Fortune 500 companies need to use social media tools.

Fortune 500 companies are not using Social Media tools for marketing and customer service but they are certainly employing tools to run their marketing if they're not.

Makes me laugh to see the top companies in the world thinking they are to good to use Social Media as a business tool, then let me say what a bunch of tools they have running Fortune 500 companies.

I only noticed Social Medias effects around 5 years ago when I was watching a TV program about the phone and electronic industry in South Korea. To my amazement around half way through the program I came to the conclusion that all I had been watching was thousands of people doing nothing but interacting with Mobile phones and other Palm type computers. No reading papers, no speaking to one another, no  personal interaction at all. They were all walking around like zombies, in fact I was quite surprised they didn't bump into one another they were so engrossed in what they were doing. After watching the program I knew that if it was happening in South Korea it wouldn't be long before it happen to the rest of the world.

Now 5 years ago I was way behind the people with the real knowledge of what impact Social Media was about to have on the world. The marketeers were about to make Social Media a major phenomena in generating millions in sales and marketing revenues. It was here to stay and was not about to go away thank to the Mobile Phone market and advances in technology. So thanks to the marketeers yet again, we now have amazing tried and tested tools for contacting and generating new customers for very little in the way of marketing costs (for now) for any business you care to name.

As a marketing tool it is second to none, once set up apart from a little time it's virtually free. No other medium can do the things Social Media does absolutely brilliantly, it's ability to break down the major barrier of generating trust with your potential new customer is awesome. Another area where Social Media excels is in generating third party recommendations, the holy grail of sales, something every company tries to master with expensive TV advertising and newspaper adverts. Advertising executives will nearly always tell you that the minimum requirement to generate trust and belief in a product with advertising is when the potential customer has seen the advert 7 times. This cost is a none starter for small business, however Social Media costs very little and has an extremely quick response rate. I have set up hundreds of Twitter accounts for clients in many different fields of business and virtually right away been generating DM's asking for prices or quotes. The best I ever attained for a client was within 2 hrs of setting up the account we had 4 DM's for quotes and we only had 6 followers. This happens quite regularly on many accounts that are set up showing its not one off, we know what we are doing and Social Media works.
A like on Facebook for instance, if you like someones page on Facebook that's tantamount to you confirming to your friends and family that you endorse the company, so its safe for them to use and trust that company to, a salesman's dream.

So come on the Fortune 500 companies, get rid of the tools running your marketing departments and hire some of the Internet entrepreneurs that are quietly making millions from Social Media and have millions of happy customers.

Although I would warn any company that uses Social Media to make sure they are honest, truthful and offer good service. If not the Social Media that makes your company can just as easily destroy it's reputation if you are anything but honest. It's one of very few mediums in the world that can make a negative about your company viral in a matter of minutes. So Fortune 500 companies beware that you are straight and honest. (Was that a joke I just made, lol.)

Regards David G