Why Social Media is a Waste of Time for Most Local Businesses

Posted by Paul Colligan on Tuesday, April 20, 2010

I’m in China this week so I have a guest blogger with a piece that should get some attention and discussion. I’ll be doing more of these in the future, don’t worry, but please interact with the thoughts presented in the comments below:

Why Social Media is a Waste of Time for Most Local Businesses

For the social pundits and new media “experts” out there, this may come as a shock – engaging in social media (a la Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogging, etc.) for most local businesses is a complete waste of time, and worse – it’s a waste of their money.

I’ve been working with small, mostly local businesses on-line for almost 8 years. “Local” meaning the business has a geographically constrained clientele. ie. you’ll only travel so far to visit a dentist, go to a restaurant, hire an electrician, or even buy a car.

I know, I know – the interweb is all atwitter (sorry, had to) about social media. Facebook has more pageviews than Google, there are more Twits tweeting everyday, there are anecdotes of company X or Y claiming marketing success with social media – and always in a fancy press release, no bias there.

Don’t get me wrong, social media can be an effective marketing channel – but so can b2b and b2c networking, referral marketing, radio ads, TV commercials, print advertising, trade shows, direct mailers, email marketing, etc. etc.

Folks, there are A LOT of options to advertise your business. Just because you could market with social media doesn’t mean you should.

If there is one thing I’ve learned working with so many businesses in these past years is that time is the single greatest commodity out there. Period. Sure, if you’re business is flush with cash, you can mitigate some of the time limitations by outsourcing some work, but for most small local businesses that’s not even an option.

So the question is not “could social media work for your local business,” but rather “is social media the best use of your available time/resources.”

So what should a local business do?

The formula for marketing success has been largely unchanged for thousands of years. You are selling a product or service, presumably of good quality and at a price people are willing to pay. You find out where your potential clients are hanging out, then you can advertise or otherwise interact with them there. Pretty straight forward.

This formula hasn’t really changed much at all in the online world either. If your audience hangs out in bowling alleys, you may want to advertise there. If they are in Facebook, then by all means, advertise or interact there.

An electrical contractor company I am working with specializes in work on home remodels. His target audience? Not the home owners, but the general contractors who manage the whole project and bring in their sub-contractors (like electricians). Where do general contractors hang out? Do they spend a lot of time on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube? I can’t speak for every geography, but here in the Northwest they certainly do not. They do, however, hang out with groups like the Home Builders Association, the Oregon Remodelers Association, and the Associated General Contractors, among others.

For this electrical contracting company, in business for 15 years, quite successful, where should the owner be spending his time? There are only so many hours in a week – should they spend time on a facebook page or blogging, or should they be networking with other general contractors? Also note – they’ve never even had a website (nor ever needed one).

Now for the flip side, there is the local bistro who also has a wine bar – and of course, has a lot of wine tasting events. A huge chunk of their customers at the wine tastings are stay-at-home-moms. Stay-at-home-moms are becoming notorious for the amount of time they spend on Facebook — so suddenly social media could be interesting here. The owner puts up a Facebook page, posts upcoming events, put’s up photos and videos from previous events, opens up the page for comments and recommendations from the participants about the different wines and events, and now you have an avid interactive following.

So, if you’re a business owner hearing all the hype about social media, be wary. Treat using social media like you would any other marketing or advertising decision for your business.

Author:
Kelly Hodsdon
Intentional Internet Inc.
Website Design and Interweb Marketing
http://3iblog.com


 
Tagged as: 
  • http://dewpointproductions.com DavidW

    Kelly, You nailed it. Internet marketers have driven a ton of the social media hype and there's no denying it has been good for many of their wallets. Unfortunately, I can say without a doubt, I've never heard one of them come clean and say what you just did. Social media is not, and never will be, the right solution for everyone.

  • http://www.googlingsocial.com IamChrisLang

    @DavidW, You are right, social media is not for everyone. Obviously if your audience is not there then you might not want to market there. Of course Internet gurus will sell you something you don't need, it's how they make their money. But don't confuse Internet marketers with hype jockeys.

    @Kelly, you can't compare construction contractors to local brick and mortar businesses. That's apples to oranges, but effective and correct in essence.

    Where local businesses should be spending their time in social media is geo-targeted social networks like FourSquare, Google local search and Google Buzz.

    That's what we teach local businesses when it comes to social media.

    Lastly, as far as Twitter and Facebook goes, I am with ya, not my chosen venue either but every business, online and off, should lock down their brand in Facebook pages, Twitter and Google profiles.

    That's what we teach and today we just released our 40 page Google Buzz report to set the record straight on that platform. On my blog at the link above.

  • http://websitemagazine.com Mike

    According to Compete data, Google attracted about 146.9 million unique visits in March, 2010. Facebook – about 132 million.

    While heavy social media use might not be for everyone, if you think ignoring social media is a good idea, you might as well ignore the Internet altogether.

    And just because your exact client isn't spending loads of time on social media doesn't mean their friends aren't. And if you can get to their friends, relatives, coworkers …

  • http://www.intentional-internet.com Kelly

    We're probably in agreement here — the only tweak I'd say that local businesses should be spending time with whatever method makes sense bringing them business, and that could very much include ignoring geo-targeted services like FourSquare, Google local search and Google Buzz.

    McKenzie Pub in Sherwood Oregon is one of my favorite examples (not a client, btw) — they are PACKED most every night, they do NOTHING on-line (certainly nothing intentional)… but they are a community pub, advertising in some traditional media, with Texas Hold-'em night, Trivia night, and other regular and special events that brings in the locals like crazy. Of course they could benefit from more advertising, and some geolocal stuff would be helpful. We're back to the “trade-offs” of the Pub owner's time and money.

