By Nipa Shah

Barack Obama’s social media strategies are sworn upon by marketing gurus who went “Oh my God, he’s going to be our BEST case study when we sell Social Media Marketing to our clients”.
Well, the marketing revolution is happening but hasn’t quite made clients line up to buy SMM services yet!
So what is happening in the Social Media world right now?
Well, Social Media website use has exploded with millions of people using popular Web 2.0 applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and dozens of others. I personally “play” and “work” on Twitter and Facebook and love it.
Celebrities and politicians have discovered Twitter (Oprah & Ashton Kutcher being the two most popular ones) and they continue to pontificate one-way to their audiences. (I say pontificate because most of these are rarely engaged in a two-way discussion, more times sending out updates but not engaging with others who may wish to interact with them.) And politicians along with celebrities, across the globe, have taken their messages followers on Twitter and Facebook.

However, millions of users and dozens of so-called SMM experts later, small businesses continue to remain offline and positively scared of using social media websites.

When I network offline (yes I still do that), small business owners tell me that they are concerned about using social media websites to promote themselves. The lack of privacy and a misconception that they need to be technically savvy to use websites like Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin have led to their abstinence.  “Lack of time” also prevents these same business owners from taking the social media marketing plunge.
Social media marketing means a huge opportunity for everyone but how?
 
For marketers, the opportunity comes from being able to show actual results to end clients, in the form of visibility and generated buzz.  For small businesses, social media marketing means global visibility at low (affordable) cost. For everyone, Social Media Marketing means; buzz, visibility, website traffic, and leads.

Nipa Shah is the Technology Editor for WE magazine for women. Nipa is also the founder and visionary who has shaped Jenesys Group, LLC and is known as an expert in the field of Online Marketing. For more information, visit http://www.jenesysgroup.com.

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