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The rise of social media is undoubtedly one of the biggest changes to happen to marketing since the birth of the internet.  According to a Universal McCann 2008 study, 272 million people are using social media.  Of those 272 million, 77% are reading blogs and approximately 34% of them are posting opinions about companies and brands on their profiles/blogs.  With those kinds of numbers, chances are they are talking about you, your competitors, and your industry.  Why not join the conversation?

Time constraints.  Steep learning curve.  Lack of “social” skills. These are just a few of the excuses I’ve heard for not implementing a social media strategy.  They are all legitimate and worth consideration.  After all, first impressions count.  I would never suggest jumping into social media when you know you won’t have the time or resources to make the strategy successful.  It will not only fail, but could tarnish your brand as well.  However, as with most things, there is a way to outsource your social media efforts.  With the right partner, this type of relationship can give your brand a presence in social media, help you overcome the learning curve, and even teach you a thing or two about being “social.”  One possible partner for your journey into social media is MomForce.com.

MomForce.com was founded in late 2008 as a partnership between Jessica Smith and Care.com. Jessica saw the partnership as an opportunity to blend her personal brand as Chief Mom Officer for Wishpot.com and popular blog JessicaKnows.com with Care.com’s professional brand of being a leader in the care provider referral industry.  The goal of MomForce is to help entrepreneurs and companies enter social media by matching them with social media savvy moms that often have previous career experience with marketing.  Jessica explains further, “While our tagline is ‘Reach Moms. With Moms.’ I think companies will find a lot of these moms have impressive experience that reaches beyond the mom market.”  The process behind MomForce is designed to be simple and painless for both the companies and the moms looking for virtual work opportunities.  Once moms submit their profiles, complete with resumes outlining previous marketing experience, companies are then able to search the database for candidates that fit their desired skill set.  The moms are then hired as independent contractors which save companies the expense of additional overhead and employee costs.   This creates the perfect win/win situation, flexible hours for moms and lower costs for companies.

MomForce is a good example of the many creative options available for time-strapped entrepreneurs to join in on the social media bandwagon.  While I feel that social media is done best in-house, I do think alternatives like this are better than nothing.  Social media marketing is here to stay and will only get bigger and better in the years to come.  Entrepreneurs have two choices, to either get on the bus or get run over.

Want more?  Follow me at www.twitter.com/glamajama and be sure to visit www.glamajama.com .