Learning Social Media For Your Business Social Media is essential to your business. Period.

Business owners, executives and managers that have dragged their feet over the last five years, admitting that social media is a marketing force not to be denied, need to realize that by not being involved it is ultimately hurting their business. Im ortance of Social Media Most stalwarts that are not s ending time on social media excuse themselves by making !real world connections". #etworking face to face with clients is definitely im ortant but more and more research is showing that social media is fast becoming the number one way that consumers and clients are interacting with businesses. $onsumers have come to ex ect that $%&"s, business leaders and managers be seen and accessible through social media. It is considered the innacle of customer service. $om ound on that, the literal amount of time that the average erson s ends engaged with social media and it is almost the largest !social" activity that the average erson is involved in. It is now the number one activity on the internet with the average erson s ending '( minutes a day on social media networks. )lso, the vast ma*ority of all social media interaction is done on mobile devices, out acing deskto s and la to s significantly. +ow ,o Learn Social Media #ow you may realize that you really should engage, and that the return on its investment is also considered one of the highest of all advertising mediums. -earning social media activities is exactly that. a learned behavior. ,ake some time to learn the different social media latforms. /ust like any other marketing behavior, you need to understand the audience attached to the medium in order to effectively engage with them. 0ifferent social media latforms are known to have slightly different audiences attached to them. )lso consider not *ust the amount of users but their engagement time on each latform. )lthough 1acebook is far and away the most used and most engaged latform with 2.3 billion users and 456 of all social media time s ent on it, there are literally a few dozen others that may also be worth your time. 7hats) is 8uite o ular and widely known, yet Sna $hat, with a smaller user base actually has more engagement er user than 7hats) . )nother exam le includes Instagram that according to a recent study also has a much higher engagment level than does ,witter. )s these second tier latforms grow, they may be better o tions for your intended target customer than the traditional 1acebook and ,witter audiences. &ther latforms can be targeted even more s ecifically, such as using -inkedIn to connect with business associates through social media networking. Many com anies are also starting to hire through -inkedIn, saving both time and money. 9et as a rofessional network, being a recognized authority on it, could lead to some amazing connections. Pinterest is another exam le of reaching a s ecific audience as it is estimated that :56 of its users are woman. ,ake a few hours a week to immerse yourself in the current trends of social media. Better yet, take online courses, webinars or receive consulting from a rofessional firm to learn social media. 7ithin a few months, you will have learned a new skill, focused your efforts on a latform that will truly build your business and stay on a ath to build a great online social network.