Social media has changed the world. Let me clarify that statement. Social media has changed YOUR world. Whatever you’re doing online, whether it’s tweeting, LinkedIning, Facebooking or YouTubing, social media has changed your way of communicating one-on-one, one-on-customer base, and one-to-the-world.

Facebook is the easiest phenomenon to understand. It has changed how you communicate with your friends and your family, and has opened the freedom door to anyone you come in contact with, either business or personal. You have found old friends, schoolmates and co-workers – and they have found you. In the same way, you can find customers and prospective customers – and they can find you.

Because of social media and the Internet, big companies no longer have a big advantage. Anyone can create a news blog that can immediately compete with The New York Times. The music industry has been leveled by groups performing their own videos and selling them on iTunes. Groups also are creating free videos on YouTube.

LinkedIn has created a new way to cold-call and a much more sophisticated way for businesses to connect. You can go on LinkedIn, search by job title and find prospective customers at no cost. It’s also the employment agency of the future.

Twitter allows you to gain a following of people interested in your thoughts, your information or the information of others that they perceive as valuable.

YouTube is the new movie theater, and you have about 1 billion choices. Millions of new movies are added every day.

People interviewing for jobs completely expose themselves through Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube the same way a company is exposed in the same social media.

Yet there are people who discount social media, avoid it and even bad-mouth it. These people are fools, and you know some of them.

REALITY: Social media, especially business social media, has created new sales, new marketing, new exposure, new branding, new communication, new networking and new business opportunities, the likes of which have never been seen or known before. And the revolution is just starting.

Most businesses, business people, business executives and salespeople are still social media inept.

Think about your social media place as you plan your marketing outreach for the next 10 years, and ask yourself these questions:

1. What’s my current position in my marketplace?

2. How do my customers perceive me?

3. Can my customers access my company to leave comments and tell stories 24/7?

4. Do I really know what my competition is thinking and saying?

5. How attractive am I to my customers?

6. What’s my value proposition that favors my customers, and how do I let them know it, day after day, without simply repeating it?

There is an unspoken strategy for businesses to employ, and that strategy focuses around the word “value.” The more you offer, the more attractive you will become.

At this writing, Facebook has a 16 percent market share – OF THE WORLD POPULATION.

I have been actively involved in social media for only three years. This year, I’m going all out to attract, engage and connect. I have hired a consulting firm to help me. I have three employees posting events and monitoring my accounts.

AUTHENTICITY: I do my own tweets, either dictate or post my updates on Facebook, and I am active on LinkedIn.

Nike said, “Just do it!” I’m saying, “Just do it, NOW!”

Jeffrey Gitomer can be reached by phone at (704) 333-1112 or by e-mail at salesman@gitomer.com. © 2011 Jeffrey H. Gitomer