In spite of the phenomenal growth of Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and a plethora of other social networking sites, many marketing managers and business owners are still avoiding these new channels.  Common reasons I hear include:

“I don’t have time to learn about it and manage it”,
“only young people use it and they are not my target audience”,
“there are too many to keep track of”
“its all just a trend”
“my customers don’t use social media sites”

The answer to these statements is simply that you should make the time, because social media is here to stay (for the next few years until another evolution) and more people than you think are using some form of it.

Here are 5 reasons why you should take the time to consider social media marketing as part of your internet marketing strategy:

1. Google says you should.  A recent Google video clip by Matt Cutts noted that Google is taking more notice of social media signals in its algorithms.  People in search engine marketing circles stop and listen to what Matt says so this is a strong message that Google recommends utilising social media to help reinforce the credibility, popularity and relevance of your website in the search engine results.  Social media may help your website perform better in search engine results.
2. It helps with sales conversion.  A recent study by GroupM found that 48% of people used both search and social media before making a purchase.  While 60% of people started by looking on a search engine, it is clear that many people looked at social media sites before making a final purchase.  This includes researching products and services and reading independent real-time reviews by people.  Get a social media presence and you can increase sales.
3. It helps build your brand.  The above research found that prior to a purchase, potential customers were more interested in what other people are saying about you on other pages.  However once a purchase was made, 74% said they would prefer a brand’s Facebook page as the best method of ongoing communication.  You need your brand out there both on your own pages and also circulating via reviews, discussions etc on others as well.
4. Your competitors are already doing it.  It is highly likely that the most proactive and innovative of your competitors, (or in some industries and markets all of your competitors), are already at least on Facebook and maybe Youtube.  They will be leveraging the benefits of social networking.  You need to catch up.
5. You can better connect with customers.  Social media provides an instant communication channel which has many positives.  You can gain instant feedback on products and promotions.  You can address negative feedback or problems quickly and efficiently.  You can share real personality and even a sense of humour with customers if you want to.  Social media is the new face to face communication, but only bigger and faster.

Hopefully that is enough to get you to allocate some time to revisiting social media.  A good starting point is to ask around or search for examples of companies doing it well.  Sign up and follow these.  They don’t need to be in your industry or even country.  A first small step like this will give you some momentum and hopefully the reasons above will provide the motivation to continue.