Is your business on social media?

Someone wanted to make Henry Ford, American industrialist and founder of the Ford Motor Company, look old.

Responding to the fellow, Ford said, “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty.”

A true old man is one who refuses to learn the dynamics of the ever-evolving and fast-paced world.

Experts believe that many start-ups and SMEs that are still tied to traditional or convention ways of doing things would be out of business in the next decade.

According to Hubspot, a company that develops and markets software products, 92 percent of marketers in 2014 claimed that social media marketing was important for their business. Eighty percent of these marketers said their efforts increased traffic to their websites.

According to Social Times, platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram generate tremendous online exposure for brands, allowing companies to showcase their products and services. “Social media helps you listen to what people are saying, including your customers, prospects, peers and competitors,” Social Times says.

One key advantage of social media is that apart from time, it costs nothing else to advertise your products on the platform. It also costs almost nothing to get feedbacks.

Jayson DeMers of the Forbes said the social media provides an opportunity for customers to convert. “When you build a following, you’ll simultaneously have access to new customers, recent customers, and old customers, and you’ll be able to interact with all of them. Every blog post, image, video, or comment you share is a chance for someone to react, and every reaction could lead to a site visit, and eventually a conversion,” DeMers said.

Analysts say small businesses need to use the social media now amid tough competition and economic slow-down, citing accessibility, direct conversation to a specific audience, and increased turnover as key advantages.