Social Media Guide For Small To Medium-Sized Businesses

27/11/2009

By Adam Stafford, Managing Director, Multi-disciplined search agency Fresh Egg

There's no ignoring social media, it's everywhere you look. Facebook currently has more than 300 million active users worldwide and that figure is growing at an alarming rate. According to Econsultancy, MySpace experiences in excess of 60 million unique users each month and earlier this year the BBC reported that Twitter has reached an estimated 10 million users in just over 3 years. LinkedIn has just celebrated its 45-millionth membership and it's been suggested that YouTube is likely to stream videos to around 375 million unique visitors during this...

...year alone.

Social media has really gathered in momentum and importance during recent months and search engines are already responding. Microsoft's Bing and search giant Google both recently announced deals with Twitter to offer real-time search results from the micro-blogging site, with Bing also announcing a deal with Facebook and Google signing an agreement with MySpace to add music to its search results.

But what does this mean for your business? It means that you now have the ability to communicate on an equal level with your social customers or consumers. A recent study by eMarketer into the attitudes of US internet users showed that 70% of people are more willing to engage with a company or brand that has a presence in new media. It's a huge opportunity, it's changing how we do business and those that get it are going to win.

Recently we have seen a transition away from channel media, the big brand campaign through broadcast and print that used to have the minds of the whole nation captivated. The rise of social networks means that you are always on a campaign, the term campaign is dead.

However, if you are planning to... continued on page two >

 

 

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