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Entrepreneur Luiz Piovesana has written a guest article for Startupi which is presented below in its entirety. Luiz has a long history of work and study in the area of entrepreneurship. He edits the blog Saia do Lugar and recently launched Empreendemia, a b2b site for entrepreneurs.

How entrepreneurs can benefit from social media

Social media are tools for electronic interaction between people, which allow any person to produce and distribute content and interact with others as collaborators, distributors or audience.

What is the value of social media for entrepreneurs?

The value of social media for entrepreneurs is the power of exposing your ideas to your potential clients and partners at a very low cost, or even zero cost. It is the place for meeting opinion makers in your field, or becoming an opinion maker in your field.

The big question is: no one gains a voice in social media without producing quality content. In the worst case you create a lot of spam about your product or service. In fact the opposite of success can occur: even some large businesses have had failures trying to get into social media.

Social media is powerful and fair, giving (as John Lennon asked) “Power to the people.” That is, the audience will only pass along interesting information (or brands) if they can be engaged and interested in the product or service. In the end, giants and midgets are on equal footing in the battle.

Tips for entering social media

1- Make something different: There are many, many similar things on the web and in social media, so don’t talk about the same old thing. It’s not necessary to be radically innovative, but show that you are different and are adding a unique value to what you are doing.

2 - Make your idea worthy of distribution: Reach the opinion makers and guarantee their interest in your idea, and they will pass it on to their followers, and so on. For this to happen it’s important to have good connections, be active in discussions relating to your field, and have a point of presence, such as a blog, profile, website, etc.

3 - Be selective: Your brilliant ideas are nothing if no one knows you. Watch your stats, comments, etc. - there are many tools to verify that what you are producing is being consumed, and this feedback will help you continue to perfect and optimize your product or service.

4 - Be tireless: In order to get the reputation in social media of being industrious and reliable, you can’t slack off. If you don’t show consistent presence, all your earlier hard work will be lost.

Like any internet tool, social media is also a way to bring value to the “real” world. Always keep in mind that providing quality content and being in a constant process of refining and improving it positions you as an expert resource in your field.

Best of luck,
Luiz Piovesana (dedicated to the entrepreneurs who will become giants on the internet)

This article was written by Luiz Piovesana and is published exclusively in Startupi.