The world of the social space is coming into its 10^th year (LinkedIn, May 2003; Facebook, Feb 2004) and boy has the landscape shifted and morphed. In the UK, I still feel like we are behind the curve of the more advanced US businesses who very quickly accepted Social Media for all its wonder early on. Good news is…the UK is catching up. Bad news…the landscape has changed again.

While some businesses are only just “getting” the power of the top 5 Social platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google Plus and Pinterest) – there is a generation that has now “been there and done that” and moved on. Enter: the world of even shorted attention span than Twitter (who knew?) of SMS-driven short messages (picture and text) and an even more niche reach. What am I talking about? Have you heard of Snapchat, Instagram, Whatsapp and the like?

While I still question (and am absorbing) some of the business uses of these kinds of new niche’s – the proof has come in the huge increase of users and hence some great posts have come out to educate us (the over 24 year olds) how businesses can use these. (Example: Social Media Examiner’s “Instagram Platform Ripe for Marketers Shows New Research” and “Snapchat for Business: How Your Marketing Can Benefit From Photo Messaging”)

What I will re-iterate, which is what I revisit with each of our clients in the review path during their social media journey, is:

• Keep checking where your audience is “hanging out” – have they moved?
• Review your types of content (are you mixing it up enough to engage the right kinds of customers you want)
• Measure your successes (whatever they are)
• Remember that social media is NOT just about sales

The last point is especially important. Social media (and I have proof of this from my own clients and client stories from colleagues in the industry) is a dichotomy of:

• Customer relationship management
• Communication channel (part of the above, but can be seen separate)
• Customer service
• Employee engagement
• Marketing (soft…not direct)
• Public relations
• Brand awareness
• Searchability

Every business is different, but every business has to do some of the above things in order to carry out their operation. Social media is not a sales channel – it is so much more than that and yes, it will contribute to sales increasing…but the power of it means that if you are doing it right – your business will flourish.

How do you use social media within your business? How have you integrated it into your day to day business operation? Let me know below – I’d love to hear your experiences.