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.

Though 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.