Social Media…Just Another Fad Or Here To Stay?
July 20th, 2011 by Diane Conklin under Social Media. No Comments.
You’d have to be living under a rock to not know that Social Media is hot right now. The question is, is it a fad that will come and go, or will it turn into a sustainable marketing media, like direct mail, that will still be around and being used profitably by the savviest business owners.
With the tremendous growth of social media in just the last year alone, it seems that social media is big and only getting bigger. Here are just a few of the amazing facts as we know them today:
Twitter Doubles In Size Every 90 Days
If Facebook Were A Country It Would Be The Third Largest In the World
YouTube Has More Videos Than CBS, NBC, ABC and FOX combined…over 75,000,000
We could also go on and talk about the fact that:
Most People Read 6 Blogs A Day
People Aged 18-34 Spend More Than 40% Of Their Free Time on Social Media
The Fastest Growing Social Media Users Are 50-75 Years Old
All of these facts point to one thing. And, that’s that for right now, it seems, Social Media is a big player, is getting people’s attention, and it seems to be keeping their attention as well.
What does all this mean to you the business owner or Information Marketer? It means if you aren’t in this arena yet, you need to get in it.
More importantly, if you aren’t making money with this media (and it is just another media – like the internet, direct mail, radio, TV, or any other) you should be because so many of us are.
As a business owner you should be using social media to:
Build Your List
Stay In Touch With Your Clients And Prospects
Announce Launches, Specials, Events And Other Important Things Going On In Your Business
Sell Your Products and Services
Build Relationships
Form Joint Ventures And Strategic Alliances
And, Much, Much More …
The truth is, none of knows for sure what the future holds, in relation to Social Media or much else for that matter. My crystal ball is almost never right when it predicts the future, but …
What we do know right now is Social Media is a place that every business should be involved in, in some way, depending on your business and what your specific goals are. And, by the way, you have specific goals for the outcome of your social media just like you do for the rest of your marketing and business plans – otherwise you don’t know where you’re going and you sure won’t know when you have reached your goals.
Remember, Social Media is just one media and you should never put all your eggs in one basket. One is always the worst number in business and marketing.