Your website is your virtual office

In many cases, operating a new business means you need a physical location that will put you in a position to succeed. Then a sales team is brought aboard to sell your products or services. Here's a question - does your business only take walk-ins? No, of course not. You have phone lines installed and purchase computers so that your sales team can proactively go after clients and bring them into your office. So, then why would you only take walk-ins via your virtual office space? Building a website and hoping to be found via search engines is comparable to only taking walk-ins; essentially hoping people find you. Your website is your virtual office and you made a significant and lasting investment into this tool. A reactive marketing approach leaves you with virtually no control. Luckily, regaining that control is within your grasp. Social media allows your website/blog to proactively market itself the same way your sales team does within your brick and mortar office space. Using social media gives you control in directing your network to your website, turning a one way street into a much more useful highway of information. Social media is the best tool to protect your investment in today's marketplace. Eric Wilson is the director of social media at New England Real Estate Journal, Norwell, Mass.