by John Louie Ramos

Created on: October 27, 2010   Last Updated: November 04, 2010

The business environment has changed drastically over the course of the years. The rules have changed and the advent of the Internet made gigantic strides that literally changed the way business is done. Social media has reached leaps and bounds when it comes to advertising a specific product or service.

Nevertheless, social media remains to be an untapped area for most traditional entrepreneurs who were used to doing business the brick and mortar style. Thus, those business firms who fail to see the advantage social media has over traditional advertising are missing a huge opportunity.

There are a lot of platforms from where a business firm can established a web presence and from where they can thoroughly communicate their ideas, products and services to their audience. There are social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace and Twitter while there are also blog sites and similar avenues of social media.

Thus, not having a social media strategy and missing out the grand opportunity to use technology to a business firm's advantage could spell the difference between success and failure. Generally, people are skeptic and the cost of being skeptic can be potent. The following are some of the glaring disadvantages of not having a social media strategy.

Missing the Opportunity

According to World Internet Usage Statistics as of June 30, 2010, there are nearly 2 billion internet users worldwide and the numbers are even expected to increase significantly in the next decade or so. By not having a social media strategy, business firms miss on the opportunity to connect to 2 billion people that could be prospects and eventually customers.

Cheaper Way of Advertising

Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter is cheap if not free. Moreover, traditional advertising methods account for thousands and even millions of dollars. On the other hand, social media is a cheaper alternative. Most brick and mortar business firms put a great amount of effort in marketing offline but as studies show more and more people are leaving the traditional way of gaining consumer knowledge in favor of the Internet.

Needless to say, in this day and age of the Internet, an average person who wants to learn a thing or two about a certain product would just Google the particular product.

Better Personal Connection

Despite the fast-paced business environment we have these days, people still look for a sort of personal touch in their dealings with people. Hence, social media strategies such as those associated with social networking sites tend to be very personal in nature. More so, it builds a better, long-lasting relation between a company and its customers.

It enables the development of a community rather than a commercial which just makes social media more appealing to customers as compared to traditional methods of advertising.

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