Popular Social Media sites are hitting the mainstream.  You can’t listen to the radio or watch TV without hearing terms like Twitter, Facebook or Tweeting.  CNN, Ashton Kutcher, Ellen Degeneres and even Oprah are on and talking about them.  A recent episode of “My Boys” centered around the topic of Facebook.  Every character had a different opinion about the relevance of Facebook to his or her life or work.  And that really mirrors life.  In every circle there are people who love social media and there are those who just don’t get it.  There are some who would only use it for socializing while others are fully on board and utilizing it for their business.

As a Social Media Consultant, I spend hours researching and evaluating these sites and associated applications and am definitely of the mindset that every business should be utilizing these tools to create a presence online.

Let’s go over just three of the main reasons why businesses should use social media.

1. Branding

A) Social Media gets your brand known.  Utilizing these powerful tools allows
you to have a continuous presence on various social websites such as
Twitter, Facebook, and Linked-In to name a few.

B) Utilzing these sites gives you the opportunity to create a group of followers
who are interested in your particular market.  There are powerful
applications available that help you easily find those in your target market
to add to your community.

C) Since the inception of the internet, one of the main hurdles has been to
create a connection with people online that mimicked, at least to some
extent, face-to-face interaction.  Social Media sites help bridge this gap as
they allow you to bring out your personality with your community.    People
feel like they really know you and your company which is very important
in building customer loyalty.

2. Social Media is Viral

A) If someone finds your company information interesting or an article helpful,
the information is easily shared through Social Media sites to a wide set of
similar individuals.  Your followers will most likely send a tweet to their
followers or will write about it on their own blog or website.

B) Using Social Media helps create a buzz about your brand.  Multiple people
can easily forward your information, links, and tweets about your company.
The movement of information is fluid and fast.  A frenzy of activity around
your business is a real possibility if you utilize these tools well.

C) The more social websites, bookmarking websites, professional websites you have a presence on the better.   Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, DIGG, Reddit, Delicious, StumbleUpon, YouTube, Networked Blogs, MyBlogLog, and Blip.tv are a few examples.

3. Marketing

A) Social media websites are a cost efficient and effective way to drive
traffic and promote your company.

B) You will want to provide your community with free useful information
in addition to mixing in promotion. Your community wants to have value
and that’s what you must provide or they will go elsewhere.

C) Write articles that are helpful and of interest to people on a blog,
podcast or website.

D) The most important thing is not only to be present on these social
media websites but also be involved and interacting on them them
constantly. Here are my recommendations for how to best utilize your time
on a few of the major social media platforms:

How Do I Tweet?

A Tweet is limited to 140 characters in length. You tweet by logging into your twitter account and entering words into the box under the phrase “What are you doing?” You can also use many other applications to tweet. For example many use TweetDeck, Seesmic Desktop, Hootsuite, Ping.fm and others to tweet from.

What Should I Tweet?

-You want to tweet relevant interesting information that you feel will be of benefit
to your followers.

-Take time to really think about your tweet before you send one, especially since
you are limited to a restricted number of characters you can tweet.

-For example, after writing a new article on your blog you will want to drive traffic
to your article. Sending a tweet is a perfect way to do that.

-Here is an example of how I would tweet this article
“Why You, as a Business Owner, Should Be Using Social Media:
http://ow.ly/cE4N” #socialmedia

-URL shorteners are very useful in adding links to pages while keeping your
characters under 140.

What Are Some Good URL Shorteners?

OW.LY

IS.GD

TinyURL

How Can I Find Interesting Stuff?

-Use Tweetgrid or Tweetdeck to search words that are in your area of interest to find people currently tweeting about your topic in real-time. You can then follow them and track their updates.

-Hash tags are also a great way to find people talking about a certain topic. For example, if you search #socialmedia you will get a stream of people with relevant topics on social media.  Here is a  website link to a list of popular hash tags: http://www.hashtags.org

How Do I Connect With My Audience, Followers and Friends?

By using @ Replies you can send messages to individuals and they will receive it in their @ Replies inbox.  Just keep in mind, @ Replies are not private.  They will show up your public twitter feed, so others will be able to see your message.

By using a DM (Direct Message) you can send private massages to individuals as long as they are following you back.  These messages will not show in your public twitter feed.

If you are ready to bite the bullet and jump into the Social Media arena, here is some additional information about getting started on Twitter:  “The Basics Of Twitter” http://www.vogelsocialmedia.com/?p=121