If your company has been established for a while, it’s likely set in its ways. While this may be okay at the moment, eventually it will need to embrace the world before it.  It may intuitively seem like a small business would have an easier time with learning to be social, but sometimes that isn’t the case. Here are a few obstacles that even micro-businesses may need to conquer.

Change Can Be Scary

“What we do works, so why change?” This sentence is something that is commonly heard among business owners, large and small. How many times have you heard it? This paradigm is difficult to escape, and it’s probably the biggest challenge that businesses have to face when any change comes their way. Let’s take RIM for an example. The Blackberry was immensely popular when it came out, but over time, as other phones hit the market (iPhone and Android), RIM’s customer base began to shrink. However, what they were doing pleased the people that remained with them, and instead of catching up with Android and iPhone when they had a chance, they simply said, “why change?”

Today, RIM is being pushed out of an ever-expanding market, and the once reigning company has shrunk by over 80% as their loyalists shifted to better, more “with the times” products. The same can happen to you as people and websites in your niche shift to bigger and better strategies.

Change Takes Time

So you’ve finally decided you want to start socializing your company. You’ve gotten a Facebook and a Twitter and you’re starting to update them on a regular basis. A few months go by and you see little, if any, change. The first thing you need to recognize, though, is that the path to becoming social isn’t a campaign. It’s not a one-shot wonder that will suddenly make your business blossom. What it is instead is a way to build trust and community, which results in optimum customer experience. This, of course, will require some time to measure results-wise. Expect socializing to be a long-term commitment that results in long-term results.

These obstacles are by no means insurmountable, but finding a good strategy that works for you and keeps them in mind will help you progress forward. Conquer the barriers and your own hesitations, practice patience, and you’ll eventually find that socializing has become a natural part of your company.

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