Internet Sociology - Social Media

Social Media is an extremely popular means of discovering, reading and sharing information and news. By merging together the world of technology with people's natural inclination to communicate, social media has created a powerful and unique tool that if understood and used properly can be used by business to increase their ROI.This is done by coupling a sound PR and marketing strategy with a social media campaign in order to get your message out to millions of potential customers quickly, efficiently and effectively.Through the use of article PR, blogs, micro-blogs, social networking sites, business networking sites, online profiles and more, social media makes it possible to capitalize on the multitudes of people online who are willing to share what you have to say with their family, friends, co-workers and associates. By providing a near instantaneous response, social media has given the term "viral marketing" a whole new meaning since one message sent out on a platform such as Twitter can literally reach tens of thousands a readers in minutes. But how do you capitalize on social media? According to the list of 2009's Top Small Business Trends published in USATODAY.com, three of the top five spots all involve how the Internet can be used by small business to win in this struggling economy. The examples given include interactive Internet actions that enable even small businesses to reach existing and potential customers like never before; how blogs, online video and other online tools can be used to create big marketing campaigns for much less than "traditional" campaigns; and finally social networking tools such as Facebook and countless more which can help a business owner not only communicate with the public that buys their products/services but also find potential connections to new opportunities.The bare bones minimum to taking advantage of online marketing and PR is a website and most of you reading this have a website which is good, but is your website working for you? Can your public easily find you on a search? When they do is the search engine entry tasty enough to make them click? What about the competition? And how does PR fit into the mix?What if you could quickly and substantially increase your presence on the Internet resulting in even a handful of new clients? How much profit would those clients represent compared to the cost of online campaigns versus traditional campaigns?The key is PR. Public Relations makes you and your products known and well thought of so that any marketing you do is that much more effective. If you don't already have a well thought out and planned Social Media PR campaign - get one! It is a lot more than just blasting your message blindly to all the social networks.In 2009 you have to move faster. The Internet moves at the speed of light and so must you if you are going to keep up and beat not only your competition but also the economic crisis.