Don't let social media get in the way of running your business

But Reedman is very much in a minority right now. Indeed, there is something of a frenzy going on among SMEs as they race to establish a presence on social media sites. Spurred on by warnings they are missing out, many are spending large sums of money trying to boost their activity on Facebook and Twitter, measuring success by the number of Facebook “likes” and Twitter followers they attract.

Amid the panic, it might be time to pause and look at what all this effort and expense is actually achieving. There is little, if any, evidence that the number of “likes” or followers a business has results in more sales.

While enthusiasts will argue that social media is as much about building brand awareness as it is about revenue, a marketing exercise which doesn’t contribute significantly to the bottom line is no use to anyone.

Charlotte Knight, founder of gourmet dip firm G’Nosh, thinks social media sites such as Twitter can be a useful way of communicating with customers, but admits actual sales are more elusive: “Facebook stimulates some conversation from customers and is a tool to announce our launches, offers and news, but I cannot claim it has driven any actual sales,” she says. “Word of mouth can persuade people to 'like’ your business but translating those 'likes’ into an active engagement and, in turn, sales is a long lead, if a lead at all.”

Part of the problem is that few businesses seem to realise that being on social media only makes sense if your potential customers are there, too.

As Eric Levy, lecturer in marketing at Cambridge University Judge Business School, says: “Businesses really have to think about why they are doing this and what their strategic objectives are, otherwise they will be putting too many resources into something which is not actually doing them any good.”

A bigger problem is that even if your potential customers are on the same social media sites as you, they might not be pleased to see you. As the name implies, many people just want to use social media to communicate with friends, not be sold to.

Indeed, more than half of respondents to a recent YouGov survey said they did not trust retailers who use social media; only a quarter said a social media presence made them trust a retailer more. As an unwanted visitor you could be doing your business more harm than good.

Which leads us to the biggest madness of all: the notion of persuading potential customers that your business is fabulous, by showing off how many Facebook likes and Twitter followers it has, is undermined by the fact that anyone can buy batches of likes, Twitter followers, retweets and even YouTube comments via the internet.

One such site offers 50,000 Twitter followers for £99.99, 100,000 Facebook likes for £799.99, and 50 YouTube comments for £29.99.

As customers have no way of telling whether a business has earned followers the hard way or simply bought them off the shelf, surely it is only a matter of time before their most likely response will be to tune out altogether.

By all means get your business on social media if that’s where your customers hang out and you want to provide them with another way to contact you. But don’t throw money at it, don’t chase follower numbers, keep it in proportion and regard any sales generated as a bonus. You have a business to run.

 Rachel Bridge is a specialist writer on entrepreneurship

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