Some Business owners want to know why they should invest business-allotted time to an activity that seems to still be very specific to personal use.

I believe that Dave Evans, in his book called Social Media Marketing An Hour A Day, does a great job in making the answer to this question understandable.

Mr. Evans uses the classic purchase funnel as a foundation to the new Social Media Feedback Cycle. This new Feedback Cycle is why business owners cannot ignore Social Media.

The classic purchase funnel is traditionally made up of three stages according to Mr. Evans;

1. Awareness
2. Consideration
3. Purchase

Mr. Evans and his colleagues, Dave Ellett and Jeff Petry, extended this traditional purchase funnel in 2004, according to Mr Evans book, to include the impact of post-purchase events. The post-purchase events completes what is called the Social Media Feedback Cycle. These activities are taken by the individual after a purchase;

1. Use
2. Form an Opinion
3. Talk

If a business is not participating in both parts of the Social Media Feedback cycle, business opportunities are being missed. So, let’s investigate further…

Word of mouth in the user-generated part of the Social Feedback Cycle feeds directly back into the Consideration Phase of the traditional Purchase Cycle. This is where the business must participate in the Social Media Feedback Cycle. If the business is not, then the business’ competition is – and that is a missed opportunity.

I do not believe there is anything revolutionary in the process described in the Social Media Feedback Cycle, although, I do appreciate the easily understood presentation from Mr. Evans. I believe that this cycle has been going on since the beginning of the spoken word. I also believe, however, that the speed and critical mass of this process is incredible today due to the Social Networks, mobile technologies, and our cultural changes that have accelerated its use.

OLinks Corporation sees the Social Media efforts to include participation in not just the popular networks such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. We see the business needing to also understand that the Online Economy must be addressed through Online Advertising and periodical Email communications.

To participate in this new online economy and its related online marketplace takes a marketing strategy of modern techniques based upon historic marketing fundamentals. To learn more about the methodology of OLinks Corporation visit our Services Section.