It took radio 38 years to reach an audience of 50 million; it took TV 13 years to achieve the same goal. The internet reached an audience of 50 million within four years. This sounds impressive until you see that Facebook managed 50 million users in only two years.

According to the research company Nielsen, social networking has now overtaken email in popularity as an activity online. In the UK, one in every six minutes spent online is spent on a social networking site and two-thirds of those who go online visit a social networking site at least once per session.

This is the reality that companies are working in today. The best way for a business reaching their consumers could be using something that did not exist two years ago. How many people had heard of Twitter this time last year?

People are now using the digital world to connect and to obtain what they need on information, ideas, and products from each other instead of from companies.

Consumer decisions are now being driven by personal recommendations shared through the social networking medium.

Businesses still need to engage with their customers in the right environment. There would be little point in a hardware company creating a Bebo profile to interact with their consumers.

However creating an online help forum where people can share experiences and advice with each other can make sense.

Jeff Stenski is a design engineer for an electrical company in the US. But he also works for Dell — free of charge. Last year he clocked up 123 working days for Dell by posting IT solutions on Dell’s Community Support forum.

In his own words, he did this because “I actually enjoy helping people. That’s what got me hooked: when you help people and they say ‘thank you’.”

However, from Dell’s perspective, each person he helped was someone who didn’t have to call Dell’s support lines. His activity over the last few years has saved Dell over $1m to date.

Stormhoek Winery in South Africa was a small local vineyard with little international business. In June 2005 they sent 185 bottles of Stormhoek wine to bloggers in the UK and Ireland with the encouragement to “Try our wine” and blog about what they liked and didn’t like. By 2007 Stormhoek had grown its export business to £10m based on the response to the blogosphere.

By engaging in social media a business won’t get results immediately and it certainly won’t become part of the community over night. Companies need to ensure they have the time and the correct strategy in place if they are going to be successful.

If they use social media to build their brand and if they do it right, then they will be incredibly happy with the results.

By successfully engaging with people in the medium, a business can turn their consumers into brand advocates that will actively promote their product for them.

Brian McNamara is head of Digital of MediaCom Ireland http://www.mediacomdublin.com . You can contact him on brian.mcnamara@mediacom.com