Many LI companies using social media to reach out to audience

There was a time when using Facebook and Twitter at work would have jeopardized an employee's job, said Marc Herbst. But last month he hired someone full-time to do just that.

"We posted a job position with that being the leading task of the job -- the ability and knowledge to work with social media programs," said Herbst, executive director of the Long Island Contractors Association in Hauppauge.

Many Long Island companies have been wading into the social media sphere, figuring out how the networking sites can benefit them.

And with good reason.

According to Forrester Research, 32 percent of U.S. adults visit social networking sites at least monthly. RJMetrics reports that Twitter had 75 million user accounts by the end of 2009.

Earlier this month, Facebook announced it had 400 million users and counting, more than double the past year and topping the combined populations of Belgium, Sweden, the United States and Italy.

Businesses are viewing social media -- creating Facebook pages, blogs, Twitter accounts and the like -- as a means of widening its audience and enhancing other promotional methods.

Companies say social media can be an effective way of increasing the awareness of their products, brands or industry issues and, in some cases, supplant more traditional methods like the focus group with quick feedback from their social media audiences.

Although some Island businesses say they have yet to see a direct link to increased revenue, they view it as another marketing tool that will help build name recognition. And no one wants to be left behind.

A virtual third place
Jim McCann, head of 1-800-Flowers.com in

Carle Place

, said his company is using Facebook to build connections with millions of customers similar to the relationship the company once enjoyed as a single store, where people came in to chat about restaurants, the news and the weather.

"We don't think being an e-commerce company is enough," McCann said. "We think only social commerce companies will be successful going forward."

Through Facebook, the flower and gift retailer said it was able to develop a customer's idea into a product and has turned to them instead of focus groups for quick feedback, as it did when pricing its new chocolate-covered strawberries.

Last summer, the company opened a Facebook storefront so its fans can purchase items quickly without leaving the site.

The Facebook page also has contests and quizzes and recently offered dating advice from Patti Stanger, star of Bravo's reality series "Millionaire Matchmaker."

In on the ground floor
For businesses, the use of social media sites is still in its growth stages, said Joe Moshe, broker and owner of Charles Rutenberg Realty in Plainview.

"I am finding it [social media] is not directly beneficial in the sense that I am getting business or clients from it," Moshe said. "For me it's more name recognition and providing information so people know we are a source of information and so, consequently, they can develop trust and confidence in our name."

His firm has a dedicated person to manage Twitter and has created a blog with informational pieces on loan programs and industry news as well as YouTube clips.

He provides a texting service that links potential clients with agents and encourages agents to "build their own sphere of business" with their own individual Web sites.

Interchangeable parts
Rob Basso, president of

Freeport

-based Advantage Payroll Services, combines face-to-face meetings and traditional marketing on radio and in print publications with social media Web sites.

His company holds monthly lunches with experts on specific topics.

Basso recently launched a professionally produced video series - BassoOnBusiness.com - highlighting entrepreneurs, their challenges and Basso's solutions to improve their businesses. The monthly lunches and the videos are linked to Facebook, a WordPress blog and other social media sites.

"It's this whole concept of "interchangeable parts," Basso said. "The video wouldn't be the same without our Twitter, Facebook and the lunches. It would just be this static thing that existed online."

Time commitment
At their best, social networking sites are a place to collaborate and build trust, said Charlie MacLeod, president of advertising and marketing firm Sanna Mattson MacLeod in Smithtown.

To remain relevant, the content on these sites needs to be updated regularly, a schedule that depends upon the target audience's appetite, social media practitioners say.

For the contractors association, that means every day, communications manager Michelle Giametta said.

"People have short attention spans," said Giametta, who graduates in May from Hofstra University in Hempstead. "You want to make sure the content is fresh, new and you want to get different content every day. That's the only way you can keep people interested and keep them coming back to read the content you are posting."