The whole situation around the “C” word has heavily affected pretty much every business and only a few are actually earning more than before. Small and medium businesses have had to transform their strategies. We can see that restaurants, pubs and cafes have not only started doing deliveries, but some have transformed their premises into grocery stores. Great initiative to survive during hard times, but no matter what you’re doing why is it always important to have a strong social media presence?

Well, the answer is more or less obvious. For example, imagine that you are the owner of a pub with only 100 followers on Instagram and suddenly the government announces that you are no longer allowed to have customers on your premises. You are transforming your business overnight: you’re starting to offer food and beer delivery locally, but only 100 followers on your Instagram are aware of that. Had you have had 3000 followers, your sudden transformation would have reached its full potential and you would have been better prepared for a spontaneous shift such as this one. If you’re big on socials, it’s much easier during tough economic times, as you have the support of your loyal clients. Just to point out, when we say “followers” we mean genuine people who love your business, not some random bots or other irrelevant business pages, who “follow” your social media accounts. You can’t neglect the power of digital presence, where social media plays a huge role.

People spend more than 1.5 hours on social media daily and there are altogether more than 45 million active social media users in the UK. More than 55% of pensioners are also on social media now, so whoever says that their target audience is not using social media is completely in wrong. For some people if you’re not on social media you don’t exist, and this approach should be followed by every business. Even local butchers are now using social media to connect with their clients and do deliveries.

The example we mentioned before is ultimately about the lean principles of running your business. If you’re unable to adapt to the ever-changing business climate, you will end up closing your doors sooner or later. We don’t have to look far to give you examples of big companies who made the mistake of not having a lean strategy. Kodak has failed to transfer to the digital world, Blockbuster never went further from offering VHS to their customers, but they could’ve easily become Netflix. Primark, with the pandemic, could have earned at least something if they would have an online shop, but they decided that eCommerce is not their future.

To conclude social media is not only about brand awareness and direct sales, but as social media agency Yolka Digital always says it’s:

Support you get (not necessarily money, but mental support)
Building trust within the community
Getting feedback on your products/services in order to improve
Direct traffic to your website, which improves your rankings on Google

Hopefully, after reading this article, you will consider being more active on your business social media accounts or you will at least change your mind on the importance of this marketing channel.