Social Media Ignore or Embrace?

We are all familiar with popular social media sites like MySpace and FaceBook.com. Many people including myself have ignored these sites and would prefer to keep their private life private.  However, a very large portion of the population enjoy connecting with loved ones they know,  interacting with people they used to know, and meeting people they don’t know but have similar interests. What happens when the popularity of social media sites spills over into the business world? Site owners start to use social media to give them an advantage by staying in the know and expanding the network of people they know or don’t know yet. In addition to staying on top of Industry knowledge and networking,  one should also think about customer reviews and their experience with your business. In essence the new word of mouth.
Here are some Social Media sites spilling into business:

1. Google Local- Having a position on Google maps can do wonders to boost search engine ranking.  Did  you also know  consumers have the abilty  to write reviews about businesses?  This can be great  for those that embrace this feature and ask happy customers to add a review of the practice on Google local. For practices concerned about negative comments, rest assured that you can reclaim your listing and remove them in this event.
2. YouTube.com is a very popular video sharing site that many practices have uploaded videos to garner more search engine placement and get in front of potential eyes.  Are you aware that viewers can also  make comments about your videos?  This is a feature that can be turned off as easily as it can be turned on and also allows moderation as well.
3. LinkedIn.com is the top professional networking site that is great for interacting with colleagues and making new industry connections. If you are a business owner this is great site to prospect for new employee’s. This site also has great SEO value for your website.
4. Yelp.com is a popular city guide style review site who’s slogan explains their mantra: “Real People, Real Reviews.” This site is very hot in the restaurant industry but has been spilling over into the health and dental industry. Do a search for your area/specialty and check out who comes up. You may be surprised by what you see.
5. RealSelf.com is a site is dedicated to cosmetic surgery. Consumers post questions about various cosmetic treatments and qualified dermatologists, facial surgeons and plastic surgeons respond. They even take polls and ask the consumers to comment on the satisfaction of a specific cosmetic procedure including cost and if they would have that procedure done again.

So back to the original question, “To Embrace or Ignore Social Media?”     With mroe than 85 million results returned on Google for the search “social media”, it is clear that this phenomenon is here to stay.