At StartUp Britain, we use social media every day; it’s an incredibly effective tool to help us celebrate, inspire and accelerate enterprise in the UK, and we are delighted to be a Partner of Social Media Week.
However, championing social media is quickly becoming the norm, and these are easy words to say. But what impact does social media really have for today’s businesses? And how does it really act as a catalyst for change?
We went straight to the people who know, the small and growing businesses we talk to every day.
Ben Goldsmith manages the social media channels for ClubWorkspace. He has attended numerous StartUp Britain events and tweeted prolifically through all of them (thanks Ben!). He is very active in the social media space and feels that social media impacts businesses in two core areas: competition and accountability.
On competition, Ben argues:
“Twitter allows small businesses to compete on a level with the larger, established names. Skilful Twitter users gain exposure by currying favour with key influencers and earning well-positioned mentions and ReTweets. Mentions and RTs give your business something paid-advertising doesn’t: a ‘recommendation’. Prospective customers will be more receptive to a key influencer’s confirmation of your quality, rather than your own.”
Nicola Cunningham, reaped the benefits of one such recommendation: “I was a Theo Paphitis SBS winner which generated media interest I could only dream of. This helped me get my name out there far more easily than any other way I could, as I can’t afford to advertise.”
Martin Hansen, agrees that social media is an effective and competitive medium to generate exposure: “[it] enables us to spend money on the message not the media publisher; it gives us equality and an audience from day one.”
Ben also considers social media to have a huge impact on a business’s accountability: “Large brands – and small ones – can be shot down in a second. If a product user is urged to complain, they have the upper hand. Gone are the days of customers complaining in private – Twitter levels the playing field. If brands have to be more accountable, then surely they will be driven to be better? You’d hope so.”
James Taylor, agreed that social media allows consumers to speak directly with big brands. However, he also highlights its effectiveness from a B2B perspective: “It is now easier for businesses to connect and collaborate with other organisations, which would be difficult without the democratic medium of social media.”
Finally, StartUp Black Country Champion, Gary Lennon, couldn’t praise the benefits of social media enough: “it has revolutionized my business and my entrepreneurial activity, and is the primary marketing tool to build new and reinforce existing working relationships. Twitter is like smiling at someone, Facebook can be the window for others to take a look, and LinkedIn is the reason people want to connect.”
These testaments (and a straw poll of the SUB team!) indicate that social media is now integral to our working lives; it isn’t just a place to share your favourite breakfast cereal or stalk your favourite boy band anymore (though these things do, presumably, still happen).
The comments above are just a handful of the positive stories we’ve heard in our first ten months, in which social media has played a vital role in empowering change. Make sure you don’t miss out on yours! There are some great events running in Social Media Week that will be useful for startups and growing businesses, you can see the full list here.
If you don’t already, please follow StartUp Britain on Twitter or like us on Facebook, and look out for our competition during Social Media Week!
Lorna Bladen, Head of Marketing & Communications for www.startupbritain.org
