Depending on what media report you read, it appears that small businesses, while understanding the importance of having an online presence, are reluctant to go much beyond the traditional Web site. Social media, it would seem, is not a part of the plan.
The most significant indication of this is a Citibank survey of small businesses, three-quarters of which believe that social media, in any form, is not helpful in their overall business plan. And, more recently, less than 10 percent of small businesses are currently using Twitter as a mean to engage consumers.
When Your Fans Turn Against You
Social media tends to be the place of trial-and-error when it comes to marketing and brand management. But for some, it becomes an embarrassing lesson in what not to do.
Take the marketing and design staffing firm Aquent, for instance. Recently, on their Facebook page, they posted a note, telling all of theirs tans that, like Jerry McGuire, they were there to “Show them the money.”
Their fans, in turn, took issue with that statement, to the point where some of them posted comments about the lack of money, or even the common courtesy of a follow-up, for that matter, that Aquent had showed them in recent memory.
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