Perhaps that should be especially in this economy, because those small businesses who are using the social media marketing tools correctly are definitely getting more clients and more sales as a result - I know I am. One of the mistakes I see many newcomers make when they first start on Twitter and Facebook or set up a blog or email newsletter is that they try and go for the sale with every message, tweet and update. That’s like thrusting an order form under the nose of every new contact you meet at a networking breakfast, and not the way to go about it at all.
While it does depend on who your target customers are and which of the social networks they typically belong to, as a business owner you really need to belong to the big 3 - Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Just as in the past you would carefully craft your brochure and business card, now what you put in your online profile and what you tweet about have become a vital part of your marketing strategy - and your brand. For example a friendly professional photograph will give a much better impression than if you were to use an out of focus snap taken at the Christmas party! I see so many horrors where people don’t stop to think.
Publishing a regular email newsletter and keeping a blog are also a must these days as they're great ways to let your prospective clients get to know more about you, but again, these are often wrongly used by the inexperienced as another way to repeatedly send out a menu of products or services.
In case you’re thinking that social media isn’t the way to reach YOUR customers, let me share a few statistics gleaned from several impeccable sources and put together in a great little video called Socialnomics:
# By 2010 Gen Y (those born between mid-70s and 2000) will outnumber Baby Boomers….and 96% of them have joined a social network
# Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the Web
# 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met via social media
# If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s largest at 500 million users - larger than the United States at a mere 327 million (I’ve updated this as the video figure was out of date)
# % of companies using LinkedIn as a primary tool to find employees….80%
# The fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55-65 year-old females
and most importantly for those of us in business:
# In the near future we will no longer search for products and services they will find us via social media
I'll be talking about Social Networking on tomorrow's Savvy Marketers Teleseminar - it would be great if you could join us! Get all the details by clicking here.
In case you haven't seen it before, here's the Socialnomics video - with even more reasons to use the internet for your business:
How has Social Networking impacted your business?

