Many businesses now have a Twitter account, MySpace account, or another social media tool they use to attract?

[Marilyn]

What value do social media offer for professional use? How has your commercial behavior been affected by social media? As a class, brainstorm some ideas on how social media has affected commerce.

[ItachisXeyes]

well...again. they just get exposure to all the people who use the sites. just like any other marketing ploy.

[Andrew]

Publicity

[Nehal Kazim]

Social media has a noticeable impact on a business depending on the objective. There are many different uses for social media from creating awareness, customer service, etc. From the executive perspective, they are interested in one metric: ROI.

One of the most valuable takeaways from social media initiatives is the ability to build deeper, long lasting relationships with your audience. These kind of relationships can't be built from an ad in a newspaper or a TV commercial. There is an open dialog on social networking platforms like Twitter, where as a business, you can reply to your consumers, help solve problems and generate ideas for new products and services.

As you realize the value of social media and the impact you can have in your business, it's time to create a strategy. Here is an article on 5 Warning Signs of a Weak Social Media Strategy: http://nehalkazim.com/social-media%20/5w...strategy/.

It starts with an objective and then execution to fulfill that objective.