Businesses and Social Media
Social media is used to give a person, business or entity a presence on the Internet. It is proven to assist with acquiring new business or make awareness of or for your directives or goals. Whatever you (or a business) wants to share, sell, communicate or get feedback on can all be done, online.
Most businesses today have all the social media tools in place. This came about due to competition and everyone making sure they had a presence just "like the other guy!" I am not going to write about how this site or that site has this or that tool. In this day and age if a business wants to be successful, you had better be using all the common social media tools that the other guy is using or your web presence has a red flag in that people scratch their heads asking, "why doesn't this business have that tool?" If your web presence is missing something it's almost like shooting yourself in the foot. A large part of setting up a web presence does not require a lot of money. There is no good reason today that a business would not have a web presence. Just do it!
Every company will use social media in different ways and some will not use social media at all. Companies that may not be using social media can be your local auto repair shop that has been a family owned business for over 50 years. Their business grew up a long time ago and all of their business or client growth was by word of mouth, passed on from generation to generation. If that business has a web presence it's most likely that the business owner (or friend or relative) created the site(s) for them and/or they really are aware of how social media can grow your client base and create a following for you.
The larger the business or the particular type of business need is what will drive the kind of social media presence they will create for their business or should create for their business. If you create your own product right in your own home, your presence will most certainly be on the web. The days of paying to place ads in the paper or magazines for business is greatly reduced. I would not say that will ever go away. As long as humans are going about their daily activities, some businesses are going to want to have their information in our faces. For example: billboards or posters. For many businesses their product sells for them and the web presence is good but the product and how many consumers’ want it or use it will still override how pretty their web presence is.
I feel that Twitter and blogging have the most impact in the social media landscape because it is where I hear about or read information that makes an impact on our daily lives. Before I took this class, I would hear news stories or personal stories from co-workers who were using Twitter. One story in particular has stuck with me. The gentleman’s dog ate something and his dog almost died. This guy, like me is paying for pet insurance and has been for sometime. He accrued a ton of expenses taking his dog to the emergency room a number of times and the insurance company was not going to cover a large portion of the expenses. He twittered his story about how this company was not doing right by him and in the end the insurance company did in fact take care of the fees.
This story in itself was a HUGE selling point for me as to what social media can do - good or bad, it puts the issues on the table. This was an example of good change. It will help to keep businesses or people honest and promote necessary change in our lives and businesses.
