Social Media Marketing Attractive to Businesses

By Stephanie Jordan
in

Given how much we talk about and participate in social media these days, it’s easy to forget just how recently it came on the scene. Phenomenal interest in Facebook has propelled the average user to have 130 friends each. Last month the company announced it had achieved its 500 million member milestone. That’s impressive growth since its 2004 launch.

With that growth, it is reasonable to expect that it is only a matter time before the medium infiltrates the business world. The business-to-consumer market is a natural extension, but increasingly business-to-business markets are also adopting (or at least considering) the channel too. At this point of social media’s evolution, a company has two options: to either embrace or ignore. While organizations may opt to stall, the second option may not be a choice for much longer.

Facebook, with its roots for the young, is growing up. Along with its maturity however have come growing pains – like trying to figure out its privacy policy to being more protective of its members from those who might threaten spam and online abuse. To that end, Facebook recently joined the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) at its highest level of membership and will serve on the MAAWG Board of Directors. The social media site is expected to play an active role in MAAWG’s future work.

The question many business organizations face today is how to make this relatively young channel work for them. In the latest issue of Messaging News cover story, Social Media Grows Up: Connecting Email and Social Marketing, we explore a few ways to integrate social media into overall marketing goals and how it needs to be treated differently than email marketing.

As we have done with other emerging technologies and services, Messaging News will monitor and report how this evolving messaging channel is being used and share best practices. 

Published August 25, 2010