This post is by Robert Jones, communications consultant and contributing editor to SmartBrief on Entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurs dread social media. That’s the takeaway from a recent poll of 258 SmartBrief on Entrepreneurs readers, which found that entrepreneurs would choose to outsource social media before any other single business function. Check out the results:
If you had an unlimited budget, which function of your business would you most like to outsource?
- Social media — 28.57%
- Other — 25.11%
- Public relations — 19.91%
- Sales — 16.45%
- Customer service — 9.96%
When did social media become such a chore — and why? I asked four experts to take a look at the poll and offer their feedback. Here’s what they had to say:
- “It’s not considered important enough to engage [entrepreneurs’] attention at this point. And I don’t believe there are sufficient success stories with social media for that to change soon. It’s interesting to speculate whether social media will remain vibrant long enough for it to be of great importance to the vast majority of small businesses. So many large corporations and sophisticated marketers are moving into the space so rapidly that it seems possible that it will become pervasively commercialized much more quickly than the Web at large.” — Journalist Mark Henricks (@bizmyths), who blogs on small-business myths at The Debunker.
- “There’s still a lot of confusion among small-business owners, especially those who run offline businesses. … I think part of the problem is that entrepreneurs are under the impression that they need to use every social media tool out there to be effective. They’re on Twitter, they’re on Facebook, they’re blogging, and they’re trying to integrate all of these mediums together in a strategic way. That’s actually counter-intuitive — small businesses should outline their goals and then pick the platforms that will help achieve them.” — Erin Bury (@erinbury), the community manager of Sprouter.com.
- “I think entrepreneurs need help in figuring out how to get some [return on investment] back on what they do. It’s best to start with the medium most of your customers are using, but it takes time, effort and some amount of money to figure that out. I wonder if part of the problem is … the small-business press and the social media ‘experts.’ We keep telling them all the things they have to do, without really telling them where to find the resources, including time. … [O]utsourcing social media mostly takes the social out of it. You can outsource the blogging, and some of the more mechanical aspects of social media. But I think transparency is key.” — Rieva Lesonsky (@rieva), CEO of GrowBiz Media and SmallBizDaily
- “Maybe a lot of entrepreneurs look at social media as something vaguely frightening, like a skill they don’t have, something that wasn’t taught in school, something seemingly oblivious to gray hair and experience. Facebook started on college campuses just a few years ago, so some of the more experienced social media people are barely out of college. And Twitter’s what, 3 years old? Maybe 4? I’d suppose we could give the hesitant ones credit for knowing what they don’t know, except that nobody else knows; it’s all been a matter of just jumping into the fray.” — Tim Berry (@timberry), the founder of Palo Alto Software, blogs at Planning Startup Stories.
What special challenges do you feel entrepreneurs face when using social media?
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Social media, in particular as it relates to marketing, shouldn't be this hard. I tend to disagree with the notion that, "They’re on Twitter, they’re on Facebook, they’re blogging, and they’re trying to integrate all of these mediums together in a strategic way. That’s actually counter-intuitive…"
Not if your message is consistent, although I do agree that it works best if you have a central focus, a primary goal for doing it. It could be to gain insight on consumer sentiment, to respond to feedback, to broadcast promotions, or to "humanize" your brand, or a combination of all these. But it's not a bad idea to open your online heart to the people who create your success, even if it means a scary learning curve in the process.
I'd agree with the note about finding the right social media channel for your business and digging deep. Trying to keep with all of the tools, platforms etc…is a waste of time.
For SMB's in particular it should be about qualitative results, not quantitative.
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I see an opportunity!!!
Social media isn't hard to get involved, it's hard to do well. Fortunately, there are many resources on measuring the success of social media and developing a social media strategy and plan. It just takes some determination to develop a strategy and plan, implement on that plan, and track results.
A good communications consultant can help with all of these items and cost effectively. It is also possible to outsource the entire social media process and not lose the social aspect of it, though that requires a significant amount of trust transferred from the entrepreneur to the consultant. I agree with Rieva that transparency is key.
