Social media is the new rage. Large companies get about 30% of their new site traffic through social media. Social media is powerful if used effectively, but most providers either don’t know what they are doing. The ones who do know what they are doing are cost prohibitive.
Some people think they need “a” website. Sure, you need a website in business, but it won’t do much good unless you can get some traffic going it’s way.
Some people think they need “a” Twitter campaign. The same applies. Most people get a few hundred dormant followers on their Twitter. They don’t know what to tweet except for self-promoting boring material that they tweet over and over. Only boring people will follow such a campaign, and those boring folks won’t retweet you much either. To run a good Twitter campaign you need thousands of followers, and lots of active ones who will retweet you regularly. To hire someone who can get you to a critical mass on Twitter will cost you at least $50,000. Is it worth it? If you know how to get some SEO benefit from it, or are getting a few clients from it, it might be worth it.
Facebook is a difficult beast as well. Certain industries get great followers on Facebook. But, if you are in India, or the Philippines, the types of people who follow you are silent. They say nothing, and if they do, it will be in garbled, broken English or some foreign language that I can’t understand! Facebook is great if you can get a bunch of people together who interact a lot. You can post discussion topics, and they just interact. With our Notary Facebook we post great discussions and they just interact. With our Outsourcing Facebook, we post even more interesting discussion and they just don’t interact. Hmmm. I can’t force them to interact. Some people like to interact — if you can find them, then work with them. The others are not worth investing time in.
Blogging is considered social media because people can post comments. To me, blogging is semi-social media because very few people post comments. It is broadcasting. People want to read what you have to write. Once in a while they comment, but it is really about you, and your ideas. If people feel they can be entertained or benefit from your blog they will come back.
Getting a blog together costs less than $1000 plus hosting. This is much more affordable than a professionally managed Twitter campaign. Sure, you have to write the posts, or hire someone to do that, but that will cost hundreds not tens of thousands.
Write about experiences you have had in business, or experiences your clients have had with you. People will love to read about it and will be much more likely to hire you if you become a credible source for knowledge.
Even the experts these days are saying to stay away from jumping on the bandwagon for new social media sites. They say to stick to ones you can do well, and leave the others alone. I agree. But, if you have no experience with any social media, be careful, because it can suck you dry financially!
Good luck.