The Business Case for Social Media - Why You Can No Longer Ignore It

Yesterday, Sunday the 21st March was Twitters 4th Birthday. Last month Twitter hit 50 million tweets a day and Twitter as a word is to be accepted into the Collins English Dictionary. When was it you first heard about Twitter? I suspect for most it was within the last year.

This months NZ Business Magazine has a cover story headlining “The Business Case for Social Media - Why You Can No Longer Ignore It”. In this story they make some bold statements which include “Anyone that says they don’t have time for Social Media is just ignorant of what the benefits are” and “The longer you leave getting started in Social Media the harder it will become”.

This is of course opinion. Should we just accept this form of scaremongering journalism on face value, I think not. I would recommend though that if their claims have any sort of merit it may be worth the effort of a little research. I would suggest a great way to do research about Social Media is by using Social Media itself. Here are some great places to get started:

• Twitter – people will give lots of shorts sound bites and point you toward some valuable online resources, and it’s free.
• Facebook – Join a group of likeminded folk and share in some discussions, and it’s free
• LinkedIn – this one is for the grownups. Join groups that are oriented toward your industry or niche then watch or engage in the forum discussions, and this one is free too.

While you are conducting this research you may accidentally discover some alarming side effects of the Social Media platforms you have just introduced yourself to:

• You may become a little better informed
• It may actually become apparent not everyone in cyber-land is a con artist and that there are some genuine folk that are there offering good advise that will help you grow as a person and develop as a business
• You may gain a better insight into the power of Social Media
• You may actually get noticed by existing or potential customers who will be reminded of why you are more important, accessible and relevant to them than your competition are.

If you still don’t get it and decide that it’s still a waste of time then simply delete your profiles, turn off your computer and go back to the counter to wait for the customers to file in the door like they always have.