The thing about social media is…it’s where the people are.

Looking from a purely statistical perspective: 350 million users are on Facebook alone, millions more use Twitter every day. Rightnow, thousands – probably tens of thousands – of your potential customers are using social media, either from their PC oir, increasingly, from their mobile phones.

The fact is, for business, this is simply too big to ignore.

And don’t for one minute thing this is all about ‘the kids’. Facebook and Twitter are patchworks of different ages, ethnicities and socioeconomic class – making it a platform for pretty much any product or any service. The fastest growing user groups is the Over 50’s. You’ve gotta be here, baby!

“The best time to diffuse a bomb, is right before it goes off” and that means that those business people who get to grips with social media now – in 2010 – have the best chance of really getting ahead…which is why, in a nutshell, you need to give this some of your time and attention.

You see, all this social media malarchy…it aint  going anywhere. Sure the formats might change. Twitter may be usurped by the next big thing, Facebook may not last the distance, but the people love this stuff and it’s here to stay… which is why, in a nutshell, you need to give this some of your time and attention. (You getting’ the message yet?)

So where to start?

There are four first steps.

  1. Your Blog.
    Your blog should become the corner-stone of your social media strategy. It’s where you become interesting and it will facilitate much of your business success in this space. So start there. Regular postings – at least once a week – on topics that are of interest to your audience. They don’t need to be long. Or particularlyy well written, but you do need them.
  2. Twitter
    I’d recommend you start with Twitter because it’s simple to get to grips with. Set up your account at www.twitter.com and start ‘tweeting’. If you need more help and guidance then check out my webstore.
  3. Facebook Fan Page
    Next up you’ll want to set up a Facebook Fan Page for your business. Again, it’s not difficult to do, and the content can be fed from your Blog posts and your tweets so it’s very little additional work. The great thing is you can send messages direct to your ‘fans’ – just  like having an email list – so you can be proactive with your marketing.
  4. LinkedIn
    If you’re in business you’ll want to be on LinkedIn. There are a lot of connections made using this business oriented site and I strongly recommned that you get on there and build your profile

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