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Social Media Benefits Large and Small Businesses

Social media networks such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook have always worked well for big businesses, but a growing number of small and local startups have also started using the program as a low-cost way to net new business.

Internet marketing expert Janak Mehta says the sustained growth of social media sites in the past few years has made them a powerful tool for cost-effective marketing, especially since they are free and quick to use for business owners who are new to online marketing.

Mehta added that to get the most out of social media marketing, online businesses have to build presence in all the major networks. These “communities,” he said, can be mined for client leads and honed to effectively turn prospects into customers.

Ford Motors, for example, has broadly used social media to publicize its brand in the past year, and recently won Motor Trend’s Car of the Year award. Experts were quick to note how the company garnered feedback from bloggers by increasing social media presence.

Part of Ford’s campaign involved supplying Ford Fusions to 100 bloggers, who could use the cars for free for a month in exchange for blogging about it. Mehta says the buzz it created contributed a lot to its successful 2009 run.

Facebook can be particularly instrumental for companies that need to get work around about their products or services. Now the third most visited site on the web and hosting over 300 million users, it offers a lot of promise for people looking to build a following.

Mehta says that one important rule in social media marketing is to listen to one’s market before talking. Business owners, he says, should study the communication patterns of their target audience and formulate their material accordingly.