Lucchese 1
Tyler Lucchese
16 November 2015
Final Draft
Small Businesses in a Large Advertising World
Growing up in a small town just on the outer banks of Tampa, Florida I have seen my
community dominated by small businesses. Many of my friends growing up their parents were
owners of these small businesses I speak of. So all my life I have been around these businesses
and I feel as though I have a personal connection with small businesses that most people do not
have. Every day I hear or see their advertisements either through the radio or on my television
and I always think to myself “is that your best effort?” It seems like these businesses fall short
when it comes to advertising their businesses and getting there name out there. They are too busy
stuck in the stone age of advertising and they need to get with the modern age.
The solution is that small businesses need to start using social media as an advertising
tool. Social media now has a huge impact on businesses, in the article “The High-Level Business
Impact of Social Media” by Billy Nordmeyer, it lays out the very impact I was talking about.
Nordmeyer talks about all these ways that social media leaves an impact and he goes into detail
on every one. The three perspectives that I will expand on in this piece are, first with the rise of
technology and social media these small businesses need to start using it to their advantage and
crossover to social media advertising. Second there are many more advantages to social media
advertising than traditional advertising, and last it will link generations together and make the
older businesses man/woman feel more confident in their businesses. With my audience being
college students this topic relates to them more than they could imagine.
Lucchese 2
Who is on social media more than ever? Yes its college kids, I included. With my
research topic being Small businesses need to start using social media as an advertising tool,
college kids should understand right away why social media is the way to go. They understand it
more than anyone, they know the pros and cons of using it, and I know every day I see big
businesses on my timelines on twitter, Facebook etc. so it clearly is being done already. With this
topic it brings on many concerns some of the local concerns being: How can these small
businesses attract more customers, who is going to run these social media pages for these
business owners and how successful will it be? These are all valid concerns and they reach out to
a bigger scale and that is all the global concerns regarding this topic: Are big businesses wiping
out smaller businesses, can small businesses stay afloat in social media and reach out to people
outside of their city, and how can future business owners (college students now) make a
difference? With my discourse community I talked about in my last paper was small business
owners who all want to start using social media and their goal is to see all of themselves succeed
my audience and concerns coincide with these small business owners’ wants and needs.
1. Effect of Technology
With the rise of technology and social media in the 21st century small businesses need to
start crossing over into social media to advertise their company like big businesses are
nowadays. From my own personal experience with social media every day I see on my timelines
a company like Coca cola, Target, etc. advertising their products and talking about new offers
they are having for certain products. You see all these big businesses crossing over into social
media advertising and it is because they understand that this is the way of the future and they are
getting a jump start on it. Small businesses need to have this mindset and realize that their
dinosaur age ways of advertising will not cut it and they need to get with the new way of
Lucchese 3
advertising. In this article “Big Companies Are Adapting to Social Media Marketing” by Mikal
E. Belicove he speaks on how big businesses are using social media now and how they do it.
This is the first thing he said “More large companies are using social media to promote their
brand online” this quote provides evidence on big businesses using social media more and more.
If small businesses want to stay competitive and relevant they need to see what big businesses
are doing and transition to social media themselves. This can open up a whole new world for
them.
2. More Advantages
For my second perspective I am going to be elaborating on why social media advertising
has way more advantages than traditional advertising. There are several reasons why social
media advertising is more effective and relevant than a cheesy 30 second low budgeted
commercial that people laugh at because it is so bad. The article “Advantages and Disadvantages
of Social Media Marketing” by Tracey Sandilands talks about the advantages social media has
for advertising purposes. The main one that this article talks about is the cost of social media, oh
that’s right there is no cost, it’s all free to make a Facebook, Instagram, twitter page, etc. That’s a
huge advantage because for traditional advertising you have to pay for a television spot, radio
time or a chunk of the newspaper. Sandilands explains the social media advantage in this quote,
“The majority of social media sites are free to access, create a profile and post information. The
advantage of reaching your targeted market for little or no cash investment is substantial, and the
audience wanting your information voluntarily joins or follows you.” So from this quote it shows
that spending zero money on advertising goes a long way and if people like what you are doing
than you will see that by how many followers or members you have on your pages. Social media
keeps track of all your customers and people interested in your company and all that information
Lucchese 4
is right at your fingertips. Social media is also a global communication system, everyone around
the world can see what you are saying so that increases your business presence and increases
your exposure. Ugochi Onwuanibe talks about this in his article “The Global Impact of Social
Media” how social media is the new way for businesses to advertise their businesses and it lists
numerous ways on how it makes an impact on a global scale. With this evidence it shows the
advantages outweigh the cons for social media advertising.
