In this day and age, social media is essential when it comes to promoting your business and driving customers to your site. If you’re building a marketplace, however, it is an even bigger priority. Research has shown that peer-to-peer users are also frequent social media users. That means potential vendors and customers are online looking for communities to connect with at any given moment in time. Having a strong social media presence will help you connect with an audience and strengthen your reputation.

The importance of having an online presence

Collaborative consumption expert, Rachel Botsman, discussed how trust in the new currency is this modern economy. That trust is built upon one’s reputation. Social media can have a huge impact on how others perceive you, so creating a strategy to control where and who will see you is essential.

What came first, the chicken or the egg?

If you already have thousands of Twitter followers or tons of likes on your Facebook page, congratulations, you’re on the right track! But what if you’re new to social media and don’t have followers yet? I think it’s important to realize just how essential social media is in today’s business world.  

Most if not all companies today have someone on their team, or hire a freelance social media consultant to create strategies. Social media wasn’t always respected the way it is now, but many CEO’s and small company owners are setting aside a part of their budget to focus on this very important marketing aspect.

My epiphany about how important social media is for our company

I learned about this while attending the social media club here in San Francisco. One of the speakers, Ally Greer (@allygreer), expressed how at the early stages of her career she only had a ten dollar Facebook budget. That ten dollars went a long way promoting her boss’s company back then. So seeing the improvements her efforts made in their analytics with only ten dollars, her boss gave her fifty dollars to invest after seeing their analytics numbers shoot up.

Before beginning my job here at Near Me, I knew very little about social media and how companies use it. Collaborating with colleagues who have more experience in this field has given me a better skillset for understanding how it all works.

The point is, you have to start somewhere. Getting thousands of followers and likes doesn’t happen overnight -- just like a relationship doesn’t happen overnight. Begin by setting aside a budget for your social media. If you’re unfamiliar, like I was, find someone who knows what they’re doing and take it from there. It’s never too late to get started but if you wait too long, you might miss the social media wave.

Stay tuned for our social media blog next week, which will get into more details about strategy.