It seems that these days that most companies have been bitten by the social media bug. It isn’t about what form of social media they’re using but how many they’re using. Companies are marketing by creating videos for YouTube, flooding facebook, creating Linkedin accounts and spoke accounts and flickr accounts and Technorati accounts and StumbleUpon accounts and twitter accounts…and “you get the point” accounts. The social media bug has bitten many, but how will it actually affect them?

Yes, marketing through social media works and yes it has leveraged many companies, but these are usually companies that have done their research. You may “tweet” your every move or create a facebook fan page, but that doesn’t mean you’ll see measurable results. It really isn’t about how many forms of social media you’re using to market, but actually about what form/forms you’re using. You need to know about the social media program you’re using and why you’re using it.

Some things to consider:

• Who uses this social media program? Are they your target demographic?
• What are the goals you’re trying to achieve by engaging in this social media program? Can this specific application help you achieve this?
•  You want to measure where success is coming from. Is that possible using the social media application/s you chose?
• Who else is using this application and for what? Will your company and what you’re trying to achieve get lost in the clutter? Does this align with your marketing strategy and goals and/or your company’s values?
• Does the time and money put into the application measure up to the results it will bring? Do you have someone available to put in the necessary time to make using this application successful?

Will Twitter or facebook or Linkedin help grow your business? To "tweet" or not to "tweet"...you can, but should you? This IS the latest question.