As Bahamian businesses struggle to market themselves and their products in the so-called Information Age and tens of thousands of Bahamians embrace social media, the new media frontier has assumed a greater economic significance, but is still not widely understood in the commercial sector.
As for the utility of this information, consider that as of December 2013, 73 percent of Bahamians - more than 235,000 people - were Internet users, according to Internet World Stats. And of that number, more than half are Facebook subscribers.
Madeline Berges, vice president of E-commerce and Digital Marketing for Interval International, talked about the importance of a strong social media marketing strategy in the context of the tourism industry. Still, her comments are equally applicable to any dynamic business environment.
"A strong social media marketing strategy is a critical component for success in today's competitive business environment because of the vast audiences these platforms capture," Berges said. "In fact, a 2013 Pew Research study indicates that 73 percent of adults who go online use social networking sites."
Some of the top social media sites include Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn. The sheer variety brings home the point: this is not a one-size-fits-all business. Berges points out that the different audiences for the sites suggest distinctive styles of engagement and diverse methods of communicating.
"A solid social media marketing strategy must assess each communication platform individually and determine how it can best be used as a tool to increase revenue, procure leads and promote brand awareness," Berges said.
"To reach the right audience, you must first select the platform where they are most likely to be. And then you must understand how to engage those audiences," she added. "By incorporating a social media strategy that takes these matters into account, businesses and brands can build their presence, generate brand awareness and touch more customers with content that will be read - and reposted again and again."
Facebook, for example, is the world's most popular social sharing site. There are more than 1.5 billion users, and it is most popular among women, young adults 18-29, urban dwellers, college educated with incomes of $50,000 or less. While the US has the most Facebook users, more than 86 percent of Facebook users live outside the US.
In The Bahamas, there were 235,797 Internet users as of December 31, 2013. Of that number, 167,920 were Facebook subscribers, according to Internet World Stats.

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