When talking to business owners hesitant to implement social media in their marketing plan, I often get “fear” as their main reason. It’s not the fear of learning how it works or the effort required to maintain it (that’s what we’re here for) but it’s the fear of exposure.

The fear of exposure that comes from the realization that a social media message becomes available to the competition. Once we establish that trade secrets are not appropriate topics to divulge on social media sites, there is nothing to fear but fear itself. Your competitors are on social media sites and so should you.

No successful company has ever held back placing an outdoor ad on a busy street, fearing that it could be seen by their most fierce competitor. Even the most targeted traditional media can still fall in the “wrong hands.”

Another common fear is that social media does not offer a targeted approach. The misconception is that the message might as well be thrown at the wind and there is no way to know who gets a hold of it.

Social media can actually be a very targeted and controlled marketing tool. There are ways to reach out to very specific audiences and limit exposure to non-relevant ones. The truth is that the benefits of implementing social media far out weights the risks. So it’s time to overcome that fear or you may as well be afraid of change – and that has never been good for business.

Tags: marketing | Social Media | Facebook | Fan Pages | Michela | Linkedin

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1. Today Facebook counts 400 million global users, with 100 million American members

2. The average user spends 55 minutes on Facebook every day and has 130 friends to share news and content with

3. The average user becomes a fan of only 4 Facebook Pages a month, which gives you the opportunity to make a real impact on your fan base once you capture their attention

4. Only 4% of Pages have 10,000 or more fans creating an opportunity to focus on your Facebook strategy to engage and grow your fan base

5. Nearly 80,000 companies use Facebook Connect to integrate social networking within their sites and potentially reach more than 60 million people who engage with Facebook Connect every month

6. Facebook Fan Box allows your website visitors or email newsletter recipients to become fans of your Facebook page without even going to Facebook

Tags: Fan Pages | Facebook | Social Media | Michela

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