Quit Whining About Social Media

For over 30 years, I've been working in marketing and advertising. Just like the old stories about walking 10 miles to school, I can remember the days when producing an ad meant writing the copy on a typewriter, sending someone to the typesetter to pick up the copy, someone else pasting that copy on a board, sending it out again to get a "velox" (anyone remember those?), and then mailing (yes, good old-fashion post office snail mail) to the publisher TWO WEEKS before the ad was to run.

Not only was it time-consuming and expensive to produce the ad, running print ads or any other kind of media advertising was expensive in general--and mostly reserved for businesses with real money. Small businesses scraped together a few dollars to run an ad or two, without getting any reach or frequency--and often no results. There was barely a playing field for small business, let alone a level one.

So now, when I hear my small business clients say social media is too confusing, or that they don't have time to post on Facebook or put together 140 characters for a tweet, or they can't be bothered to learn how to pin on Pinterest, I think back to the grueling process that used to be involved in advertising and laugh.

Really? You don't have time to market your business on free platforms that reach millions? You can't take take two minutes to snap a photo with your phone and upload it to Facebook to engage with your customers or make a sale? There's no time in your day to answer a question from a potential customer who wants to buy your products?

Social media is a miraculous blessing for all businesses, and especially for small ones; offering a myriad of FREE platforms to cultivate customers, spread the word about your business, manage and care for your current customers, and make your voice heard. Stop whining and embrace it.

by Kerry Cobb
K. Cobb Marketing helps businesses of all sizes get more business.