ForumsAdvertising, Sales and Marketing

A recent CONE study stated that 93% of Americans believe a company should have a presence through social media and 80% feel they should be able to interact with that company via social media. When done right consumers have a stronger connection with that company and are thus more brand loyal.

So, yes, you should have a social media strategy. But you should also be able to measure its ROI and ViTrue (I don't work for them) has a social media index which allows you to measure your presence in social media. It is currently in BETA form, but it is an interesting tool.

Lastly, when developing your social media strategy, make sure you know where your audience wants to be communicated with and how they want to be communicated with. Using online surveys can help you accomplish this.

That said, I use it for a few reasons. I use the micro-blogging feature on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Plurk to let people know when I update my blog - smartermarketing.wordpress.com. And I have a Facebook pages for two entities to communicate with customers and prospects about upcoming events, webinars, new products, etc. I would consider all of these ventures successful in their ability to drive traffic to my site and drive my business.

If you want to discuss your strategy further, I can be contacted at a_abend@MIsForMarketing.com.

The study was conducted online with 1,092 americans, 18+, so to your point it does skew the data towards an online audience.

Also, the majority of hours spent online are by users in the age range of 14-25, as they have more drive and obsession with it then any other age group.

So you might not be offering a service or product that is what this age group is looking for. 5-10 years you might be EXACTLY what they are looking for.

Draw interest now, and it will help. Draw the attention and amusement of this age group now and it is guaranteed to help if you are still in business 5 years from now.

I am not sure if this is exactly what they were trying to say Lighthouse, but thank you for your point of view, even if it is good, bad, and indifferent.

@intechspecial (Mike)-- true that the majority of users are high school and college age.
However, you can target by age-- for example, advertise on Facebook for folks 30+ or whatever your client base is.
Sometimes, actually buying advertising is the most effective means. It doesn't cost but a few dollars to test it.