With social networking, search engine optimisation and online promotion often topping the “to do” lists for many businesses these days, it’s easy to forget the importance of your company’s overall communication strategy.

In the early days of the web, communication was still largely one-way. You conveyed your product or service offerings to your customers, and hoped they liked what you were saying.

Social media has radically changed this. Tools like Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Digg and Delicious have completely upended the way we interact with our customers. It’s now all about participation. Collaboration. Reaching your customers, asking what they think.

Does this mean you can ditch your company brochure in favour of your Facebook fan page? Certainly not. Social media isn’t the be-all and end-all. But creating content for your social media offerings should be a significant part of your carefully-planned communication mix.

And a successful communication mix is one that includes not only information about your product or service, but content for your customers that is useful enough to be shared. This can be as simple as a hotel communicating local area information to its guests prior to their arrival, or an online bike shop posting buyers’ guides for products like mountain bikes, helmets or bike locks.

This type of content, in the form of blogs, tweets, forum posts, articles and emails, will help you associate your brand with knowledge of your field. It will also pave the way for you to start relationships with new customers and help you retain existing ones.