While readers of Technology in the Arts are likely active participants in social media and early adopters of all technology, the following guest post provides additional fodder for those still convincing their organization's leaders that social media is a necessary step for the organization. Guest Correspondent:  Eric Taylor

Eric Taylor is a business developer and a writer for the Facebook ad campaign tool Qwaya, which focuses on building tools for social media marketing. Qwaya provides information, tools and up-to-date news about Facebook marketing strategies. The site aims to build a sophisticated tool with powerful features that are user-friendly and affordable for online advertisers and marketers world wide.

Social Media Campaign Opportunities

Have you considered creating a Facebook page yet? If not, you may already be behind the 8-ball in terms of brand awareness. The majority of new businesses today are focusing intently on social media marketing, and practically every popular brand across the globe has some sort of online presence.

There is a lot to gain from starting a social media campaign. Sure, a business or organization might be able to achieve success without developing an online social presence, but with the lay of the land today, there is really no reason to risk it.

Unless you reside under a rock or live in an area with total Internet blackout, you already know just how prevalent social media is in today’s culture. To not develop a campaign and an online presence would simply be foolish in your part.

Why Marketing in Social Media is a Must-Do

Constructing Channels of Communication

No matter at which point in history a business rose to prominence, communication has always played a role in the success. With social media, the options of communication are vast. Especially for those working with visual products, social media has opened an entire new way of communicating.

Take Brooklyn Museum for instance. Via their Facebook page, art enthusiasts around the globe can follow the production of exhibitions, watch videos and follow peoples’ discussion about the museum. This “content” is not just great for the fans, but also serves as a marketing channel.

Facebook as a marketing channel can be honed to an extremely narrow scope, communicating specifically with those more likely to purchase from your business, or you can use your social channels to carry out broad communication to boost your brand’s presence. Or both.

Using social media sites enables you to easily open up multiple channels of communication.

Keeping Your Base Satisfied

Not everyone who sees your updates will become a customer, but you can make people interested in what you do by consistently delivering high-quality material at a frequent rate. This ensures that your visitors are more likely to become fans, and that fans are more likely to become customers.

By using social media to communicate with customers and to operate an open, honest campaign, you’re also turning customers into long-term repeat customers. Your brand becomes interactive, and instead of acting as just a logo or a name behind a product or service, you put an authentic face to the business. This creates satisfaction across the board.

High Return on Investment

There are a few reasons why operating a successful social media campaign will offer you a higher return on your investment. First and foremost, you have to understand that you’re not investing nearly as much. Keeping up a social presence doesn’t cost a lot. You’re mostly investing your staff time with no advertising dollars spent.

Then there’s the fact that social media engagement rates are through the roof in 2012, especially on Facebook and specifically with quality content created with the target audience in mind. Fans and customers see more personality in the material and thus they’re more likely to click-through, sign-up, purchase, and most importantly, they’re more inclined to keep returning.

But engagement is even more important for businesses that are not (only) in it to make money. While, many traditional corporations still see most revenue from TV, billboards, magazines and other unsocial advertising formats.

For organizations with a mission, social marketing can be their biggest advertising format. Let’s look at Brooklyn Museum again.

Brooklyn Museum’s social fan base:

• Facebook: 71,000 fans
• Twitter:386,000 followers
• Instagram: 36,000 followers

So if the Museum would like to communicate something, they will instantly reach hundreds of thousands – people who have chosen to follow the museum online. In other words, they’re not random people but the perfect target group for social advertising.

These social-media efforts certainly help the campaign of getting people to donate money, which is presented in a Youtube video and is the first thing you see when entering the website. Getting this reach and these results through traditional marketing would be too expensive for a lot of businesses and organizations, especially when the fan base has very specific interests and is scattered all over the world.

If you haven’t started a social media campaign yet, whatever type of business you’re operating, there’s no better time than now to get started. You might not take off and become the most popular brand out there, but a light yet strategic social presence is better than no social presence.