Why Small Businesses Need to Embrace Social Media

Caught this todayfrom Alain Thys's post on Marketing Profs regarding the importance of Web 2.0 - a.k.a. social media - on marketing relating to "brands" - it only serves to highlight the importance of a web presence for every small business looking to succeed.

When anyone can post anything about anybody - anywhere and any time, you as the marketer of your business are no longer in control of the conversation. If you have no web presence, you have no voice to influence the conversation about your business that may be going on online.

Embrace social media and embrace the future!

Caroline

clipped from www.mpdailyfix.com Social Media Participation is Not Optional for Brands For traditional marketers this is worse than a nightmare. In the old days, you could still control a conversation by throwing enough money at it or outsmarting the media. I remember tactically forgetting to appear on the evening news in the middle of a PR crisis. Then, 24 hours later the media had moved on, and so did the water-cooler conversations. Faced with the same crisis on the Web today, I'd need to blog, write and influence my heart out to contain the message. And even if I was especially fast, truthful and professional about it, I would probably fail because Google footprints cannot be erased. That is why - in my opinion - anyone involved in sales or marketing has no other option but to accept the social media reality and manage every contact as if they were the editor-in-chief of the WSJ himself.