Author: Ben Cathers @bencathers
Co-Founder, Instantsocial.com

In 2010, if you asked a small business owner about social media, you’d get one of these three responses:

1. I don’t understand it
2. I connect with people but I don’t understand the value
3. I generate business from social media

The answers were what you expected. Some people didn’t understand social media, either because they viewed it as a fad, or were too busy to learn about it, while others experimented with social media for a little bit, but never figured out its value for a small business. Early adopters have experienced success in social media.

In 2011, the rules have changed. I’d argue that it would be very difficult to find a small business owner who doesn’t understand social media. Every networking event or conference has some type of agenda / panel / info session involving social media. Almost every owner has experiment with social media. Small business owners build Facebook pages, Twitter pages, Linkedin profiles. They update with new content. People begin to “like” Facebook pages, follow Twitter accounts and view Linkedin profiles. And then after a month or two, social media is mainly forgotten.

And that’s the problem that small business owners face – they begin to understand of the value of social media. They see their customers and new leads begin to connect with their brand/business on social platforms. But after two weeks, a month or two months, the owner experiences “social media fatigue” and doesn’t update or monitor their accounts. Leads ask sales questions that go unanswered on Facebook page. Customers follow Twitter accounts hoping to get news regarding promotions, new products and corporate announcements – but instead receive no communication. Prospective customers look to a Linkedin profile to gain information about a new business – but instead receive no information that would sway them to make a purchase decision.

And that attitude – that type of “social media fatigue” will need to change in 2011 if a small business owner wants to be successful in social media. Need proof? Just look to anyone who said 3) “I generate business from social media”. The small business owners who say that phrase are the ones who have an active and regularly update social media presence. They may have experienced “social media fatigue”, but they figured out how to adopt their schedule and strategy to utilize social media and because of that, their business is thriving.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 20th, 2011 at 12:54 am and is filed under Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.