Small Businesses and Social Media. Time to get started!

Are you concerned that other small businesses are winning when it comes to the use of Social Media?  So what number of small businesses are using social media tools and what types of tools are being used and how are they using them?
A small percentage of small businesses are using social media in some way today.  Forrester Research estimates that social media marketing will grow from $716 million in 2009 to $935 million in 2010 and $3 billion by 2014.
LinkedIn seems to be the most popular currently mostly because it is relatively easy to set up and does not need constant upkeep.  However, if companies do not give it attention it will not give them any results.  Even smaller numbers are utilizing blogging and micro blogging tools like Twitter.  These can be extremely effective for many small businesses but do require companies to update regularly and keep their potential customers engaged.  It is essential that you keep up with customer’s activities so that you do not leave any customer questions unanswered.
As surprising as it may sound about 64% of small business are currently using social networks to answer customer questions, which makes it currently more popular that online advertising or networking.  Customers are already using these tools and are expecting companies to have these tools available more and more.  The fact is that this is real time answers to whatever issues they might be having in regards to customer support issues and not having to fill out and online form and await an answer.
The appropriate way to start using social media is to look at as an overall marketing tool.  It is not just a sales tool, but also an overall marketing platform that can help overall customer’s online experience that should affect the bottom line positively.
So why do this today outside of the social media buzz?  Well every potential customer that finds your competitions blog, Tweet, or Facebook fan page is a customer you probably just lost.  This can impact your business today and will impact greatly in the future.