Is Social Media a Viable Business Tool?

As a business owner, have you analyzed the effects of social media marketing on your business’ outreach? Is it viable to believe that the ROI, when using social media, is a tangible benefit? In the current business environment, using social media is strating to become a norm so much so that large companies are starting to incorporate it into the very fabric of their operations.

Examples of companies who have started incorporating social media into their business environment are:

• Zappos: who have incorporated Twitter training within their new hire orientation have actually setup a page that you can visit to see what their employees are talking about (Twitter.Zappos.com)
• Ford Motor Company: has included various social media tools in their plan such as the Ford Motor Company Facebook Page.
• Obama: another classic example is the endorsement page for Obama on Facebook. As to do, it still has over 85,000 people you are following it.
• Sprint: has a Twitter account that share Sprint News about what’s going on with Sprint.
• Southwest Airlines: to keep in touch with customers, SouthwestAir Twitter account was created. They also monitor Twitter for any feedback or comments regarding their airline.

As you can see, many top organizations have started incorporating social media into their business plans. What are the social media website that you can use for to help grow your business? Check the list below by clicking on an image and it will open up in a new window. Not all of the websites below will fit into your business plan, check each one out and see how you could incorporate social media into your business plan.

Image: Newscom.com	Image: MySpace.com
Image: Blellow.com	Image: FriendFeed.com
Image: Facebook.com	Image: LinkedIn.com
Image: Digg.com	Image: Twitter.com