Guess I am in the right zone…or just following what people are demanding – but more and more people want help promoting the facebook pages, their twitter accounts, improving their reputation online….and building a brand.
I am perfectly positioned to do this in the Philippines, and have been working on a more standard package for businesses to talk to me about. AND I LOVE SOCIAL MEDIA, I live it, breath it…..integrate it into my life, and see the power of it.
Reading an inspiring article this morning from one of my daily reads, websitemagazine.com here it is:
Small Businesses: Facebook as Important as Facetime
Uncertain at first, and still somewhat reluctant overall, small businesses are increasingly implementing social media into their marketing strategies.
A recent survey conducted by Constant Contact revealed that 63 percent of nearly 1,500 small business owners cited Facebook as an important element of their activities during the fall, while more than 30 percent said the same about Twitter. Those numbers were up from 50.5 percent and 25.6 percent, respectively, when the survey was last conducted in March 2010.
The Fall 2010 survey also showed modest increases in more traditional small business marketing strategies such as email marketing, event marketing and online surveys, while direct mail, telephone conversations and in-person interactions all saw modest declines.
In fact, 62 percent of the respondents stated that a Facebook presence is now equally as important to their small businesses as are face-to-face interactions with consumers.
While 2010 was a difficult year for small businesses, most respondents have high hopes for 2011. More than 50 percent of those surveyed have reduced their operating expenses in 2010 – 39.7 percent have reduced their travel and entertainment budgets, and 39.4 percent have reduced their marketing expenditures. Nearly 75 percent, however, expect their businesses to grow in the next year.
This is what disappoints me about Chinese internet filtering. How can I possibly offer this as a service to clients in a country where its illegal to access?
Anyway, Filipinos love this work, I chat to them all day on facebook and twitter….and they are hungry to get involved in projects I am working with. Just packaging it, standardizing it, and measuring it has been the challenge.
But social media is real, and it is here to stay!!!
Comments
True. I couldn’t agree more. Social media is fast encroaching on Google’s search realm — and it makes sense. After all, more and more people would rather trust friends, or friends of friends, than, say, the search results on Google (but Google is STILL a force to be reckoned with!)
The thing with social media is, the results are very hard to measure, and relationships made via social media take time before they produce rewards, but the wait is worth it.
Glad you agree Melita, and thanks for your comment.
To further prove it – If you noticed in google, they have it in beta a “social circle” where at the bottom of the first page it puts your “friends” from your social media’s websites that are relevant to the search.
so when my friends search for “buy from china” for example, they will see my website on the first page and my photo – so they hopefully would contact me before a random google search result – because they know me and trust me.
so maybe before facebook search is used for friends to find things, this will be what happens.