Social Media Networking has changed the way people gather information, make decisions and share this information and experiences with others online.

Social Media sites are the places providing the interaction we make on websites like:

• Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube
• Forums, Blogs, reviews
• Qype reviews, Google+ ...

In fact, this form of communication has been around for a long time in the form of discussion boards and guestbooks. 

How social media helps business:

• finding a company nearby
• product or company reviews
• notification of specials or sales
• purchase feedback and after sales interaction
• new product notification

Potential customers are able to see this interaction as well!

Intergration with the company and online presence:

A company's social media presence should not be separate from the main website. They need a uniform brand identity and interlink to allow users to access the company information when they want and how they want; your brand is literally in their hands, 24/7.

A lot of social media interaction occurs on mobile phones or tablets. A responsive website, that adapts to how the user is viewing it, is crucial to complete a great user experience.

Social media = free feedback

Customers interact with the brand on social media sites and send valuable information to the company to use for future improvements or innovations.

Social business is the opportunity for existing and future customers to choose to receive your product/service information. This interaction is increasingly done from their mobile phones, which means 

Facebook is now bigger than Google, YouTube is bigger than Yahoo!
This means that these social media sites have the means of driving more traffic to your website than the big search engines. The third party reviews help people choose your product and location based services help them find you. 

How much money does a company spend on surveys, usability studies, etc?
With Social Business, this information is shared by customers as part of their daily activity.
People want to interact. Few like completing a survey.

Social media integration scenario:

This morning, Joe, a potential customer, accesses your website to find out more about a product or service you offer. He finds the product he wants but has not used your company before and is unsure of the service or product.
He decides to see if there are any reviews on your company or product and decides to look at your Facebook page and review sites. User feedback is deemed as impartial validation and is more trustworthy than anything a company can say about its product/service, i.e. advertising.

As a result of the feedback Joe found, he buys the product and then tweets about the whole experience to tell his friends and followers. An employee in your company tweets back and further improves the customer experience with the interactive after-sales service.

This is how a company can turn social media networking into social business. Social media integration is more than just a Facebook and Twitter account and their linking to the company website - it's a change in the company ethos. 

Media usage - years to reach 50 million users:

• 38 years for radio
• 13 years for TV
• 4 years for the Internet
• 3 years for the iPod
• 200 million users in less than 1 year for Facebook