Reasons Not to Use Social Media for Your Business

 

For many small business owners, Social Media is that thing you heard about that everyone is telling you to embrace.  Upon further examination you determine it is something either:  

A.      Your children use but you can’t possibly see its business marketing application;

B.      You’ve thought about using but you can’t possibly see its business marketing application;

C.      You personally use but you can’t possibly see its business marketing application.

Which one are you?  Whatever the reason(s) you’re not using social media outlets for your business, it more than likely boils down to:  you can’t possibly see its business marketing application!

Businesses large and small all over the world are using Social Media to further their reach.  Some examples include the HUGE home improvement store The Home Depot and a small restaurant The Tucson Tamale Company.    And don’t forget yours truly here, here and here… (add me!).

There is a reason all these companies are learning more about Social Media:  This is a viable channel to connect with real live people (consumers) that are interacting on these media platforms.  The reason not to use it for your business?  There are none.

Listen, there is nothing scary about it, if 13 year olds can do it, so can you (I apologize to any 13 year olds in the audience).  The trick is, you just have to get out there and do it.  Lurk on a couple media outlets like Twitter and Facebook, see how the interaction is done.  It took me a few days to figure out that @PaddyShaughn meant someone was replying to my tweet on Twitter.  On Facebook I was sent a “Thinking of You” request and felt special until I realized the sender sent it to everyone, not just me.  Once you kick it around a while, you’ll see how easy it is.

So hop on and find out what other sites people are using and get a feel for the community.  And don’t worry about the “pros” you see that have 50,000+ friends or connections.  Many of them are on social sites for the same reason you should be.  They’re marketing themselves or their company and they want to connect to other people.  They’re approachable, often friendly and rest assured they’re still learning too. 

Stayed tuned and we’ll cover the next step in Getting Started on Social Media for Business. 

Even better – subscribe to my blog via the RSS feed so you don’t miss a single golden nugget!

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Tags: marketing, Networking, small business, social media   Posted in Social Networking, marketing strategy