Social media is online content such as blogs, social networking like Facebook and podcasts published by people who want to conenct with others via the Web. Are you one of those who think social media is just a fad and will eventually fade away? I hate to tell you, but social media isn’t going anywhere, and businesses are quickly catching on to its effectiveness as a communications medium.
The momentum of social media will only continue to grow. Eric Brantner of Digital Labz, a search engine optimization and Internet marketing company, provides ten reasons why:

1. Everyone is using it.  According to one study, over sixty million Americans have read a blog. Worldwide, that number is closer to 30 million.

2. Social Media is Gaining Trust. One of the knocks on social media used to be that it wasn’t trustworthy.  Today, social media is one of the top sources of news and important updates.

3. It’s Still Growing.  According to newly released statistics, Facebook s now growing by about 600,000 users each day. Blog reading has grown by over 66% in the last year.

4. Our President Uses It. President Obama’s campaign was highly active on Twitter, and now he uses YouTube to deliver his weekly address.

5. When One Social Network Falls, Another Rises. While MySpace was waning in popularity, sites like Twitter were exploding onto the scene. Don’t be fooled by the downturn of a single social network. Others are stronger than ever before.

6. It’s Fast. We want the latest information, and we want it now. Bloggers routinely break the latest stories and the instant interactivity makes social media a hit.

7. It’s Cost Efficient for Companies.  Social media is fast becoming a priority for many businesses. It’s one of the cheapest, fastest and most effective ways to tap into the consumer pulse.

8. It’s Passionate.  With social media, people have leeway to inject their personality into the mix, and things are a bit more informal. As a result, this style of communicating connects better with readers than stiff, impersonal content.

9. Social Media is Versatile.  There are social networks for virtually every niche imaginable. This versatility means that everyone has a place in the social media realm.

10. The Internet is Social. At the end of the day, this is the biggest reason you can’t ignore social media in 2010. The Internet is inherently a social medium. That won’t change.

I’d like to thank my friends at Curro, Rankin & Williams (CRW)  for sharing this list  of ten reasons  with me to share with you on my blog. CRW and NMC  are strategic partners in a network called the Alliance of Marketing Communications Agencies, and together with all our partner agencies, we provide a wide spectrum of marketing communications services nationally, including social media marketing. Let me know if you’d like to learn more about our network, or if want to talk about social media in business.

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