If you didn’t think social media was important, you should now. For the first time in history, the amount of time people spent on Facebook was greater than the amount of time they spent on Google sites in the United States, according to the Business Insider. The period of measurement was August 2010:
Over the last seven months, I’ve been enrolled in a Master’s program at USC focused on social media and online communities. I’m headed into my final semester and here’s what I’ve learned:
It is absolutely essential that companies develop and execute a solid social media strategy. This doesn’t mean that companies should just put up pages on Facebook and Twitter and call it a social media strategy. Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites are just tools to help companies execute their actual social media strategy.
Having a solid social media strategy means that companies should initially interconnect social media marketing with their traditional media marketing efforts. Then, over the next two years, companies should transition much of their traditional marketing efforts into an overall social media plan. People are now communicating more through their social networks, and companies must figure out the best way to join the conversation. Those companies who do will be much more successful than those who don’t.
