Why Social Media?

The digital age has introduced far more effective means of sharing information – literally at the click of a button.

Who would have known a few years ago how popular social media websites would actually become? Platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have revolutionised how people share information with often vastly distributed audiences.

Social media has been around for a while, yet not many companies in South Africa have realised its potential. One of the secrets to social media's success is how easy it has become to participate.

SM gives companies the opportunity and platform to both promote their brand and obtain feedback from customers. It also enables them to present their corporate personality on the Internet.

However, avoiding SM means that you are missing out on many useful marketing tools and strategies. SM is not just about advertising your product and services; it is about projecting the human dimension of your business and the personality of your brand and it demands the mindset of a Public Relations professional combined with the skills of a top marketer.

SM will help PR identify which ideas match with specific audiences and can help us earn more attention and interest.

SM can be a fundamental part of your overall communications strategy as it encourages a regular stream of low-level interaction and is real time. This leads to my top four benefits of using social media.

Below are my top four benefits of social media:

The personal and professional enrichment provided through social media is worth it all. Social media can provide you with and help you maintain focus.

In my opinion, social media is the best branding tool ever. The ability to build awareness, create appeal and generate traffic is awesome.

Social media improves your communication skills. (Our company blog is helping me communicate better, even Twitter helps me to be more concise, exercise my vocabulary and improve my writing skills).

Another benefit of using social media is that you get to listen to what people or businesses are saying.

So, if your not using Social Media you should know that it is growing and growing quickly. Don’t be left out, join the gang!!

This blog post was first published on the Cerebra website.