  • http://www.googlingsocial.com IamChrisLang

    @Kelly, I hear ya on the local bar and I am not some Internet pie in the sky marketer that came up with a product about social media after he built his business. I built my business with the exact things I teach.

    I was a cook for 10 years, a chef for 10 with a catering business and a bar owner too. My friend Walt Goshert is a local business god like you and he says the same thing, most people are wasting their time online.

    Just like you said in your reply to me, it about relationship building. I like to go to the same business every time for the same product because I enjoy the familiarity and I love the service. I think everyone else does to, we just teach you how to get found.

    @Mike, thank you, almost no one wants to challenge the Google / Facebook data but you and I. It is the apps, the flash games that generate Facebook numbers. I too feel those numbers are skewed.

    Good to meet you Kelly, your voice is valuable here and the conversation is good.

  • http://www.intentional-internet.com Kelly

    The flip side to the “unique visits” is the “pageviews” – which Facebook is on the order of 11x more pageviews than google, meaning people are hanging out and participation in Facebook a lot… a whole lot.

    The beauty of social media is that people are being social, just like they have been for centuries. Except now instead of showing up at local clubs and organizations, they can do it on line.

    When friends, relatives, etc. ask me about my dentist, I tell them who I use and why I like him — and I can post and comment on their facebook wall, or twitter it, etc. My dentist is not involved at all. He didn't need a facebook page, or twitter account, or be listed in google local for me to make a recommendation for him. He just has to be a great dentist that I'm happy to tell friends and family about. Referral marketing is very powerful, and social media makes it even easier for me to recommend others.

    I make my living building on-line presence for my clients, 80% of which are “local” businesses. Social media can be a great tool, I just like helping clients be as effective as possible too given limited time and money.

  • http://www.intentional-internet.com Kelly

    I think we're all probably in violent agreement.. I tend to argue “along side” people for the sake of splitting hairs. :-) Thanks for jumping in and sharing your thoughts.

  • DavidW

    @Mike, actually, ignoring social media is nothing at all like ignoring the Internet. I'd really love to hear your case for that.

    Like Kelly, I focus on small businesses and local search marketing. What most of these businesses need is to show up in search results for keyword phrases that include a geographic modifier and their services and / or products. A dentist in Denver needs to show up in search for “dentist Denver,” “root canal denver” etc, etc. They can easily do this without ever once turning to social media.

    So again, how is that the Internet equals social media?

  • paulcolligan

    Thanks for making us think, Kelly.

  • http://twitter.com/marketinghuddle Mike Saunders

    Kelly,
    I totally agree with you , with a few exceptions:
    Just because a business “thinks or assumes” their customers are not on the web/social media may not be accurate at all. There's some recent stats showing the fastest growing segment on Facebook is women over 55.
    I agree that if you are CERTAIN that your target market is just not online, then definitely do not waste time and effort.
    The point I think so many people miss is that no matter what media you choose, be it offline or online or “social” media (because face it, social media is just online marketing with a more precise targeted reach)…you must have a lead-capture system in place to make a compelling offer to the target audience for download and then stay in touch with helpful and educational updates and maybe a coupon or two on a consistent basis so that you are viewed as the “trusted advisor”

    Mike Saunders, MBA

    Author of: “The PRISM Salvation-a 3-Step Solution to Social Media
    Domination for Busy Business Owners”
    Available on Amazon in May!
    Get the 1st Chapter here:
    http://www.ThePrismSalvation.com/Book

  • ryanmalone

    Depends on the type of product and the demographics and psychographics of the businesses' target customer. I do agree that some of worse than other. Twitter is a complete waste of time for 99% of businesses, and it amuses me to see people invest so much blind time in. Blogging is permanent and creates goodwill, so I would recommend lots of people do it — and it is a great way to get some local search juice if you editorial calendar is created probably. Facebook is enormous, but again, it depends on the type of product and customer.'

    Ryan
    SmartBug Media – An Inbound Marketing Agency
    http://www.smartbugmedia.com

  • http://www.intentional-internet.com Kelly

    @Ryan and @Mike:

    You both make good points, but I'd add one more clarification to your point of looking at demographics and psychographics of the target customers. We're not answering the question “is social media a waste of time?”, but somewhat more subtle, yet powerful question of “is social media the “best” use of time (an extremely scarce resource) for the local business owner?”

    Having worked with many, many, many local business directly — not just teaching a class where you never see the business again, but having to see these people every week or month at different business social events or because of on-going work with them, I've found that the distinction above is quite profound. If a business is not making the most of their available time, then they are indeed wasting that precious resource.

    You are both spot on, though, to look at target customer and if you do something on-line (social or otherwise), to be sure you're leveraging the effort to the max by choosing the right online vehicles, and then doing something intelligent with the people you do get. All very good points.

  • Hank

    Would tend to agree…sure cannot uncover how social media will grow our business.

  • paulcolligan

    There we go.

  • http://www.bloomsofguernsey.com Cecilia

    How true this sounds, something in me knew it already but was bamboozled by the hype, thanks guys.

  • paulcolligan

    Glad to do what we can ;-)

  • http://twitter.com/jenny_fletcher Jenny Fletcher

    Some good thoughts here. As someone considering a business idea for local advertising centred on social media it's a bit of a downside, but there is plenty of evidence that people where I live (SouthCoast UK) use their home town or area as a hashtag or search option. I think it still has possibilities.
    PS Learn to use apostrophes properly in your posts – it will give them more credibility

  • http://www.intentional-internet.com Kelly

    my replay to this good post…

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Brad-Clark/100002524254276 Brad Clark

    Thank God someone had to GUTS to say it: “Just because you could market with social media doesn’t mean you should.” Amen, Sister.

  • Anonymous

    Preach it ;-)