Social Media Marketing: It's The Television All Over Again
There's no earthly reason why you must use social media to promote your business.
It isn't mandatory. No one is going to force you.
Just like no one forced anybody to advertise on television.
Let's look at the hardware store owner - my favorite example. Mark and Carole are in their late 50's, and getting ready to retire. They plan to sell their business in the next few years so there's no real need for them to use social media. Right?
Hmmm...
Facebook was founded in February 2004. Just a few years later (5 1/2 to be exact), it has 250 million users and revenues of more than $500 Million (Reuters, 6 July 09), and Facebook isn't even a publicly traded company.
Twitter was founded in March 2006. It expects to top 25 million users this year with revenues of $4 million. This happened in just 3 1/2 years.
So, Bill and Carole need to think about how social media will impact the resale value of their business.
Twitter is making deals to put their application on every cell phone, game console and mobile computing device in the world. Facebook already has more than 10,000 partners and is developing its own currency program.
Let's take a quick look back in time to see where we're headed with social media, and why it's so important to every business owner.
Not so long ago, we met up with our neighbors on Sundays at church. The major news center in town was the post office and/or the mercantile (a.k.a. the hardware store). We met face to face and had conversations.
Then the telephone came along, suddenly we could have conversations without ever leaving home.
Radio and television brought the hardware store into our living rooms. We could hear about - and see - the new washing machine, farm tractor or laundry detergent easily. We started making buying decisions before ever leaving the house.
The internet made it possible to research every product before making a purchase. And forget about going to the store...we can order online and have it shipped straight to our house.
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