What Is Social Media?

Any website that invites you to interact with the site and with other visitors falls into the definition of Social Media.

online forums (e.g., DigitalPoint)
blogs (e.g., WordPress)
social networking sites (e.g., Facebook)
social bookmarking sites (e.g., Digg)
video sharing sites (e.g., YouTube)
photo sharing sites (e.g. Flickr)
streaming sites (e.g., Ustream)
user reviews (e.g., Amazon)
crowdsourcing (e.g., Wikipedia)
content aggregators (e.g., FriendFeed)

As you can see, social media is much wider than what some people think. It is also much older. We could say that the first Usenet (a form of distributed discussion system) developed in 1980 was already social media.

So anyone not taking advantage of the power of Social Media is about 3 decades behind the times.

Social Media is effective based off of a concept called the Multiplier Effect (also commonly referred to as the “Facebook Effect“)

Ever have a friend send you a funny video? And then you shared it with a couple of friends. Who then shared it with a couple more… until quickly the video has been viewed by millions of people?

The Multiplier Effect can also be put to use for your business.

Why Social Media?

The world of one way advertising is extinct. Stop thinking “campaign” and start thinking “conversation”. You gotta listen before you ever think of selling.

78% of consumers trust peer recommendations when it comes to making their buying decisions. Only 14% trust advertisements.

The fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55-65 year old females.

Who does the buying research in a family? Traditionally and statistically, it’s the females. They will do research and seek out buying recommendations before a final purchase is made.

Word of mouth advertising has turned into World of mouth advertising via the internet taking small businesses global. Your market area is not longer your storefront. The world is your audience.

Currently there are 200,000,000 bloggers, 54% of them post content or tweet their content every day. Plus, 34% of bloggers post opinions about products and brands.

And they’re talking about you. 25% of search results about the world’s top 20 largest business are links to USER generated content, not the company’s generated content.

This means 2 things to you as a business owner.

1. You want the content to be positive feedback from your customers and you want it to be shared.

2. You want to have a Social Media prescence so your content that you create about your business can also be found.

Your customers and clients will only talk about your business if you give them a reason to. You want it to be a positive reason, not because of a bad experience.

Social Media opens up a reason for them to talk about you. The number one thing your customers want is to know that their voice is heard. Give them a place to voice their opinions, appreciation and brand loyalty. Instead of just being users of your products they will be fans, they will have a real voice and interaction with you.

What’s Your Gain?

Word of Mouth Advertising. 78% trust the opinion of their peers when it comes to purchasing decisions. Let them see their peer’s opinions!

“We don’t have a choice on whether we DO social media,
the question is how WELL we do it.”