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Is Social Media effective or is it just a waste of time?
Everybody, everywhere is currently fascinated by the new web trend - Social Media and Social Media marketing and how business's are now using these websites to contact customer prospects; however there are so many different opinions as to how effective social media is for businesses and if it is worth businesses using them at all!
Social Media is a broad term and it covers a large range of websites, some of the more popular ones that you may have heard of are Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and the one common link between all of these sites is the ability to interact with the websites and all of their visitors.
Within 'i name it' we set up a Twitter account about 6 months ago, hoping to gain more interest in our company and products and ultimately gain new customers; having set up an account I found the task was not as easy as I expected. Initially, Twitter was associated with a number of celebrities who were generating thousands of followers; however for a small business like 'i name it' we did not gain as many followers automatically. In order to obtain any valuable followers it involved researching and communicating with relevant profiles that appeared to be in the promotional merchandise industry and anybody that seemed to show an interest in our products and services. At first, I found the process time consuming and I could not see any return on all my hard work but as my time on Twitter became more regular, I began to realise that Twitter was not just a place for finding new customers but it also helped me keep up to date with the latest industry news and take part in discussions about relevant topics that the business was involved in and in return connect with like-minded people that were interested in the same topics, as well as potential customers.
In my opinion, despite Twitter not having generated any revenue at this point, it acts almost like a second website and it is a place where customer prospects can find out about your website and the products and services you have to offer if they have not already navigated onto your website or any other blog-related sites that you offer on various websites.
Facebook on the other hand has many advantages as there are applications available which make your profile much more appealing to your customers or anyone that happens to end up on your website, such as blog and video applications. It also offers a function which allows you to pay for an advertisement which can increase your leads by getting your brand across to people that would otherwise never hear about you!
Personally, I have found Twitter more beneficial as I struggle to gain interest through our Facebook site, but as many critics of social media complain that social media is a waste of time for businesses, is it as others argue that it is simply lack of knowledge on how to use the sites effectively that prevents businesses from succeeding with social media?
So, what are your opinions on social media? Are you incorporating social media into your business marketing activities? If so, which websites do you find work better for you and why? Are you finding it useful to your business or are you critical about the whole craze and think it is a waste of time? Let me know your views!
