It is true that the way we do business is being radically defined and even as we speak we are being affected by the pressures and influence of social media. If you haven’t noticed, your competitors are getting ahead of you as they redefine themselves through social media.

This form of communication and interaction has altered the way marketing has operated for decades. It is a roller coaster development and it is a very exciting evolution in the way we all do business and interact with each other, yet it presents problems for many companies because, in the blink of an eye (that is, a few years) , communication has changed. from a one-way conversation to a two-way conversation on ALL social media platforms.

If you have NOT embraced the new paradigm by now, as a way of doing business, not only will you fall behind the competition, but more importantly, you may not be able to last the distance.

Now before we worry, your business may not need the power of social media and its influence, impact, breadth and depth of business are unassailable. If this is the case, you are one of the chosen few or you may be retired and the idea of ​​work is a distant echo.

Yet for most of us, this social media process has forced companies to ponder vague and mysterious questions about how they should interact and converse with customers. This issue was raised by a couple of early adopters as they struggled to make sure employees didn’t damage the brand, without limiting interaction.

Google is a company where they try to meet the needs of their employees with the now famous “Friday day off” as part of their creative drive to encourage employees to do whatever they want on that day. From there came many innovative ideas and methods, including the concept of Gmail. Have you also seen in the latest news that Google agrees to pay the spouse of any Google employee half of the employee’s salary for the next 10 years in the event of their death? A generous and innovative way to keep staff retention as high as possible.

One of the big questions may be, what can our business or industry do on social media? When we saw what the hash tag #Cairo contributed to the Egyptian uprising, I think we all saw that social media will NOT disappear and that we better educate ourselves about it, if we want to use this social interaction methodology, instead of being used. For this.

If we align our business or companies with multiple social media presences, we need to have a good idea and understanding of our message, our brand, what we offer, our target market, and a genuine desire to connect with those people, customers, clients with sincerity. and generous attitude.

Chris