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Social Media: Marketing Tool or Time Waster?

Guest post by: Sue Henry

Article Overview: Is Social Media a useful marketing tool or simply a time waster? This is a tough question for a lot of small businesses today and one I've been asked many times during my presentations recently. As you start to plan and looking at opportunities and trends for the next 12 months here are some thoughts to consider.

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Social Media: Marketing Tool or Time Waster?

Is Social Media a useful marketing tool or simply a time waster? This is a tough question for a lot of small businesses today and one I've been asked many times during my presentations recently. As you start to plan and looking at opportunities and trends for the next 12 months here are some thoughts to consider.

If you are in your own business here is what you need to know:

1. The hard facts

Social Media is here to stay, it is not a fad and if you think it is for teenagers and time wasters you may need to think again. The Social Media websites Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn and twitter all reside in the top 50 of the most visited sites daily in the world according to Google (Facebook and YouTube hold positions 1 and 2 respectively, for a complete list click here).

According to Facebook they have More than 750 million active users, the average user has 130 friends and People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook, the Facebook user will spend approximately 55 minutes per day on Facebook, and is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events.

The statistics from YouTube are staggering - 35 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every 60 seconds, YouTube is now the 2nd largest search engine in the world, YouTube's demographic is 18-54 years old and more video is uploaded to YouTube in 60 days than the 3 major US networks created in 60 years! What this means for you... if you are on YouTube, it's more than likely you will rank higher in Google or simply dominate your industry positioning you as the go to business.

LinkedIn has more than 120 million members in over 200 countries and territories.

Twitter has more than 600 million searches on it everyday from over 200 million users globally, 25 billion tweets were sent in 2010. One user (@shitmydadsays) has over 2.4 million followers, he simply started to tweet the funny things his dad said, now he has a New York Best Seller and his own TV show staring William Shatner! Personally I relocated my business from Sydney (NSW AUSTRALIA) to the Central Coast (NSW AUSTRALIA) in 2007 within 2 weeks of tweeting I had connected with and met 30 local business owners I had no previous contact with. In traditional networking terms it would have taken me six to twelve months to meet and build those same relationships with.

FourSquare is a social media application that allows users to 'check in' leave tips at locations – such as recommending great coffee at their local cafe. It also allows businesses to offer ‘Specials’ such as "free coffee with every cake or mention this tip and receive 10% off your next purchase". With over 10 million users worldwide it's a social media platform difficult to ignore particularly for those in the hospitality or retail sectors. Facebook has also introduced Facebook Places allowing their users to do the same thing.

2. The time vortex

Social Media has a way of sucking you into the lost vortex of time wasting, if you intend on using social media for your business you need to prioritise and understand how you will use it. With "more than 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each month" on Facebook alone it's easy to see where and how easily you can become distracted and waste time. I know from personal experience I have been so fascinated with the content and links I've read, learnt from and consumed time does slip by very quickly. In my business I have found that my social media activities must be reasonably aligned with dollar productivity during business hours.

If you are prone to procrastination you are going to need a solid social media plan and disciplined approach to your social media activities. I have many clients that schedule time in their diary for social media activity. Many large organisations now employ people to specifically watch the social media platforms for comments so they can respond immediately to complaints, ideas, suggestions and what their customers really want. Many small businesses set up tools so they can monitor what their customers are saying and doing so they can be responsive.

Social media can be a time waster in the hands of the person that allows that to happen. How you manage your social media activities and time really is up to you. My tip... get educated about how it can work for your business and find a way like any other marketing activity to make it work for you.

3. What action do you need to take?

Well that depends... What do you want to achieve from your marketing efforts? Which platforms are your customers engaged in? What resources can you invest? (time, people and money) How do you want to engage with your customers? How do you want your business to be perceived?

As I mentioned earlier, with tools such as Twitter, Facebook places and Four Square customer experiences are now instantly available to the world and if you are not engaged in any of these forums how will you ever know what your customers are saying or what they really want?

For my ten cents worth, I believe each business at a minimum must have a Facebook Business Page and a YouTube channel. If nothing else these will assist with your Google rankings and show your customers that you are current, innovative and listening.

With the phenomenal growth of these social media platforms it's time for all businesses to take a reality check and see how they will compete and position themselves in their respective markets.

Really it all comes down to one simple marketing question... Where are your customers and how are they consuming their information?

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Article Tags: facebook twitter, foursquare, linkedin, marketing tool, media marketing, small businesses, time waster, useful marketing, youtube

About the Author: Sue Henry
RSS for Sue's articles - Visit Sue's website

Sue Henry is an Australian networking and small business expert and co-author (Network or Perish and Accelerate: How to Accelerate Your Business, Yourself and Your Networking Skills). She is in demand as a public speaker, motivator and small business expert. Sue believes in delivering information that is practical, informative and entertaining.

Click here to visit Sue's website