Why is Social Media Important for Small Business?

Allot of small business owners are still trying to figure out how social media can affect their bottom line, they don't get the concept of an online media that will help they grow their brand or busines or more important the "mind share" of the community in which their business is. So I'll try and explain it, we have all heard about word of mouth right? well think of social media as an electronic form of the "Word of mouth" its that simple.It can also be used as a customer service tool. For example I recently had an issue with Bank of America and after speaking to 3 different customer service reps and after spending a good 3 hours of my time I went online just to blow off some steam and expressed my feelings about the incident on my twitter account (www.twitter.com/matthewdefede) I would say in about 10 minutes I got a reply from Bank of America's twitter team, yes they actually have a twitter team! They were the most helpful and responsive to my issue. That is how some companies can use social media as well to handle customer service issues know how the public feels about their brand or service. Its kind of a two way street where you can not only promote yourself but also get feedback from the public. If your old enough to remember the Tylenol scare back in the 80's and all the damage control Tylenol  had to do, could you imagine if they had the tools of social media today to help the public deal with that whole scenario? It may have actually been very useful for public updates and more. So there is allot more you can do with social Media, from Marketing, Promotion, PR, Customer service and so on. So before your cross social media off your marketing to do list really try it and get help if you need it, big or small i think any company can benefit from its use.

Matthew DeFede owner of www.defedemedia.com