Andrew Tylosky and Kyle Thomas from Motion Media presented to the Dawson Creek Chamber of Commerce about the usefulness of social media Tuesday, Feb. 15.

“I’m going to scare you for a second here and say people and consumers are talking about you on social media, whether you like it or not,” warned Thomas at the beginning of his presentation. “You can’t control what they’re saying, but what you can do is get in there with them.”

Thomas claimed that it’s important for businesses to join social media websites and interact with their customers. This way, businesses can prove to customers that they are not big, faceless organizations.

The beauty of social media, he said, is its ability to spread among people. Thomas advised that businesses start with just a Facebook page and interact with friends and close customers. From there, other people will notice the page and want to join the conversation.

He gave an example of finding a cupcake shop in Dawson Creek. Without social media like Facebook and Twitter, he claimed he wouldn’t have heard of it.

“You can build an ecosystem on Facebook of your interests,” Thomas explained. “It can almost be another front door for your business, another way of drawing people in.”

Past Facebook, he said Twitter is the slightly more-intimidating step.

“Twitter is even more scary. It is only 140 characters, but it offers endless possibilities to engage with other consumers, businesses and just people in general.”

Thomas said people live in a word where everything is sharable. Through Twitter, he connects not only with potential customers, but other companies as well.

Recently, he had a problem with his Internet and messaged Shaw Cable through Twitter. Shaw responded in half an hour, which Thomas called a much more convenient way of communicating than waiting on hold for half an hour.

He brought up another benefit to using social media: recruitment. According to a statistic he saw, 80 per cent of businesses in North America use social media for recruitment.

“In social media we have the ability to target an audience,” said Thomas. “We have the ability to make an advertisement on Facebook that is targeted to certain demographics of people.”

He hailed Facebook ads’ ability to specifically target groups, something people can’t do with a radio or TV ad.

Tylosky noted that Facebook’s fastest-growing demographic is people ages 45 – 55, proving that social media is not just young people’s tool.

On Friday, Feb. 18, Tylosky and Thomas will be presenting a full-day workshop in Dawson Creek about social marketing. For more information, visit www.motionmedia.ca/workshops.