Journal of Marketing and Management, 7(1), 24-39, May 2016 24 Social Media for Marketing by Small Businesses Kira Gholston, Matthew Kuofie Argosy University, USA kiragholston@yahoo.com,mkuofie@argosy.com,mhkuofie@msn.com Amy Cooper Hakim The Cooper Strategic Group, USA amy@cooperstrategicgroup.com Abstract Social media is currently a component of most business environments. Therefore, it is very important for small businesses to understand how to use social media networks like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Small businesses unfortunately do not have a strategy in place when they being using social media to expand their business and engage their customers. Strategies were revealed that suggested what small businesses should do in order to engage with their customers. Finding include creating relationships, increasing brand exposure, focusing on relationship building as opposed to sales, how to increase sales, and how content start interactions. Overall, social media for marketing by small businesses is essential. Keywords: Social Media, Marketing, Business Strategy, Small Business, Business Start-Up Introduction Social media has a problem that exists within its overall approach. The problem is that customers have no shame, follow the crowd, lacking answerability, and acting in secrecy (Guest, 2012). The