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Whatever industry you work in, no doubt you’ve been confronted by somebody telling you that you really ought to be on Facebook, or that you should be tweeting. This may or may not be true, depending on the line of business that you are in and what you are looking to achieve. Done right, social media can help you grow your business or personal brand, and create loyal supporters/ customers. Done badly, or approached in a half-baked manner, social media is a waste of your time and can make you/ your business look unprofessional.

There are many different forms of social media that allow you to interact with people in different ways. The most popular is Facebook, with 86% of Canadians using social media having a Facebook profile. Businesses and personalities can connect with customers and fans by creating a page that Facebook users can choose to “Like”. If someone likes your page, not only can they see whatever information you post there (offers and information, videos, photos) but every time you add new information, it appears in their newsfeed, so they hear about it.

Having a Facebook page costs you nothing but the time it takes to update the page and engage with clients/ fans. If you have a page, you shouldn’t bomb people with information (it is just as easy to “unlike” your page, or “hide” it, and then you’ve lost them), but instead provide them with unique and interesting information that they aren’t getting elsewhere.

There are lots of companies that have a lot of success with their Facebook pages. Victoria’s Secret is one great example; by becoming one of the more than 15 million people that “Like” their Facebook page, you become privy to special Facebook fan only offers, get to see out-takes from their sexy photo-shoots and first looks at new product launches. You don’t have to be a huge multi-national company to benefit from making fans of your customers though, plenty of small businesses also get great numbers of people connecting through Facebook.

Having a Twitter account also costs you nothing, and is probably the most intimate way to have relationships with customers/ clients/ fans. The premise is that you follow people, and if they are interested in you they will follow you back. You Tweet, which is make a statement about something in 140 characters or less, in the hope that someone will engage in a conversation with you about that statement, or if they think it is really interesting, ReTweet it so that everyone who is following them will then see your original statement.

This has plenty of applications for businesses large and small. Restaurants and cafes are using Twitter to tweet out their daily specials, which helps draw customers in. Cosmetic surgeons, lawyers and realtors use Twitter to build one on one relationships with potential clients and show that they are genuine and personable.

With both Facebook and Twitter, it is about building brand loyalty and connecting with the people that matter, i.e. those that are keeping you in business. As for other forms of social media, Linked-In is useful if you’re looking for a job or to hire people in your field. Google+ is not actually open for business to use, just individuals (this may change at some point) and it is pretty underutilized right now; Youtube can be very useful if you have a lot of video content to share; location based social media platforms have a negotiable amount of impact for many businesses.

Fifty percent of Canadians are using social media, and 48%* of those Canucks are connecting with one or more brands through Facebook or Twitter. If you’re in business or promoting yourself in some way, you need to at least explore having a social media presence.

* Statistics gathered from the 2011 Ipsos Reid Survey of Canadian Social Media Usage