Social Media has disrupted the way marketing has operated for decades. It’s a roller coaster development and is a very exciting evolution in the way we all do business and interact with each other; however it presents problems for many companies because, in just the twinkle of an eye, communication has shifted from a one-way conversation to a two-way discussion on ALL the social media platforms.

If you have NOT adopted social media, as a way to do business, not only are you falling behind your competition, but more relevant is that you may not be able to last the distance.

Now, it’s just possible that your business does not need the power of social media and that your influence, impact, breadth and depth of business is unassailable. If this is the case don’t bother reading any further; you are one of the chosen few.

However, for most of us, social media has forced companies to reflect on such questions as to how they should interact and converse with customers. This issue was raised by a couple of early adopter companies as they struggled to ensure employees aren’t damaging the brand, while also not limiting interaction.

Google is such a company where they try to meet the needs of their employees with the famous “Friday off, day,” as part of their creative push to encourage employees to do whatever they want on that day. Gmail came out of that push.

One of the big questions may well be, what can our business or industry do in social media? When we see the power of the hashtags, we better know that we need to get educated, if we want to leverage social media rather than be used by it.

If we align our business or company with multiple social media presences, we need to have a good idea and understanding of our message, our brand, what we offer, our target market and a genuine desire to connect with those people, customers, and clients with sincerity and a giving attitude.

Chris Borrett

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