“Your mission, small business owner, should you choose to accept it, is to grow your company without using social media. As always, should you or your business fail miserably, feel free to disavow any knowledge of your actions. Your company will self-destruct in three years…or less. Good luck!”
Breaking into CIA headquarters? No sweat. Climbing the world’s tallest building in Dubai? Easy as pie. Hanging on for dear life outside an airplane 5,000 feet above sea level? Still doable. But try succeeding in today’s ultra-competitive business landscape without social media and I’ll guarantee you a quick one-way trip to Bankruptcy Island.
Today, it’s hard to imagine a business without social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other networks are fundamentally changing how we reach and interact with customers, offer products and services, communicate with employees, and do business. But it’s amazing how many small business owners still remain confused about what social media does and how it can contribute to a business.
For those still on the fence, let’s make the case for social media with hard numbers, as opposed to anecdotes and soundbites. Three-quarters of online adults now use social media sites, according to the Pew Internet Project. If we’re talking just about young people, that number jumps dramatically higher. More telling, however, is how much people are using social media, with the average user logged in for nearly 1.7 hours every day or 12 hours a week, according to Global Web Index. Millennials watch more YouTube than TV. Facebook’s 2 billion monthly active users around the world spend an average of 20-plus minutes a day, every day, 365 days a year, on the network. No wonder that social media now drives more traffic to websites than search engines.
The majority of U.S. companies get it. Both their customers and their competitors are on social media — it would make no sense for them not to be there, too. 9 out of 10 are already using social media, and they’re already seeing concrete results: 90% of businesses see increased exposure and more than half report improved sales from social media. So let’s put the social media ROI question to bed once and for all.
But the reality is that many businesses outside the U.S. still aren’t on social, and even those that often fail to tap social media’s full potential. A McKinsey Global Institute Report concludes that social technologies stand to unlock $1.3 trillion in business value, and yet, only 3% of businesses are maximizing this opportunity. Marketing, it turns out, is just the tip of the social media iceberg. Social tools are being used to streamline customer service, for shopping and commerce, for product development, sales, and HR. Social applications like Slack has changed collaboration inside companies, breaking down silos and boosting productivity.
So why aren’t more businesses on board? For starters, there’s an ever-increasing number of social networks out there; the options are changing all the time and it can seem overwhelming. Aside from that, there’s still a real reluctance on the part of decision-makers to dedicate resources to social media, partly because results can be hard to measure. However, both these issues are eminently solvable. Social media education and onboarding programs have come of age — strategy and structure is out there, oftentimes free, for those looking to design a social media plan. Meanwhile, improved web tools can now track and quantify social media efforts, validating results in dollars-and-cents terms. The argument so often cited by executives — that social media is too fluid and unquantifiable to merit serious consideration — no longer holds true.
Admittedly, it can be daunting to consider the funding, resources, and time needed to create a social media team. On the other hand, you still need the personnel to properly manage all social media channels across the entire business. Here at Remote Staff, we help companies around the world, both big and small, to set up and manage their own low-cost remote social media team. Whether you’re looking for social media managers, content creators, or community managers, if the skills required can be sourced in the Philippines, then the activities can be outsourced to Remote Staff.
Nearly 3 billion people—more than a quarter of the planet—are on social media. Make it your “mission” to invest in a social media team to ensure the survival of your business. Click on the button below to get in touch with a Remote Staff outsourcing expert today.
