Social media for business networking

Written on the 23rd of January 2010 by Joe Walsh

Twitter is ranked as one of the 50 most popular websites worldwide by Alexa’s web traffic analysis.

Social media is online content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies. In the last few years, an array of new opportunities have appeared on the Internet in the form of social networking sites. An online social network service focuses on bringing together communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others.

These sites give business owners greater opportunities to spread the word about their companies. Many business owners feel overwhelmed with new technology and struggle to keep up. The first steps to working out whether or not social networking is a suitable strategy for a particular business is to understand the associated advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:

• Connecting with a large number of potential clients
• Low cost of delivery
• Instant distribution of messages
• No need for an intermediary or contractor to do the marketing
• Advertising your business as an expert in a field.
• Staying at the top of the game by directly obtaining customer feedback.
• Projecting a modern, tech-savvy business image

Disadvantages:

• Time invloved in creating and managing online profile
• Large number of non-converting wasteful leads

Managing an online social presence can be a full-time job – in fact, many companies employ people just to be doing that. In addition, with the range of choices available with such sites, it is important to work
with the platform that is best suited to a particular business.

Twitter.

Twitter is the current favourite, allowing users to send very short messages (limited to 140 characters) known as ’tweets.’ Twitter is expanding wildly, but a recent study suggests that the majority who start Twittering stop within a month. Despite this, Twitter’s a good way to present your business to customers and prospects.

Facebook.

Facebook allows people to network in a relatively secure environment. Businesses can create fan pages or start or join groups related to specific interests. Because so many people are on Facebook, many businesses link their websites directly to their Facebook page.

LinkedIn.

LinkedIn differs to other social networking sites because it focuses on helping people connect for business rather than social purposes. Whilst it may not be as popular as some social networking sites, some businesses use it to search for other companies they wish to conduct deals with.

MySpace.

Once the number one social networking site, MySpace is suited to building support for certain types of businesses: it has a relatively large following amongst those in the entertainment industry.

YouTube.

Some businesses have discovered that YouTube is a great way to provide information to prospects and customers. Common ways in which YouTube is being used include promotional footage, customer testimonials, product information and video instruction manuals. One of the other benefits is that footage can also be embedded into your website.

Social networking looks like it is here to stay. Most businesses will need to know how to use it. There’s a virtual world of business opportunities waiting for you out there - connect by just clicking in.