Social media should be a fundamental part of your small business by now. 2011 showed us how imperative it is to integrate a communicative platform within your company that provides a medium for clients and potential customers to reach out and have a way to interact with your business. Last year also proved how necessary it is to be a supplier of worthwhile and quality information, which develops you into an industry expert and, in turn, cultivates trust with your followers.
Social media is predicted to shift drastically in 2012. The negative side of this is that many entrepreneurs and home-based business owners will still continue to abuse social media. Instead of viewing it as an asset, they will push their brand or product on their followers, which will only hurt their business. The best way to approach social media is how you would a spouse: you encourage a positive reaction through gentle persuasion. By going slowly, you will build more solid followers.
There is a saturation of information on the social media market right now due to almost everyone jumping on the Twitter and Facebook bandwagon. Ensuring that you share quality and meaningful information will indicate how people perceive you and could determine the life or death of your business. Moving away from Twitter and Facebook, this year is also time to take a look at Google+. Social media experts are predicting it’s going to be bigger than Twitter, since it facilitates more dialogue-driven relationships.
That being said, there is still talk that Google+ is too hard to implement. Administration can be difficult, as it requires an individual account, and currently there is no option to add more than one administrator.
What are your thoughts on social media, and especially Google +? How many of you have started to implement this feature into your business? What results have you found?