You’ve no doubt seen and heard the news stories about Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.  These days it seems like everyone has some sort of social media going on.  Does your niece at uni send you a link to her MySpace page and invitations to befriend her on Facebook?  Maybe your adult children email you links to Flickr instead of sending you photographs. Or perhaps worst of all, your cat has started writing a blog, and he’s totally dissing you all over the internet. So, how can this social stuff possibly help your business?

Social Media is loosely defined as networking websites, where users submit content such as news, photos, videos and audio for public consumption, so others can learn from it, share it, comment on it or even vote on it.  Social Media relies on the participatory nature of these websites.  People are expected to contribute and engage with the virtual community online as they would if they were happening at a local coffee shop or at a dinner party.

Because social media is still relatively new, the rules around how and when to use it are still being written, but it is already obvious that these social networking tools offer new ways for businesses to market themselves and communicate with their customers.  The more places you and your audience share, the more of their attention you have. 

Companies can use social media and networking sites to help control their online reputations.  The benefits are listed below:

P       Protect and promote your brand

Have you ever searched for a company or product on Google and noticed that some of the search results have no formal relation to the brand you are searching on?  Perhaps you have spotted negative blog posts or product reviews show up on the first page of the search results.  Protect and promote your brand.  You need to secure relevant user names and unique URLs for your business, the same way you secure domain names for your company website.  Having a number of profiles spread amongst various social media sites may help you to have better control over the first few pages of Google search results for your unique brand name.

·         Attract website traffic

You can drive traffic to your site by writing good content, but you can also increase visitation with viral videos and creative thinking.  BlendTec is a great case study with their ‘Will it Blend?’ videos, a series of short videos where they blend everything from golf balls to iPhones with their industrial size blenders.  People love seeing stuff demolished and the videos have brought much attention to a blending product that many were unaware of prior to seeing the vid.

·         Build link popularity

Websites need to be linked to, to ensure they are visible in search engines like Google.  By linking to your website from your social media profiles, you create natural links to your site and improve the chances of your website being found in a search, best of all, it's free!  An example of this is our own 'Handy Hints' site here.

·         Interact with the public

This is often the biggest fear factor for embracing social media.  It’s called “social” because it allows web users to socialise and interact with each other.  This is a big transition for business, from ‘talking to’ customers to ‘interacting with’ customers.  SMEs may be afraid that someone is going to talk about their business and it may not be all favourable.  Well, take a seat for a moment because I have some news for you, consumers are already talking, so you might as well join in the conversation. I recently Twittered my frustration with my Sony Ericsson cellphone, within a day I had received a reply from Sony Ericsson providing me with additional support links and contact details to help resolve my issues.  I was impressed, to say the least.  Sony Ericsson, regardless of the technical issues with my phone, turned my negative opinion around just by empathising and proactively communicating with me.

O       Opportunity to network

Many social networking mediums offer opportunities to join specific groups of interest where you can interact with like-minded people.  Facebook is a great example of this, not only can you join groups, you can create new ones for others to join.  Twitter is often used for attendees of industry conferences, allowing people to communicate and collaborate on the topics discussed and demonstrated at conference.

Return on investment

Of course, one of the main benefits is the return on investment.  Most social media sites are free to join and maintain.  The only investment comes from the time and effort you put in to keeping your profiles up to date and participating in the social side. Don’t underestimate this, the more you participate, the bigger the pay off.

Next Month : Part Two summarises the most popular Social Networking Sites