Social Media; don't be confused by the social media hype, if we look at the words Social and Media,
Social simply means: a party of people assembled to promote sociability and communal activity
Media simply means: mass communication regarded collectively
If you have not yet embarked on the path of social media it's not too late, but I would urge you to walk before you can run and not be taken in by the rush to be the most popular, the most sought after and, have the most followers.
First and foremost know the answers to these questions:
- Why - why are you thinking about becoming active on a social media site
- What - what will social media add to your life
- When - when will you have time to devote to your social media activities
- Which - which social media site(s) do you want to join
Once you have answered the above questions, and you still want to be a part of the social media revolution then go for it, but do it your way. Don't be taken in by the so called experts on many of the social media platforms who tell you how you should tweet, to use Twitter as a good example.
SMB's definitely have a lot to gain by being active on social media platforms, but first and foremost know yourself, your business and your action plan. Many people have great success by simply building relationships online and, when possible in the geographical sense, meeting people face to face and strenghening the connection even more.
Social media, in my opinion, makes our lives easier by bringing certain people into our lives and allowing us to find out about them, which in turn offers us the chance to further our business connections and, ultimately sell our products and services. It is a great partner to all the other things we do when building our business connections.
You can decide how much time and effort you put into your social media efforts, as long as you remember you get back what you put in; if you invest a certain amount of time each day, and the time can vary and is always your choice, you will reap the rewards.
Being seen to be active on social media platforms, becoming known, popular, well liked and as someone who is there to help others is no bad thing. Challenges can happen when your time is not well spent on social media and you forget you do have other business matters to attend to. That's when people tend to walk away and blame social media on their time wasting, which really means they did not structure their social media calendar effectively.
Ultimately, social media is a great tool to use, if you use it proficiently and enjoy the activity, you will be successful.
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