Running head: SHOULD SMALL BRANDS USE SOCIAL MEDIA?

Should Small Brands Use Social Media?

Zachary Lewis

Arizona State University

ENG 102
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Should Small Brands Use Social Media

Social media is applications that allow users to connect with online communities, share interests,

and produce content. At the start of the social media age, platforms were unfamiliar with

businesses having accounts. The majority of the social media population consisted of the average

consumer. But as social media started having a global impact on society, businesses started to

become attracted to the idea of social media. After the beginning of the 21st century, more and

more companies have become more engaged in social media. Now, social media is

over-populated with business and brand accounts.

Nowadays social media has enabled users to have a business account. A business account can be

very helpful in many ways to small companies. Business accounts provide tools such as post

promotion, data analytics, and providing contact information. Additionally, during post

promotion, social media platforms provide the choice of tailoring the advertisement to a specific

audience. Features like these play an important role in brand success. Consequences of adding

these features consist of an increase in brand awareness, sales, consumer loyalty, website traction

and an eye for competition.

Before social media, getting a brand name in front of the public eye was very challenging. The

most efficient way to increasing brand awareness was to get in the newspaper, or having an

article written. But, in the present time it is really easy for consumers to see the content of a

brand. For example, a business post a picture on Instagram of a new product that is releasing

soon and their audience is liking, commenting, and sharing. The post has a high chance of

gaining exposure because “ 60 percent of Instagram users say they discover new products on the
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platform.” (Newberry, 2018). The more engagement and retention a post gets, the higher chance

it has to being seen.

The platform recognizes the engagement and places it on the discover page for all Instagram

users to see. Although social media has that discover feature, it is not always the most efficient.

The majority of small businesses do not have a large initial following. Due to that, their posts

will not have a great amount of traction because a few comments, and the likes are not enough to

get a post on the discover page. A more effective way to promote a business is by word of mouth

which comes through collaboration. For instance, if a small brand sponsored an influencers

video, then the influencer’s following will be more inclined to buy a product because they value

and trust the influencer’s opinion.

One of the best things a small brand can do to push their message is to collaborate, not with other

businesses, but with social media influencers. Collaborating with influencers is the smartest

marketing tool a brand could ever use in the 21st century. Influencers have a great amount of

authority on the internet and are really valuable to small brands. These social media moguls have

the power to make any brand successful because of their large following. Equally important, the

fans of these moguls respect and value their work because of the impact it has on their life. So, if

a small brand collaborates with an influencer, the brand will experience an increase in brand

awareness, and consumer loyalty.

After a small brand begins to become noticed, the next move is to make sure that the consumers

stay engaged. The best way to have an engaged audience is to initiate a family-like community.

The simplest ways to have great audience retention is responding to comments related to posts,

provide the brands values in a post, using hashtags so consumers can find the content easier and
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quicker, and linking the company website in the page bio. Furthermore, another route that can be

taken is to collaborate with social media influencers. Collaborating with influencers on different

platforms gets the brand product and message out to another consumer demographic, which will

spread brand awareness and accumulate more consumer loyalty.

Conversely, people support brands for their message and what they value. But, not every

business withholds good values and that is why “Consumers today are having difficulty trusting

a brand’s intentions.” ( Llopis, 2016). If people are not attracted to the message or tricked by the

message then the loyalty that the consumer once gave to the brand is gone. As an example, Gucci

had advertised a new product in February of 2019 that quickly became controversial. The

product was a black turtleneck that covered half of the face and the mouth contained an opening

with red lips around it. After the product surfaced the web, Gucci eventually received an

enormous amount of backlash from the consumers and social media users. Majority of the

comments were referencing that the brand contains racism because the sweater resembled a

caricature of African Americans called blackface, which was released during Black History

Month. Gucci’s situations is a great example because it shows how consumer loyalty works.

Consumer loyalty is really important for small brands because it is directly proportional to an

increase in sales.

