How your business deals with Social Media is up to you. But deal with it you must.

Those that embrace it now will gain a competitive edge on those who don’t. Logic alone will tell you that. Because even if you leave it until later, and employ the most up-to-date, sophisticated techniques (or splash out and have a specialist company do it for you), you will have missed out on all that important personal experience inbetween.

To keep on top of change you need to be a part of it. To understand how something works you need to be involved. You don’t need to know or understand the technicalities but you do need to feel it. You do need to see its effect, so you can affect its improvement.

By entering the race now, even if a complete technophobe, you will learn from the experience. But if you are a complete technophobe it might be an idea to ride pillion with someone a little more au fait.

Sit back and wait and you’ll be a follower. Your competitors who took that leap before you will be strides ahead. You don’t need to lead – we can’t all be leaders – but you do need to keep up.

Social Media isn’t a passing fad. It’s not only here to stay, it’s only getting bigger and bigger. If they’re not calling for you now, your customers soon will be. And if you can’t answer that call, they’ll find someone who can.

Don’t be fooled into thinking ‘you have survived so far without it’. Business managed perfectly well without computers, mobile phones and the internet before they all came along but where would you be without them today?

Your competitors are out there now, chipping away at your business. Before you know it you’ll be doing less but you won’t understand why.

Your restaurant will have less covers because people have been enticed away by ‘tweets’ from someone else. Your shop won’t be selling as much because your customers’ ‘status’ has been updated. Your hotel will have empty rooms because people have been ‘posted’ elsewhere.

I could go on but you get the gist. Just replace restaurant, shop or hotel with your business and you’ll be on the right lines. And if you don’t want to come off them, it’s time to take a look at social media for your business.

Take a look around, watch, research, join in and stay up to date with all the new trends. And if you can’t do all that yourself, employ someone who can.

For help in adopting and adapting, see how 2nd Impression can manage it all for you.

Image courtesy of AdamKR