Similar comments have been made by small business owners for years about marketing in general. Now, it's social media – or marketing on the social web – that gets short shrift as it is perceived as either overwhelming or unnecessary due to dubious ROI. Both statements are wrong. First a rational look at business objectives is required and an outside expert can assist here to make the social web engagement strategy consistent with those goals and then support the tactical implementation. Nothing rocket science about it. Oh, and by the way, many SMB now have an even better chance at beating the huge companies in getting their message across, exactly because of the social tools available to them.
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Boy, I sure do disagree with this on so many different levels. What I have witnessed first hand is that social media is the last thing that should be outsourced. You may want to hire an expert to get you started, but ultimately – it is a core competency requirement for every business today.
In our industry, we find that our largest clients are really struggling with this issue. They have 20 year sales vetrans that carry the revenue for the company who are totally incompetent at social media, but they need to figure it out. The same is true of Marketing Staff – if your marketing plan does not at least monitor your online reputation or use it as a tool to measure your marketing reach – you are avoiding the crowd of billions of consumers who influence the success and failure of your company.
Lastly, many major corporations lock down the internet access to employees so that cannot access linkedin, facebook and twitter. Even if there is internal competency – they cannot play.
Remember the typewriter. When it first came out – there was only 1 in the office and everyone when to that person. It was absurd. The same is true of social media. Everyone in the company should have the skill of using social media responsibly as a corporate citizen.
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"What I have witnessed first hand is that social media is the last thing that should be outsourced."
I think this all depends on the type of business, the size of the company and the stage that the company is at. For me, social media is like the new version of podcasts, iPhone apps, Flash games or websites. Everyone will say they need them for their business, but unless the business is clear on what it is actually doing business about first, it's not right to have people dedicated to social media.
I think when I think of entrepreneurs, I am thinking of people who are setting up companies, and who are at the early stages, I can totally see what people would want to outsource this, if their time is more valuable in the initial business planning and development stage.
Personally, I find it interesting that the study did not appear to categorize entrepreneurs by business type. For entrepreneurs like me whose business is internet service based social media marketing is not an option but an necessity for connecting with your clients. Facebook played a significant role in the launch of my website. Without it it would have taken us much longer to get our footing.
There are no social media "experts" — we're all new to this industry. If Facebook (as we know it today) was a child, he wouldn't be in Kindergarten yet!
To help guide their online efforts, small business owners should look for experienced marketing professionals who know how to use these new online tools to supplement traditional marketing methods. Paying someone else to "do" social media won't create the desired result.
I agree with Erin Bury that small businesses need an online marketing strategy. Small businesses should not jump into all social media networks at once; the result of doing so is usually abandonment of all profiles. Once the business has an understanding of their first social media network and has developed an implementation strategy, then, and only then, should they introduce a second sociall media network to their marketing efforts.
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You're right about the "expert thing". I think you can better serve your client by knowing more about what they do and the type of business they are in and capturing a feel for your client personally. Entirely to much emphasis is put on technological expertise when there are zillions of books, ebooks, forums where you can pick up this knowledge or even outsource the technological things like branding squeeze pages. But to the contrary, if you don't have a feel for the business or service you're representing, you can do immeasurable harm to the business or service just by sending the wrong tweet or an inappropriate message. I see so many ads for social media consultants addressing the technological and marketing skill. But given what I know and the people I do social media for, they would be better served by people who know something about what they do or at minimum would do a sit in or view in of a typical business day. Thank you for bringing up this issue.
As a Social Media Strategist at a legal services firm, our company understands the importance of engaging our customers in this new medium. That said, in my opinion, I think the hesitation or reluctance may stem from the fact that the technology is relatively new, can be perceived as amateur (or immature), and can be difficult to measure ROI. However, getting back to the question at hand, I think entrepreneurs would like to outsource SM because they see it as akin to marketing, accounting or legal services – something someone else can handle. If I give someone money, they will fix my social media problem and I can move on to the next thing, so thinks an entrepreneur. While outsourcing may be feasible in some circumstances, it may not be in others (like others have mentioned). As always, business is about developing and maintaining personal relationships, and with the rise of modern technology, those relations can grow exponentially.
