As the use of social media diversified, people started seeing opportunities that went beyond social networking and leaned towards business.
After the success of E-commerce websites, many sellers were attracted towards the option but many still shied away due to the prerequisite and maintenance that goes into the achievement. Now, startups and new entrepreneurs started to look for a platform similar to E-commerce but with less responsibility and cost. Somewhere they could market and sell their products or services without a considerable charge on their profits but still manage to attain the reach that websites seem to have achieved.
A platform which will be perfect for a pilot run- social media.
Are we talking about social media marketing?
Social media marketing entails a different meaning than social media business, whereas marketing refers to promotion of the product, the latter means outright sale using social media handles. Simplistically speaking, Social Media business replaces E-commerce websites with Social Media handles top accomplish sales. The same can be done using Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter etc.
Benefits of Social Media Business Models:-
1.Understanding and Identifying the Target Audience
Social Media comes with the valuable data that can help you identify and target the customers you want easily. At the same time, following their habits and preferences becomes easier too which can be used to improve the marketing strategy.
2.Real time conversations with the audience
Feedback, positive or negative has a big impact in the evaluation of the performance of the organizations. Social Media allows your audience to communicate directly their grievances or suggestions which are valuable to the development of products & services.
3.Cost Benefit
The biggest advantage of starting a social media business is that the funds requirements drop drastically as the basic office expenses can be avoided in the start. Moreover, whatever expenditure is done is justified by the effectiveness of the platform.
4.No entry or exit charge
There is no mandatory entry charges to the market place and the exit is also without much hassle, this gives new and small organization the breathing room they require.
5.Other benefits
Other advantages include
- Easier expansion
- Effective platform for product testing
Growth of Start-ups and Small Business on Social Media
There are several benefits tagged to the use of social media as a market place which have attracted the attention of many budding entrepreneurs. Number of Startups and Small business have significantly increased after the commercial use of social media started.
At this point, Facebook has a dedicated marketplace for such startup as well as small businesses. Instagram has millions of pages selling various commodities such as clothes, accessories or even ideas.
Why?
Social Media Business Model presents all the benefits that a startup or a small business is looking for- low cost, good reach and good results. This model is perfect for:-
- Pilot run
- Product Testing
- Market Research
This has encouraged many creative individuals to enter the business world through this route due to its easy ways. Many people who earlier were scared to start their own business are now selling through Digital Marketing and social media. However, this has also led to alarming downfall of startups & small business as they enter unprepared and with minimum or no support. Their resources often get exhausted in a year which forces them to give up.
Therefore, even though Social Media Business Model is a very attractive and efficient model, it is not for everyone.
At the end, it all boils down to one thing:-
If you can sell your product from the comfort of your house while your customer buys it the same way, wouldn’t we all want to try our hands at being our own bosses?
