Social Media Marketing For Small Businesses
Have you ever used the internet to connect with relatives or friends, shop for clothes or car, sign up for school or view medical records?
You’re not alone.
I worked as a salesman for a mattress store in San Francisco. When I started, the business was not listed on any social media platform, except one. Existing customers created a Yelp page for the business and left good reviews that brought more customers. Still, the owner of the business was unaware of where new customers come from except that they are from ‘online’. Now, I realized that this an opportunity I can pursue, so I proposed to work on branding the business on social media platforms. I was able attract more customers and increase conversion rate because customers were able to see inventory online and they got choose what best works for them.
Areas of Interest
A. Social Impact
A Social Media Influencer is a user on social media who has established credibility in a specific industry. A social media influencer has access to a large audience and can persuade others by virtue of their authenticity and reach, “Social media influence is a marketing term that describes an individual’s ability to affect other people’s thinking in a social online community. The more influence a person has, the more appeal that individual has to companies or other individuals who want to promote an idea or sell a product.” (Rosemary Cafasso, 2019)
Users on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat earn money right through their phone in the comfort of their homes. Some are models, other are artists, all of them promote a service or a product. It can be their own product or service, or others. This is the perfect time to start a social media marketing service because the internet is accessible by anyone and more people shop online more than a physical store. In fact, many store locations like Macy’s and Sleep Train closed their stores and redirected their attention to e-commerce and social media advertisements.
B. Economic Impact
According to statista.com, an online statistic website, “in 2016, 209.6 million U.S. people were online shoppers and had browsed products, compared prices or bought merchandise online at least once. These figures are projected to reach 230.5 million in 2021, positioning the United States as of one the leading e-commerce markets based on online shopper penetration.” (J. Clement, 2019) More people are turning to online shopping because of the variety in vendors, prices and qualities. In addition to free shipping, most suppliers offer free exchange and return to help the consumers to make purchases.
Businesses are turning to the power of the internet to meet the needs of consumers and to generate additional income. Many small businesses don’t use social media as a way to brand their business and attract more customers. Simply because business owners are unaware of technology developments and don’t know how to implement it.
C. Information Technology
With the rise of online shoppers (demand), the number the of suppliers (supply) in the market grew exponentially. Opportunities to sell online from the comfort of home became available to anyone with smart device and connection to the internet. Consumers benefit from variety of vendors which creates competitive prices and qualities. While, suppliers face the need to compete with other vendors to acquire a share in the market. Suppliers with helpful and relevant information are visible to consumers and ones that lack relevant content are shown last with minimal chance of a user making a purchase. A key ingredient to having a successful business is choosing the right software to manage business activities, marketing and consumer concerns.
D. Industry Leaders
Salesforce is a multi-billion dollar company that offers management software for businesses. They are the best solution for medium to large size companies. My solution is designed for small to medium size companies. Since, many small businesses are not using management software to market their business, and can’t afford to hire a salesforce specialist or run the software on their own, my solution would be the one stop for all. Once you enter in your inventory, website, and social media accounts, my software will create the best ad campaigns and would post frequently on social media to drive-in traffic. It will allow social media influencers to gain access to wide variety of products they can promote and earn commission.
Every successful business uses some kind of management software to help them with inventory and sales. Salesforce is a customer relationship management software that provides marketing, sales and commerce. “Salesforce.com is designed to automate a sales management process. If you don’t have a clearly defined sales management process, then you’re just not ready for Salesforce.com” (salesforcetraining.com) Salesforce can be a waste of time and resources if a business has undefined sales process. Thus making Salesforce a good quality tool but very effortful to operate successfully. Alternatively, HubSpot is an inbound marketing and sales software that helps companies attract visitors, convert leads and close customers. (HubSpot.com) HubSpot tools allow businesses to integrate it within their wordPress website using a plugin that’s easy to install. Most of HubSpot tools are cheap or free to use making it convenient for small business.
