While reading Jacqueline’s post on how Facebook video is now another means for small businesses to promote themselves on social media, it reminded me of the entrepreneurs/Sauder alumni who shared their start-up experience in class today. As Jacqueline stated, small businesses create Facebook pages to reach out to their potential customers and create brand recognition and awareness. Now with the automatically playing video feature, we as consumers are more exposed to start-up businesses more than ever.

Connecting to what the alumni and Professor Kroeker touched upon in class, the environment to which a business begins is of ultimate importance, especially in terms of PEST. In fact, whether a start-up is successfully is, to a large degree, dependent on the environment to which is it born out of. The Monarch, for instance, was able to take off because of the lack of personal tools like “Garageband” and the astronomical cost required to record albums in a large, corporate music studio. That being said, I agree that entrepreneurs must carefully observe the current environment and seize any opportunity or advantage they can take. In fact, I believe the widespread development of Facebook (and other social media sites) can certainly become an advantage to small businesses in terms of marketing strategy. It may even encourage growth in start-up companies due to how easy it is to establish and market a brand through social platform. The growing popularity and use of various social platforms may add to the attractiveness of the industry environment, given that the target market can be reached through social platforms.