By now, you may think that a business without a social media presence is doomed for bankruptcy, or guaranteed to stay in the business world’s version of purgatory forever. After all, it’s constantly touted as a must-have tool for businesses of all kinds.
Well, if you’re not quite up-to-date with the internet, or if you simply don’t know how to make the most of a social media platform, you can rest easy.
Social media in its current form is less than twenty years old, and the business world was doing perfectly fine before it came along. The old methods of advertising and engaging customers do still work.
So, the question isn’t “can businesses survive without social media”, it’s “what does social media offer that traditional methods, don’t”.
As it turns out, there are quite a few perks to gain from wrestling with the complex social media landscape and embracing the most popular platforms.
Let’s go over some of those perks.
Unlimited Creativity in Marketing
If you want an example of this one, look no further than Wendy’s. As a fairly old burger joint, you expect to see TV ads with flawless burgers and maybe a few coupons sent randomly through the mail.
Well, those traditional ways of encouraging new customers to come to the restaurant work, and Wendy’s still uses them. However, social media gave the company a new way to engage an audience that doesn’t use TV or mail ads to make purchasing decisions: Wendy’s started “roasting” other fast food joints.
By taking snappy jabs at McDonald’s, Burger King, and other fast-food giants, Wendy’s became an internet icon, broadened its target demographic, and got tons of free marketing.
Creative marketing like that isn’t possible with traditional methods. Sure, Wendy’s still gets plenty of customers from its old advertisement channels, but its social media pages, and its unique use of those pages, get the attention of millions who wouldn’t care otherwise.
Instant Dispersal of Information
Before the early aughts, if you were to have a store-wide sale, you’d have to start sending out advertisements, decorating your establishment, and paying big bucks for ad campaigns weeks beforehand. You couldn’t instantly tell everyone about your big sale and get them in the door.
With social media, spreading the word about sales or other need-to-know information has never been easier. Simply making a post instantly puts the information in front of all of your followers, and if you take advantage of built-in post boosting features, you can put that post in front of millions of other people for less than a fraction of what an ad campaign costs.
It’s still a good idea to take advantage of traditional methods, but the ability to get information out immediately, and cheaply, can be the difference between a business surviving, and a business going under due to an unsuccessful last-ditch sale.
Unlimited Potential
Social media’s biggest strength, and the most important way it helps your business survive, is its flexibility and ability to snowball results. In short, it’s not limited like traditional options.
Your business can use social media to market, make major announcements, engage customers, gain valuable feedback, and do a multitude of other things. Most importantly, you can use it for all those things simultaneously, and the results you get can quickly snowball if one of your efforts goes viral.
The traditional way of gaining those same benefits is costly, requires a lot more work, and tends to only engage customers within a specific area or demographic. Social media doesn’t have those limitations.
Your Business Can Survive Without Social Media: Can it Thrive, Though?
Your business can survive without social media. People have been doing it since the days when bartering their goods for necessities was their only option. As you can see, social media offers unlimited potential and invaluable benefits that help you thrive, though. Isn’t that your goal as a business owner?
This can all be intimidating, and that might hold you back from building a web presence. If you find yourself a little overwhelmed or lost while trying to flesh out your social media pages or website, don’t hesitate to contact our experts for help.
