How social media impacts the way we are doing business?

A latest Carlson – Rudely report on Social media's impact on businesses prove it right, and in many ways, gets the verdict out – Social media is redefining how business is done. As companies fight to curb advertising costs, they are discovering that social media advertising could be a new mean way of getting the message across to people, and that without investing a lot of dollars too. And the good news is – Companies across the globe are waking up to this NEW REALITY, and are fast changing their business plans accordingly.

The non-empirical economist point of view has to change

It is difficult for the non-empirical economist to actually even make the change. What's the reason for that? You see – The perpetual non-empirical economist would actually believe that economic theories still hold good and real life data may just be a mirage. The problem is – How much ever these guys would like to believe, the real life data is there for everyone to see.

The fact is – Sites like Facebook and Twitter are just not chat platforms or meet-your-friend groups.

The world is waking up to the new concept of "Customer is the King". Well, it always was that way, but conventional advertising and marketing models never really acknowledged this factor.

An example on how social media today is different than the conventional marketing models

For example, a company earlier used to show Commercial A on the TV, and asked people to buy the product. Now, if customer was really the king, the end customer should have been asked if they would like to see an ad on the product, company A showed just now. Did the advertisement really add any value to the customer at all? And questions like this, keep getting asked in the whole new world of social media.

Lack of control on reviews of your product

This is where the big change comes – The message about a company or its product is completely uncontrollable now. If a company or its product is popular, you would find people discussing it on these sites even before the company is thinking of doing some kind of promotion. This could be a catch 20 situation for businesses, but unfortunately that's how it works these days. An Apple's IPAD line could have a lot of people singing praises, and a UNITED AIRLINES SUCKS group on Facebook could have its equal share of hits too.

Listening and not participating at the start, could also do the trick

Clearly, businesses need to know what is being discussed in the social media. That's the message – They may not be active participants in these forums, but by merely listening to what the groups have to say, they might get a clear idea on what's in store for their brand. This is a big change from the YOU-LISTEN-I-SAY concept companies used to work on, with their conventional advertising models.

Getting your name tarnished is the name of the game, but you can deal with it

Bad reputation could be controlled. In the conventional models, companies wouldn't even know what hit them before they could see their bottom-lines dip. Surprisingly or unsurprisingly, with social media being so proactive about your product launches and your brand identity, the fact is – Bad reputation can be controlled. All it needs from you is to know the vibe of people who are probably reading your groups and business status updates. Remember one thing – If you have on bad review on your product, it is only time before you get 100 more (That's the way viral marketing works). And to say that these social sites are viral marketing mushrooming grounds, wouldn't be an understatement at all.

Your take away from this would be – If you wish to embrace social media, learn to deal with the rigors of this whole new platform of advertising and marketing. The rules here would be slightly different than what you would have ever heard of.

And as you spend time with this platform, you would find out for yourselves that social media does impact your business? How – Find out for yourselves.

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