Social media has exploded into business consciousness. What was once the domain of your cousin’s baby photos and funny videos of cats has now transformed in to a viable marketing channel used by businesses of all shapes and sizes. More and more companies are joining the dialogue and are using social

media as a way to complement - and in some cases replace - traditional marketing channels. It’s free (at least in monetary terms), instant, and you control what you say and when you say it - meaning it can be a great
marketing tool for small businesses.

So is social media right for all businesses?

According to advertising and social media business The Goat Farm’s Vaughn Davis, “conversations about your business are happening right now on social media, whether you use it or not. However if you are engaged, it gives you the ability to listen, and if you choose, join in on those conversations.”
The size of your company doesn’t matter, or even what industry you’re from – the opportunities are out there for all businesses to take advantage of social media. Davis believes you don’t necessarily need to be
from an online or hi-tech business to connect and get a benefit.

“If you’re a panelbeater, you may not consider social media a relevant platform to promote your business, but consider this: if you’re posting interesting photos of jobs you’ve done, or tips on how to maintain your
car, people may want to follow you. From that you could get recommendations and referrals from the people - and it is a growing community - who use social media to find recommendations for services.”

The biggest benefit to engaging in social media, according to Davis, is the ability to massively grow your personal and professional network. The more people you are connected with, the more people know
about your business. It’s the conversation and the connection that will be of much more long term benefit to your business than pushing a sales message.

A secondary benefit is the “intelligence network.” If you are part of a network of people who share similar interests, you’ll benefit by being better informed about current industry trends, events and opportunities.”
There are many different platforms for you to choose from - here are some of the most popular and well known in New Zealand.

Facebook: With over 700 million users globally, and 2 million in New Zealand, Facebook is the largest and arguably bestknown social media platform. With the ability to post a wide variety of rich media content
such as photos, videos and links, have conversations and interact with a wide variety of people, Facebook can be an excellent first place to start your business’ engagement in social media, particularly if you operate in the
B2C space.

Twitter: Twitter is an open forum where you send 140-character “tweets” to talk to other users, meaning that communications are by nature short and sharp. It’s an excellent resource for sending and receiving links
within your networks, current and breaking news, posting the goings-on within your company, or just chatting with other people about topics of interest.

LinkedIn: Once thought of as a domain for job seekers, it’s now best to liken LinkedIn to Facebook for business professionals. You can connect with colleagues, clients and friends all in a professional setting. You can also join industry or special interest discussion groups and share information and best practice with
fellow professionals from all over the world. Some employers use LinkedIn to post jobs and find talent.

YouTube: YouTube is actually the second largest search engine in the world, after Google. If you have any video content, consider using YouTube as a platform to bring rich media to your organisation. A reasonable quality video or video-blog can be set up with minimum time or expense. With the huge number of videos being uploaded on a daily basis, be sure to link to your page from your other online spaces to ensure your
efforts don’t get lost.

Trade Me: According to Davis, Trade Me is the one place that many New Zealand business owners overlook. With over 2.5 million users on the site, Trade Me is New Zealand’s largest social network. The Trade Me message boards have over 720,000 posts per month and provide a great place to network with likeminded people and promote your business.