Yes, Social Media Is Important Here Too

Think social media is a fad? Preposterous. The social media numbers are staggering and they can be listed or looked up to blow anyone's mind; 75 million Twitter users, 640 million Facebook users, 4 billion Flickr photos, 24 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute... it goes on and on.

However, as apparent than it is, there still aren't small businesses using social media as applicably as possible. This should be a gold mine for advertising and reaching a customer base and absolutely should be a piece of every small business' arsenal. Facebook (and other media as well) create very simplistic and affordable advertising plans to extend products and services to the proper channel where potential consumers will undoubtedly notice your brand.

One such network, operating under the radar after just recently being founded in 2008 is Groupon. In just over 2 years, the company already has more than 1,500 employees working in its Chicago headquarters and services more than 500 markets and 44 countries. Essentially, Groupon links you in to all local businesses to alert you on what hot sales are promotions that are taking place. All you do is print the coupon and present it to the business to get the deal you want. Businesses pay to advertise their promotions or sales on the event and Groupon publishes this to a mass loyal following that continuously opts to receive updates on the current local businesses. In fact, Groupon has been blamed to hurting some local businesses by creating TOO MUCH demand! Here's some testimonials from the service:

What Businesses Say

• my Groupon is KILLING. Phone's ringing off the hook. Today and this weekend are getting totally booked up. Groupon rocks! Lunar Massage just skipped about 5 months of customer acquisition in one day thanks to Groupon.

  Joanna Robinson Lunar Massage

• On the date of our feature, Manny's Deli was the talk of the town! It was a pleasure working with Groupon, and we'll definitely work with thstrong again.

  Ken Raskin Manny's Deli

• I just wanted to thank you and the entire Groupon team...as a result, we had a near-sold-out opening night on Friday (a performance that was previously not even half-sold).

  Nichole Cooper Northwestern University