The truly great thing about social media is that it’s incredibly democratic. The small business around the corner has just as much chance of succeeding as the behemoth with the enormous marketing budget. All they need is a great product that people love and have a kind of innate desire to let others know about too. 

So I thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to flag up a few examples of small companies around the world that prove the aforementioned theory. Here are the first two in what will be a continuing series:

Company: Wiggly Wigglers

Social media activity: A small gardening business in Herefordshire is not, you’d imagine, a natural home for cutting-edge social media activity. But you’d be wrong. Co-founder Heather Gorringe has built a fantastic “Wiggly Community” thanks to her blog, podcasts - “like the Archers, but real!” – videos, Facebook page (with 1,500 followers as of writing) and Twitter account. 

Results: Heather is a fantastically enthusiastic and knowledgeable face for her brand and that enthusiasm is infectious. Hers is such a personal and authentic voice, a real lesson for some bigger businesses who simply try and fake it. And according to this analysis, her social media activity has done nothing less than save the business.  

Company: Dustin Meyer Photography

Social media activity: Based in Texas, Dustin Meyer provides wedding photography, graduation and family portraiture mainly targeted at high-income couples and families. He started using Facebook to directly target students as he believed they would be the best means of influencing their parents to pay for the high-end service, mainly to display photos and video montages but also as a means of engaging with fans through applications.

Results: In November 2008 Meyer claimed that 75% of his business originated from Facebook, with 100% of his senior portrait business has been from Facebook or referral.  “It allows people to instantaneously promote my business to everyone they know with barely any effort,” he said.

Series to be continued.