generating content via blogs, Facebook, twitter, etc… you have to be generating content that provides value to your readers. People are not going to visit your blog, or at least return after their first visit, if your content is not delivering valuable insights.
People don’t want to be marketed to – they want to be helped and served. If you can find a way to extract meaning, serving, and helping customers with your business products and services, and the provide content with that in mind, then your audience will grow and ultimately you will be, in essence, marketing your business.
Thanks again for your comments SEO Advice! Let me ask you quickly – would you be interested in writing here at Social Media SEO? All of your articles are allowed a signature block that can include up to 2 links (one for your URL and one keyword phrase) at the bottom of each of your articles – let me know!