If you hold a mirror under your nose and find even the slightest hint of mist, you’ve probably heard that social media has arrived. Many of us use it as a means to watch endless hours of cat videos or keep up with the whimsical George Takei’s most recent meme that has been shared a couple of trillion times.
Then there are the select few who own a small business and are coming to the realization that even a sparse involvement in the proper social media channels could be integral to success. So why not?
- It’s free
- there are hundreds of millions of users
- the learning curve is simpler than the Wii.
There’s only one slight issue with this perceived golden ticket…
Or so it seems?
It might be hard to maintain the “no time for social media” excuse when we discover other very busy small business people who are killing it in that arena.
Let me introduce you to one.
CARPE DIEM: and other inspiring words I may have read on a bathroom stall
The Raleigh-Durham area has a cultural staple that has grown exponentially in popularity over the past few years in the form of mobile restaurants or food trucks. These are the quintessential small business owners who not only get social media but rely on multiple platforms to keep their business afloat.
The ever-present Klausies Pizza food truck has been providing the Triangle of North Carolina with delicious square-shaped pizza for a couple of years now. In addition to waking up before the sun rises and closing up shop long after it has set, Klausie has managed to:
These stats may not be chum for the shark tank, but don’t forget the fact that Klausie’s is also a mobile single-staffed restaurant run by a single man named Michael Stenke. Michael is the owner, operator, head chef, mechanic, driver, plumber, and the entire marketing department. To pull a profit he must be responsible for the duties that are usually delegated to upwards of 8 different people, depending on the size of the company.
I had the pleasure of meeting Michael one afternoon when his food truck had broken down in front of my house. I helped him jump-start his truck and to thank me, Mike gave me a tour of The Klausie’s Pizza Truck. While on my tour, I was enlightened to the amount of hard work and long hours that are involved in running your own business.
An easy day for a food truck owner would be a paltry 12 hours of driving, prepping, cooking, and cleaning. On some of the more intensive days, upwards of 16 or even 17 hours would be devoted to running his baby-faced business.
Remember, he’s doing all that and maintaining an active social presence that connects him with his customers.
So…what’s your excuse?
TIME TO PUT THE TRAINING WHEELS ON
Hey, I hear you say, I’ll just hire someone else to do it!
Outsourcing your social media is a spectacularly unsustainable short-term plan to get some fair-weather fans. Experts and agencies are invaluable due to their knowledge of how to create a well-balanced solid campaign to effectively drive traffic to your site, but they can’t be the expert in your industry. This Just In – That’s you. Like professors, these experts are a wealth of information that can help you create and sustain the ideal campaign with the most useful tools for time management, but should not be doing the homework for you.
Take a chapter out of the book of food trucks and find the time to explore a proper social campaign that will supplement your success.
**Consult a Social Media Expert for proper dosage**