To answer the question “what special challenges do you feel entrepreneurs face when using social media” – SM moves at the speed of light and trying to catch-up or get ahead is difficult, requires resources (which can be scarce during a recession), and demands constant attention. Creating profiles are easy, maintaining those profiles, building a community and then engaging that community is difficult. I think for some entrepreneurs, they simply run out of time each and every day to tackle the beast of SM.
Speaking as just one SMB person, I can certainly relate to this post by Seth. There just isn't enough time in a day to accomplish all that is needed to run a Social Media campaign or maintain a presence there AND do all that is necessary to run the business as well. I see the need for it. I'm sold on its importance, but I just don't have the time. If I could outsource it, I'd do it in a second.
Marti,
I'd like to help you out, if possible. Connect to me on LinkedInand we can talk.
Thanks,
Seth
I completely disagree with the first sentence of this post that "Entrepreneurs dread social media."
To begin with, the survey asked what they would outsource. It didn't ask why and it didn't say anything about dread. It matter of factly asked a simple question.
Plus, 258 isn't a huge sampling and there is no data that identifies other characteristics of the respondents. With these numbers, that means 74 people selected social media to make it rise to the top.
On top of that, according to the information in the post, "Other" was a close second to "Social Media." Given the deep assumptions by the author of this post about the survey results, I'd be interested to see how he interprets that response. And that means 65 people chose that answer.
To declare that "Entrepreneurs dread social media" from the limited data presented, is a gross overstatement and doesn't serve the entrepreneurial community well at all.
I respect and expect a bit more from your publication than this type of hype.
With my clients, I find part of the problem is the perceived learning curve. Both for the mechanics of the platforms and the development of the strategy they want to achieve. To combat the mechanincs learning curve we send out 1 email each week designed for time-strapped, curious business owners. It includes 1 social media topic, how-to or best practice. The design is to be 1 digestible bite each week that they can implement. If anyone wants to add themselves to the distribution the sign up form is here:
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I recently sat in on a two hour Social Media training session for Entrepreneurs and was surprised by what our local "social media" expert was spouting out. It's no wonder that the majority of entrepreneurs that attended this training session sponsored by our local Small Business Development Center went away more confused and worried about how they could implement social media into their overall marketing game plan.
The majority of the training was focused on a short-list of the social networking sites – who they are, the Pros to using them and how to create an account on each one. Very little time was devoted to explaining what "Social Networking" is and why you should use it. The presenter spent about five minutes talking about what a Social Media Marketing Plan is and ended up the session with a list of Tips and Tricks on social networking.
There was no depth to the presentation and several comments the presenter made probably scared off the feint-hearted entrepreneurs attending the session: "Social Networking requires you to have a thick skin." and "Employees handling your social networking can be disastrous." Now, I don't necessarily disagree with these observations but making them without adequately qualifying them was just wrong.
My whole point is that all across America, this type of training is going on every day to thousands of entrepreneurs and small business owners. Thus, I can completely understand why many SMBs are worried about Social Media.
Sounds like you need a new presenter! They clearly went straight to strategy and the bells and whistles instead of the foundation of the different platforms. Sorry you had such an overwhelming experience, but I agree with you if SMB owners are getting ill advice they are absolutely going to overwhelmed with social media and not find the value of engaging and simply not use it at all.
Totally missed the mark. Maybe. What stresses me out when I see social media is a customer's ramped up expectation that no matter where they post something for support, the company must answer them whether that be Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or some off-brand of some start up that nobody except the A-list Elites have heard of. (Quora? Really now? ugh.. another location.)
This is the equivalent of me driving down the freeway 70 MPH and flinging my mail out the window and expecting the USPS to scoop it up and get it to the right address on time. It is an unrealistic expectation, but one that is rapidly being set that few entrepreneurs can keep up with. It used to be if you had a telephone number and email, you could at least manage the customer experience. Now, who knows where the hell the next "customer bomb" will come in from?
