It's About Marketing More Than Social Media

I recently scrolled across a couple of blog posts by two very different writers who wrote at different times but made essentially the same point that many small businesses can solve their worst problems simply by concentrating more on sales and less on everything else.

That sounds good but it’s simplistic because sales begins with effective marketing, which requires some solid research and planning. Even so, many of us probably have experienced or worked for dysfunctional small businesses that are burdened by too many meetings, too much paperwork, too many ancillary projects or just too many distractions.

Social media, for example, can become a distraction for small businesses with weak or non-existent marketing plans. I read one misguided business adviser urge small-businesses to avoid Facebook, Twitter and social-media marketing altogether. This guy is especially down on blogs, which he described as mostly pointless time wasters created by people who can't write worth a damn and have nothing of particular importance to say in the first place.

He might have a point about some blogs but social media are here to stay and I think small businesses benefit by using them more effectively for marketing rather than rationalizing ways to avoid them.

If you ask me, small-businesses go wrong in social-media marketing where they go wrong in marketing period. They muddle their message. If you don't communicate the right message to the right people in the right place at the right time, your choice of medium won’t compensate for your mistakes.

Marketing probably never was simple for small businesses but it’s safe to say that it might have been a little easier. You joined the chamber of commerce. You bought an ad in the Yellow Pages. You sent mail. You cold called. Maybe you advertised in the newspaper, on radio and television. You had fewer choices to worry about and fewer moving parts. But your results still depended on marketing to the right people with the right message regardless of medium.

Today, small businesses still have have to consider all of the above as well as content, landing pages, keywords, search-engine rankings, social media and mobile apps. Who knows what’s next? I don’t but it won’t be long before it’s here and we’ll all need to think about how to use that, too. Unfortunately, the novelty of this stuff can be so compelling that it’s tempting to think of it wrongly as fundamental marketing rather than as tools of fundamental marketing.

No matter how many “likes” you’ve scored on Facebook, regardless of how many  tweets you’ve twerped or where you show up in certain search rankings, small-business success boils down to sales. If you’re looking to improve, I suggest you begin with your marketing. Who do you need to reach? What do you need to say to them? Figure that out first and the time you spend on social media won’t be wasted.

David is a commercial insurance specialist. He can be reached at 727.916.7429 or by email at FLInsurancenetwork@gmail.com. Read more at his personal blog.