For years, marketing has been dominated by large or corporate companies that have the resources to take positions in television, print or radio space.
Small businesses would remain on the outskirts of marketing efforts, unable to establish a presence in a game in which prestige rules, and eventually crowded out of the advertisement arena by the big dogs.
Because of the success of internet and social media marketing in the last 15 years or so, small businesses are able to play on a more level playing field.
The successes of Curtis Kimball, owner of a San Francisco crème brûlée food truck, which was highlighted in Social Media Today, point to Twitter as an effective marketing tool. However, because Twitter was designed with the individual in mind, businesses may quickly outgrow the features of the standard Twitter platform.
Luckily, third-party applications, some acquired by Twitter itself after recognizing the immense potential of Twitter marketing, have made the fight a little easier for small businesses.
There are many websites that are made to accommodate this growth, such as HootSuite, which allows users to use multiple social media platforms and stay updated with feedback. However, a problem with these kinds of sites is that most small business owners do not have time to balance social media management— another job within itself—with running a business.
There are agencies that can use the resources available for social presence while owners of small businesses do what they do best.
Often these services include other aspects for presence online such as search optimization which helps your small business become easy to spot in the top results in a Google search for example.
Besides Twitter, which can act as a blog which finds people with relevant interests and shares engaging information about your brand, Google+ is a social media platform that can help small businesses.
Any business on Google+ will likely see an SEO (search engine optimization) boost from maintaining an active Google+ page, according to Mashable, an online industry information source. Google+ can also help your brand or shop show up in public-facing features such as Google Places or Google Maps.
“Google+ has a lot of integration with other Google products,” Jacob Smith, marketing director of Zumba Fitness told Mashable, naming Gmail and Google Docs as examples. “We use Google’s full suite of apps internally. While we’re writing on Gmail, we can hop on to Google+ and communicate ideas with coworkers in real-time. If you’re using Facebook [or Skype] like that, you’re jumping through platforms to do the same task.”
Another advantage is that business owners can communicate with an agency if they are unhappy with results instead of making mistakes and being accountable as a company that is new to the social sphere.
If you are looking for an agency that can help with the social management and content that will best suit your needs, Swish Digital can help.
Find us our Facebook, Google+ or Twitter pages.
Swish Digital: Digital Marketing Agency, Social Media