Social Media: Big waste of time? Or your most powerful free marketing tool?

How can you make the best use of one of your most powerful marketing weapons when you think it may be pointing at you?

This is the real issue facing so many small and large business owners who see social media as nothing more than a way for their employees to waste company time online. In her blog post The line between playing social media and utilising social media, Abby Johnson says that these companies are missing out on a great opportunity:

Some companies still believe the myth that social networks are only for kids. Facebook statistics blatantly show that more than half of its approximated 150 million users are outside of college. What’s even more interesting is that the users 30 years old and older are the fastest growing age group.

The reality is that as adults of all ages become more and more Internet savvy and climb on the social networking bandwagon, it is not just Facebook that is getting a tremendous boost as a marketing tool, but also many other social media platforms like Digg, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and the ever so powerful blog.

Those who insist that the social media are a potential way to waste time do have a point, but that is like saying you can spend your gym session discussing last night’s party, instead of getting a proper workout. The former is not a good enough reason to ignore the social marketing phenomenon, just like the latter is little more than a poor excuse not to go to the gym. What you have to do is to establish proper discipline within your company that clearly limits the use of social media to reaching out to your clients and marketing your business.

The current economic times, with business on the slow side, present an ideal opportunity for you to break into the arena of social media marketing, or to give your current efforts a significant boost. Let’s face it: your staff tend to have more time on their hands right now. So why not use this time to market your company via a medium that is not only very powerful, but also either free or relatively cheap?

As we recently pointed out, 48% of businesses are doing more social network marketing to tackle the downturn. That’s a very significant number of companies that have realised that, by reaching out to a network of people, they can make use of the ‘friend tells a friend’ phenomenon to get their message out there to a massive, new and untapped audience (and their family and friends), many of whom could be potential clients. And if you’re still somewhat skeptical, you might want to read about how Barak Obama and his campaign used the power of social media to influence people and get them to act, and ultimately win the election. See Barack Obama’s lesson in Social Media Internet Marketing for your business.

Unless you want to be left behind, now is the time to get smart about social network marketing. Find out what it is all about, read as much as you can about how companies are using this new and powerful marketing strategy, and begin your own social marketing campaign. At Sorted Sites, we are ready to help you optimise your campaign and make the most of your social marketing, and if you’re new to the scene we’ll hold your hand and guide you as you take your first steps. Just give us a shout!

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