What they don’t realize is that they’re saying, “I don’t have time to tell people about what I do.” It seems to be a generation gap. People who are in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and up, are used to the old way of marketing and promotion. They believe in advertising that costs a lot of money, i.e., TV, radio & print ads. The number of people that can be reached on social media platforms is staggering.
Here are some of the latest stats: As of Oct. 2009 Twitter grew 200% from 2008. About.com predicts 26M Twitter users in 2010. Softpedia.com states, “175 Million People Use Facebook Every Day.” Today on blog.linkedin.com the headline reads, “LinkedIn: 50 million professionals worldwide.” How can a business owner, in this hot social media climate, refuse to spend an alloted time every day on social media? If the owner has no time, they need to be smart and create a social media budget and hire people to write blogs, and post to the main 3 social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin. Many businesses also create videos and post them to their website and YouTube, while also linking to videos from their other social media accounts.
Many business owners are getting the wrong idea when they hear “social.” They think that means people are only using social media to joke around and shoot the breeze. What they are missing is a powerful marketing tool to help spread the word quickly about their brand and services. Word-of-mouth referral has always been, and remains, one of the best means to reach new clients.