To be or not to be: that is the question. Yes, this is a famous quote from Shakespeare's Hamlet play written over 400 years ago. But I don't think its a question. Today, "to be or not to be" is a statement. "To be or not to be" applies to social media. If you're not playing in this game then this internet marketing expert predicts your business is "...not to be" in a few short years.
There is all this talk about social media campaigns. Facebook is not just for telling the guys when the next Poker Game. Its a business tool that allows for sharing of interesting content. Done carefully, Facebook is a good arena to inform your network of new services and news in your industry.
How many have wondered about: Is Facebook the ultimate social network and should I really use Twitter at all? What about YouTube? LinkedIn anyone? Should I blog?
Here's your answers: yes, yes, yes, yes, and most definitely.
Facebook rocks for both personal profiles and for business fan pages. How can 500 million people be wrong. Using Facebook for business helps expand your reach more cost effectively than almost all other marketing methods. It also is a great way to push would be buyers to your business website. Make your business fan page rock with promotions, fun and engaging tidbits, and above all get people to "Like" your Facebook page! Doing so helps spread your message to new people you've never even met before.
Twitter does two things. First, it opens up your “social presence” to the world. What if someone finds your message interesting? What if they want to tell their network about it? Twitter makes this possible (and easy). Twitter has a real-time search engine that can cause your message to spread within seconds. Secondly, posting your blog on Twitter automatically indexes your blog with search engines. Nice.
Blogging for business. If you're not, you should be. I'm one bold internet marketing expert who believes if you're not blogging on your business website - then your business is in danger. Blogging is the "to be..." while NOT blogging is the "...not to be". Your competitors and your future competitors are blogging.
YouTube. rearrange the letters to Y-O-U B-E-T U. Video is fast becoming the portal of discover and entertainment and engagement. Put your business on YouTube. Hey - Google bought YouTube 5 years ago. It is now the world's 3rd largest site according to recent Alexa stats on English language internet sites:
- YouTube
- Yahoo!
- Wikipedia
- Blogger.com
- Windows Live
- MSN
Finally social media rocks with business connection site LinkedIn. Here's proof, especially if your a business-to-business (B2B) company. More than nine out of ten B2B marketers (93%) say they conduct social media marketing to some extent and cite LinkedIn as their single most important social channel, according to a report from BtoB Magazine.
It was only a 15 years ago that we barely needed the internet at all, but now we can’t stand a day without it. Take your business to a new level by working the social media angle to your favor.
