To Fb or Not to Fb

A lighthearted quiz to help you decide whether social media suits your business.

If your answer to all these is 'yes', social media could be the way to go.

Who's who

• Who are your customers? Do you have a regular clientele who like to keep in touch?

  Social media is a great way for your customers to spread the word amongst their acquaintances.

• Do your target customers use social media, & do they use it for business/purchasing/product reviews, as well as socialising?

  What sort of humans do you do business with? There are people out there who are not on Instagram, Facebook etc; or who use these only in a small way, with family. Are you customers in that group?

• Are your customers likely to rave online about your business, for good or ill?

  Sock buyers don't tend to wax passionate about products or service. Horse owners do.

  If your business serves customers' ongoing interests, not just their occasional needs: then it's likely that customers will follow your regular posts, specials, testimonials and new product photos.

How now

• How do you do business?

  A mobile business easily benefits from social media posts about where it will be in the coming weeks or months. Collect extra customers before you travel or on the road, with minimal effort.

• Are impulse buying & special occasions a feature of your trade?

  If so, the immediacy and 'relational' style of social media can work in your favour.

• Do you have a tale to tell about how your great service or product comes to life?

  An antique restoration, a handcrafted treasure, a growing crop of organic vegies. Keep your customers coming back to see your next post, fire their interest in the finished product - and help them to appreciate the value of your work.

Enough's enough

• Do you have enough work, & sufficiently profitable work, for your needs now and for the foreseeable future?

  It's not a race for the biggest bank balance. There might be other things you'd rather do with your time than expand your business.

• Are online customer referrals sufficient to maintain your business or to expand it (whichever you are aiming for)?

  If you opt for social media, you might also need a website &/or strong offline marketing to boost sales.

• Do you have enough news (product updates, new photos, upcoming travel for a mobile business) to sustain social media pages, month after month?

  You will need to post often - at least weekly - or customers won't bother looking.

• Do you have enough time & expertise to maintain social media pages?

  Check posts daily to track interest in sales/bookings and to delete offensive or otherwise unwanted posts. It's your page. Everyone assumes that you monitor it and have OK'd whatever is up there.

• Do you have enough enthusiasm for social media to spend time on it each week? Or do you have enough resources to ask someone else to do the work for you?

  It's your life and your business! Whether you DIY, or you have keen skilled staff to update social media posts, or you pay for professional digital marketing help: remember to keep track of returns on your investment.