Described as the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution, social media is a phenomenon that is taking the world by storm and showing no signs of slowing down.
Social media is media designed for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable communication techniques. It penetrates, percolates, and permeates every dimension of human living, from catching up with old friends, making new ones, finding out what’s for sale in your favorite online store, to telling the world about your day.
So in a world where 96% of the millennial population has joined a social network - or many networks - it means promising things for the online business industry.
According to the 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, 88% of surveyed businesses said their social media efforts had generated additional exposure for their business. This means new partnerships, qualified leads, improved sales - with reduced marketing costs. Social media giants, such as Facebook and Twitter, are common household names and to a large extent, utensils. They are tools - useful tools.
In less than a year Facebook had attracted 200 million registered users (this year it surpassed 500 million) – compare this to the fact that it took television 13 years to reach just 50 million people, and you can appreciate just how fast-paced this social media phenomenon is and the extent of audiences it’s reaching. Studies show that the use of this medium is expanding, and so is its effectiveness. This is our new reality, and it’s making a real change in how customers relate to business.
Social media marketing is good for all businesses. Effectively getting the word out and about your services has always been the name of the marketing game, and social media is the prime platform to do that. Last year, social networking was named the top emerging channel for lead generation, with some of the “Top 100 Brands” companies, such as Starbucks and Dell, using social media to connect, communicate and market to their customers.
The Harvard Business Review Analytics services conducted a survey of 2,100 organizations and discovered that 79% are currently using social media channels.
With a little time and effort, social networks can quickly increase your ability to communicate with your community, advertise your services, network with other professionals and meet people who may be looking for your area of expertise. Essentials of exposure, connection, relationship-building and networking are now readily accomplished through cyberspace.
It’s often been said that it’s not what you know; it’s who you know. And these days, who you know has to include your Facebook fans, Twitter followers and LinkedIn connections.
For the more business-orientated entrepreneur, LinkedIn.com is a social media site for professional networking. Launched in 2002, it now has more than 70 million users, with 1 new user joining every second.
If your company has not joined the marvel that is social media marketing, the time has come to expand your presence into the online realm. Don’t let the fear of the unknown overwhelm the benefits that the social media revolution can provide to your business! With a little work and maintenance, social media campaigning will see you reaping rewards never before possible: increased awareness of your organization, increased traffic to your site, more favorable perceptions of your brand, ability to develop marketing activities, better understanding of customer perception of your brand, improved insights about target markets, identification of positive and negative comments, increase in new business, identification of new product or service opportunities, ability to measure frequency of the discussion about the brand and an early warning of potential product or service issues.
As Paul Gillin, the author of “The New Influences” put it, “Conventional marketing wisdom long held that a satisfied customer tells ten people. But…in the new age of social media, he or she has the tools to tell ten million.”
- © 2011 NOW Marketing Group, Inc.
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