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(Article first published in Feb '10. It has been modified slightly to suit its publication on our site)
When did the Social Media revolution begin? The answer depends on who you speak to. Some will say with the telephone and multi-line conferencing, while others say that it really started in the early days of the internet and the electronic bulletin board systems (BBS's). Yet others say that instant messaging really kicked it off. I disagree with all of these. Social Media really began when it wasn't just businesses talking to other businesses or geeks logging onto early websites to download games or even one person instant messaging with another person. In each of these examples the interaction was limited to a specific group of people, to a single person or even just a person logging onto a machine! No, Social Media began when one person could interact with a large group of people and they could interact back, whether in real time or not.
The first example of this was a site called SixDegrees.com. It went live in 1997 but only lasted until 2001. As with all trail-blazers they were simply overshadowed by sites that took their concept and delivered a better solution. So from 2002 on came a flurry of sites in the form of Friendster, then MySpace and Bebo and ultimately the most successful of them all are Facebook for a nice friendly chat with friends and LinkedIn for helping business people to network with other business people.
However, we shouldn't forget the other important forms of social media, which although being vehicle to publish information does allow an individual to reach an online audience of up to millions of people. These are Twitter, YouTube and Blogs.
I am often asked, by clients who are mostly in their late 30s onwards, (younger people just get it) what place social media has in the business world and especially in the world of small business. The answer is that it has a huge role to play, but only if you can commit sufficient time to it. There are two benefits to your business:
- You create a network of "fans" and "advocates"
By supplying useful information, tips and updates about your business to an interested group of people, they begin to take an interest in what you do and the products/services you supply. They start to share this information with friends and relatives and before you know it you have hundreds or even thousands of people "following" your updates
- You create regular fresh web content that the search engines love
Search engines love two things: fresh content and links. Social Media sites give business owners the ability to deliver both and this helps to increase the visibility of a web site.
However, be warned! Social Media is not like an advertising campaign. You should not expect instant return from your efforts and it's not all about selling. In fact the rule to follow in this regard is that only 20%, at most, of your social media content should be aimed at trying to sell to potential customers. The other 80% you're just giving useful information.
For instance, if you run a clothing retail outlet, you might blog about the best clothes/colours to wear for the spring, how to dress to impress, etc. For every 10 blog entries you make you might include two that inform the readers about special offers you are running or end of line products that you have.
Your type of business and what you really wanted to achieve would dictate which social media tools you used and how you would use them. But your best strategy is to pick one and do it well. The undeniable truth is that business owners who engage with their customers through social media tools see a steady increase in traffic to their websites and an increase in brand awareness. Both of which ultimately leads to more business!
Franco De Bonis has worked in the field of sales and marketing promotion since 1990 and was most recently the global marketing manager for a major international technology company before setting up The DG Group in January 2007.
The DG Group is dedicated to delivering all the marketing solutions any company may require. Whether it's a website or leaflets and brochures, or even some product packaging; The DG Group will manage the whole project, providing sound guidance along the way.
The content in this section is the original creation of The DG Group and is protected by copyright. You may use this content on your site or in other materials providing you acknowledge DG Group as the author and include a link to our site.
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