Because of the recent economic downturn, business marketing nowadays, especially for small to medium-sized businesses, have mostly shifted from traditional advertising (print, radio, TV) to Internet-based marketing campaigns. It’s usually the big corporations now who can afford high budget, high-profile traditional advertising campaigns.

But taking one’s marketing to the Internet means you must always be on top of current Internet trends-you must know where in the Internet your prospective clients are hanging out. And the hottest Internet hangouts for people these days are the social media sites-like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Google+. If you don’t go where the fish hang out, you won’t catch any.

If you have a business website, the answer to the title question would almost certainly be YES. Unless you don’t like people or don’t like to cultivate public connections with future prospects.

Yes, it is possible for a business website not to have a social media component like it’s possible for a drag-racing car not to have nitro. But if you’re in a race where your competition all have nitro buttons on their dashboards, would you want to go without one?

That’s why there are Facebook ‘like’ buttons, or Twitter ‘tweet’ buttons, or LinkedIn or YouTube ‘share’ buttons or Google+ ‘+1’ buttons on almost every blog and business website you can find today.

Social media buttons allow people who like your website/products to share your website with people they think can benefit from your products-with just a click, without having to call their friends one by one and telling them the good news. Social media profiles are quick to implement and cheap to set up (they’re free). And results come in fast.

However, there is a price to pay for social engagement. Before you go social, be sure your website is in great shape-has great content and is enjoyable to use. No amount of social media can make up for a content-poor, hard-to-navigate website.

Real social engagement will also take from your busy time-adding contacts/friends, replying to them and chatting with them and posting frequent updates and blogs, being nice and sincere-on top of running your business. Others hire people to maintain social engagement for them but there’s no substitute for an actual business owner (who knows the real ropes) to engage customers with replies and status posts oozing with authority and genuineness coming from years of insider experience.

Other people jump into the social media bandwagon without being adequately prepared for it. Their social media accounts are not updated, engagement is shallow and half-hearted-leading to people’s distrust. If you get into social media, make sure you do it right, not just because everyone else is doing it.

“Well, all that is fine and dandy,” you say, “but is there any business or industry where social media is a no-no?” Yes-yes. Industries where only word-of-mouth and secrecy are key. Like, if you’re a professional assassin, or you have an Amazon-like site like this, you wouldn’t want people at your back, especially the authorities. All other websites please prepare to get social. Now.

Social media marketing started out as a fad. Now, it has become a must have in the marketing industry. For example, Facebook alone has created an intense surge for newer marketing tactics. For many years, companies have tried new trends and associations to find a greater audience, and reach the ultimate-consumer faster. Due to technology, many companies have figured out the trends, and are going beyond their previous limits to reach these consumers. They have hired more employees who are tech-savvy, which is weeding out the older generations who aren’t as familiar with the technology. Advertisements on Facebook are important success-factors because they can reach over 1 million targeted demographics if a strategic business unit needed to branch out to that many consumers. With the addition of these social trends, companies can “mass market” to their targeted demographics with less work, and are getting more for their money. Basically all they need is an employee on the computer 24/7, who updates the ads, and sites. Here has come a large basis for Media Marketing. With social marketing being a huge trend, more companies are being created for businesses who don’t fully understand the social trends, or cannot keep of the costly time constraints of these sites. These companies want to help these businesses create a plan of attack, working directly with them to create a futuristic business plan marketed toward the future. Making videos, ads, and blogs increases the consumer viewership for these products, and will benefit the business, and the consumer in the long-run.

Various marketers focus on their competition; however, its competition has moved on to advanced areas of marketing, and they are suffering due to their inability to connect with their clients and consumers. Not only is this a trend in the Midwest, where companies come to flourish, but companies across the United States come and go, not because of their lack of product diversity, but their lack of knowledge of their targeted demographics. In fact, not many companies have come out to help these small business. Companies have created their own niche for their consumers, and wants to provide affordable advertising for their clients, and ultimately increase their revenue, and product growth line. Should businesses want to continue with positive cash flow, they would need to focus on their opportunities in their market. Strategic business units need to market their hedgehogs, and create room for product maturation, and increase their brand equity. Some companies focus on their strengths, rather than their opportunities and threats. Hopefully these businesses will convert their weaknesses into strengths, and take full advantage of their opportunities. Through new marketing tactics over the years, it has been found that the common trend is to market online. Social media is only one aspect of advertising, so it shouldn’t be the sole use of marketing, but an important key to the success of your individual company. Every company has the opportunity to grow, they just need to know where they want to grow, not how.