Your small business is thriving and you have established yourself on Facebook and Twitter. You have customers tell you “You should have a YouTube channel.” Or maybe you have a business associate raving about Instagram and how great it’s been for their business. Should you take the leap? Do these sites add value? What will I share? Let’s explore these three questions for each service and see.
What will I share?
We will start here. This is the easy question. You are reading this blog because you have already toyed with the idea. Maybe even created a site. Sometimes it’s easy to share but as we will discuss in the next question will it add value? Let’s take a look at 5 small business and what they could share on each site. Take a couple of minutes and brainstorm what you could share for your business?
| YouTube | ||
| Pizza and Sub Shops | Pictures of new offerings, snapshots of customers of the week! | Weekly web show highlighting “How we make that” including time lapse of food being made and highlighting the quality ingredients used. |
| Driveway Sealers/Pavers | Before and after shots | Videos of how to maintaining your new driveway, before and after time-lapse |
| House Cleaners | Before and after shots, products used. | Web show demonstrating various cleaning techniques and advice. |
| Used Book Store | New products, Vintage finds, Collections of books that belong together. | Product reviews, live book discussions. |
| Windshield Repair | The team, the location, the spectacular windshield breaks. | The repair process, breaking down the details and steps. Customer testimonials. |
Do these SMM sites add value?
You should look for concrete value beyond “generate more customers.” That is the obvious value but that won’t’ happen day one or maybe even day 30. By value I mean what tangible thing does this social media service give you, or your customer?
You created Facebook so people can find your small business, so they can post nice things about you, ask questions and engage with you. So what do you expect from these other sites. What value can these add? What need does this tool provide for your business? Below is a quick brainstorm for two sample business. You should do the same and make sure the sites offer you and/or your customer a clear value.
| Instagram – Flower Shop | YouTube – Natural Food Store |
| Single location to show off arrangements, past clients, and other products | Want to start a weekly web series including product reviews and meal ideas |
| Current website is limited on amount of space to share images | Current website is limited on about of video storage space |
| Have a friend who is a photographer and wishes to partner and will help build my initial audience by taking the pictures and sharing on both her Instagram account and mine. | Have a local nutritionist who would like to partner with their channel. In exchange for location and products they can help build my audience and add credibility |
Do you have what you need to make the leap?
This is the big question. Read through this list of questions carefully because your decision to proceed and add on Instagram and/or YouTube will be based on your answers below?
- How often are you going to post an image or video? Daily? Weekly? Monthly? If you are not going to post videos and pictures daily or weekly, why create a different social media presence? Just continue to post your images and videos to Facebook and Twitter.
- What is your business? Some business relate to an Instagram or YouTube site better than others. A flower shop would have more too post to Instagram that a lawyer would. A birthday party magician would likely have more to post to YouTube than an accountant.
- Do you have the skill set required? Posting pictures and videos are easy but do these photos need to be edited? How about the videos? Do you need post production (Title slides, captions, and basic editing)?
- Do you have the time? Your Twitter and Facebook feeds are created and require daily maintenance. Do you have the time or the staffing to add not only to the daily care of this new account, but the initial creation of the new service?
Both Instagram and YouTube have the potential to add value to your business but they are not “magic beans.” Like all social media tools they are not magic. Careful planning and an overall strategy aligned to your business goals and objectives are needed to be successful with these tools.
Take a moment and post below to your fellow small business owners. Are you using YouTube or Instagram? How does it add value? If you have been considering using YouTube or Instagram what has been your biggest road block?
ssm4smallbusiness.wordpress.com 
This is a Great blog post. You have given me so many ways to use YouTube and Instagram that I would have never even thought of. This looks like a very professional blog post. Your post gives a lot of information about the two different Social Media Platforms, and give the user enough information to make an educated choice if they should use YouTube or Instagram.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Instagram and YouTube can definitely add value to a small business if they are utilized properly. I really like the way you posted different ideas on how to use each site for various business types. One of my favorite ideas is posting a weekly “How we make that,” for restaurant. I think that will attract a wide variety for consumers. Not only is it going to show what the restaurant uses for ingredients but it will give the consumer a personal connection to the restaurant and the cook. You make a very valid point that if small business is going to start up an Instagram or YouTube channel that they need to keep them current and post on a daily or weekly basis. I think that when businesses start a social media account and don’t keep it current it sends the wrong message. Thank you for this post it gives a lot of information and questions for businesses to ask before they take the jump and start one of these accounts.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is an overall great blog post. It is so informative and provides a lot of knowledge that can help any business owner. I love that you give all of the facts and what each social media platform can provide a business and the possibilities that it can offer, allowing for the reader to come up with their own opinion of each. You gave so many scenarios and ideas for specific businesses as well as for each social media platform. I love the last 4 questions, these questions really can help business to decide if and which social media platform would be beneficial. Great job!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love the design and topics of your blog. You really capture the reader’s attention, and you keep the verbiage simple. I really think all the additions you added to the site make it interactive.I like that you selected two platforms, You Tube and Instagram and added topics and questions regarding how they can benefit small business owners. You mentioned they are not the “magic bean” but take careful planning and preparation. Great work.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Love the blog. You have a great layout and design. You have also shared some very interesting topics. The ideas of how to use certain social media sites and what value they can bring certainly gave me a lot of ideas that I have never really thought of before. Great job.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This post was so easy to read! I really liked your examples. It definitely made your information come to life. Instagram and YouTube are not the most popular business social media platforms but you offered some value tips on how to use the sites. If I owned a small business, I would have a lot to think about after reading through your post. Because we are visual people seeing is believing, that was my takeaway from your post, use IG and YT to show people about my product or service.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great Post! I found this to be very engaging. A company should definitely weigh in on what social media platforms would be most useful for them. Just because one company finds success, doesn’t necessarily mean that another can mirror it.
LikeLike