Читать книгу Small Business Revolution - Barry C. McCarthy - Страница 28

Success does not follow a straight line. Running a business involves many different skills, and those take time to develop. For example, with many of the businesses we highlighted in the SBR series, they were not using social media effectively. Some didn't use it at all, and others would post a few things but not in a way that generated maximum visibility for the brand and company.

The reality of social media is that it does not require one massive effort, but instead the steady creation and publishing of posts and images over time. The social-media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and others have highly sophisticated algorithms that closely monitor who is a regular contributor and who only posts stuff once in a while. They don't give much visibility to those who occasionally post, and they reward the regular contributors with visibility.

Now imagine a tired, busy, “broke” business owner who decides to try social media because she heard it might work. The owner creates a few posts and—not much happens. She tries again with a few posts, and maybe gets even fewer views or comments.

This is a crucial moment for the business owner. Does she keep going with her social-media efforts, or bag it and try something else? She'll make the decision, one way or another.

Unfortunately, if she is not able to ask a social-media expert about what to do, she's likely to call it quits. “Hey, I tried. I guess this social-media stuff doesn't work in my case.” Most likely an expert would have had suggestions on how to improve posts, but the real benefit of the expert would be to say, “You've got to give this some time! Rome wasn't built in a day and a social-media presence takes weeks and even months to really catch on.” An expert will also be able to know when an effort has in fact gone on long enough and should be modified or stopped.

Some business owners sprint for 200 yards and are looking around for a medal when business growth is more like a marathon, and they have another 26 miles to go.