Is social media a fad? Or is it the www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eUeL3n7fDs]biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution?
Here are some important things you need to know about social media, from a business perspective.

Social media is, for all intense purposes, media. It's branding, advertising and spreads the word by making connections directly with your target audience and customers. You're taking out the middleman and engaging directly to those who could be searching for your products and services.

Why social media?

The Internet is like a popularity contest. The more people that vote for you, the more likely it is you'll be class president, or club captain of the football team. When your content is good and consistent, people will want to link to it. The Internet recognizes good content when a lot of people have "voted for it". Since Google only wants to return the best results in the search engine results page to make searchers happy, they make sure they show those sites that are popular.

Internet Marketing is like dating. You don't ask someone to marry you on the first date, do you? People get kind of freaked out when you do that. You get to know each other first, then introduce the friends, then the family, and then, once you're comfortable with the whole package, you make a bigger commitment.

Don't ask your leads to get too serious, too soon. Why would they commit to someone they just met?

That's where social media comes in. Social media personalizes a company and helps convince your customers that you're a trustworthy source with expert industry advice. It's about giving something of real value, without demanding anything in return.

All of the top brands in the world are very active in social media, because they know if they weren't, they would likely not exist in the future. Here are some examples:

Google has made social media increasingly important in the last ~ two years. Relevance, content and recency are all counted as important factors when ranking a website in Google's search. Simply, the more often people share and link to your site and social posts, the better.

Here's where to start:

LSI Social Networks
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LandscapeSupplyInc#sthash.5IpvCm2b.dpuf
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/landscapeturf
- Google+: https://plus.google.com/107157285312814924847/posts
- YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/landscapesupplyinc
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/landscape-supply-inc-
- LSI Website Blog: http://www.wsconnelly.com/turf-and-ornamental/blog/
Newsletter
- LSI has gathered 14 highly qualified authors to contribute to the monthly newsletter
- On a monthly basis, 5-6 articles will be articles will be collected within "LSI Connections" and emailed to LSI subscribers

Instructions & Recommendations for LSI employees
- "Like", "Follow" and "Subscribe" to all of the above LSI social networks
- On Facebook, occasionally "like" and "share" www.facebook.com/LandscapeSupplyInc LSI posts with your Facebook audience
- On Twitter, "follow" https://twitter.com/LandscapeTurf]LSI and "tweet" LSI tweets to your audience
- On LinkedIn, "follow" http://www.linkedin.com/company/landscape-supply-inc-]LSI and occasionally "Like" and "Comment" on the posts
o Employees can also click "Write a recommendation" and "Share" the products on the company page. http://linkd.in/18xzfYT
- Within the www.wsconnelly.com/turf-and-ornamental/blog/ LSI blog, click on the http://www.wsconnelly.com/turf-and-ornamental/blog/we-are-all-organic---joel-simmons.php?published=09-30-2013&pubid=1054 individual blog posts and use the social icons to share the articles within your network.
o If you do not already have a Gmail or Google+ account, sign up. It's free and only takes a couple minutes. https://accounts.google.com/SignUp
o Click on the "g+1" at the top of the blog post. This indicates to Google that you recommend the article and helps with search engine optimization.
o Click on the "Like" and feel free to post your comments.
o Click on the "Tweet" button at the top of the blog article if you have a Twitter account.
o Click the "Share" link to share via email or various other sources\
- If you aren't already subscribing to the LSI newsletter, do so by clicking the "E-Newsletter" link on the http://www.wsconnelly.com/environmental-solutions/ home page.
- When you receive the LSI Connections Newsletter, feel free to forward to your friends and family.
- Remind your friends and family that they can sign up for the newsletter anywhere on the www.wsconnelly.com/turf-and-ornamental/ website, by clicking on the "E-Newsletter" link.

With quality content, natural and meaningful engagement, patience and consistency, your customers will find you and be your biggest advocates.

Welcome to the revolution.