We all know about social media and social networking. It’s been a hot topic in the news, on the internet and in Hollywood. But as a business owner who runs a business in the real world, what does it mean for you? How can you actually use social media to help achieve your business or life goals?

It’s true that social media can have a positive impact on business. There are methods such as running viral competitions to mass increase subscribers and more innovative approaches such as the Old Spice campaign. But while it’s true that interacting on social media can boost brand awareness and interaction, is it really the best use of time for an employee?

In the future there will be highly mechanised and thoroughly tested techniques that staff are trained in to ensure results from social media, but at the moment its mostly a guessing games and the average results from small to medium business are mediocre at best. You are still better off to hire a cold caller who is trained at pushing a customer through a sales funnel than a social media specialist who ‘interacts’ with the community or invest in an expensive and speculative campaign.

But that’s all about to change very quickly with the birth of social network shopping.

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