Social media top online tool every business should use

If you can't see the relevance of Facebook, Twitter, Google maps and LinkedIn to your business, it's time to reassess your marketing strategy.
While many businesses may not yet have the internal resources to commit to engaging users through social media, every business strives to improve the number of leads its website generates and its search-engine rank - which is just what social media can help you achieve.
Ensuring your website can be found by the right people, with the right demand, is the key to online business success. Social media sites and applications provide a wealth of free online opportunities your company should utilise to ensure your website can be found by your target market.
In late 2009, the way in which search engines rank content changed significantly when real-time-search was introduced. Real-time-search places importance on new and unique content - allowing this fresh content to achieve a ranking faster than before.
This change to search-engine algorithms was made to acknowledge the billions of characters of fresh content being published on social media sites every day and rewards those who blog, comment, participate in discussion groups and/or post status updates.
In order to leverage this change in search engines, your business needs to have some form of social-media presence. If you don't have the time or know-how to manage an interactive social-media campaign, don't make the mistake of doing nothing at all. Instead, try setting up the accounts and profiles that follow and post the recommended content:
Set up a Google Place Page. In Google Maps, any business can set up a page detailing where it is, what it does, the hours of operation, and (most importantly) a link to its website.
Set up a Facebook business page (for example). When setting this page up you can change its settings so that (until you're ready) no one but you can post to it. While this largely defeats the purpose of social media and won't help you build an online following, it will provide you with a place you can post industry-relevant articles (that link to your corporate site) and not have to worry about monitoring it to reply to posts others make. It will allow you to leverage real-time search, build credibility with anyone who finds your articles/blogs and help drive traffic to your corporate site.
Set up a Twitter account. Doing this will not only allow you to secure your business name on Twitter (for example,), it will also allow you to post updates on your business that link to your website. You can use Twitter to alert people when you've completed a project or let users know when you have provided new product or service information on your website. You don't have to post something every day - just aim for a once-a-week update.
Set up a LinkedIn profile (for example). LinkedIn is a business networking website that allows you to set up personal and business profiles and create contacts with other users. You can also set up online discussions, polls and status updates - all geared to drive users to contact you.
Smart online marketers know that simply having a website does not mean they will be able to generate leads and/or sales for the web. Leveraging the power of social media will help you ensure that when someone has the need for your product or service, they will be able to find you.
Ignoring social media will leave your competitors with an advantage.
Wendy Schollum is a web strategist and managing director of Xplore.net Solutions. If you would like more information on leveraging social media to promote your business, follow Wendy on Twitter (www.twitter.com/xploreNET), join the Xplore.net team on Facebook (www.facebook.com/xploreNET), email support@xplore.net or call 0800 100 900.