Even if you have a great product it can be a real challenge to get a new company off the ground. If people don’t know about your products they obviously can’t buy them.

Typically, new businesses will invest heavily in traditional advertising, cold calling, and email marketing. All of these are legitimate and should be pursued.

However, a robust social media component to your marketing efforts can make all the difference.

Social media is about generating buzz. The only thing worse than bad press is no press at all. If people are not talking about your brand they’re probably not buying it.

Here are 10 reasons your small business should be using social media:

1. More Traffic (a lot more) – The amount of traffic a successful viral marketing campaign can generate is simply staggering.

2. Reputation Management – Find out what people are saying about your brand and where.

3. Increases Search Rank – The more people share your content and talk about your brand it generates natural links back to your site. This increases your search engine rank which increases your traffic and the quality of it.

4. Branding – Creating a recognizable identity and a strong brand is key to success.

5. Buzz – Get people talking about your brand. This will increase the spread of your brand via word of mouth. People trust what their friends and family tell them.

6. Levels The Playing Field – Social media allows tiny companies and one man shops to get the same exposure as multi-billion dollar companies with massive advertising budgets. A single viral video has the potential to be seen by as many people as a million dollar Super Bowl ad.

7. Saves Money – Social media costs a fraction of what traditional advertising does.

8. Increases Trust – Companies with a strong presence on social networks are more accessible. Companies that are more accessible tend to be more trustworthy (or are perceived that way).

9. Makes You Better – When you engage with customers through social media you’ll know what they want, what’s wrong, what’s right, and how you can do better. Domino’s Pizza heard from customers via social networks about how terrible their pizza had become. They responded by throwing out all the old recipes and starting from scratch.

10. Increases Your Market – The web has made doing business all over the world as easy as doing business in your own neighborhood. A robust social media presence will expose your brand to potential customers all over the world.

We try and stay humble here at Digital Street and refrain from tooting our own horn very much. Having said that, every once in a while it becomes necessary to boast just a little bit.

Our email marketing, search engine marketing, and social media marketing abilities are well known, but did you know that we also do mind blowing video marketing as well?

From simple YouTube videos to full blown television commercials, Digital Street can make it happen. Our in-house video production team is second to none. Schedule a free consultation with us today and we’ll help take your brand to the next level!

Here’s a little taste of what we can do:

The NY Times has an interesting piece today related to social media. The top business schools in the world are quickly adding social media to their MBA programs.

Students entering university studies today have grown up with access to computers and the Internet and have years of experience in using online social networks to make connections and share information. Now that businesses are realizing the commercial potential of these social media networks, the universities need to teach their students how to turn their knowledge of these new media channels to profitable use, Mr. Salcito said.

“Just as we saw with digital — with things like creating Web sites or Web-based business — there is a need for immediate transformation in the educational environment,” to keep pace with these fast-emerging developments in the business world, he said.

This is a great thing. Students who leave school well versed in social media are going to have a huge advantage when they enter the business world as compared to those who don’t.

The brave new world of social media marketing has old school marketing firms struggling to adapt. Conventional wisdom has been turned on its head and the old rules and best practices for “what works” is now a constantly moving goal post. You can write out a detailed social media marketing plan for a company that sounds great on paper, but once it’s put into practice it may not be worth the paper it’s printed on. That kind of uncertainty scares the heck out of the old guard who likes a sure thing and whose clients demand nothing less.

Social Media is not something that lends itself to a one size fits all approach. What works great with one company may have no effect whatsoever with a different brand or company. Every brand or product has an audience that’s waiting to be engaged and the trick is to find out how and where they prefer the engagement to take place. Some brands work better on Facebook than on Twitter. Some find great success with both — or neither.

What business owners and marketing firms need to realize is that social media is dynamic and constantly changing. A good social media marketing campaign must be monitored continuously and tweaked when necessary. When you try something and it doesn’t work out you need to immediately pivot and try a different approach.

Be wary of any firm that guarantees outcomes using a particular method. Unless they have an uncanny ability to see into the future, they couldn’t possibly guarantee that. We can guarantee you results, but we cannot guarantee what will ultimately get those results.

Here are some video search engine optimization tips from Dr. Pete Kocks, President of Truveo and VP at AOL Video:

(hat tip ReelSEO)