We have all seen social media grow exponentially in the last decade and observed just how much impact it can have on businesses’ success. Take, for example, the success story of Portland Gear. Marcus Harvey purchased the handle @portland on Instagram, and he curated a significant following through posting twice a day, every day and featuring pictures from accounts that tagged him. From there, he launched Portland Gear as an advertisement on the account and it quickly grew to the point where he now only posts about Portland Gear products twice a month. (Guillebeau, 2023) Now, if you’re anything like me, you might think, ‘Well that’s just one story, how can we be sure social media will help my business?’ This article aims to demonstrate how social media impacts businesses, what businesses can do to utilize social media to further their success, and how businesses can avoid social media pitfalls that have caused other businesses to crumble.

As stated above, social media has been on the rise for the last decade. The following graph is based on a study done by the Pew Research Center which demonstrates the rise of social media usage from 2012-2024.

We can clearly see that while some social media sites are more popular than others, there has been an increase in usage overall. Over the years, businesses have started to recognize the ability of social media to boost their success as well. Social media has been proven to be beneficial for SMEs (small and medium scale enterprises) in Ghana through a survey-based study. The article noted that, “The study demonstrated a positive correlation between SMEs’ use of social media and their profitability, indicating that social media usage enhances their financial performance. Furthermore, a positive and significant relationship was identified between SMEs’ utilization of social media tools and their growth in Ghana. These results suggest that SMEs can leverage social media in their marketing communication efforts to drive sales and enhance overall growth prospects.” (Padi, 2024) So we know social media has a lot of potential for growth and can boost businesses’ profits and outreach. With this information in hand, the following articles can educate on how can businesses effectively utilize social media.