The Role of Social Networking in Marketing & Communication

I think it's only appropriate my first blog should address the value of social networking and the Internet in today's marketing and business communication.

I recently had the opportunity to attend a workshop with Patsy Terrell who handles marketing for the Kansas Cosmosphere. Patsy utilizes a variety of social networking sources to help market one of the top tourist attractions in the state. She uses her blog, Facebook, Twitter and other resources to reach out to people and get them interested in coming to the Cosmosphere. And the best part is the networking sources she uses are completely free.

Now what does this have to do with us in Mitchell County, Kansas? It could have a lot to do with us. We could be using these "free" sources to promote our businesses, marketing our community and simply communicate important messages to a vast number of people both locally and abroad.

Facebook currently has over 250 million active users. Over half of them log on every day and the average Facebook user has 120 friends in their "network". To a business those individual users and their network of friends could be a gold mine for free "word-of-mouth" advertising.

Major retailers have already figured this out. According to Patsy 86% of major retailers are already using Facebook to market their products. And that is expected to jump to over 95% next year.

Locally there are several businesses who have started using Facebook to promote their businesses. They include The Perfect Pair and Becker Auto in Beloit. We would like to encourage more of our businesses to utilize the Internet as part of their marketing plan. It's easy to use and if you need help just contact me at 785.738.2717 or 785.569.1465 and I can help you get started.

Facebook is the fastest growing social networking source for people 35 and older.

But there are other sources you can use to market your product and communicate with a broader audience. Twitter is also very popular. According to Patsy, Twitter is used more by people aged 45-50 than any other age group, followed closely by 25-34 year olds. More than 9 million people are on Twitter and it's growing rapidly.

Twitter doesn't have all the photo, games and frills that Facebook uses. But it is more of a "communication" tool. You are limited to messages using 140 characters or less. While that can be a limiting factor you may find that more people use Twitter on their cell phones and other mobile communication devices. Both Facebook and Twitter can be connected and used in unison.

Finally a third source of social networking and communication is the use of a "blog". Which is exactly what we have created here. According to Patsy a Pew study in 2008 showed 42% of Internet users have read blogs and experts think that number should be higher because many times people are reading blogs thinking they are regular websites.

Blogs are a very effective way of communicating with a vast number of people. Politicians, Organizational Leaders, Universities and community leaders are starting to use blogs in place of newsletters to communicate ideas and information. That is the purpose of our blog that has been developed as a communication tool for Mitchell County Community Development.

We plan to use our blog to provide local news and information concerning economic development, business, community development, community activities and programs in Mitchell County, Kansas. In the days, weeks and months ahead we plan to cover topics including but not limited to business marketing opportunities, business incentives and programs such as our Neighborhood Revitalization Program. We hope to provide updates on programs being offered by the Small Business Development Center in Concordia. We will cover other subjects including housing, business expansions, construction at our hospital, the Bio Science Industry and we will discuss our ideas for future use of the former Beloit Juvenile Correctional Facility.

We hope this will be something that is interesting and useful to those who are interested in our businesses and our community.