The most common question raised by small businesses, non-profits and individual entrepreneurs when considering implementing a Social marketing strategy pertains to whether such a strategy can produce measurable results in a world dominated by larger organizations with greater resources.  My response to such questions is always the same, highlighting three main points:

1. Entrepreneurial and organizational success in social marketing should not be based upon a comparison of to larger organizations unless such comparisons factor in economies of scale.
2. Regardless of the size of an organization, all companies and individuals must start from the same point in terms of online marketing and social media.  That starting point is with nothing.
3. Smaller organizations and individual entrepreneurs have three advantages that are rarely found or demonstrated within larger organizations.  Such traits have proven to give smaller organizations a greater level of success and production when engaging in social marketing.  Those three traits are listed below.

Patience
Imagine working for a company with 5,000 employees and approaching the CEO with a message that they must be patient when implementing a social marketing plan.  Your plea is likely to fall upon deaf ears as a century of corporate culture and shareholder reports has created a mentality that any marketing campaign must produce results based upon a benchmark system.  The larger the company, the less patience exists within the hierarchy of that company.  Yet, social marketers will all agree that patience is an important component of social marketing.  Smaller organizations tend to practice a greater level of patience and more likely to adjust strategies, rather than abandoning them, when objectives are not reached or exceeded. 

Persistence
"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."  Nowhere are those words more applicable than in the world of social marketing.  Social media and online platforms as constantly evolving and the marketing strategies that are effective today may be obsolete a few years from now.  Small organizations better understand that they greatest successes are often built upon earlier failure.  Yet, larger companies possess neither the patience nor the understanding that persistence is one of the greatest weapons of the social marketing. 

Organizational Commitment
Nothing is more important to a social marketing campaign than organizational commitment.  Likewise, a small organization or entrepreneur has no greater advantage over their larger counterparts than organizational commitment.  The larger the organization, the more decision-makers; and along with more decision-makers comes the inevitable resistance to online outreach and social marketing.  Whether we like it or not, there are those among society who are adverse to social marketing.  Human resources departments, legal and compliance officers are often fearful that a broad social marketing platform will encourage employees to spend an increasing amount of time online and create more opportunity for negative publicity to the company.

Marketing efforts within such larger organizations are often limited, results are more heavily scrutinized, patience is lessened and achievement is not recognized.  Smaller organizations consist of fewer opinion leaders that are often more tightly knit.  As a result, organizational commitment is often uniform throughout the organization as all employees are working as a team to build success.  As a result, when small successes are recognized it often fuels further commitment to social marketing efforts.