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 worked for decades. It’s a roller coaster development and it’s a very exciting evolution in the way we all do business and interact with each other, however it presents problems for many companies because, in just the blink of an eye (ie a few years ), communication has changed. from a one-way conversation to a two-way discussion on ALL social media platforms.

If you have NOT yet embraced the new paradigm, as a way of doing business, not only will you fall behind your 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 unquestionable. If so, 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 businesses to ponder vague and mysterious questions about how they should interact and converse with customers. This issue was raised by a couple of pioneering companies in their struggle to ensure that employees don’t damage the brand and don’t limit interaction.

Google is one such company where it attempts to cater to the needs of its employees with the now famous “Friday off day” as part of its creative drive to encourage employees to do whatever they want on that day. Many innovative methods and ideas emerged, including the concept of Gmail. Have you also seen in the latest news that Google has agreed to pay the spouse of any Google employee half of the employee’s salary for the next 10 years in the event of death? A generous and innovative way to keep staff retention as high as possible.

One of the big questions may well be, what can our business or industry do on social media? When we saw what the #Cairo hashtag contributed to the Egyptian uprising, I think we all saw that social media is NOT going away and that we better educate ourselves about it, if we want to use this methodology of social interaction, rather than be 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, clients, clients with sincerity. and generous attitude.

Chris