Reasons Not to Use Social Media for Business: Which Still Hold?

In 2013 I wrote down the seven reasons business owners kept giving me for staying off social media, and then argued with every one of them. I was fairly sure of myself.

Thirteen years on, I've reread that list. Some of those reasons were weak then and are weak now. But a few have got stronger, and there are one or two I'd now give myself. Have you used any of them? Here they are again, with what I think of each today.

Is it OK for a business not to use social media?

Yes, for plenty of businesses, as long as it's a decision you've made and not something you've drifted into. If your customers find you through Google, word of mouth or people who already know you, your time usually goes further on your website and your Google listing than on a feed your market never reads. The version that fails is the half-way house: an account set up with good intentions, three posts in 2022, and silence since.

The seven reasons, then and now

1. "There's no measurable return"

In 2013 I said social media was harder to measure, not impossible, and I'd still say that. Asking what you get back for the hours is fair (it's the question you'd ask of any other marketing). Pick one number before you start, such as enquiries that mention where they found you, and look at it after three months. If it's zero, you have your answer.

2. "My customers don't use it"

I was scornful about this one, and your customers almost certainly do use social media.

But the better question is whether they use it to choose someone like you, and for a lot of businesses they don't: they search, ask a friend, or increasingly ask an AI assistant. Where did your last ten enquiries come from? That tells you more than any survey will.

3. "It'll take too much time"

This is now the strongest reason on the list. I said a plan would fix it, and a plan helps, but social media still takes time every single week, and it's usually the owner's time. A dormant account looks worse than none at all, because it tells a visitor the shop has been left unattended.

So if you can only keep up one channel, keep up one and let the others go (it's why I post on LinkedIn for work and leave the rest alone).

4. "Customers will have too much control"

My answer then was that people talk about you whether you join in or not. That's even more true now, and most of that talk has moved to reviews, which people read on your Google listing just before they decide whether to ring you. Replying to those is the part of "joining the conversation" that pays, and it's ten minutes a week.

5. "I don't like Facebook or Twitter"

I told people to go where their customers were, whether they liked it or not. I'd soften that now. Twitter has since become X, renamed in July 2023, and it's a very different place from the one I was defending. And a business that posts somewhere it dislikes tends to post badly for a while and then stop. Pick the platform you can stand to open every week, if there is one.

6. "Nobody's talking about us online"

Before you believe it, check. Search your own business name, read your reviews, and look at whether Google's AI answers mention your business, which is a newer kind of being talked about. If it really is quiet, that's a gap to fill, and your website and Google listing are cheaper places to fill it than a new social account.

7. "We don't have a plan"

Still the most common reason, and still the easiest to fix, because the plan can be small. Which one place, how often, who does it, and what number tells you it's working. Four lines on a page. If you can't fill them in, that's a perfectly good reason to wait.

Where I'd put the time now

Staying off social media is a reasonable choice for many small businesses, provided it's a choice. Get the basics right first: a website that answers your customers' questions, a complete Google listing, and replies to your reviews. Then, if you want social media, pick one platform, give it a fixed amount of time each week, and judge it on enquiries after three months.

If you'd like a second pair of eyes on where your marketing time is best spent, whether that's social media, your Google listing or the website itself, get in touch.