Photo by luis.martinez

A majority of businesses today still market themselves by placing ads in the paper, in magazines, or television commercials and other TV spots. If you can get yourself on Oprah, then by all means go for it, but we all know that these days newspaper readership is down tremendously, and even though a publication might have a huge circulation, a half- or quarter-page ad in print can easily get lost without readers ever noticing it.

You need to direct your marketing dollars into things that get directly to your target market. For some markets, that might mean you actually don’t want to get too involved online, so I’m not going to try to sell you something you don’t need. You need to really narrow down your niche and compare it to the demographics of the media channel you’re considering advertising in. But the web has become home to millions and millions of consumers, of nearly every demographic, and when used properly, social media can be a fantastic way to connect with consumers who feel suffocated by advertising in this bad economy.

If you think social media might be right for you, and you haven’t put the time and energy into learning to properly build relationships there yet, here are four good reasons why you should:

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