Blog Post 5: Social Media's Impact on Small and Large Businesses

     For the following post, I will be writing on the topic of social media’s impact for big and small businesses, and how it has leveled the field for the two. To begin, it would be fair for me to explain exactly what I mean when I use the term ‘social media.’ Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest are all examples of social media. Consumers of the rising generations are all on social media, and a large amount of Generation X are Facebook users at least. Through this means of communication, consumers are able to communicate with other consumers with ease and gather information about a product no-problem.

How does this level the playing field?

     Smaller businesses who compete with large businesses normally struggle with advertising and getting their product out into the market, giving the larger businesses a huge advantage. Through social media, small business owners can create an account on any of these social media sites and begin advertising to millions of people in seconds. Social media has opened up a direct – from a company directly to a consumer’s phone/laptop/computer – which allows all of these small businesses a fair and equal chance of getting their product out there in the market. There are now apps for iPhones that find small businesses like restaurants and give people information on them. Consumers can now generate reviews on these stores and restaurants and post them to either the app or somewhere on the internet and consumers can access these reviews at the touch of their finger.

Pinterest's New Search Engine

     Another example of how social media has an impact for these small businesses can be shown through Pinterest and their recent update to the interface of the app. Consumers can now search through a product (let’s say I type in “sweatshirts” or something of the sorts) and then find a product that they like, then from the product that they like, they can use a new search engine-like feature. This feature allows people to take that product which they like, and search millions of other places through Pinterest that have similar or exact features of that sweatshirt. What this does is it allows consumers to discover new products which small business owners may have made but have trouble advertising. This opens new doors to consumer purchasing and it really gives an advantage to all of these small business owners.