Small Business IT: Role of Social Marketing in 2020

The new Impeachment Trial? A positive outcome of the whole controversy involving the current US president is that it encouraged lots of research on social media and its actual power. One of the studies, discussed in the article Divided We Lead by HBR, focuses on exploring today’s popular trend – social activism among business leaders. Marketing for businesses, especially small businesses, is crucial for success, yet social media marketing for small businesses is often neglected. 

The study suggests that it is mandatory to have a social media presence in today’s marketplace and any neglect can drastically hinder corporate goals. For instance, the research shows that companies are “expected to respond to a social issue within 24 hours after its occurrence.” Such urgency, in many ways, is demanded by the public as today’s companies are viewed as individual entities with their own sets of values and principles. Therefore, opinions on the social subject matter are expected to be published too.

Different CEOs claim different personal motivations for such social activism performed on social media. For example, Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, says he is often inspired to take action through social media on issues at the urging — and in support — of his employees. In contrast, other CEOs like Kathy Carter, the president of Soccer United Marketing, use social media activism to fulfill her personal conviction on women’s equality. Despite the variety of motives for social advocacy, social media itself has proven to be a potent tool for marketing activities in modern society.

As more companies become people-oriented, Social Media presence and advertisements become more prevalent in today’s business. Small businesses can benefit from the usage of social media, and the examples range from responding to customer inquiries to the maintenance of continues relationship.  

The question then arises: how does a small business owner begin their marketing journey on social media to achieve effective results? Well, starting from scratch means setting up a website, which means selecting and purchasing a domain on, let’s say, godaddy.com. Using WordPress, or any other web platform, a small business could start building a simple website highlighting their products and services. Don’t worry, you can expand your content offerings later. Then, connect the website to Google Analytics, which would require some basic IT understanding of how Google Analytics works (Google Analytica Academy offers free online courses). One of the reasons a small business should tie its social media communication with their website is to help business owners keep track of their advertisement spending and results.

Tracking ad-spend and outcomes helps businesses manage their marketing budget while also gathering enough data for managers to adapt automated marketing platforms. The platform will have to be IT supported and can help businesses expand their reach and benefit profit margins in the future.

According to A Futurist Looks at the Future of Marketing, the article where Gerd Leonhard, whom The Wall Street Journal calls “one of the leading media-futurists in the world,” made a pretty accurate prediction about the marketing trends of 2020. One of the takeaways is that “data will be essential” as users often form different relationships with different clients and reaching them will involve continuous engagement and remarketing. Therefore, as a business grows, it is essential to Bridge the Gap between IT and Marketing, and save all the data for new social marketing trends.