As a public relations company that specializes in social media, we are often asked about the various services we provide from Twitter to corporate blogging to Facebook, “What is it?  And do we need it?”

The purpose of this post is to explain the value and growing importance of social media for your business, as well as suggesting the necessity of it in the near future.  About five years ago, before blogging became really hot, social media was virtually unknown to the mainstream.  Fast forward to today when you hear about Twitter on the news, and how just last Friday Twitter played a major role in Iranians protesting the presidential election.

Social media can no longer be characterized as a collection of social networks used by a subculture of “computer” or “tech” people.  Naturally, the younger generations embraced social media first through the explosion of Facebook.  New services were developed such as Flickr that became indispensable to anyone wanting to organize and share photos over the web.  And now an older generation of users is quickly become proficient in the new social technology of Twitter.

Twitter’s edge over other social media–at this point–seems to be its cross-functionality with smart phones.  You don’t need a laptop computer to use Twitter, which dramatically increases its user volume.  People can send tweets over their phone and read their updates as well.

To answer the question, “What is it?  And do we need it?” I’ll say the following.  If you have plans to continue providing services or products over the Internet, then at the absolute least you should have a blog.  By having a blog connected to your main site, you allow visitors to get to know you and respond to you.  The comment feature on blogs creates a “dynamic” page, which generates more traffic than a “static” page.

Furthermore, a blog can be used in a number of ways.  You can publish press releases on your blog, announce a new product line, or ask customers their opinions.  When it comes to search results, your blog will appear in Google or Yahoo! if you have it properly configured for specific keywords.  That’s what we do here at PR-echnology.  We make sure your business gets discovered.

If you’re feeling ambitious, then I would definitely suggest a Twitter account for your business.  No, this is not necessary, but it will generate traffic.  It may even generate more traffic then your blog.  TechCrunch, a popular Silicon Valley tech news site, recently reported that next to Google, Twitter is now their second largest source of outside traffic.

PR-echnology has found the very same thing to be true with Twitter accounts that we set up for our clients.  Twitter generates the second largest amount of outside traffic to these websites; the first being Google.

What is Twitter? If you want to know about what Twitter is and how you can use it to your advantage, check out this post, “Twitter is for Sharing, not Selling”.