Thursday, 15 March 2012

Can you afford to run your business without social media? A question to mull over!!


If there is something that we can’t afford to miss out in the list of modern world inventions then it is definitely social media. The technology and trend of social media has surpassed all expectations and has registered growth far more than what was predicted. Do you still think that chatting and messaging your friends and colleagues on Facebook and Twitter is all that represents the social media? If yes then you need a reconsideration of your views about this modern day wonder. Social media has gone much beyond expectations and has undoubtedly made businesses one of the prime beneficiaries. Here, we will discuss about how much we depend on social media for business promotion and whether we can really make it to the top without this new web technology.

Entry of several players into a particular business segment has multiplied competition. It is now necessary to use available resources in the best possible manner and therefore social media as a business promotion tool has been overwhelmingly accepted and used.

Medium and small sized business that lacked branding capability and public recognition used this tool to ‘zoom in’ on their products and services. Services based on Web 2.0 technology meant for information sharing and interoperability became a boon for companies in getting their services among mass consumers. Social networking tools, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Buzz, Windows Live, LinkedIn, MySpace and others offered a multi-channel platform from where you can send viral information and messages. With time it has proved to be very effective and beneficial. Very soon large business entities with huge consumer base also opted social media to remain competitive in the market.

The era of social media began with the introduction of web 2.0 technology. By using this technology websites became more interactive and enabled information sharing between users. This proved to be a boost to companies looking for cheaper marketing and advertising tools. It is in vogue to post business descriptions online and attract the potential customers to contact them via the web. Companies earned huge dividends from this new business arrangement and started getting customers and business through social media.

What makes social media a hot favorite and why is it preferred over other means of business promotion. However, there are several benefits but one that tops the list is cost effectiveness. Using social media for product marketing and brand awareness does not require big investments. By using social media channels like Flickr, Twitter, Facebook and others you can have more visitors and web traffic to your business website. You can get these benefits without investing much.

By advertising your products on social media such as Facebook and Twitter you get to enhance the visibility of your products and services to a great extent. Being interactive in design these tools also let you know about the feedback of the products that you have advertised about. So this not only helps you advertise your products but also gets you to understand the pulse of consumers.

Nowadays, most people first look for information about anything of their interest on the internet. It is therefore a necessity to have an impressive online brand presence. Social media has proved to be an effective tool to provide quality links and high search engine rankings for the web pages that describe your brand. Moreover, you can intelligently use social media for market research purposes that in turn brings you closer to your target audience and you get to know better about their requirements.

The focal point of this discussion remains about whether you can afford to run your business without social media or not. There is no denial of the fact that marketing and advertising in the modern day is greatly dependent on social media. Social media is unequivocally a boon for business and without it things will turn out to be very difficult. We cannot afford to run our businesses without social media because their survival will be threatened by ever increasing challenges and rising competition.

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