Many have the view that social media equates to kids walking [...]]]> From Facebook to Twitter to LinkedIn, social media is all around us. The tools are available for people to communicate faster, more often, and on your own schedule. Social media is no different then attending a networking event at your local chamber of commerce.

Many have the view that social media equates to kids walking around chatting on MySpace and sending text messages to each other. To some point, and up until 2008, this was fairly true. People active in social media range in age from 25 – 35. That average age continues to climb as more and more signup for services.

Why should a business pay attention to social media? Your customers and potential customers are there. They may be talking about you and your competitors. The topics can be positive or negative, but unless you join the conversation, you will never know. Joining these conversations allows you to find out more about your audience. They will tell you what they like, don’t like, and what you can do to get more business. Decades ago companies would pay thousands of dollars to conduct research to gather this information and now it is just your time.

On Facebook, there are over 700 million active user accounts around the world. Chances are pretty good someone in there may buy your service or product.

There are many ways to attention on Facebook:

• Create an event
• Pay for clicks
• Pay for impressions
• Create a Fan Page for your business
• Just Join!

Then there is LinkedIn which has been equated to the Facebook for professionals. LinkedIn focuses on users’ professional and educational experience and interests. To connect, or link, with other professionals, you must have either worked with, attended school with, or be introduced through someone they know in order to be connected. Everyone is relevant in some way to your interests and the conversations you want to have.

Options to promote a business on LinkedIn include:

• Create a Company Profile
• Answer questions in the forums
• Post jobs
• Create a professional group for your industry
• Connect with others

A much more simple social media tool is Twitter. This just provides a way for you to update people in just a few sentences about what you are doing. No, this doesn’t necessarily have to be what you ate for breakfast. It could be about a new product the company is working on, a link to a survey, or an idea that you may have. A potential customer or investor may be listening and all you need to do is create the interest.

Another social medial site that can be used in conjunction with a blog or company news stories is Digg. This is a site where users can submit links to sites that have stories, images, or videos of interest and comment on them. If another user likes the link, they vote to “Digg” it. The more Diggs a story has, the higher up in the listings it becomes. There have been many times when a story was so popular that the amount of traffic it drove to a website crashed the server. All it takes is an interesting or funny story that directs traffic to your site.

You can become part of the conversation that your customers and prospects are having with virtually no costs. Each site is free to create an account on and provide their unique ways of getting attention. All have a mobile phone application allowing you to stay in touch anytime, anywhere. Start with one and start growing your network to spread the word.