Can a small business survive without social media?

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!