Viral TikToks have allowed for starting businesses to be able to reach a bigger audience. Social media allows a lot of people to be able to see and experience visually what a product being sold is all about. Using videos about a product shows people the benefits of buying it, and increases the number of clients a business has. Examples of this are commercials on television (TV). The growth of social media has allowed more people to make their businesses grow without having to make and pay for TV commercials.
Some people think that in order to be able to grow a business using social media you would require some luck to have a picture or a video become viral. However, you do not need a video to become viral in order for you to gain customers. You just need enough people to see it and get interested. An example of this is Jalisco Jewelry, a small community jeweler in Fresno, CA. They created a video on TikTok that reached only 831 views, but gained 12 new customers from different states in the U.S. Even though that might not seem like a lot of customers, for a growing business it is not about the amount of customers gained per video or post, but it is about the consistency in growing customers. A study by Adeolu Ojo, “examined and concluded that social media serves as an effective entrepreneurial tool among business owners amidst covid-19 pandemic and therefore divulged that social media impact efficiently and significantly to entrepreneurship development among business owners amidst covid-19 pandemic” (Research Gate, 2021).
Entrepreneur, Olamide Babayeju, co-founded a nonprofit in 2019 and mentions “there are two great ways to use social media, the first being as a global agent that reaches audiences worldwide”. She and her team were able to use social media to gain members from Chicago to Italy. According to previous intern Kassandra Adorno’s past On The Money article, “One goal that all companies share is being able to gather more exposure and appeal to a broader audience” (Adorno, 2021) because with more exposure they are able to reach more of their target market. Elizabeth Gandara, another entrepreneur with their own clothing line, emphasizes that using social media is a free way to be able to get your business out there in the beginning with no risks. She also mentions that, “when starting your own business you have to do a lot of research that mostly comes from social media” (Gandara, 2021).
Social media allows entrepreneurs to potentially grow their business for free. It allows them to gather research on their target market, and improve their quality of service.