Just another thought on the reluctance of some business people to get into social media: Clearly, much of this is to do with with their fear of technology. Because it involves an online connection, logging into accounts, passwords, buttons and screens they think of the whole process as primarily a technological one.

But in reality it's anything but this. Social media is just a tool to connect with others who share your interests so that you can communicate with them. It's not unlike a phone, actually. (That's why it's so apt that so many people use their iPhones to participate in it.)

Ultimately it's a human process, mediated by technology. Remember that and you'll get into it much quicker, I believe.

And speeding up the process is helpful because social media is not like other forms of online promotion (like say, pay per click search marketing). You do have to persist for a while before you start to see any benefit. It's going to take months at least (maybe even a year or more) before you get some sales either directly or indirectly from it. And because it takes so long, many people do give up after a while.

That's why it's important to keep at it at least until you've connected with some people, had some good conversations, and received some reactions to what you're sharing. Do this and you'll really start to "get" it.

Apart from anything else, knowing that you're starting to make an impact on the site will give you an ego boost. You'll keep going to receive more of that attention. Many people are hooked even at this point.

That said, if ego were your only motivation for participation, that wouldn't be too healthy! Still, it shouldn't be discounted. And if that's what drives you to keep at it -- particularly in the early stages -- then so be it.

Others might not catch the social media bug so easily. They can see potential in it. But they need more convincing and hold back from getting right into it. All I can say to these people is that you should keep going regardless because it's definitely a cumulative process. 

I know this from personal experience. The longer you persist, the better. You end up on lists; more and more people see your handle in retweets and mentions; you have all those updates out there to be found. After a while you'll have a big, and inexorably expanding network of quality contacts.

Of course how you use these connections is up to you. But it's so important to keep building them and expanding your social media footprint. Persistence is paramount. That's why it's ideal if you don't need any urging, and the whole thing is a buzz as opposed to a chore.

As I mentioned before business people are often reluctant to get into social media because they believe it takes too much time. And it is true that if you joined several networks at once, and resolved to build large followings quickly on all of them simultaneously then it would be a time drain.

But it certainly doesn't have to be like this. When starting out the best approach is to take small steps. Join just one site -- preferably Twitter. Just keep chipping away at it. Tweet, engage, reply, retweet and follow a few people a day and before you know it you'll have several hundred quality followers. If you log in daily for ten minutes or so you really can absorb this into your daily ritual without noticing.

After several weeks of this you'll really start to understand why it can be so beneficial. You will have connected with many good people in your niche, and had some interesting, albeit brief, conversations with them. You will certainly have drawn a few new visitors to your site, too. 

I know that social media is not for everyone, but odds are that you will have caught the social media bug by now. You can then start to build followings on the other big sites. You won't be a beginner anymore so the process will be much quicker. 

Repeated use of such sites also really speeds up your ability to process information. It's quite amazing how much you can get through in a few minutes. Before you know it you'll be engaging thoroughly on several networks in the time it took you to do this on just one of them before. 

While regular participation on several big social networks isn't crucial, it is highly beneficial -- not least because you can engage in cross promotion and therefore build followings on each network a bit quicker.

If you need to streamline the process even more, there are some excellent social media management tools available such as Hoot Suite that enable you to update several accounts from the one dashboard, among other things. 

Businesses are now finally getting into social media in a very big way. Still, there are quite a few who are resisting it. They have various reasons for reacting this way. But one of the most oft-cited is that they don't have the time for it. Also, they don't believe that it will be time well-spent. 

Well, I think they're wrong on both counts. And to explain why I suggest this analogy:

Say you own a clothing store specializing in fashion labels. And between the hours of five and seven every evening a hundred people gather outside your business location. They are all interested in what you have to sell, and love chatting socially about your business niche. Regulars include fashion designers, writers, models, and just lovers of stylish clothes who buy a lot of them. Their ages vary, but most are young. And this regular event always has a good atmosphere. No one is hard selling. They're just chatting.

Would you make time for it? Of course you would, and regularly.

You'd know that all you'd have to do would be to walk out your door and mingle. It would not only be enjoyable. It would be great for your business. There would be influential people there who could give you free publicity. There would be many prospective buyers. The time would fly.

And how would you approach this interaction? Well, you could be pushy and try to drag people back to your store. But obviously that would be the wrong approach. It would annoy many people and ultimately be counterproductive. Rather than welcoming you, the group would become wary of your presence. 

Clearly, a much more subtle approach would be better. You could wear a hat or shirt with your logo on it. And every now and then, where appropriate during conversations, you could mention that you do sell clothes and point to your store nearby. 

Without a doubt, this more organic approach would pay dividends. Some of the people you spoke to would show up to buy from you. And others would come at the recommendation of others you had spoken to. The benefits would be mostly indirect, yet still powerful and ongoing. 