One ultimate goal for any business besides non-profits is an increase in sales. Through the use of

social media, brands can make that dream come to reality. The easy add on for businesses is the

website link tool within the bio. It allows brands to insert their website url, which makes buying

easier, quicker, and more efficient. In this case, on Nike’s Facebook page the link is at the top of

their bio and once clicked on takes the consumer to the online store. On the other hand, people
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clicking a link in a brand’s bio does not equal a guaranteed sale. A click just means that a person

is interested in the products or certain products. Also sales can fluctuate despite the platform the

website link is on. In spite of this, having the link in a social media bio is more beneficial than

counterintuitive because it is an easy way for consumers to find the products they need and it

increases website traction.

For business accounts, social media platforms have added a promotion button. After a brand

posts a picture or video, an option to advertise that post is available. During the finalization of

the ad, the platform will enable the brand to choose who to target and for how long. At the same

time, to run an advertisement requires having a good amount of money. For example, “

SocialTimes released an infographic in May that pegged the average cost of a social media

campaign at $210,000.” ( Mueller, 2011). Every small brand does not have or want to spend

averagely $210,000 per ad to reach a great amount of people. Due to most of small businesses

having a limited budget, $210,000 is unreasonable, and non-negotiable. Although this may be

true, there are other various solutions to create website traffic for small businesses. This includes

distributing content from a website onto their social media pages, and to “use a pinned post to

highlight a landing page on your website that is relevant to the chat.”(Newberry, 2018).If a small

brand uses these techniques and get no results, it will not hurt the business to step back and

reflect.

On social media, people have the ability to follow, or to peep any user account that is not private.

Since business accounts can not be private, a brand can check out a competitor's page, then

compare and contrast to see what they could improve on. Also, reflection can be super beneficial

for small businesses so they can learn from a bigger brand and use that set of skills for the
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betterment of an aspect in their brand. Differing from this, the concept will have businesses

distracted from their own goals. If a business gets caught up in a comparison then they will lose

sight of the brands purpose. Brand comparison is not unlikely and false, but if these tactics are

used in the correct manner, then a business should expect good results.

Social media is the best thing that has ever happened to small brands. Specifically, over the last

several years, social platforms have incorporated a system that has been responsible for small

brands gaining notoriety. Social medias latest features call small brands to prosperity. With the

new social advancements there should be no excuse for a business not to reach its goals. Such as,

having a promotion button on post, linking the website in the bio, and having some form of

communication (i.e., email). Additionally, to accent those tasks, a business can build a

family-like community, and engage its consumers through a flow of transparency.

Brands will always encounter episodes of inadequate monetary resources, consumer deficiency,

sale fluctuation, decrease in audience retention, and constant distractions. Although those things

will occur, social media is still more beneficial than deficient. Everything social media has to

offer businesses will most likely not be detrimental. The only part of social media that can hurt a

brand is promotions, due to the money needed to reach a great number of people. But that is only

a small piece of the puzzle. Other techniques such as building an online community are free.

Brand awareness, consumer loyalty, high sale rates, and website traction are byproducts of

building an online community.

Social media has revolutionized business transactions. Business prosperity that was once

orthodox, is now unorthodox. Before social media began, it took businesses longer to reach their

audience. In the present day, by the click of a button, a brand can connect with their audience
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quicker and more efficiently. So, now is the time for people who have business endeavors to start

them. Future businessmen and women have the opportunity of a lifetime right in front of them.

The question is what will they do, when the opportunity presents itself.
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References

Hardy, Q. (2012, July 12). Big Business's Social Media Buying Frenzy. Retrieved from
https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/12/big-businesss-social-media-buying-frenzy/

Llopis, G. (2016, August 09). Consumers Are No Longer Brand Loyal. Retrieved from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2014/12/10/consumers-are-no-longer-brand-loya
l/#4e7e681b2ae0

Morrissey, J. (2017, November 26). Brands Heed Social Media. They're Advised Not to
Forget Word of Mouth. Retrieved from
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/26/business/media/advertising-social-media.html

Mueller, M. (2011, June 20). Should Every Business Invest in Social Media? Retrieved from
https://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/20/should-every-business-invest-in-social-m
edia/

Newberry, C. (2018, May 02). 23 Benefits of Social Media for Business. Retrieved from
https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-for-business/

Social networks: The future of marketing for small business. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/02756660910987581

Usage, barriers and measurement of social media marketing: An exploratory investigation of

small and medium B2B brands. (2011, October 07). Retrieved from
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019850111001374