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A photograph of a circuit board.

Today the businesses have started to rely more on the use of technology than ever before. This has helped them to a great extent in bringing more efficiency and accuracy into their operations.

I love group projects. I always have. Ever since I was a little kid in school, I’ve loved working with others on projects. I feel that two heads are better than one, three are better than two, and, well you get the picture. That’s why I loved when our staff here at Tech Image decided to take on the Hubspot Inbound Marketing University. It was a great chance for us to learn as much as we could about inbound marketing, while at the same time working together to learn new concepts and develop new ideas for both ourselves and our clients. While the classes took us through a variety of topics, including internet marketing and email marketing, one of the earliest classes made an impact on me: discussing social media and building online communities.

Social media marketing has been taking some punches lately. First, IBM produced a report illustrating the complete lack of influence the medium had on shopping behavior for Black Friday. Couple that with a recent op-ed piece featured on Mashable where Todd Wasserman asserts that 'most social media marketing is a waste of time', and you've got a prominent one-two combo which has social media advocates reeling. After all, it's hard to argue with data. To illustrate the issue even further, let's not forget Forrester's research from September where they showed that social media influences less than 1% of online purchases. That's a mountain, but even after all this evidence, I still say you can't count social media marketing out. Yet. Here's why:

Developing user groups can increase customer satisfaction and lead to increased firm value through reduced costs and increased revenue.

As a 20-year veteran in technology PR, B2B marketing and client service, I have dispensed a lot of advice to clients about persuasive business communications over the years. But having recently received my “Certified Professional” distinction from the Hubspot’s Inbound Marketing University (IMU), I feel more qualified than ever to wax strategic.

Creating content for clients is becoming a growing trend among marketing agencies. But what about PR? I recently had the good fortune of attending a Publicity Club of Chicago luncheon which hosted a social media panel with professionals discussing their experiences with social media. One of the key messages was that brands are wrestling with becoming publishers. Brands will no longer rely on the media to craft stories to disseminate to the masses. Instead, brands will write their own stories and post through various channels to reach their audience.

Which social sites are being used by your audience? Tech Image's Ken Krause looks at data breaking down use by gender and age.