Social media has disrupted how small to mid-size businesses conduct business from marketing to selling to even customer service.
The Fourth Annual Small Business Survey conducted by Clutch, a B2B research firm, discovered 36 percent of small businesses do not have a website. This survey also revealed 21 percent of small businesses use social media instead of a website site to engage their customers.
The rationale for this decision to use social media instead of a website is the cost factor. Given social media for the most part has no upfront cost other than time, any investment beyond free is potentially viewed in a negative light. One interesting fact from this survey of 351 small business owners is just under 30 percent of the 351 established websites for less than $500.
Possibly these three factors along with cost should be considered.
*Control: When a small business has only a social media presence, there is no control. The control is in the hands of the owner of the social media site. For example, Facebook continues to announce changes in its algorithms that may present disadvantages to a small business. The most recent change included de-emphasizing in the news feeds posts from other organizations that user followers. Possibly in the future, what was free, such as your own dedicated YouTube Channel could be subject to a storage charge for past videos.
*Conversion: Having an online presence is really about securing new sales leads and converting them to actually paid clients. To secure new sales leads or traffic requires search engine optimization for your particular products or services. Even though your business page on a social media site may show up high in a Google Search, that doesn’t necessarily translate to converting those visitors to your social media business page.
*Customization: Your website is your online presence. It should be customized to fit the solutions you offer. For many customization suggests the ability to brand the online presence. Branding usually includes a logo or some other identifying trademark for your small business.
According to Marilee Jacobi-Popovich of POPovichDESIGN located in Highland, she revealed that many so called unique logo designs logos can be easily found via a quick search and are not unique even though the customer has paid for a one of a kind design.
Jacobi-Popovich also shared that by engaging in due diligence through Reverse Google Image Search any individual can find if there are other exact “unique images.” She emphasized “Be wary of any logo design company claiming it can deliver a logo for $99 in 48 hours. These logo designs are not ‘trademarkable’ and are a dime a dozen.”
Your small business online presence is your storefront in cyberspace. How you build that presence works with your yearly and future business goals. Again, as I have written before, that choice is all yours.
Leanne Hoagland-Smith is an author, speaker and executive coach. Her weekly column explores issues that impact the bottom line of firms with fewer than 100 employees. She can be reached at 219-508-2859.