Doing business in the social media revolution

Have you joined the social media revolution?

Today, social media plays an enormous role in business marketing. Many people are sold on the effectiveness of using social media for personal networking, but some are skeptical of the benefits of using social media for business purposes.

There is no doubt social media has changed the face of traditional business marketing. Conventional advertising such as print and radio advertising still play an important role in generating leads and new customers. But, in today’s rapid-fire culture of instant gratification, combining traditional marketing methods with social media can equal a winning combination.

Hundreds of social media sites exist. Most people have heard of, if not participated in, the big players such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube and LinkedIn. In addition to the more popular sites, business and consumers have a multitude of other sites to choose from. For example, restaurateurs may enjoy participating in fohboh.com, photographers may use myshutterspace.com, event planners may engage in socialize.com. The list goes on and on, and new social media sites are being developed every day to meet the niches of specific markets.

The general concept of social media is to connect people with common interests with others who share similar interests through Internet-based tools. Social media allow users complete control of their marketing efforts.

Businesses can post news, updates, events, specials and promotions in real-time, which eliminates deadlines for placing print ads and the production time in developing radio or TV ads. Not only can the businesses post in real time, they can also address customer comments and concerns instantaneously, which helps to build customer loyalty as well as demonstrate a proactive response.

Some social media sites, such as Facebook, now allow users to create ads. Although Facebook ads do not allow for a lot of creative freedom, they do offer a fairly in-depth targeted marketing approach. Facebook ads can be targeted to users in a specific city or state, they can be sorted by specific keywords and the business can set a maximum daily budget. Going a step further, businesses can target their marketing efforts, specific to the niche media they select. For example, a business that sells products or services related to the photography industry can strategically select photography-related social media sites such as picturesocial.com or myshutterspace.com to target the users in that specific market.

The benefits of online social networking may hold even greater promise than face-to-face social networking or conventional marketing, with business owners investing time instead of precious dollars, reaching beyond the limitations of geography in gaining awareness, generating leads and gathering a larger amount of referrals.

However you look at social networking, it’s here and a great tool to make a name for your business.

Julie Nolen is director of the Alaska Small Business Development Center — Mat-Su Region.