It goes without saying that many of us wouldn\u2019t have crossed paths with these folks had it not been for social media. After all, that\u2019s the very purpose of it. Isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n
While social media helps us to amplify our business, we\u2019ve come across many owners who bet all their eggs in this basket alone. Is that good for a business? Or, does it backfire at some point in time or the other?<\/p>\n
Shall we find out with this blog, then?<\/p>\n
Social Media is Always a Smooth Start<\/h3>\n
It\u2019s super easy to get started on social media, right? Just signing up and adding what you want the world to see about your business. There\u2019s initial traction when you share the new venture with your friends and family and they, in turn, do the same for you.<\/p>\n
A splish splash of your products; if you\u2019re a home baker, then that latest macaroon batch which you did, or the buttercream frosting hack to get it right. Okay, now I really need a cupcake, sigh!<\/p>\n
Anyway, it\u2019s smooth sailing.<\/p>\n
At first.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
A recent study<\/a> did by Sprout Social revealed that marketer’s primary goal on social media is to increase brand awareness. Almost all the reasons marketers use social media is for promotion – not selling.<\/p>\n Soon enough, that initial wave tends to die down. The visibility dips and you could find yourself in a confused state. Google is flooded with articles and videos that talk about getting out of this social media plateau and bring back that mojo.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t believe me?<\/p>\n I ran a search volume test on Google\u2019s keyword research tool, and the number of people who searched for \u201chow to get followers on Instagram fast\u201d was between a staggering 10K \u2013 100K.<\/p>\n The pursuit(read struggle) to get followers isn\u2019t a new thing. While the initial success is attractive, very often, most business owners don\u2019t get their expectations matched in the days that follow.<\/p>\n Since social media platforms are used by millions across the globe, it\u2019s natural for business owners to assume that it is easy to reach out to them through these channels.<\/p>\n However, what many people don\u2019t realize is that building a presence through this channel requires time and patience. A flood of DMs, comments asking for prices, orders pouring in, all of it takes due time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Moreover, social platforms run and thrive on advertisements. The reach which a business account gets until it runs a paid ad is way lesser compared to a personal account. In essence, you could hope for the desired results if you are ready to invest generously.<\/p>\n Using social media to amplify our business works. Using it to run a business needn\u2019t. Let\u2019s see why.<\/p>\n Here are some of the things we found from our customers who solely used social media to run their online store and business, especially after receiving the threshold social presence they\u2019d hoped for.<\/p>\n Your customers have multiple ways of reaching out to you. It could be a DM on Instagram or initiating a chat on WhatsApp. In due course, it becomes difficult to keep track of orders coming from multiple sources, especially when you scale up.<\/p>\n In this chaos, you end up processing duplicate orders or missing one out. Consequently, a bad customer experience ensues. A customer once lost is hard to get back.<\/p>\n Social media platforms are just an auxiliary support system for your business. Their core aim is to advertise and popularize a brand\/account.<\/p>\n Therefore, it becomes too difficult to process orders, keep a track of shipment, verify and cross-check orders, and prevent their duplication, processing safe payments. Even if you end up running everything on social media, you\u2019d still require the support of other platforms to run the remaining leg of an order cycle.<\/p>\n It\u2019s every other day we see pages with great follower count putting up stories calling out fake accounts created in their name. These accounts feature the same products and even the logo as a flourishing business in an attempt to piggybank some orders and even scam customers.<\/p>\n Remember the Kicker copycat of Nestle\u2019s?<\/p>\n Source: Reddit<\/a><\/p>\n It may not be easy to track down such fake profiles that pose a great threat to your reputation.<\/p>\n Since a lot is going on, you\u2019ll find yourself stretched too thin. Running the business becomes hard and it becomes impossible to be at multiple places at the same time- packing, processing, payments. You might require hiring an additional resource which could add to your overhead costs. It\u2019s important to note that there are e-commerce platforms that will let you run the show with way less hassle.<\/p>\n In the case where you already have resources, these multiple back & forths would mostly result in underutilizing your resource, when in reality you could use them for something worthy.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t call the shots here, TLDR.<\/p>\n For any disputes or issues that arise on any social media platform, there is a review process. In some cases, accounts get suspended or banned even. Even the copyright infringement scenario if another account steals your identity isn\u2019t sturdy enough to prevent the same from the company.<\/p>\n On the contrary, competitors can report your profile, maybe for no reason, and there\u2019s a possibility of losing all your hard work overnight.<\/p>\n Moreover, white-labeling isn\u2019t exactly on cards when you run a business on these platforms. It\u2019s always: \/platform\/your-store\/. That exclusivity is missing! Why is it important, you ask? Two words. Brand Recall.<\/p>\n It\u2019s an open secret that our data is not precisely secure across many leading platforms. This could particularly pose a difficult situation for business data security. Your sensitive data could be accessible to others and leaked even. As the platform is yours, you have little to no control over what happens.<\/p>\n If not social media, you might have to set up your own business website isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n To do the same, you would either have to depend on a graphic designer and developer to do the work for you. Couple that with website domain hosting fees, payment gateway charges, shipping & logistics\u2026 the horizon doesn\u2019t look promising.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Or, you could go ahead with e-commerce platforms that get all this done for you. As it\u2019s obvious, in both cases, you need to dish out cash. A good chunk for that matter.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not like the free signup you see on social media.<\/p>\n Many a time, there could even be barriers such as technical knowledge required to run a task or to set up the platform the way you want.<\/p>\n For people who are non-tech-savvy or who don\u2019t wish for such sophistication, this could easily be a deal-breaker.<\/p>\n We understand.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard when dreams come with a price tag. So let\u2019s change that, shall we?<\/p>\n What if we ask you to forget about all the big numbers and problems which we had just discussed? Before you raise your brows, let\u2019s tell you why.<\/p>\n With a platform like Dukaan<\/a>, you can get the best of both worlds.<\/p>\nHitting a Social Media Plateau<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\nWhen It\u2019s Down To Business, It gets Messy!<\/h3>\n
Difficulty In Managing Orders From Multiple Sources<\/h4>\n
Lack of Unified System to Run Business<\/h4>\n
Competition could steal your brand name\/profile<\/h4>\n
Wastage of Resources<\/h4>\n
Exclusive Ownership Issues<\/h4>\n
Business Data Hacking<\/h4>\n
So, what are the Alternatives?<\/h3>\n
How Dukaan can help<\/h3>\n