At first it was websites that could level the marketing playing field for small companies. With a relatively small investment and a good marketer, your small or solo business can build a website that offers an in-depth presentation of the features and benefits of your service or product. A website can also provide a platform to show customers how you out-shine the competition and why they should do business with you instead.

Unfortunately, many small businesses still have not effectively taken advantage of a strong marketing-focused web presence.

Today, the marketing new kid on the block is Social Media. Most large corporations know the power and necessity of engaging with prospects and customers using these venues. But alas, once again many small businesses are slow to embrace the power of Inbound Marketing. Many small businesses insist that even FREE Social Media is not in their budget.

While Social Media is free, there is a cost. That cost is mostly time, but initially investing in a skilled consultant is also a good idea in order to assure that you understand the protocol and allot your time resources wisely. There certainly is an art and science to effective Social Media participation.

If you are serious about playing with the big boys and girls, you’ll make it your business to use Social Media as fully as you can. You don’t have the time? Make the time.

At this date you likely can even get ahead of your competition if you jump in now and make a consistent concerted effort. And because Inbound Marketing builds on itself like compounded interest, a year down the road you could be miles ahead of your competition, making it extremely difficult for them to catch up.

You don’t want to be kicking yourself 2 years from now saying “Gee, we should have gotten in then.” It’s never too late, of course….but the truth is that for many small businesses, it’s still early in the game.

Be on the cutting edge and step into Social Media Marketing now.

You won’t see instant results – it takes time to build your online presence. And there are ways to speed up the process if you are truly committed to the campaign.

But one thing is for sure. Two or three years from now you’ll be patting yourself on the back for being so smart.