Times A Changing! Social Media has changed how business is done.

It’s a new day…the average Social Media user has 100 friends….that means something could go viral 100x….Businesses please remember this before you are so quick to upset a customer…That one upset customer might influence over 30,000 people. That is 30,000 new potential customers you no longer have…

It is hard to believe that the internet was only introduced to the public 22 years ago, 1 year before my oldest daughter was born, soon after email was introduced in our lives. I am astounded at how my life revolves around social media, could we go back to how things were before the internet, for me I say HECK NO I love it.

Social Media has changed the face of the world and how we communicate with each other, people are even hiring companies like upleap to do the communication for them, madness right? There are many months that go by that I have not heard my friend’s voice on the phone or in person, yet I know more about what is happening in their life simply because we are now sharing our entire life on the internet for all to see. Are we divulging too much information? Is nothing sacred anymore, but can we go back to how we once communicated with friends, I say no. Social Media is here to stay and we will need to figure out how to keep some part of our private lives private. But not only has social media allowed us to stay up to date with millions of people, but it has also allowed many people to create businesses online and start a career from it. Influencers such as bloggers and YouTubers have used social media to their advantage in order to grow their brands. If you want to find out more about technology and businesses, an introduction to something like five examples of businesses that underwent digital transformations – Salesforce.com would give you an idea of these advantages.

The way we conduct our business, communicate with our clients and our customers has changed because of Social Media. About 10 years ago traditional advertising was King, (TV, radio, print) and were leading the industry with advertising revenue, today those traditional forms of advertising are suffering and grasping to hold on to their survival rope. Remember when email was king and www.aol.com was its leader? Everyone had an AIM account and we all communicated on AIM with our friends and now only 10 years later people are being told you are not being taken serious as a business professional if you are still using AOL. I immediately canceled my AOL account and started a www.Google.com account.

Less than 10 years ago internet advertising emerged and every business in the world was scurrying to start a website, because E-commerce was where you needed to be, consumers wanted to sit at their computer at 4am in the morning and shop online. Whola, the emergence of publications online, now they had to find a way to support their website so the banner advertising emerged. Banner advertising has gone through many transformations from the annoying pop-up banners to the flashing banners to the banners that are ineffective… Having said that though, they are effective for the people who know how to use them. Things like Yard signs, banner ads are still a form of advertisement that people like. You just have to know where to put them and who your target audience is for. This may take time, but it is time worth spent, particularly when you do it correctly.

Remember when everyone was completely head over heels with www.MySpace.com and it was the best thing since slice bread, teenagers are to be thanked for this, but like everything once adults starting hovering and trying to protect our kids from the sexual predators lurking behind the screens, what’s a teen to do; they abandon and move on to the next best thing to throw their parents off their track….

Open the Gates of www.FACEBOOK.com ….this website has revolutionized how Social Media has taken over our lives forever…. they have forced everyone to change their business model to incorporate Social Media into their marketing budget. In 2011 www.socialmediatoday.com predicted Facebook would have around 610 to 625 million users. Well my friends they have exceeded that number in 2013, according to www.statisticbrain.com that number as of 1-1-2014 is 1,310,000,000 and total number of mobile Facebook users is 680,000,000 and increase of 22% from 2012. Many business in the beginning created a personal page for their business, but have found that having a Facebook Business page allows them to do more things. For me I am always seeking ways to boost Facebook likes, it is hard to grow your Facebook business page organically, so I recommend doing a Facebook campaign to boost your likes organically. Buying likes might serve a purpose in the beginning but might end up doing more damage in the end.

Twitter however is beloved yet lacks the ability for businesses to formally advertise to its followers. In America only 12% of the adult population use or understand Twitter, however for the businesses and brands that use it, they have seen a definite response. It will take the super savvy marketer to figure out creative ways to get this done.

Not to be forgotten is www.linkedin.com, they are unique and one to watch out for… they will be competition for Facebook, it is just a matter of time. I say this because this is the Social Media site where the decision makers spend their time, this is your professional network.

As a visionary seeing where things are going it encouraged me to start a business where I manage Social Media for businesses…As with anything new many people will become overwhelmed with the emergence of new technology and the people who study it will become the experts and therefore have an opportunity to make a living from teaching this new technology to others, then it is off to the newest thing for the day.

Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr are coming on strong with image sharing. Snapchat very popular with teens, since they are slowly leaving Facebook because they feel their parents have invaded it. The list is endless, but the one thing that has not changed, Facebook still leads this Social Media. The Social Media sites that are very popular with teenagers and college students are: Instagram, Ask.com, Twitter, Tumblr, Vine, Snapchat.com and although Facebook is not the Social Media of choice they all still look at their Facebook feed everyday. Don’t rule Facebook out for teens however, Mark Zuckerberg is a genius and he is constantly reinventing Facebook to keep teens and college students engaged with his product. Teenagers will NEVER give up Social Media, they have grown up with it, Facebook bought Instagram and tried to acquire Snapchat, but CEO, Evan Spiegel, the company’s 23 year-old CEO, turned down Facebook offer to purchase them for $4 Bilion. So what does Facebook’s do, they purchase another instant message service: WhatsAPP for $19 Billion.

I will be right there embracing the new technology because as you get older your taste change, your skin changes your MIND changes and you must adapt to these changes.

Need some help with your Social Media, want more clarification on how many of these Social Media platforms can be implemented into our marketing, attend one of my Workshops.  Times A Changing! Social Media has changed how business is done, are you ready to embrace it?