Social Media – Small Business Trend for 2011 (Part I)

It’s not news that social media has exploded in the past couple of years all over the globe. More and more people of all ages, cultures and walks of life are using social media to find old friends, connect to people with similar interests, and generally speaking reach out on a personal level to a wider audience than was ever possible before.

The business applications for social media have only come along recently, almost as an afterthought as businesses realized the potential of this new medium.  Large global corporations have been using social media – particularly Facebook, Twitter and of late Four Square - to engage with their customers on a more intimate level, to learn more about their likes and dislikes and to develop a closer relationship to enhance customer loyalty.

At Sydcam Marketing Communications, we fully endorse the use of this medium as an important tactic in the creation and delivery of a focused, strategic, and cost-effective marketing plan. In the first of a two-part series, we’ll explain why we like it, and in Part II we’ll outline how your business can take advantage of it.

Small Business and Social Media

So why would small business be interested in exploring social media? Well, for exactly the same reason that many larger companies do. The ability to engage with your clients on a more personal, intimate and one-on-one basis is the critical factor, and to do so in a very cost–effective manner with little to no investment.

This medium provides small (and medium-sized) businesses with an avenue to connect with their clients, highlight unique and time-sensitive offerings and receive input and feedback in a way that was never possible before. The budget required to achieve these objectives in the past would have required a sophisticated CRM and client retention strategy that the average small business owner couldn’t afford.

In next month’s blog post, we’ll outline for you what we feel are the key social media elements most small businesses need to consider in order to establish and develop their social media strategy and plan. If you would like to learn more about social media now and better understand how and why it can be relevant for your business, please give us a call at Sydcam Marketing Communications. We would like to help guide you through the jungle of information that is out there so you can make sense of all of it.