What do small businesses want from social media?

This morning I read a short and insightful article on socialsmallbiz.com; it outlined how the usage of social media amongst small businesses had doubled in the last year. Although these figures related to the US market, it was interesting and got me thinking as to what small businesses expect, want and need from social media?

Over the last couple years, social media has become hugely popular and extremely mainstream. Technologies within social websites and platforms have increased rapidly and an individual can do a lot over the internet today. However, enterprises have been much more cautious and reluctant to engage and jump onto the social media bandwagon, reasons vary, however the general consensus is that they (industry) do not want to experience another tech bust. Those days seem to be long behind us and the enterprise industry seems to be indulging and engaging with platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and much more.

As SMB owners and entrepreneurs alike try to leverage social media and tech for their businesses, the questions still remain as to what they expect, want and need from social media technology. Here we try to shed some light on those grey area type questions.

First and foremost, BiWhizz strongly believes that enterprises will shape the next generation of what we call social media.  As SMB’s use services such as Twitter to promote and market their products, services and websites, their attentions will turn to much more sophisticated and dedicated platforms that enable them to promote and market their company whilst integrating cross platform networking, this could be one example.

I personally believe that as SMB’s increase their investment in social media, they will become much more critical and callous when it comes to websites/platforms not living up to their expectations.

SMB’s and Social Media: Wants, Expectations and Needs

• Small Businesses need a dedicated platform(s) that is more enterprise/entrepreneurial intrinsic rather than a generic social platform. The social media term may turn into Enterprise/Business Media.

• The technical side of social media needs to turn its attention to businesses. SMB’s feel that if they’re going to get involved in this movement their needs and attentions should be acknowledged. I believe platforms/developers should be looking to build specific tools for this type of audience.

• SMB’s expect a lot of convenience and help navigating social media. What I mean by this, is the ability for a platform/application or technology to understand small business needs. Offering advice as to what type of social media strategy/tool you should use for a specific part of your network.  Whether this is possible or not is irrelevant, SMB’s owners simply want to know how a platform/company or plain website is taking steps to tackle such a problem.

• SMB’s expect a tangible return on their investment, whatever it is. They need to start seeing platforms giving track progress and results on how they have got on throughout the platform.  I believe that platforms should start to build new algorithms that can measure success and define success, at least and entrepreneur or business owner can benchmark and analyse. Two huge aspects of business.

• As more companies and entrepreneurs adopt a more web-orientated architecture that reflects the growing importance of using social technologies as communication and productivity applications, dynamic platforms and web companies need to step up their business technology and acknowledge its high level importance.

As we plough through 2010, we will continue to see a surge in the adoption of social media across products, services and solution companies. I definitely believe that this a new war zone, although there are already occupants such as LinkedIn and Xing, I feel when you are looking at SMB’s purely this is new ground and territory.

The battles will be similar but different at the same time, I think the battles will move away from (traffic related issues) to much more core parts of the internet. As networks/platforms talks become more important than email, the business end of social media will move away from linear technologies (especially in communicating) and platforms and to a more open web.

The battles will be similar but different at the same time; I think the battles will move away from ‘traffic-related issues’ to more central parts of the internet.  For instance, as social media and social networking become more ubiquitous and powerful, it may become the leading communication tool across the web, not cancelling out email but becoming more popular and efficient. I believe the business end of social media will move away from linear technologies (especially in communication) and to a more open web.

Could BiWhizz be ready to enter this space?

Tags: BiWhizz, Business, Innovation, Social Media, Technology, War