Social Media: It Might Just Save You From Careening Down a Cliff

Yesterday was one of those gorgeous early fall days where you want to be close to the outdoors. I had focused on social media and blogging work enough for the day. Since my parents were visiting and the trees were beginning their change early, we drove into the mountains. We chose a shelf road a.k.a. the "Oh My God Road." The vistas are amazing, the 1,000 foot drops scary. The curviest parts of the road have no guard rail and only one single turn has a well-worn wooden guardrail that as my dad puts it, "Wouldn't hold a chickadee." This was not the time for my brakes to have serious problems.

{insert scary Jaws music}

So of course, the brakes decided this was exactly the time to begin making a screeching metal sound that pretty much ripped the lining from my ear drums.

Luckily the sound was just a warning shot rather than a cannonball.

My fragile brakes held out. Safely on relatively flatter ground we parked to ponder what to do next. My engineer father quickly jumped out, leaping underneath the car to feel the rotors to see if there was much damage. Being far less technical and far more prone to being social, I jumped on my phone sending out a quick tweet about needing a good auto mechanic. Within minutes I had 4 suggestions and within 10 minutes I had an appointment for this morning.

Though social media has become a major communication, marketing and business device in the past few years the stigma of being only good for sharing "what you had for breakfast" still remains.

Still Clinging to 2009?                                                                                                                                  Climb in your time machine and get into 2012. Here are a few facts to help you.

Social Media Saves Lives {Full Contact}

Social Media Facts for Business {Time Magazine}

Find an Lost but Pricey Ticket to the Olympics {Mashable}

You can rationalize your fears, lack of time, say that "face time" is the only way to build a business or any other excuse as a reason why social media doesn't matter but...

You'd be wrong.

Let me tell ya. Social media is a critical communication vehicle in your marketing plan and it's here to stay.  Engage. Capture. Measure. Convert.

Get on it now. If you don't, pretty soon you won't have any money to buy the breakfast you're not sharing on Twitter.