As a result of the continuing influence of the Internet on our daily lives, a growing number of people have chosen to start their own businesses in recent years. Whether they are manufacturing their own range of t-shirts or perhaps buying computer components from China and selling them on in Europe, they all rely on the web to boost their profits.
Whether the company is a small or large operation, building the business via social media is an option that’s too good to miss out on. In fact, any organization that doesn’t go down this path is taking something of a gamble, because it’s basically a free resource that has the ability to reach millions of potential customers in no time at all.
They say that mighty oaks only begin with a small acorn, and that’s a perfect analogy for the way a small business should be approaching social media opportunities. By beginning the process with a comment or two on Facebook or Twitter, an entrepreneur can potentially start a process that could lead to some wonderful success in the future.
Updating a Facebook status or sending a Tweet can be likened to dropping a small pebble in the centre of a lake. The ripples can spread out in circles within seconds and can reach the banks surrounding the whole body of water. And if you manage to keep dropping larger and larger pebbles, the resultant waves will get increasingly higher.
Huge potential, huge profits?
Facebook now has more than 900 million users around the world, and a significant number of them use this social networking site on a daily basis. Whether they simply want to catch up with old friends or post photos of family members, they represent a sizable market that can be reached without a huge amount of effort.
Most Facebook users will have included a few personal details on their pages, and because of this, they can be targeted by marketers. For example, if a person has indicated that he or she likes to collect rare bottles of wine, this information can be used by specialist companies which supply wines from all over the world.
Social media sites should be viewed by companies of all shapes and sizes as a virtual marketplace that gathers together like-minded consumers in one convenient location. There has never been an easier way to access potential customers who have already expressed an interest in a particular range of products. For commercial organizations, an opportunity like this has never existed before.
David Showell lives in the UK and is a regular user of social media networks. He works for www.carhiredirect.co.uk.
This article is contributed by David Showell and posted by Rizwan Ahmad Author and founder of www.cyberockk.com, He is a tech blogger from India and he loves to share his thoughts by writing articles on this site to the different topics related to the technology world.
