How Social Media Changed Small Business Marketing

Davanti Digital Media, a full-service digital marketing agency specializing in social media solutions for businesses of all sizes, has just uploaded a new YouTube video entitled, “Social Media For All: How Social Media Changed Small Business Marketing.”

According to the video description, “Businesses no longer have a choice: if they are not using Social Media, they are missing out on the conversation that people are having about their products and services.”

Davanti’s video description adds, “Businesses of all sizes, especially small businesses, need to take advantage of this inexpensive and influential medium. Social Media is an extremely effective way to engage with your target audience and build your brand online. Social Media can also help businesses manage and monitor the reputation and good name they have worked so hard to build.”

And the video description concludes, “Let’s face it. The world has evolved. Today, everything is on the internet, and that goes for marketing and advertising as well. Gone are the days of picking up the phonebook to find a business or service. Social Media and Online Marketing are the wave of the future. If you don’t adapt today, you will get left in the dust.”

So, if you are convinced that social media and online marketing are the way to go, what should you do first?

You can start by reading “5 Tips for Optimizing and Integrating Your Social Media Content” by Liana Evans, the co-founder and CEO of LiBeck Integrated Marketing.

You can read “SMB Must-Haves in 2011” by Gregg Stewart, President of 15miles.

You can watch Mel Carson’s interview of Mari Luangrath, Head Cupcakeologist / Owner, Foiled Cupcakes, on the subject of social media business value. The video is entitled “The business value of social media with Foiled Cupcakes owner, Mari Luangrath.”

Finally, you can also watch John Mulligan’s interview of Eric Qualman, author of Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business. The video is entitled, “Erik Qualman, EF Education on the future of search and social media at SES New York 2009.”

By the way, the Davanti YouTube video is an homage to the Social Media Revolution by Socialnomics09.

It’s worth noting that both of these videos are loaded with lots of data that marketers can cite to convince reluctant small business owners and CEOs — who are often 50 or older — to start using social media marketing. Up until recently, this has been an uphill battle.

But according to the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project, “While social media use has grown dramatically across all age groups, older users have been especially enthusiastic over the past year about embracing new networking tools. Social networking use among internet users ages 50 and older nearly doubled–from 22% in April 2009 to 42% in May 2010.” By comparison, social networking use among users ages 18-29 grew by 13%–from 76% to 86%.

So, who knows. Maybe the tide of battle is turning.