Well, that's pretty much what's happening on social media. Except it's not just between five and seven every night. It's occurring all the time. And there aren't just hundreds of local people in your niche. There are many thousands of them. And you can connect with them pretty much instantly. You just have to log in.

I've been thinking about how best to explain social media to beginners who are bewildered by the whole concept. The best analogy I can come up with is that it is a massive, worldwide, round-the-clock conversation involving countless individuals, businesses and organizations.

Once you've built your site (preferably with a blog included) the best places to get involved are Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, Linkedin, YouTube and Pinterest. Simply start contributing quality content and connecting sincerely and repeatedly with other users who share your interests. You will gradually attract direct website visits from those who see your URL listed in your accounts. 

Remember also that the blogosphere can be seen as a vast social network in its own right. That's why you should participate in it with your own regularly updated, category-specific blog, as well as writing guest blog posts and lots of thoughtful comments on quality blogs in your niche.

As well as this direct benefit, there's a powerful indirect one: Google and the other search engines are eavesdropping on that conversation. They don't hear everything -- Twitter, Facebook and similar sites are often described as "walled gardens" after all. But the Big G catches a hell of a lot of it. That's why you want to "show off" your knowledge whenever possible on these networks (without big-noting yourself or overtly promoting your products and services, of course).  

With much of what you've said, shown, written and shared in its memory, Google then has a very good idea of what you know and how much. And because you're always leaving your URL in these interchanges, the search giant associates your authority with it. The more good stuff you have out there, and the more it's shared by others in the form of retweets, likes etc, the higher you go up in Google's estimation. (This isn't the main factor it uses, of course. However the cumulative effect can be substantial.)

So there are two parallel processes occurring. And there's another one: Social media sites are teeming with bloggers and webmasters. So if you can impress them with your expertise and knowledge in your field they are much more likely to link to your URL from their blogs and websites. These one way voluntary links from trusted, relevant sources are very powerful in SEO terms. Get just a few of them and you're sure to start crawling up the rankings. 

If you do this you don't really have to worry too much about search engine optimization. It will develop organically. You are absolutely certain to draw substantial, quality traffic over the long term. (Sure, you might not end up ranking highly for the exact keyword phrases you want. And you might not get there as quickly as you'd like. But then you can't have everything, can you?)  

Just as I have been amazed at how many cafes, restaurants and bars are on Twitter, I'm stunned at how many gourmands and cafe afficionados are on there as well. Then there are all the food bloggers in this city!

Maybe every city is like this and I just never noticed. But I don't think so. There just seem to be squillions of them. I get the impression that Perth really punches above its weight in this regard.

Not sure why it would be this way ... Perhaps it's got something to do with the outgoing, optimistic and highly social culture of the place combined with the booming economy. Unlike other major Australian cities there are many people earning very good money here who can afford to dine out regularly in pricey local restaurants and cafes. Clearly, anyone servicing this market who is not on using social media is missing out big time.

And just as today's online technology is facilitating the growth of traditional hospitality businesses, it's giving rise to new ones such as aggregate review sites. This well established model includes Bean Hunter and Urban Spoon. But online entrepreneurs can be much more individualistic and localized than that.

For example, you could build a site totally focused on Perth cafes. You could include photos and videos of your favourite ones and publish interviews with local baristas, etc. You could have a blog that included comprehensive cafe reviews along with related news updates and even gossip. Such specific content would be ideal for sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest. With a decent following you could monetize it with related affiliate programs as well as paid advertisements.

If you kept at it there's no reason you couldn't become the go-to guy for advice on Perth cafes. You could then leverage this new found authority to score gigs writing for mainstream media. 

Another approach would be to build a site selling coffee beans and related products such as espresso machines to local cafes. Knowing how many of them are already tweeting and pinning up a storm you could use social networking sites to attract potential customers in a very short space of time. 

And how about a temp agency for cafes? Every day in this city there must be numerous cafe owners pulling their hair out because of staff no-shows and cancellations due to hangovers, etc. Social media would be a fast and effective way to get on the radar of such business people -- not to mention organize prompt staff replacements for them. 

Just a quick post for anyone who wants cheap photocopying: There's a place in East Vic park called Teksoft Print that has some good deals. For example if you have an A4 on plain white paper you get them done for 8 cents a page. If you do over 500 copies, though, you get them for 5 cents a page. This is the cheapest offer I know of locally.

They have pretty quick turnaround, too. Most days I've gone in there I've left the job with them and they've had it done within half an hour. 

Officeworks have competitive prices also. They start of at 8 cents an A4 copy. But you have to get several thousand done before they come down to 5 cents. 

The advantage with Officeworks is just how many stores there are around the city, plus the fact that you can do the copies yourself. However many stores have had issues with the self serve set-up in recent months. It's something to do with the sleek new copying systems they have had installed. Many times I've gone in there and the machine you use to add value to your card has been out of action.

But they seem to be solving that problem now -- though some locations still have issues. The ones I've found most reliable are Fremantle, Subiaco and East Perth.