A few years ago, when Facebook just began getting popular, and Twitter showed up most businesses scoffed at the idea of using social media, then came the iphone, and Android mobile war and everyone not only has 24/7 access to their social networks, but business owners that had laughed at social media, are now choking on their prime-rib to quickly position themselves to take advantage of the free publicity, either that or they saw something hilarious on lolcats via their smartphone.
Fact: A small, funny, viral video can get 100 million views with absolutely no cost. Don’t believe me? Check out the Evolution of Dance, or David after the Dentist.
You can’t buy that kind of market reach, but its not all positive. A customer has a bad experience at a restaurant chain, say they find something gross in their chilli like a finger. A few pictures, and an iphone video later and its all over youtube and nightly news – this is major bad press for the restaurant and if they don’t have a team to manage social media then they are gonna get screwed royally!
So as you can see social media is all over the place. If you’re ready to get started and see the value that’s wonderful, but if you’re not -then you probably shouldn’t be in business in the first place, cause face it – you won’t be for long.