Companies are fast harnessing the powers of social media from selling their latest products and services and attracting new customers to promoting its brand.One such business that has realised the benefits of the online tools has been the Phoenix Stores.Tina Adderley, marketing manager at the Phoenix Stores, which uses Constant Contact an e-mail marketing database and has been fully tuned into social media for the past year-and-a-half.“We’ve learned that consumers are following thousands of brands on Twitter and Facebook and are appreciating deals, but also noticed that it’s turning their walls into malls, which is getting overwhelming,” she said.“Therefore, what’s happening in Facebook is that consumers are being selective about the brands posting to their walls, and are using friends lists to pay close attention only to their ‘real’ friends, and commenting on or sharing only when something is really exciting; as a result, we’ve resorted to posting promotions that are share-worthy and interesting to our fans.“In Twitter, the company has changed the way consumers view their streams by determining what content is most relevant to them based on their Twitter usage patterns; as a result, our ‘Tweets’ have become extremely personalised to the customer.”Ms Adderley said that she was also a big fan of BlackBerry messenger and found that next to Facebook it was the communication-of-choice for local consumers, however it had its limits as well.“It is the fasted form of getting your message across to a broad customer base (in a short span of time) especially for ‘off-the-cuff’ sales promotions,” she said.“For our group of companies this means it’s not going to be enough to create content you have to create content that gets ‘organised’ into people’s streams. If your content is truly compelling and share-worthy, it’ll get noticed and ‘liked’, it will generate comments and retweets, and will provide you legitimate access into people’s streams.“Our strategy for the upcoming year is to expand from social media to social business using LinkedIn and the other widely used networking tools.”Michael Fay, public relations manager for eMedia Bermuda, said that his company viewed social media as a dynamic tool for both the business and its clients whether it was establishing a larger presence for them, driving sales, gauging public opinion or simply to inform and entertain those who came across the material.“We advise all our clients to engage in some form of social media, and offer social media services,” he said.“First off, it’s cheap. At the bare minimum, the only cost of a Facebook page or Twitter feed is the time and effort it takes to provide content.“While this may not seem like much initially, the effectiveness of such forms of social media or blogs depends a great deal on how frequently the material is updated, so a decent amount of time should be spent making sure your social media activities are current.“Then there is targeted advertising. Social media is an extremely targeted means of communication, in that it allows you to ‘target’ specific groups or members of the public with your marketing strategies, blogs and news feeds.“Gone are the days where a company’s communications to the public had to be universal in nature. Social media (and the internet in general) have broken down our society into smaller and smaller groups. Advertising using Facebook, for example, can allow you to choose who your audience is with great precision, to the extent of targeting only people who live in Bermuda, only ‘fans’ of your company, members of your industry or ‘people who like Johnny Depp’.“Essentially, because of the internet and social media, there is virtually no such thing as the ‘general public’ anymore; we are able to be much more precise when figuring out exactly who it is we’re trying to communicate with.”Another benefit said Mr Fay was the fact that social media was easily consumed and accessed, with business’ posts being able to be fed directly to the personal Facebook pages and mobile devices of those who subscribe to, or ‘follow’, your company’s social media activities, eliminating the need for your audience to actively ‘seek you out’.Social media is also highly measurable due to the large amount of social media outlets which made it easy to gauge the ‘reach’ of your content or number of hits you received.“Facebook offers functions that can tell you exactly how many views or ‘impressions’ have occurred on any particular post you make,” he said.“This kind of measurement is extremely useful when determining how effective your communications are.”Two-way communication is a further advantage, according to Mr Fay, who said that the most important idea behind social media was undoubtedly the social aspect the notion that anyone and everyone can participate.“It’s increasingly important for businesses today to embrace the idea of open, two-way communication with their customers and audiences,” he said.“Social media outlets offer an extremely potent means for companies to engage, interact and solicit a dialogue with their audience. Having an open forum, Facebook wall or message board where people can comment on your business or activities shows your customers that their opinions matter.“Many organisations are hesitant to establish this kind of public discourse for fear of criticisms being posted publicly. Yet by giving your audience a place where they can (if they wanted to) raise their concerns or point out issues, you’ve effectively a) created a space that allows you to be fully aware of what your viewership’s issues actually are, b) opened a means by which you can actually address concerns publicly, and c) because such issues have been brought to your attention publicly, you have essentially forced your organisation to act in response. Establishing this kind of two-way communication is a gesture your target audience will definitely appreciate.”