Investing in social media

I have been busy with my mid-term exams and also the T20 world cup which started on april 30. i have been stuck to TV watching cricket when my favourite team south africa was batting yesterday. but unfortunately they lost. ok,let me come to the point. i read an article about why businesses should invest in social media.

social media wen comes to our mind reminds of chatting and the so-called time passing stuff. but businesses have introduced a new definition for social media.they have decided to invest in it and promote their products via Orkut Buyukkokten's orkut,mark zuckerberg's facebook, jack dorsey's twitter.

There is hundred's of reasons why businesses are flooding money in these networking sites. social media may very well be the most powerful weapon you have when it comes to increasing revenue for your business.let me discuss the advantages of it

1.Brand awareness
those are the old days wen businesses used the services of newspapers,bill boards,TV's et al. but now everything is replaced by new and innovative expansion which is called social media. Reaching those audiences usually cost millions of dollars each year, meaning large corporations with that type of capital had a sizable advantage over small and medium-sized businesses in those medias. Social Media has changed all of that.

2.cheaper than traditional form of advertising-
As i said earlier those are the old days were Tv's, bill boards played such a significant role in promoting a product.And for many companies it costs more than a billion a year.To run an effective social media(SM) campaign, it takes a ton of time and knowledge. If you can’t afford to have an accredited SM employee run your campaign, it’s in your best interest to outsource it entirely.

3.create buzz-
When it comes time to launch a new product or service, the companies who have put time and resources toward establishing themselves in SM now have an immediate audience to help spread the word. This has been a powerful vehicle for a lot of companies, and one that is sorely missed by those waiting for the SM fad to fade away

4.Blogs, message boards and forums, especially if you’re in a niche market, allow for communication and interaction. If you’re able to give good advice and provide value, people will begin to trust your opinion and look to you for answers.( INFACT I CAME TO KNOW ABOUT IPAD ONLY THROUGH A BLOG)

5. With SM, getting feedback and gauging the temperature of your consumer-base is easier and cheaper than ever. SM gives business owners the ability to listen to their customers in real time and make adjustments accordingly.

6. Whether you’re a small business or large corporation, you have access to the same tools and same opportunities to go viral and reach millions of consumers. just open aa facebook account or a twitter account and u will come to know how advantageous it is to your business.

7. Facebook profiles and pages, Blog sites, individual blog Posts, Twitter, Myspace, Linked In, etc., have the potential to make their way to the homepages of Google, Yahoo and so on. Taking advantage of these numerous points of entry can mean A LOT to the bottom line of your business.

instead of spending ur money in a 10-15 second commercial and spending huge bucks of money,businesses can spend money in social networking sites. only god will only know hw far social media is going to develop more in the next 6-10 months