Written by : Nathan Johnson
Lately, it seems like new social networking websites are springing up every other week like mushrooms after a heavy rain. Though still a fairly young medium, social media has already proven that it can be a powerful communication tool if implemented properly.
What's more, the possibilities for small businesses looking to get the word out about themselves or a particular product or service are nearly endless. The main problem is taking that core idea of distributed, two-way, mass communication as facilitated by social media and translating it into viable and sustainable profits. Making money from social networking has proven harder than one might think, even for the sites themselves, in many cases.
It all began with the the ill-fated Friendster and a number of other also-rans, followed shortly thereafter by the wildly popular MySpace. The first social media and networking site to really hit the big time, MySpace proved that there was a market for what's essentially one big, global chat room. In the present day, Facebook has refined the concept into what appears to be a long-term strategy for monetizing social media traffic by centralizing all that interaction in one place. For many, Facebook is the Internet. There's a very good reason that Google is afraid of Facebook as a competitor.
While social media is great for keeping in touch with old friends and making new ones, businesses both large and small are still struggling to leverage social media's power for greater exposure. Large corporations can use social media to extend their reach, largely because they're already well-known. Smaller businesses don't have the luxury of being able to fail and need to make sure their efforts hit pay dirt and yield dividends immediately. Maintaining a Facebook presence for small businesses is always a good idea, as it's free and costs only their time.
Although there's no set formula for using social media successfully for marketing and advertising, one company seems to have hit on a fairly promising approach. That company is Groupon, which has become an overnight success story by offering small businesses the ability to leverage the power of crowds to attract new customers.
Groupon offers deep discounts to users on one-time offers of services and products for local businesses. The businesses only pay if users take them up on the coupons, splitting profits 50 percent with Groupon. In many cases, participating businesses have smashed sales records overnight. What's more, the site boasts a satisfaction rating of over 95 percent.
Ultimately, the only rule in social media is that success is always fleeting. To really take advantage of all that social media has to offer, you need to stay on top of trends and be adaptable and quick to capitalize on new opportunities.
Facebook is huge right now, and with good reason. It's a very popular service that many users feel genuinely enriches their lives online. But how long they'll remain the hottest show in town is impossible to tell, so it's best to diversify your social networking efforts to get the most out of it.
For information and help on achieving that goal, contact NewMediaPlus.
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