This is the type of article Search Engine Land is known for, frankly, all small business owners need to read this.
Maybe the size of a company has never been pondered by the employees or consultants who are managing their social media campaigns. However, whether or not a company is considered a small business or a big company can make a significant difference in overall strategy, timeliness, and overall presence on social networks like Facebook, FourSquare, and Twitter.
Small businesses may automatically be thought of as the “underdogs” when compared to large brands and multi-million dollar companies. But when it comes to social media, this isn’t always the case. Many small businesses have used their size as an advantage to create an innovative and successful online social media marketing strategy.
On the other hand, large businesses have used their influence and history to extend their heavy brand presence into the digital forum. As with anything, there are advantages and disadvantages for both small and large businesses when it comes to social media.
The Innovation Brewing In Small Businesses
Small businesses become successful by either thinking of the ideas that no one else has before or taking an established norm and doing it better in their community and for their customers. Small business owners and employees are more likely to work harder because they have more invested into the business and they are affected dramatically when it succeeds or fails.
This connectivity to the lifeblood of the business can certain be to its advantage, as employees may be more eager to do their job in a new and innovative way. Because small businesses inherently have fewer employees than bigger companies, they also have less “red tape” to move through when they are posting content on Twitter or completing a custom tab on Facebook.
These types of tasks may be checked by 4-5 different employees at a large company, whereas a social media coordinator at a small business may only need to ask the owner or an office manager for approval, if anyone at all. This may lead to better ideas being approved and live on social networking profiles more quickly.
Another social media immersion tactic that small businesses can utilize faster than big companies or nationwide brands is their presence on new social networking websites. For instance, it would be much easier for a single ice cream parlor with one location to sign up for FourSquare and begin creating check-in deals than it would for a nationwide chain like Baskin Robbins, who even if a single owner is a franchiser of the chain, may need to get approval from their corporate headquarters before beginning a sponsored FourSquare deal.
Even though the ability to try new networks and marketing tactics faster and to be more innovative, there can be great stressors placed on a small business that big companies may not have as much trouble with.