2. Introduction
“Social media marketing refers to the process of gaining
traffic or attention through social media sites.”
Over 9M small business use social media
74% of consumers rely on social networks to guide
purchase decisions
3. Disadvantage
Advantages s
• Contact thousands of • Negative viral publicity
– Can’t control what people
people
say
• Brand awareness • Requires constant updates
• Increase traffic website. and monitoring
• Ads have negative effect
• Generate leads and
– Not a place for a hard sell
social communities • Requires knowledgeable
• Listen to customers individuals
• Limited resources of small
• Cheap
businesses
4. Good Example - Southport
Dental
• Engage and educate
customers
5. Good Example – Timbuk2
Bags
Bag Customization Business
http://timbuk2sf.tumblr.com/ http://www.timbuk2.com/tb2/
6. Good Example – Timbuk2
Bags
• Engaged in conversation (surveys, questions)
• Monitored conversations (Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr)
• Discovered: Would-be customers were put off by wide variety of
choices and feelings of design inadequacy
• Updated Tumbler to show all bags ever created – Bag of the week
on Facebook
• Saved $20,000 on customer research programme
10. Bad Example – Need-A-Cake
• Used Groupon campaign to advertise company and increase traffic
• Hard Sell
• Quick Fix Solution
• High discounts (75% off)
• Loss of £2.50 per order plus £12,500 extra in costs for staff and distribution
• Wiped out profits of 2011
11. Dos Donts
• Plan • Hard sell
• Show who you are • Look for a quick fix
• Get badly needed • Don’t be everywhere
feedback • Post obvious ads
• Be selective and focused • Spam
• Create amazing
incentives
• Capitalize on and boost
your word of mouth
marketing
12. Discussion Questions
Do you think negative feedback from SSM can be of
benefit to small businesses?
Because of the limited resources of small business,
what forms of social media, out of the 200+, do you
believe is the most effective for small businesses?
