Social Media and the local small business-(Yellow pages are dead!)- How to increase your customer base by 60%

Newspaper readership is at its lowest point in 70 years even though the population has tripled over that same period. Magazines and even television have been in steady decline since 2000. And, Bill Gates believes that no one-NO ONE- under 50 will use the Yellow Pages at all! The old stuff ain’t working, because people have moved online.

Social media is exploding: Traditional media may not work any longer, but new media sure does. Time spent on social media platforms increased by 82% in 2009 when compared to the previous year and Facebook and Twitter are growing even faster—increasing 200% and 368% respectively. But notice, people aren’t going online to read content from traditional media. Instead, they’re interacting with each other and with brands using social media platforms.

Your customers use search: 80% of Internet traffic begins at a search engine-even when the user knows the brand or service they are searching for! If the search engines can’t find you, your customers won’t either. You must be there.

Your customers use Facebook: More than 350 million people are active Facebook users. Each one of them has an average of 130 friends, spends an average of 55 minutes using the service each day, and becomes a fan of at least two brands each month!
Your competition uses Facebook: More than 700,000 local businesses have active Fan Pages with more than 5.3 billion fans. Don’t be left out. It’s time to stake your claim.

Your customers use Twitter: Almost as many Americans use Twitter (38%) as read newspapers (43%). If you used to periodically advertise in the paper, then it’s time for your business to join the ongoing conversation on Twitter.

Google searches social media: Search engines now give special preference to social media like Facebook and Twitter over traditional web pages. You still need a website, but that’s no longer enough.