How in the world is social media important for your business, political campaign or personal life?

Well, if you are on twitter, Facebook, MySpace or YouTube you understand the significance of social media.  With millions of unique visitors to these sites daily, the ability to connect with a large network in such a short amount of time can bring about a viral movement for anyone’s brand, political following or close friends.

But, how effective can you really be at getting your message across to people on these social media sites?  I mean, can a business, politician or any of my friends really get the word out about my issue?  The answer to that is a resounding YES!

Take the Nielson Report released at the end of September 2009 as an example.  The study shows that active users of social media have nearly tripled the amount of time they’ve spent on social media sites since last year.  Facebook alone has over 300 million active users around the world and of those over 50% log in to their accounts every single day.

So, why use social media to build your business, brand, political following or network?  The reason is simple, social media is today’s marketplace for everything from buying shoes and cars to voter education and grassroots organizing to reconnecting with old high school pals and college frat brothers/sorority sisters.  Strike while the iron is hot!

If you don’t utilize these tools to market your product, your campaign or your network, you will be left in the dust by those who realized innovation was what ushered us into the 21st century and moves us forward today.