E. User Research
User research is critical because it helped me identify problems that businesses have and solutions that that social media influences users have in common. After interviewing a local business owner Albert, who runs a mattress and rug store, I learned that he struggles with online marketing. Albert is 65 years old and was born in Morocco. Growing up, he had no access to the internet. When he got older, he never used the internet to post anything on social media platforms. Instead, he would use mail services and phone calls to deliver his messages. Albert is clearly not a social media influencer, he lacks the skills to run a successful social media campaign. Furthermore, when I asked Albert how he manages his business transactions he showed me a paper book where he writes all the sales records.
On the other hand, social media influencers master the art of marketing so they are able to launch a successful social media campaign. But, they face competition in the market because other influencers are promoting the same products. For example, I interviewed Mike, who is a social media marketing agent, he does drop shipping “selling goods to customers and using that money to buy goods from manufacturers and shipping directly to customers,” Says Mike. The hardest thing about drop shipping is negotiating prices so the influencer can make a reasonable commission for the work. Mike decides a competitive price for a product he is promoting, but finds out that another influencer is selling the same product for less so he re-adjust his price.
After doing more research, Mike discovered that the manufacturer is also selling the same products online for their wholesale price plus shipping; still cheaper than Mike’s asking. This means that when customers are shopping online, they would compare Mike’s product with other sellers and determine that Mike is not the best person to buy from because he’s price is high. As a result, influencers are gradually dismissing drop shipping and looking for other alternatives.
In theory, drop shipping is a great way for influencers to monetize their content without having to do a lot of work up front. But when you dig down a bit further, there are a lot of competitions that they need to be aware of. I asked Mike if he wants to promote products and services from local businesses instead, he said “of course, if they can pay me!” When I asked Albert to allow somebody to run his social media in hopes of selling more products he said, “of course, if they can sell my products online or bring me new customers, I will be happy to pay them a commission.”
Both the business owner, Albert, and influencer, Mike, have common problems and solutions they can offer each other to solve their problems. My solution is a platform that allows business owners to outsource influencers and for influencers to discover local products and businesses they are passionate about to promote on their channels.
F. Solution
I help business owners and social media influencers, achieve success, through sales promotions and sponsorships. A unified platform that brings businesses and influencers together to work on a common goal, sell as much products and services as possible. Local businesses benefit the most from my solution because they will gain more exposure online using the help of influencers.
As a business owner, I can register my business on the platform, once my business is verified as a legitimate business, I will gain access to the Business Dashboard. There I can add more information about my business such as business description, products and services, contact information and banking information. When adding products, I will be asked to enter in a commission rate or fix price that I am willing to pay to an influencer if they make a sell. Then I will navigate to my landing page for my business and see display all of my products and services. The landing page is the page that Influencers will see when they are searching for products and services to promote. On the dashboard, I can manage activities and track analytics.
As an influencer, I can sign up for an Influencer account using one of my social media accounts or using my email account. I will use my LinkedIn account to sign up because it is my professional page and it contains my track records. First, I will need to build my portfolio using my linkedIn resume. This page is what prospect clients will see when they are looking to hire an influencer so adding enough information about my track records will help attract more clients. Then I will gain access to the Influencer Dashboard where I search for products and services to promote or clients to work with. After searching through the list of products and services, I picked couple products from the Electronics category and added them to my landing page. On the dashboard page, I can see how many visitors are visiting my landing page, I can see messages from Clients and Customers and be able to respond to them.
Citation
Statista. (2019). Number of digital shoppers in the U.S. 2021 | Statista. [online] Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/183755/number-of-us-internet-shoppers-since-2009/ [Accessed 20 Sep. 2019].
SearchCustomerExperience. (2019). What is Social Media Influence?. [online] Available at: https://searchcustomerexperience.techtarget.com/definition/social-media-influence [Accessed 20 Sep. 2019].
Sales Force Training. (2019). So, Why is Salesforce.com Just So Darn Hard?. [online] Available at: https://www.salesforcetraining.com/so-why-is-salesforce-com-just-so-darn-hard/ [Accessed 20 Sep. 2019].
