I’ve always maintained that Social Media has a bright future in the business world. The recently released findings from Garner second the fact that social media is vital to online business strategies. In fact, it is currently the most preferred medium for businesses to understand customers and their context. Gartner emphasizes that the USP of social media is the ability to effective engage with the customer. Especially, small businesses in the vanguard of social media are raising their profile and attracting large number of new customers. In fact, tech-savvy small businesses are more attracted to social media rather than eCommerce these days. Hesitancy regarding Social Media The Gartner study reveals an interesting point that businesses are slowly but gradually overcoming the mental block and hesitancy that was once hindering the wide-scale adoption of social media in the enterprise. Social Media is now helping businesses define as well as deliver key business objectives. In today’s age where social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter have managed to beat Google in popularity, social presence is a crucial component of any business’ online strategy. Social Media lets businesses be more adaptable Social Media not only helps a business reach out to newer audiences, it also helps the organization develop an agile framework that allows it to be more adaptable to changing customer requirements or market trends. They have a new and innovative means to instantly market their products as well as a readymade two-way dialogue channel with their customers. It’s often said that social media is a two-way street where both parties (businesses and customers) shed their inhibitions and meaningfully interact with each other. Small Business – eCommerce or Social Media or both? A report from Boston Consulting Group indicates that social media has overtaken eCommerce when it comes to having an online presence for businesses. It is no mean achievement that social media has managed to match the popularity of eCommerce when it comes to having an online presence for a business. While the latter has been around for nearly a decade, social media is a relatively recent phenomenon at least in the business space. In general, there’s a lot more social media awareness in the business segment as compared to the somewhat mellow picture one year back. Further, businesses which sell services or complex products to businesses or bespoke services to consumers are unlikely to see much value in e-commerce. Comparing Social Media with ecommerce is like comparing apples and oranges. While the eventual aim of both is to help boost business revenues, the means are strikingly different from each other. Is social media a part of your business’ online strategy? If so, how are you leveraging social media to boost revenues or to reach out to customers? Please share your business’ social media success story by leaving a comment below this post.