Let’s be real here. I could probably come up with 101 reasons but then you probably wouldn’t read past the first five or ten reasons as to why make Social Media marketing/Networking an integral part of your overall marketing strategy. If you don’t get it after reading the first ten reasons then I’ve either failed at showing you the importance of Social Networking or you just don’t get it. I know, pretty blunt, but there you have it.  There really is no point in beating around the bush on this.

Do you have a LinkedIn account? What about Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Bebo or any other social site that is available for access on the internet today? Where are you blogging? have figured out a way to reach millions of consumers or perhaps hundreds of thousands of other businesses that may require your products or services?

This is where Social Media comes into play. So enough babbling on my part and here is a partial list of what could be 101 reasons to incorporate Social Media Networking into your Marketing plan;

1. Years to Reach 50 million Users: Radio (38 Years), TV (13 Years), Internet (4 Years), iPod (3 Years)…Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months…iPhone applications hit 1 billion in 9 months. http://tiny.cc/5sEy5
2. If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s 3^rd largest country right after India and ahead of the United States. http://tiny.cc/esU3h
3. “LinkedIn has the world’s largest audience of affluent influential professionals” http://tiny.cc/FgMbG
4. All 500 of the Fortune 500 are represented in LinkedIn. In fact, 499 of them are represented by director-level and above employees. http://tiny.cc/iJBbc
5. The #2 largest search engine in the world is YouTube http://tiny.cc/gFs4P
6. More than 700,000 businesses have a presence on Facebook. http://tiny.cc/pQ0sU
7. BlendTec increased its sales 5x by running the often humorous “Will it Blend” Videos on YouTube blending everything from an iPhone to a sneaker. http://tiny.cc/NCTxy
8. Dell sold $3,000,000 worth of computers on Twitter http://tiny.cc/Z68Sn
9. Email has had a good run as king of communications. But its reign is over. Now being replaced by Social Media Forums http://tiny.cc/pEIxq
10. Businesses who choose not to adapt to the new culture will be at an increasing disadvantage, as their customers slowly build personal relationships with their competitors. http://tiny.cc/i3F6i

So there you have it. A partial list of the many reason why any business needs to incorporate Social Media as part of their overall marketing strategy. Decide where the greatest impact for these social tools will be. Look at your competitors, what are they doing? Chances are if they are not already using Social Media, it won’t be long before they do. Why not be the first to set the pace for all others to follow?  Social Media is here to stay. What you need to do is find how it best fits and suits your specific needs.

Frank Guzzo is the owner of Emerging Sales Success, a sales and marketing consulting company specializing in social media marketing and focused on building solutions for regional, national and international businesses alike. We keep up with trends, filter the noise and help companies like yours put social media to work.  To learn more about us, our services, and how you can use social media marketing to build your brand, contact us. Let’s start the conversation.

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