Social Media a Bust for Small Businesses

According to a new survey published by Manta, a social network dedicated to small businesses, about 61 percent of small businesses don’t see any ROI from their social media activity. Despite this recently published statistic, only 7 percent of small businesses have decreased their time spent on the social media sites while 50 percent say they've actually increased their time. Social media has been in the forefront of personal connection and has spearheaded many business and financial developments. Some businesses are even using different sites to hire new employees, choosing their online presence over their resumes. Enterasys Systems has been in the news lately due to their unorthodox decision to hire based on Tweets rather than CVs. While social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are useful, unless a business owner knows how to utilize its function, just having a page won’t necessarily drive traction and fans. Regina Hartt, owner of Hartt’s Pool Plastering in Turlock, Calif., claims that the market for construction is so saturated that potential clients aren't going to be swayed by how many fans her Facebook page has, she mentions to USA Today. Some small businesses also claim Facebook pages don’t generate as much incoming business as word-of-mouth referrals. While social media won’t send fans running to businesses, some say it has been an immensely successful and supplementary tool for their marketing efforts. Toppers Pizza*, a pizza delivery franchise based out of Whitewater, Wisc., claims their interaction with fans on social media sites allows them to speak to their main demographic of college students. “Our numbers are proven, the steps we've taken on social media have jump started the conversation with fans,” said Scott Gittrich, CEO of Toppers Pizza. “Inquires have increased more than 500 percent and the traffic to our franchise site is up more than 1,000 percent over last year.” Fan interaction and fan count can be useful to small brands like Toppers as their main focus is customers ages 18-35, and whose average fans-per-location far surpasses their larger competitors. Like Toppers Pizza, Pita Pit, a pita shop based out of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, sees the benefit of social media and takes advantage of communicating with their fans through platforms familiar to them. The restaurant, which offers a healthier alternative to fast food, creates custom handmade pitas served fast. Contributing to their success and steady growth throughout the year, Pita Pit’s social footprint has created brand awareness that they've been able to build through alternative outlets. Most recently, Pita Pit launched Battle of the Pita Pits, a three month-long social contest that encouraged fans to rally and vote via Facebook for locations in their individual communities. This helped them maintain a competitive advantage over other similar concepts. “We've been able to generate extreme awareness of our brand through the power of Social Media – a platform that all of our guests use and rely on,” said Peter Riggs, VP of Brand Promotion for Pita Pit. “As a result of the campaign, we were able to see an increase in interaction, engagement and overall responsiveness both online and in-store.” Many businesses are known to give up if their social media interactions aren't working. Social media should supplement marketing campaigns, not replace them, as noted by Stephanie Schwab, CEO of Crackerjack Marketing. Having a clear plan of what a social media campaign should accomplish while understanding and accepting the nature of these sites, will help small business owners utilize these resources to their advantage. While Facebook was cited as the hardest social-media platform to maintain, in this day and age, it’s definitely worth the effort.