First we should start off with “What exactly is social media?” According to Wikipedia, “Social media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many).” Social media includes websites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, Delicious, Digg, and many, many more. Most of these social media tools started as ways for people (not businesses) to communicate, but that isn’t true today. The most successful social-media-using businesses use social media to connect with customers, NOT as “just another marketing tactic”. Most social media sites are free, so the biggest investment by you, the small business owner, is time. You may be thinking that social media is just a fad and isn’t worth your time investment. Watch the 2 videos below to learn the reach of social media.
Some interesting facts from the videos:
1. 96% of Generation Y has joined a social network.
2. The fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55-65 year old women.
3. 300,000+ businesses have a presence on Facebook.
4. Blendtec quintupled sales with “Will It Blend?” YouTube videos.
5. Dell sold $3 million worth of computers via Twitter.
These facts (and all of the facts in the 2 videos) are truly eye-opening. As an entrepreneur, do you use social media? If no, why not? Has this video changed your mind about using social media? If you do use social media, what social media tools do you use?
