Social Media - Big & Small
Finally getting things back on track people! Welcome back to the real me, the one who posts on a regular basis, consistently (providing I have no more technical difficulties that is).
Today I’m going to lightly discuss the partnership between small businesses and non-profit businesses and social media. How they utilize, the benefits and more, buckle up boys and girls and read on!
Social media is a very low cost effective way for a small business to make a huge difference and is now viewed as an essential tool for most small and non-profit businesses. A huge part of being in business is marketing. Social media is a great vehicle to get your business out there amongst the community, to grow your brand and boost sales. Once Social Media platforms like facebook were born and matured, businesses started to realise just how powerful they were and the results they can produce. Lets take a look into the difference between business types (profit and non-profit), their relationship with social media itself and the effects.
A small business can be described as your local plumber, builder, dentist or potentially your favourite coffee shop. These types of businesses usually have a maximum of roughly 20 employees and could be a franchise or a stand alone brand. To compare, an example of a large business would the likes of a national company, such as Spark or Fonterra. These are big time players in their industry, usually are the leaders pathing the way and generally have hundreds of employees.
A not for profit business is a business that provides its services coincidently not for a profit, commonly known as charities. The profits they receive from mainly donations and events planned to provide awareness for a cause they are supporting go straight back into the community or specific cause.
Small businesses and non-profits can use social media in several ways for several purposes. Let’s take a local great for example “Lone Star”. They use their facebook and Instagram to take photos of their menu items, plated and ready to eat. Not only is this great on the eyes, not to mention mouth-watering but it gives a visual representation of what you could be eating at your next wine and dine, enticing you to choose them as your next venue, be it a personal visit (B2C) or a work function (B2B). this gets their product out there, their brand or name heard and helps promote further word of mouth which we all know is the king of marketing.
A Non-profit business is as mentioned a business that has a cause opposed to a product and uses its profits for that cause opposed to going in the pockets of its employees or stakeholders. Unicef is a great example of this type of business structure/type. Unicef use social media to help attract donations from all types of people. They help support those in need over in third world countries and are the link between themselves and us. Unicef use social media just like Lone star but instead of promoting themselves or their products they use it to promote and create awareness around a particular cause. By providing cause awareness, they ask a small donation to help provide aid for the particular cause/crisis or people in need. This too can and is not limited to B2B or B2C.
Where there’s a will there’s a way but with this comes risks, like most things in life. Fun fact for today, did you know that more than half of the SME now have an online presence? Over half, that’s a big movement. Still, a little less than half still haven’t made that commitment. Why is this?
Do they not feel the need?
Do they feel the risks outweigh the benefits?
When a business makes the switch and uses Social Media for some of the reasons mentioned above, concern and risks in cyber security arise. Businesses, big and small should ideally allocate one person as the social media marketing agent. Some business outsource this practice, others keep it in-house. Regardless, issues arise when wrong content goes out, the wrong message could be heard/read from the content posted, perhaps posting too much gives off a needy untrusted image. There are many factors that can potentially hurt a company if social media is done wrong.
All in all, Social media is a must for businesses. We aren’t in your granddaddy’s time any more. We as a global unit are moving to an online world. Why fight the current, time to embrace the benefits of becoming online.
Thanks for viewing my blog, until next time!
Brok Milligan
16092592
I'd absolutely love your feedback. Please by all means be harsh. Yes, design wise I can make it look pretty. However content wise, never blogged properly before in my life!
All a learning game, never the less we're all in the same boat or in this case the same paper!
PLEASE NOTE: This is a blog for the purpose of a Massey University paper and is part of an assignment.