Been having a running dialogue in my head about small businesses and social media. Social media like Facebook, instagram and twitter.
Social media has become the new 'word of mouth' for small businesses. Can you run a small local business without that business having a Social media presence?
What are your phukers thoughts about this?
This is a good point - deciding on having a SM presence should ask the questions Why do we have this? What benefit are we getting from this? What are the cons?
For a Pizza joint, what are you trying to do with the SM account? Do you want to blast out "Today's specials"? Do you want to announce a new flavor? Extended hours? Can you not do this via your website or an Email list just as easily without having to hit multiple platforms? How will you handle negative feedback, which is now public? Who will be monitoring these for negative responses? Can you trust that person to not make things worse and start a feud with your customers? What is your plan for messaging? Just random thing,s or do you have a specific goal in mind? Knowing the goal and the end result can assist you in framing your messaging. Are you seeking more customers? Newer, younger customers? More families? Less families? More beer drinkers? Less beer drinkers?
For the food truck - the answer is obvious, as you pointed out. You need to alert people where you are going to be, and when, and what you are serving. And you need to do this in a timely manner, BEFORE your customers have decided on lunch or dinner options. Them getting home after work and fire up Email after they have already ordered delivery or take out or already started cooking before they find out that your truck is only 2 blocks away and you are serving their favorite dish is a wasted effort. But if you had blasted out alerts to all the major players at 2:30PM, telling them "We will be at 23rd and 6th between 4-7PM tonight, and we are serving 5 different varieties of our world famous pierogies!" the customers can make that decision early. Again, the food truck has a specific messaging plan and a specific NEED that can really only be met through social media accounts.
Great point!
Yes, my question is very broad and there will be companies and small businesses who will survive without social media.
In today's world, I am finding even the small town only pizza parlor has their menu online.
Edit: grammar
I am finding even the small town only pizza parlor has their menu online
No doubt about that. I think there's a distinction to be made between social media and digital media though. If you put your menu online, the obligation is really minimal. Just the one time cost to make the site, small continuing costs to host the site, and the tiny bit of time it takes to update a menu when it changes. Compared to social media, where someone pretty much has to be checking it daily and interacting with customers.
Out of curiosity, is your question more about the labor to manage a social media presence, or a philosophical one about the relationship between internet and business?
Short answer is yes, but some businesses depend on SM more than others. For example, if you run the only pizza joint in a small town, SM is kind of pointless. If you run a mobile food cart in a major city, the free advertising is going to be a lot more valuable.