I read an interesting article a couple of days ago on how the recent changes to Facebook could affect small businesses (Have a read if you want to get the low down). It talked about how Facebook was focusing on the individual and larger organisations and this made it harder for small businesses to get the most out of the medium. I agree with much of what the article had to say, but am keen to emphasise that there is still much to be had from a small business working on social media.
I am a keen diver and as a consequence have a specialist dive shop that I use to buy most of my equipment from (I might get it cheaper online, but unlikely and knowing that there is a person to speak to when/if something goes wrong is good – we bought a dive bag recently and it started coming apart after one trip – one visit to the shop and it was all sorted). The Dive Shop has embraced Social Media and regularly updates Facebook with information, useful links and updates on various courses that they run. As I’m invested I always have a quick read of these posts and they make my association with the shop much stronger.
In the new scheme of things at Facebook it will be harder for these posts to appear in my timeline, so the next thing they need to do is start working on people fully interacting with the posts and get some of the ‘influencers’ and ‘active’ people to work with them to spread the word. They should also start investigating developing content to really start sucking the punters in.
Facebook, as with all the social media channels has it’s pros and cons, but for small businesses looking to engage with their customers, especially for leisure activities, they still represent a very useful channel.
To learn more about social media, why not visit the demistify social media page.
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