Social media sites enable a digital echoing of sorts. They can shine spotlights on a company’s charisma and illuminate the subtle additions that register quality to an attentive audience of more than one hundred and fifty million. Facebook and Twitter are the most recognised social media sites online and are often integrated into daily conversations, as posts of new developments spark intrigue. Facebook and Twitter are a popular way of satisfying an insatiable appetite for instant access to continuous information, which seems to be a permanently partnered with twenty-first century living.

Facebook’s success is primarily centered upon connecting people. Varying emotions are governed by social media sites, as its content can impact how we feel in the real world and how we relate to others, as we become privy to new concepts and perspectives. A company can take advantage of the user’s relaxed and receptive state of mind, sharing a space in which friends and celebrities inhabit. Businesses that insert themselves into a space, where humorous anecdotes are exchanged, project themselves as a less invasive presence, while simultaneously forging an online relationship with their customer.

Tweeting allows messages and therefore information to be carried on a virtual breeze, substituting communication by sound with visual communication. Words are indelible representations and seem to carry an ingrained credence compared to the reverberations of hear say for example. Just as news spreads through word of mouth, its authenticity is usually confirmed when they are read as stories. The arrangement, context and choice of words reflect the attitudes of a business, which can have a dramatic impact on how people view a product.

The attraction of Twitter and Facebook lies within the snippets of information that create curiosity. A business can also enter the social media arena using the same approach, as their products are almost dangled as a carrot that encourages a user to find out more. Social media sites entrust users with information, which simulates a community spirit.

Our intensified access to information means that businesses that opt out of social media marketing may vanish from the consumer’s radar, which is increasingly occupied by a hypnotizing presentation of brightly lit data. Only nine per cent of retailers do not use any social media. By entering the social media arena, businesses show that they can integrate and adapt easily, while remaining contemporary with fresh updates of special discounts and polls that engage customers and provide valuable feedback. Businesses also show that they are not adverse to new marketing strategies, in turn presenting a more amiable and approachable company.

An online space that is dedicated to the promotion of a product is an ideal way to express personality, much like the social networking site Myspace, which works on the premise of a digital space that is dedicated to individual expression. A cyber space can be adorned with messages and graphics, just as a room in a house makes a statement with décor. Businesses can take advantage of the free online territory available, in order to showcase a company’s ethos and create a reputation built on a willingness to connect. The sheer volume of users powers social media’s effectiveness. Followers and trends means that social media has swept over the world and is therefore the ultimate form in which to promote a business.

Many companies have a hard time understanding how best to use social media to promote their business online. It’s not that the principles of Facebook, Twitter and the others are difficult to grasp - they’re not - but, the real business potential can be a lot harder to fathom out. Since social media marketing works differently between businesses depending on what their aims are, there are no guarantees that what works for one will work for another.

That’s the beauty of social media, it’s flexible enough to accommodate an incredibly varied range of marketing approaches and still deliver success. It’s not a strict medium.

An uncomfortable fact of today’s commercial world is that people no longer trust messages from companies, on the whole. This makes marketing an increasingly precision process where even the most meticulously crafted promotions risk failure.

What people do trust is word-of-mouth recommendations, and this has always been the case. These recommendations come from fellow customers (or potential customers) and they come with an inherent credibility that companies can rarely match in their own communications. Social media is the biggest opportunity for word-of-mouth recommendations, well, ever. It has a worldwide span, it’s instantly accessible to anyone from anywhere, it’s permanently available, it’s accumulative and it all leads back to your door.

Word-of-mouth has grown from local to global, and it’s going on right now in tweets, Facebook posts, blogs and forums. Failure, refusal or just a straight-forward inability to get into social media for business marketing is tantamount to ignoring the latest incarnation of the most effective form of advertising of all-time. Is that something your business can afford to do?