Megan Cockrell and her husband, business analyst Matt Cockrell, meet with Brent Leaders, a potential client of 2M Social, in 2022. (Photo by Davey Morgan Photography/Courtesy of 2M Social)
For people outside the industry, social media marketing probably looks like hashtags or hopping on the latest trends.
For those of us who run agencies, it looks a lot more like deadlines, analytics dashboards, content calendars, ad performance metrics, customer acquisition costs search engine optimization (SEO) strategy and video editing queues.
That is exactly why artificial intelligence has become so important to businesses like mine.
As the owner of social media marketing agency here in South Carolina, I have watched AI move from novelty to necessity over the last few years.
In an industry where the pace changes by the hour, AI has become the difference between staying competitive and getting buried under the sheer volume of content the modern economy demands.
For small businesses like mine, technology isn’t abstract. It’s practical.
AI tools help us work smarter, but digital tools on platforms like Facebook and Instagram and e-commerce sites also help us reach new audiences, connect with customers we otherwise never would have met, and compete in ways that weren’t possible even a few years ago.
Today, every business is expected to behave like a media company.
A local restaurant in Charleston needs short-form video. A real estate team in Columbia needs automated lead nurturing and SEO-optimized listing content. Tourism brands along the Grand Strand are competing for attention against national travel companies.
AI empowers small businesses that don’t have enterprise-level budgets or in-house production teams. My agency uses AI tools to accelerate video scripting, analyze audience behavior, optimize ad copy, identify trending search patterns, improve customer targeting, generate campaign concepts and monitor platform performance in real time.
Work that once required staring at screens for hours now moves at the speed the digital economy requires and frees my team up to engage with our community, be creative in their work, find opportunities to grow and build client relationships.
As we’re still celebrating National Small Business Month, it’s important to recognize that small businesses are the backbone of the economy — making up about 99% of all companies in
the United States and contributing more than 40% of the national gross domestic product — and its important they have the tools they need to operate.
In the Palmetto State, we are fortunate to have the perfect environment to adopt AI throughout the economy. We have the logistics infrastructure, manufacturing base, energy footprint, military
presence and technical college system that modern AI infrastructure such as data centers require.
All of this opportunity is leading to major tech companies expanding investments in South Carolina and advanced manufacturing companies recognizing that the Southeast is becoming one of the country’s most important growth corridors for technology-enabled industry.
You can feel the momentum building.
Even culturally, South Carolina businesses are adapting faster than many people realize. Local brands that once depended entirely on foot traffic are now building online communities, creator
partnerships, livestream commerce strategies and digital customer funnels that reach well beyond county lines. Not to mention, 60% of South Carolina small businesses are using AI to grow and run their daily operations.
Some of the most effective marketers I know are not sitting in Manhattan high-rises. They are running campaigns from coffee shops in Mount Pleasant or home offices in Spartanburg.
But America cannot afford complacency. Our AI innovators must be able to continue to innovate and bring the best tools and systems to market.
China is investing heavily in AI because it understands that it is economic infrastructure. The country that leads in AI will influence global commerce, media ecosystems, and financial
markets for decades to come.
The United States needs to lead that future, and South Carolina deserves a seat at that table to ensure American workers, entrepreneurs, creators and small businesses have free-market, high
performing tools to compete in a faster and more demanding world.
From where I sit, somewhere between campaign analytics, client calls and another round of content revisions before midnight, that future is already here.
Thank you to the legislators who are forging ahead with smart AI technology and AI infrastructure policies, and to the rest, please put South Carolinians and Americans first in the AI economy.
Courtesy of South Carolina Daily Gazette
