Monday, May 14, 2012

Social Media No Longer a Novelty for Business

It’s hard to ignore the impact of social media on the way we communicate.  Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and many other platforms have provided tools for almost instantaneous communication and feedback about products and services.
Initially, social media activity was associated with college students connecting via Facebook™ and celebrities Tweeting about their latest adventures … or misadventures in many cases.  Now, however, use of social media is increasingly important for business.

If you have any doubt that social media has a place in business, here are some statistics that should change your mind. SocialMediaB2B.com notes 60 percent of B2B marketers already have implemented a social media strategy, or will in the next year; 53 percent of B2B companies actively participating on Twitter; and 47 percent of them active on LinkedIn. If these statistics alone aren’t enough to convince you about the power of social media, here’s a statistic that will – Dell sold $3 million worth of computers on Twitter!
This information is part of an article I recently wrote for OfficeLine, a bi-monthly publication produced by United Stationers, a long-time NM Marketing Communications client.

In addition to citing the growth of social media, the article provided a number of tips from experts on how to begin implementing a successful social media strategy.  Among the tips are blogging regularly to increase traffic to your website and finding ways to create meaningful engagement with your customers.

These are just some of the ways to incorporate social media into your B2B marketing.  If you’d like to discuss ways to begin or enhance your social media strategy, give me a call - 847.657.6011.