Social Media - How it can be useful for small businesses.

I've been reading lots of articles over the past few days on the subject of social media use within small businesses. Now although galleries are normally small businesses, with The Old Lookout being a non-profit organisation, some of the suggestions in these articles don't necessarily apply. However, fundamentally, most small businesses use social networking sites to increase their customer base - to spread word-of-mouth about their company faster than making contacts in person. This idea does link to what we are trying to do with the gallery: increase and widen our visitor base. However, as there is no money changing hands, we are not offering a product, but a free service. Therefore, there are no real competitors based on price, rather the quality of the service we are offering.
Anyway, what I am trying to say is that not all of the suggestions and opinions from the articles I have looked at will be entirely relevant. However, things to do with building a community and a loyal fan base do apply.

So I thought I'd start by looking at the social media websites that are most popular amongst small businesses, but that we don't currently use. This is to see whether diversifying the sites we use could improve The Old Lookout's online presence.

1. LinkedIn
Although LinkedIn is an extremely popular site used by professional individuals, I had no idea that it could accommodate businesses as well. However, as described in an article for PC World by Nathan Segal, LinkedIn groups we launched in 2009, and are "communities based on common interests, experiences and affiliations." (http://www.pcworld.com/article/2030078/) These groups appear to be more of a source of contacts - a way to share professional expertise rather than appeal to potential customers/visitors directly. The other thing about LinkedIn is that, as the pages are designed more for appealing to potential employers, they can all look very similar and very corporate. In my opinion, this doesn't suit the mentality of The Old Lookout at all. Although the running of the gallery is smooth and professional, the space was never designed to be a clean white box in which to show art. I feel the personality of such a gallery or small business needs to leak into its online presence, which is not something that would be easy using such a corporate online tool.

2. Google+
This is a social media tool that I have seen a few smaller galleries around the country use. Its main attraction is the ease of connecting this social networking site to some of Google's other online products, such as Blogger, Picasa and YouTube. Similarly to Facebook, the user can make updates and posts linking to outside pages, albums of photos or videos. The user can also join 'circles' of other businesses relating the theirs. Unlike LinkedIn, this does appear to be more popular with businesses that need to inject some of their personality into their pages. For example, a gallery I have been researching in Norwich called the Anteros Arts Foundation, which is also a non-profit organisation, makes use of this tool. This gallery is a bit more of an established charity, with quite a diverse range of exhibitions, workshops, courses and studios that members of the public can use.

Their Google+ page gives a good impression of the kind of institution it is. They have uploaded plenty of pictures into public albums, so that potential visitors know what kind of place they will be going to. An example of the 'circles' in use here is making links with Norwich Tourism, Arts Council England and The Theatre Royal Norwich.
To me, this seems like something that The Old Lookout could consider using in terms of the connection with other social media sites. However, in the case of this example, what is on this page is very similar to that which is on their Facebook page. If there are going to be 2 sites that are similar in functionality and are being used in the same way, it would definitely make sense to only use the most popular one. According to Jean Folger in her article Implementing a Small Business Social Media Strategy "one billion people actively use Facebook every month." (http://www.investopedia.com/university/implementing-small-business-social-media-strategy/), which suggests that it might have more of a widespread appeal, especially in the younger demographic.

3. Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, Vine etc.
Although all of these different social media sites have general appeal, it is difficult to see them being used successfully to promote a small business. I think the issue could be that each site is generally a bit more limited to certain demographics than larger ones like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. In an article for Forbes by Meghan Casserly, small business expert Steve Strauss is cited as suggesting that, on the subject of Pinterest for example, "For the female demographic or consumer goods there's more engagement there than anywhere else." (http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2013/06/07/making-social-marketing-make-sense-for-small-business/) Although this may be a bit of a generalisation, I do believe that these kind of smaller sites don't offer the wide range of potential viewers that larger, more established ones do. Not wanting to be signed up to too many different sites, I think it's probably best to leave out the more niche ones in favour of more of a diverse audience.


In terms of the usage of social media for small businesses, the main aims for outcomes seem to be: engaging the customer (in our case, visitor); building a reputation and a community and spreading the word. Folger also cites Hannah Twigg, a digital producer, in her article as suggesting that: "Social media allows [small businesses] to have direct communication with their customers". This link, one that the owner might not be able to establish just through word of mouth, can help spread the word about the business more quickly than simply relying on word of mouth. Twigg also suggests that people trust other people they know for recommendations far more than any "sophisticated marketing campaign." It essentially introduces a way to encourage word-of-mouth marketing.

This is the theory. However, it remains to be seen whether putting lots of time/resources into online marketing is the best option for the demographic of visitors that come to The Old Lookout. If the kinds of people that this gallery attracts don't tend to find out about events in Broadstairs through social media or online marketing then the kind of online presence that we already have doesn't really need to change. However, if we discover that actually, local people do look to Facebook and Twitter for updates on things happening in the town, but not many of those people found out about the Old Lookout through these tools we may need to address the balance slightly. When we come to the end of the summer season at the gallery and we have gathered all the data we can, it will give us a chance to see where best to improve online marketing, or if it needs to be improved at all. Potential changes could involve making more use of one website over another, making more or less regular updates, involving potential visitors more online or changing the type of thing we are putting out there to viewers. Once all the information about our demographic and the types of things other similar galleries are doing has been gathered together, I will be able to make more informed judgements on our online presence as it stands.