Small businesses must recognize how important social media is to their ongoing success if they want to stay competitive. When social media was first introduced, it was more for personal use and younger consumers. Of course, anytime people start using a particular platform in large numbers, the advertisers are going to find them. Big companies started taking advantage of social media first, but in this day and age, small businesses are greatly missing out if they don’t follow suit.

If you don’t have a social media presence, your business is going to look boring to millennials. All joking aside, social media provides businesses with many advantages to help get people in the door. If you’re not using multiple social media platforms, then you’re allowing your competition to have the advantage. Why would you want to do that?

Simply signing up for social media by the way is something that any business can do. If you do that and fail to establish a strong presence and good communication with your targeted customers online, then you are better off not engaging with them on social media at all. In other words, don’t just make the move but get excited about it.

How is your brand unique? What can your company do for customers that others can’t do? This is what you want to get out there on social media sites as a small business. You also have to remember that not every post you’re making is going to be about making money. You’re trying to inform customers and communicate with them, not bang them over the head with sales techniques.

That being said, think about how you can engage your customers uniquely via different social media platforms. If you come up with something catchy, you can be rest assured your business is going to get attention. Think about how you can promote special offers and deals much easier by using the various social media tools as well.

And if it all feels a bit much like hard work – talk to your website managers to see if they offer social media management services. It’s better done in your voice, but it’s also better done than just permanent something you really must get around to.