Why Social Media Is Critical To The Success Of Your Business

I spent time on Sunday speaking at two sessions at the annual DRNExpo, a conference and convention for independent dance retailers.  My big takeaway was that a good 95% of my audience at each session wasn't using social media for their business. I had a lot of work to do to get this group to understand the importance and relevance of social media in today's marketing mix.

When brands like Pepsi drop out of Super Bowl advertising and funnel that money (and it's a lot of money) into social media, or when J.C. Penney stops producing its catalog to focus on its nearly one million Facebook Fans, you know something's afoot. A change just isn't gonna come, a change has come, and it's time to jump on board or risk falling behind.

Let me throw a few suppositions out there.

Twitter is the new word of mouth

We're approaching 10 million tweets a day. That's a lot of mcnuggets of information being exchanged. All it takes is one of those to be retweeted throughout the Twitterverse and you've created an enormous amount of word-of-mouth, simply by writing 140 characters. That's a powerful (and cheap) marketing initiative that you could never get through traditional media.

Facebook may make the need for your website irrelevant

Facebook now has some 100MM Americans reading (begrudgingly) about you giving your kids a bath, having a great sweat at the gym, and other trivial matters that they really don't care about. But as a business tool, Facebook Fan Pages only continues to gain momentum, offering up tabs on everything from events and promotions to surverys and even eCommerce.  If you ever doubted that this social media monster was going to transform how we interact as people, not to mention how we as businesses interact, think again. The continued growth of this medium in its offerings may indeed make your website irrelevant as more people stay connected 24/7 via social media.

Linkedin is the new business networking

Sure you post your job experience, but the site is now much more about networking with other like-minded individuals through "groups" than it is about finding a job. Being an active participant in groups, discussions and more can raise your personal profile along with that of your business, creating the "you as thought leader" just for speaking up and speaking up.

The point is that if you're not using social media for your business in some form, you're losing out.  Big time! 

How are you creating awareness and driving business via social media?

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