Every seat was filled and about twenty five more attendees stood in this filled to capacity venue. Quite obviously people are very interested in social media.Two other panelists joined us, Nola Dunn, Marketing Director, Woodgrove Centre part of internationally based Ivanhoe Cambridge, a large shopping mall conglomerate.

Woodgrove Centre was invited as Webacom recently worked with them on a Facebook social media campaign utilizing a video contest. The full case study on this social media video contest is here.

We found the mass majority of attendees eager to learn and we quickly ran out of time. The need to train businesses of all sizes is really important as most attendees were not using social media or did not know how to use it correctly. One of the more important questions was “What is the starting point for Social Media?” This varies as it is dependent on time and the type of business services or products they sell, it’s best to meet with a Webacom Social Media Consultant. Webacom suggested to start with a blog using Blogger, WordPress or the best idea is to drive traffic to your own website, thus having your blog directly on your site. It needs to be named /blog so search spiders can find it.

Here are a few social media statistics to back up why we made our recommendation:

Percentage of Companies using specific social media Channels and/or Blogs who have acquired a customer from that channel.

• Twitter: 41%
• LinkedIn: 41%
• Facebook: 44%
• Company Blog: 46%

As you can see the blog has the highest percentage of customers that have obtained new business from blogs. Quantity of articles is directly proportional the total lead generation it creates. Were not at all saying to use a blog only, however it‘s a great way to start. Imagine thousands of dedicated readers over a period of time educating and engaging them about your products or services.

A video transcript of this seminar is being edited as the whole event was videotaped. If you would like a link to this important video please let us know and you will be one of the first to view this event on Social Media Marketing on You Tube. socialmedia@webacom.com

In conclusion we feel there is dire need for businesses to adapt to proper social media marketing and other relevant media’s like mobile, viral video, websites and search. Our concern is many business owners are sticking to what they know, traditional media and our fear is they will become less competitive in both the local and international market place.

If you need training, consulting, speakers, social media tools and how to leverage with your current marketing please contact us, socialmedia@webacom.com.