3. Linking Generations together
So for my third and final perspective on my main topic it is that with small businesses
moving over into the world of social media it will start to link generations together. I know all
my friends and kids I know have social media yet out of their parents only about half of them use
it. What I mean by that is a majority of small business owners are older men/women and a
majority of kids on social media are kids 22 years or younger. The article “Demographic Trends
for Every Social Network” lays out different facts about who is using certain social media pages
and the ages of these people. It also has charts and graphs about the ages of people who use
social media by percentages and what schooling they are currently in. This is just one example of
a quote showing how social media is run by the younger generation, “Facebook remains the top
social network for U.S. teens. Nearly half of teen Facebook users say they're using the site more
than last year, and Facebook has more daily teen users than any other social network.” With my
audience being college students this last perspective relates to them a ton. With these small
businesses on social media the younger generation will see these differences and maybe even
influence a kid that might open up a small business of his own someday.
So far I have I talked about how most of the people on social media are younger kids like
college students and most small business owners do not advertise through social media because
Lucchese 5
they do not have any accounts and they just do not understand how it works. I have found a
solution to all of this and my answer actually relates to my audience. If small business owners
are going to use social media there are no better people to run it then college kids themselves. In
the article “Social media statistics: how college students are using social networking” it lays out
all the percentages of the amount of college kids on each social media platform and talks about
how businesses can use social media as an essential marketing tool. Steve Viner surveyed two
hundred and sixty kids in the fall of 2013 and his results were off the charts. 95% use Facebook,
80% use twitter, 73% use Instagram, and it goes on and on, these percentages show that college
kids not only use social media but they understand how it works. I believe if these company’s
hire college kids to advertise their company it will be both beneficial to the owners and the kids.
The reason why is because these kids no how to run a social media account, they know what
people will want to see and what they will want to hear. Too get their presence known on social
media the solution for that is every time the company’s page tweets or posts something the
employees will like it or comment on it or retweet it. That way it will get an increased exposure
and it will spread all across other people’s timelines and newsfeeds. This is going to let more
people on social media sites see all their posts or tweets and it could generate some interest and
buzz around these small companies. My solution helps connect my topic and audience together
and what I am hoping is that in the big picture it can bring communities together and help college
students get real work experience.
Social Media is a driving force in the world today whether you think it is or not. More
and more businesses are starting to transition onto social media. It has a larger impact on the
business world more than ever. Small businesses need to start using it as an advertising tool for
themselves. The benefits are limitless, they will gain a real presence from it and their business
Lucchese 6
will get known if they are represented correctly. They will be able to create relationships with
customers through social media and they will still be able to have these relationships in person.
With social media being dominated by college students if a business wants to get serious with the
notion of doing business through social media why not hire a college kid to do all the work for
them on the social media side of things. It will bring generations together and it will bring the
community together as a whole and it will finally give small businesses a fighting chance against
these big corporations that dominate everything business wise. Social media is the way of the
future and small businesses need to hop on board for the ride.
Works cited
Lucchese 7
Belicove E. Mikal. “Big Companies Are Adapting to Social Media Marketing”.
Entrepreneur. Web. 11 Sept. 2012
Sandilands, Tracey. “Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing”. Small
Business Chron. Web
Guimaraes, Thiago. “REVEALED: The Demographic Trends For Every Social Network”.
Business Insider. Web 12 Dec. 2014
Nordmeyer, Billy. “The High-Level Business Impact of Social Media”. Small Business
Chron. Web
Onwuanibe, Ugochi. “The Global Impact of Social Media”. The Market Mogul. Web. 7 Sept.
2015
Viner, Steve. “Social Media Statistics: How College Students Are Using Social Networking”.
Study breaks college media. Web. 7 Feb. 2014