The Power of Social Media

What is social media? Facebook? Twitter? These are the companies/websites most people think of when we ask them about social media. Although these sites are some of the most powerful mediums of social media, we often forget about blogs, YouTube, LinkedIn and so many other forms of social media. Furthermore, we forget what kind of influence they have on our lives, and how useful they can be to businesses around the world. 

Facebook is a website that brings millions of members together to socialize with friends, share pictures, interact on each other's walls, etc. But Facebook is also an extremely attractive medium for any company to reach out to its clients. It's free advertising and it has the potential to reach out to a company's entire target market. This is because Facebook has incredible network effects, which means that it gets exponentially more useful, and powerful for every additional member on the site. 

Twitter is very similar to Facebook in that it also has network effects and it's free. Tweeting information and notifications is an effective way of keeping your clients, and the general public informed about your company's product offerings and promotions. Compared to Facebook, Twitter is limited with regards to features. However, unlike Facebook, Twitter has the potential to reach out to both followers, and anybody else who happens to stumble upon your account page. 

Companies are also starting to leverage websites like blogger. Blogs are useful for publicizing longer bits of news, seeing as bloggers do not have the 140 character limit that "Tweeters" do. However, blogs might not get as much exposure as a Twitter account might. 

LinkedIn is similar to Twitter, in that you can add friends to your professional network. However, LinkedIn is very business/professional-oriented and is not as effective for reaching out to clients. Rather, it allows its users to keep in touch with its professional network, facilitating the search for employers/employees, or even professional services. 

There are many other forms of social media that I could write about, but the point is clear: social media has given businesses the opportunity to reach out to a huge amount of people..... for free! Keep your eyes open for ad agencies that specifically deal with social media consulting.