The visibility that social platforms provide to SMEs is key to being able to maintain their business, both in sales and in seeking help to establish an adequate digital business strategy. 69% of companies said they have had a positive impact on their business during the pandemicaccording to the global report “Culture on the Rise: 2022 Trends Report” from Facebook IQ (the Meta marketing research team).
This is reflected in the figures of the aforementioned Meta trends report: there has been a 90% increase in #LiveShoping on Instagram and conversations about #SocialMediaMarketing and #SupportSmallBusiness have risen 78% and 61% respectively on Instagram.
The changes to which companies, especially SMEs, have been a constant in recent years. As a consequence, they have been able to further explore the most creative and innovative part of their business strategies, such as betting on their digital skills or creativity focused on online content.
Creativity has become one of the main tools for SMEs when it comes to increasing their online visibility. In fact, according to one of Kantar’s latest studies, 64% of Spaniards believe that the pandemic has boosted creativity. In addition, the report also highlights that Instagram is the most used platform as a channel for the expression of creativity, followed by Facebook and WhatsApp.
The rise of creative communities
Being able to maintain direct contact and create a closer relationship with your followers is essential for these small businesses. That is why some of them, like Hello Creativity Y Tiffet Scrapbooking they have seen the influx of their courses increase, mainly thanks to their social platforms. For them, these platforms have become a channel where they can not only share their knowledge, but also, like the rest of their followers, express their creativity.
“As what I do is very visual, it is above all thanks to Instagram that people are getting to know my work.”, corroborates Saray Pozuela, owner of Tiffet Scrapbooking. His goal was to be able to share his hobby and passion for crafts and offer courses to his followers so that they could learn to create their own designs. Along the same lines of being able to help other small businesses to foster their creativity, Mar Ramos Amate founded Hello Creativity with two friends, and assures: “Instagram has helped us achieve our goals as a business and now we teach other SMEs how they can achieve theirs”.
It is also important for them to be able to use their social profiles to create a community in which all users feel comfortable and can continue to develop their most creative side, both personally and professionally. For example, Hello Creativity is supported by a strong community on Instagram, where more than 100,000 followers interact usually with the daily posts and stories through which they promote the courses they offer.
In the case of Tiffet Scrapbooking, it does so through Facebook groups as well as through Messenger and Instagram direct messages, thanks to Facebook groups they are of great importance to, since Saray attributes up to 80% of the knowledge of her brand both to Facebook as to Instagram and Mar 85% to Instagram.
In Spain, 99% of the business fabric is made up of small and medium-sized companies, so it is essential that they have different and innovative ways of reaching their customers and numerous communication channels to continue strengthening their relationship and closeness with them.
