Social media is growing rapidly and is absolutely everywhere, literally. On your phone, on your tablet, on you television. Even if you do not have any of these technologies in your possession right this minute, someone near you most definitely will have, whether you are at work, on the train or in a cafe – social media is inescapable.
Smart phones such as the iPhone, Galaxy S3 and Blackberry; ipads and tablets, computers and even televisions all have social media capabilities at the tap of a button. Anywhere you turn, you cannot get away from the media monster.
But why would you want to? For a small business or freelancer, social media is an absolute must. It is an ingenious way to target specific audiences, get information and awareness of your business out to the masses, promote ones business – and all for free.
It’s not just for small businesses though, larger corporations use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and an array of other social media tools to promote and communicate with their audience and potential clients. The ability to use social media ‘on the go’ is such an amazing capability and has changed the way we work and communicate with each other.
Everything is in ‘real-time’, live and happening right now. Social media can help you keep in contact with colleagues and clients and is a way of updating them on your whereabouts, productivity, events and so much more.
In the workplace, employees can now not only email, but text, tweet, post, poke, instagram and a number of other oddly named possibilities. Whilst some might think that this may hinder productivity in the office, in many cases it increases it. Workers can quickly keep up to date with news, friends, industry, finance and a lot more. Rather than a lengthy personal email, phone call or text, employees can message someone through their social media in an instant, making them feel like they are still up to date with things that are important to them, but also still working efficiently.
Employee morale is often higher if they are able to use social media. Some employees feel that access to a wide and rich source of information on social networks often provides them with solutions to problems and also inspires them creatively.
All of these social media processes are extremely quick and very reliable. Phones and tablets can run off of WI-FI connections from a computer network, which is how we access the internet on our computers, but they also run on 3G, which computers do not. So this means that, even if the server goes down at the office, as long as your phone or tablet is linked to your email, you can still carry on working and emailing.
Social media keeps you live on news and what’s going on around the world, in real-time. It can also keep you updated about news in your specific industry as soon as it happens which is very advantageous.
Social media is such a big part of business now that there are specific jobs that revolve around it. Although most businesses do have Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, not all do. So to those that do not, I urge you to sign up. The simplicity of social media is amazing and as a marketing tool for your business it is absolutely essential.