The first reason why you need to be actively participating in Social Media, it is FREE advertising. Sure it requires a time investment, and time is money; but it requires your time to design and implement any advertising campaign. The reality is that this “just does not seem like advertising”. However, in a world of DVRs,  Satellite commercial free radio and dying Newspapers and print media what is your return on investment?

The second reason you need to be actively participating in Social Media, is that it does not seem like advertising. That’s right. It is advertising that feels like a friendly conversation and what is more disarming than a friendly conversation. We are all burned out on advertising (which is why we will pay to NOT have to be bombarded with Ads).   The goal of advertising is name recognition. It is making sure the customer thinks of you when they need your service.

The third and last reason you should be using Social Media is that it has the fasting growing audience.

In a market that is growing this fast; no business owner can afford to not be an active participant.

In a classic civic organization power struggle someone once said to my sister, ‘I know who you are; and I know who you think you are’. In the information age, you cannot afford to have who you are be different from who people think you are. The information on who they think you are, is available and possibly correctable but you must be aware of your reputation before you can begin to make adjustments.

It is a good practice to ‘Google’ yourself and your business regularly. Additionally, I would recommend setting up Google alerts for you, your business, your competitors, and possibly key words related to your business, product or industry.

I have Google alerts set for me and my company(ies) – both Glynne’s Soaps and Biz Buzz Social. As you may already know, my partner at Glynne’s Soaps is Jenn Beddoe. I regularly search for content for our company and for each of us individually. I am always a little amazed that I always turn up a story from the San Francisco Chronicle from 1996 when I search for Jenn. My point is this, content on the web can and will follow you. After all if my search still turns up content from when the web was still an infant; imagine what it can remember now that it is all grown up.

For your company who you are may not be as important as who the web thinks you are. After all it is your reputation, make it about who you really are.