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Sole Proprietorships and Startups

For those trying to build a business from scratch, social media is an accessible and cost-effective means of marketing their services—so much so, in fact, that it is the only means many will use to do so. This helps them overcome the budgetary obstacles that might otherwise trip up their efforts.

As a result, 80 percent of new United States business owners make use of Facebook as a marketing tool. While there is a natural limit to how effective these efforts are without the multifaceted strategies that the enterprises use, the various social media platforms available can provide some significant benefits.

Small Businesses

Once a business has established itself somewhat, the possibilities that social media presents expand quite a bit. With a little more revenue coming in, a little more structure can be lent to their marketing strategies and as a result, marketing hubs, content creation, and other initiatives allow them to amplify their messaging.

To assist them in accomplishing these goals, many of these businesses turn to a marketing agency and the services they offer for assistance. In doing so, a business can keep their focus on their actual operations and allow the agency to do the requisite work for them. This makes it easier for the business to balance its production to its marketing and deliver.

While these businesses will also utilize social media to market themselves, they have a greater capability to embrace a wider variety of efforts. As a result, their marketing strategies will frequently use their channels as a means of sharing content meant to showcase what they do and their clientele’s response to it.

Medium-Sized Businesses

The medium-sized business space is filled with those organizations that have some solid name recognition, but that doesn’t mean that they can skimp on their marketing initiatives, either. These businesses often see their use of social media as essential.

Fortunately, these businesses will often have entire departments committed to marketing and advertising that use various analytics to shape the messaging that they send out to their audience, as well as that which is directed toward potential employees. As such, these businesses will also maintain a presence on all the major social networks, funding their endeavors with budgets in the tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Which Social Media Platforms Cater to Business Use?

Simply put… all of them. Social media companies currently rank amongst the richest companies in the world right now, and they got to be that way because of the influence that marketing on their platforms can have. Regardless of whether a social media network is used to build brand awareness or to promote a product or service, they work. Many, many companies have found success on some social media platforms, such as:

•  Facebook – (1.6 billion daily active users) As the largest social media network with various other platforms under its umbrella, it is no surprise that 90 percent of marketers utilize Facebook in their efforts.
  • WhatsApp – (1 billion daily active users) WhatsApp is widely used all around the world, making it an excellent choice for a business open to international business opportunities.
  • Instagram – (600 million daily active users) The photo-sharing platform has also been an influential option for a marketer’s consideration. Not only is the visual nature of its content engaging, but there are also many influencers on the platform who can help garner a following for a brand.
• YouTube – (149 million individual daily users) YouTube is widely considered the second largest search engine in the world, making it a great resource for a growing business to turn to. Like Instagram, YouTube benefits from the engagement that visual content offers.
• Twitter – (134 million daily active users who can be monetized) The immensely popular Twitter enables individuals inside your business (as well as those who follow you) to share and amplify the content you provide.
• LinkedIn – (303 million monthly active users) As the business’ social media network, LinkedIn makes for an excellent recruiting platform, assisting HR professionals to acquire new talent.

 These platforms aren’t your only options, either. Many have also put the likes of Reddit, Tumblr, Snapchat, and Pinterest to use.

 One way or another, technology—especially social media—has without a doubt impacted industries of all kinds. If your company is currently using social media to its advantage, how is it helping? Leave your experience in the comments to share!

Today, there is a better way, it’s called Software-as-a-Service

What is Software-as-a-Service?

Software-as-a-Service is not new, but it is a growing industry. Essentially companies are trying to capitalize on demand for software products by hosting the software in the cloud and charging people/companies per user for use of the product. The added value of not having to pay for software licenses and the hardware to run it on makes it an attractive option for many businesses today. 

Why Buy Software In the Cloud?

In a lot of ways cloud-hosted options fly in the face of convention. For years, and to some extent today, companies wanted control over their technology. Cloud computing, while useful, often doesn’t give established control over the management of the solution. Getting resources in the cloud is much more convenient, scalable, and provides the same great user experience for the end user.  

The main benefits are that a) you get the software you need in minutes, b) you can quickly add and remove user accounts, and c) to get software without huge capital outlays for hardware and operational outlays for IT support to manage those systems. While it is true that the support costs are baked into the monthly fee, it makes it easy for an organization to plan out their technology budget as they will have fewer variable costs. 

So How Does SaaS Work?

Employing a SaaS platform is as simple as signing up for the service and signing in to the cloud-hosted account. Better yet, when you are getting software for an entire organization, you can get the licenses that you need without having to pay for more versions than necessary. If you need 10, you get 10. If you need 50, you get 50.

Administrators are given some security options such as implementing two-factor authentication that can give them some customization over the security of their hosted solution. Overall, however, most of the management options are provided by the hosting company. 

Contact Digital Seattle today to get the IT experts to help you decide what technology tools are right for your business at (206) 709-9556.

Balancing Security Against the User Experience

While most users—about 75 percent of them—see no difference in the security offered by retail websites, approximately 15 percent have decided against a purchase because of security concerns. Another 14 percent of shoppers declined to buy from a website out of uncertainty over their data handling measures.

With this increase in security awareness, it is likely that retailers will find themselves in a position where they will have little choice but to innovate and improve their security—especially considering that estimates have seen retail sales only increasing by about 1.5 percent, as compared to a 25-to-35 percent boost in online commerce.

That said, it is also clear that security features cannot get in the way of the user experience.

When a third of consumers wouldn’t hesitate to delete an application if they experienced login challenges, the usability of a given authentication measure is just as important to consider as its security. This is reflected in the overall desire to replace passwords with other, easier-to-use authentication measures like biometrics.

The Real Issue Comes with the Privacy Concerns

Another survey indicated that consumers are, perhaps predictably, very conscious of their data privacy. This survey indicated that 70 percent of consumers look at their ability to deny the developers of an application the ability to sell the data they’ve collected as a key consideration over whether they’ll use that app or not.

Interestingly, these users will often hand data over otherwise: 72 percent will trade their name and email for a discount, with 56 percent adding their birthday and 53 percent handing over their address.

Because of this, it falls to the business collecting this kind of data to reconsider whether they need all the data they are collecting and to reduce their collection practices to better match their practical needs. For example, many businesses and retailers will send coupons or special offers to a contact on their birthday.

Tell me, to do that, do you need to know what year a given contact was born in?

This kind of extraneous data only puts your company at greater risk, as it could lead to a greater impact if that data were ever leaked or compromised.

Security is Crucial for Any Kind of Business

Regardless of whether you’re in the retail space or you function in an entirely different industry, your clientele/customer base is likely just as concerned about the privacy of all the data you collect from them… or in other words, their data.

If you are to maintain operations, you need to ensure you have the protections in place to keep this data—as well as any you generate during your processes—safely secured against all kinds of threats.

Digital Seattle and our team of IT professionals can help you accomplish this. To learn more about the cybersecurity protections we have to offer, give us a call at (206) 709-9556 and ask.