Organizations and their use of Social Media

Times are changing and social media is not a fad,  believe it or not social media is here to stay.  It is time for you and your business to not only accept it, embrace it, but to also benefit from social media.

Social media is no longer the tweens social networking sites, it has become a very successful business tool. It is a way for businesses and consumers/customers to interact and communicate on a personal level locally or internationally. For companies and consumers alike it is a tool that can be used for a plethora goals. Social media makes it possible to reach companies or consumers, to learn about them and the products or services they offer. It has been and can be used to track and collect data, and monitor business and social trends. It can be used to establish hopefully positive relationships between consumers and companies.

I am going to share some fabulous social media advice I found from Sarah Evans article, Social Media for Business: The Dos & Don'ts of Sharing (http://mashable.com/2009/02/27/social-media-for-business-2/)

Three main points stood out to me in her article; be transparent, authentic, and be human. Leave a legacy. Your social media personality should become part of your brand's legacy. She also focused her article on return on engagement (ROE) rather than return on investment (ROI) which in turn will help to generate more successful social media, which leads to ROI. Return on engagement includes; tracking incoming traffic, number of people subscribed to RSS feeds, number of people in social media groups, and fan pages, trackbacks or linkbacks to posts, comments, and increased sales and general involvement. 

For a more visual understanding of how business use social media check out this graphic from Mashable.com
http://mashable.com/2011/02/14/small-business-social-media-infographic/

There you have it ladies and gentlemen, social media is not only here to stay but is the new 'it thing' when it comes to creating successful business via interaction and engagement.  Best of luck to you in your social media business endeavors.