The Social Media Symphony

I know I'm not alone when I express my amazement over the fact that several of the online social network sites have valuations in the billions of dollars. "Billions" with a big capital B. Online sites where you share information about yourself, your family, your friends, your work, your background... Billions.I guess I shouldn't be surprised at all though. Looking at the trend of marketing and communication, it's pretty easy to understand that one-to-one networking is the foundation of the current trend and Social Media, in its current form is the most fundamental path.I've seen Gary Vaynerchuk speak at a few events and he is very outspoken. The one thing he talks about that resounds with me is the idea that Social Media is critical to business. There is no way around it. Whether your business is in it or not, it is in it. You don't have to put up a Facebook page or set up a Twitter account in order to be part of Social Media; but if you don't do it, someone else will! Your area of concern should be who is controlling what is said about you in the market. Again, you can choose to be in it or not; either way, you are!I love Social Media. I love the whole idea of it, especially for business. Never before in history could a business have such complete control over its brand. Social Media can help a company create and manage a brand online in addition to influence others about the perception of their brand.Besides Social Media for Business, there's personal Social Media to consider. Let's say you run a small personal business, like in direct sales or network marketing; you can use Social Media to build leads and generate sales. How? It's simple. The whole mantra of direct sales is working with a "warm market." With Social Media you have access to multitudes of people who willingly tell you what they like, what they dislike and what their challenges are. You can join groups of people with common interests that could number in the thousands and you can spark emotion, debate, and warm and fuzzy feelings all with a simple quote, photo or video.This book is specifically all about how Social Media impacts businesses. The "Symphony" is simply an elegant way of describing the concerted connection between all of the popular social sites that help you manage your brand and achieve your marketing goals efficiently and very cost-effectively.We will go into detail on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and Blogs here; mainly because those are the most travelled and will give you most impact, especially when you are just starting out.