Why Small Business Social Media have never been more important - or harder to use

Do you love social media or do you hate it? Maybe a bit of both. Chances are, if you're reading this, you came across the link on some kind of social media platform.

30 years ago, marketeers had never even heard of Social Media. Advertising and Marketing was pretty much a physical endeavour - think van wraps, shop premises, posters, flyers, business cards, stalls, and then of course word of mouth and good old Yellow Pages! Of course, if you had bigger bucks to spend, TV advertising and other digital advertising was available.

The explosion of Social Media has definitely made it easier to start a business from home, and I would argue this is partly why UK self-employment grew significantly from 2009-2020 (from 12.9% to 15.3%). (After 2020, there was a huge drop back to 13.1%, probably because everything is a million times harder post-Covid/Brexit/Truss/Putin and now Trump.)

Self-employment in the UK, 2004-2024

Three Little Birds wouldn't have got off the ground without social media. The fact you can advertise for free to an unlimited number of people is amazing.

The beauty of socials, as opposed to a website, is that you can build a community. It's far more personal and the know, like and trust factor is easier to cultivate - as well as a group of people with a common bond and the many opportunities for positive interactions.

Social media is also very visual and the ideal platform for showcasing pictures, videos and behind the scenes footage of how the business actually works - which draws people in.

With material and labour costs skyrocketing in the last few years, physical marketing has become a lot harder to access, especially with bulk buying sometimes being the only way to drive costs down to an accessible price per unit, yet small businesses not having the capital to invest in this.

Now, more than ever, social media is a lifeline for small business. (Although - disclaimer - I would always, always say that having a website is fundamental, because you actually own that content whereas socials are owned by someone else and could be taken away at any moment. The best strategy is so use your socials to point to your website as well as for their own sake.)

Yet not only is physical marketing harder than ever to access, social media has become a crowded, noisy place that drowns out most of our business voices. Log on to Facebook or Instagram, and you're bombarded with adverts, reels that you didn't ask for and Sue's sofa on Marketplace you would never buy. Mindless scrolling has become the order of the day as so little of the content actually interests us, yet our brains are addicted to the constant dopamine hit of the novel.

So while Social Media has never been more important for Small Business success, it's also never been harder to grab people's attention - let alone keep up with the ever-changing algorithms and interfaces.

And that's where all our wonderful customers come in - the people that are keeping so many UK businesses afloat despite the difficulties. Every single positive interaction, share, like, comment and review means a huge amount. Just the few seconds that go into these things are repaid richly in increased visibility and businesses for us.

Of course, it's on us to try and create stuff you actually want to see - and it's easier said that done when you're working your fingers to the bone just making the products in the first place! Oh, how I long for a social media expert to just come and create content all day long.

But we appreciate all our amazing customers so much for how much attention they pay to interacting with us on socials. It really does mean the world. The fact that so many people walk into our bakery and say, "I've seen you on Facebook" just proves it! So thank you, thank you, thank you - and please spare a little time today to shout about a local business on social media.

For beautiful cakes that actually get eaten, visit www.threelittlebirdsbakery.com