I'm not saying it is smart to ignore social media, but it may be smarter to recognize this as a real fear and expect some backlash from an entrepreneur community that will start pushing back by saying "ENOUGH! We'll do twitter, facebook and blog, but this social media sprawl has to end."
My recent post What scares business people about social media
Gerard –
I'm definitely stealing that freeway analogy at some point. Well said.
LOL If you cut me a check back for $100,000 per occurrence, it would no longer be stealing and you can sleep on an easy conscience.
Steal early, steal often…
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Social Media are like clubs, in the sense that they are judged by the company they keep. When your
or your company's name and information is divulged, you now become identified, not so much with
who you are, but with the many others and their identity. I think one must carefully evaluate the
particular medium before jumping in. Bob Forloine, President, Capital Resources Corporation.
I found this article from tweet by @Joey_C GoodMorningGloucester.com. who posts all good news in our community and keeps the commerce news moving. Remember the days when people didn't know if they should be using email? Remember the days when they didn't think they needed a web site? As any new media or technology in use, education takes mystery and fear out of its use. We're doing an introductory workshop on Social Media for Artists (and non-profits) and helping entrepreneurs in the creative industries understand social media and work together with the resources that are available to them. Social Media for Artists (and non-profits):
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Social media is nothing to be afraid of. One just has to jump in and do it.
In a way, we're all learning this, still. From each other.
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If you don't like doing your social media, hire me that's what I am here for to help you! Let me help you stay in the conversation.
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Outsourcing marketing, PR, and communications is nothing new in business. Social Media tools and ROI are just a bit more complicated to figure out. So if your an entrepreneur with a start-up it makes total sense to employ someone who is fully focused on SM platforms and knows how to get results from engaging new markets.
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[...] Contact, the email and event marketing company. They shared a link this morning on Twitter from Smart Blogs – Why Are Entrepreneurs So Worried About Social Media? Entrepreneurs dread social media. That’s the takeaway from a recent poll of 258 SmartBrief on [...]
Hmmm… some will out source everything. I think it depends on the size of your business.
[...] Why are entrepreneurs so worried about social media? (smartblogs.com) [...]
I have a very unique (and special) niche and opportunity in that I work with people (mostly laid off) that want to build their own business online and have very little computer or internet experience.
Social media – the phrase is very vague and mysterious and confusing. When researched the phrase brings up 813,000,000 results on Google. Then there is social media viral marketing, social media vlogging, social media Facebook, social media Twitter and so on. It’s information overload for those who know how to navigate the highway. It’s the Black Pearl facing off the Krakken for those who are new to the internet or marketing.
That is why marketing professionals and social media people such as myself (and others who have commented) are so needed by entrepreneurs. We know how to navigate and use even the most basic information. Lets give entrepreneurs a break – they are good at what they do and they’re smart enough to know when to delegate something they are not good at.
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I do think its hard for the small business to get noticed on twitter and facebook.. because people dont search for you.. so will never find you
Social media is something hard to grasp, especially for a total beginner. It doesn't surprise me at that they would like to outsource it.
Integrating Twitter, Facebook and a blog really shouldn't be all that difficult, but it's certainly understandable that small businesses would seek to outsource most of this functionality.
Starting a physical business is so labor intensive, what logical business owner would realistically have the time to navigate the social media minefield to see what will work best for their business?
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As a Social Media Virtual Assistant, I offer to either teach entrepreneurs how to manage their Social Media campaigns or outsource their Social Media activities. Interestingly, I am seeing a trend that people I have taught Social Media to do eventually still want to outsource it, because they don't have time to implement what they've learned. There seems to be a process of needing to first understand what all the fuss is about followed by the decision that it is not the most effective use of their time.
Good article. Great survey! As consultants we see the results daily in reality with our clients …
Usually they are leaders of companies, 50+, not in tough with Social Media so far. Greetings from Germany
Klaus-Steffen and Marcus from Rieserer & Priemer – consulting newly defined!
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