TTMGi Blog

Are we seeing the end of the world, as far as websites indexed on search engines are concerned? And, perhaps, the beginning of a new world where your web presence will only be found through social media?

It is an arguable proposition I suppose, but what is not arguable is the interest that larger businesses with large marketing budgets are paying to their social media presence.

More interesting still is the increasing leakage of social media presence and activity into search results. In other words if you have a strong social media presence it can affect positively how your website is ranked on (say) Google.

Just to make the waters very muddy, Google now has its own social media product: Google+. If you thought your Facebook presence was coming along nicely and are now fully addicted to Twitter, it’s time to think again, because Google+ does look like it is here to stay.

Who really has time for all of this stuff? Well the big boys pay marketing staff, or subcontractors – they buy the time. What hope then for the little business person who has a limited marketing budget and only 24 hours in any one day?

Like anything, the key issue is the return on the time. If every time you posted something on your Facebook page you got at least one enquiry then it’s a no brainer (providing you are closing the enquiries): you can afford to spend as much time as you like on it.

However, for most people the return is not that clear cut and it can be difficult to establish the exact return on such activity. In many ways it can be like physically networking: it can provide a return, but there is always a risk it becomes an end in its own right – draining valuable sales or productive time away.

Do social media and running a small business mix then? The answer I am afraid is yes – they have to. A presence for you business within the primary social media networks will prove long term to be essential. You may not have the time for this, but long term if the issue is not addressed you may well have more time for it than you would ideally like.

If you can’t do it yourself, delegate or subcontract it.

Why not speak to TTMGi about it – we may be able to help you out.