Social networking – more than friendship
Most people immediately think of social networking solely as online communities for building friendships, developing relationships or keeping track of things that interest them.
Fewer people however look at social networking as a means to promote their business.
The most prominent social networking site is without a doubt Facebook with staggering statistics to confirm its dominance in the social networking market:-
- More than 250 million active users
- More than 120 million users log on to Facebook at least once each day
- More than two-thirds of Facebook users are outside of college
- The fastest growing demographic is those 35 years old and older
- More than 30 million users accessing Facebook via their mobile
Using social networking to promote your business
You will no doubt be wondering how you can use social networking to promote your business and you are not alone. In addition to the large volume of users, most social networking sites provide an easy to use and safe environment, communities that are well indexed and cross-linked. In the Facebook scenario they are cross-linked based on the user, bringing together a community of people around that user.
From the perspective of developing your business using social networking the first step would be to create a Facebook profile based on your business. Doing so will start to build a community around your business.
First steps to use social networking to promote your business
- When first creating your Facebook profile, ensure that you make your profile viewable to all. This way Facebook users can join your network.
- Invite your business colleagues and customers to become your friends, creating a Facebook network around your business.
- As with all good website promotion the much heard expression “Content is King” is important. Build attractive and rich content that promotes your website.
- Look for other users or communities that share common interests. If for example your business sells car tools look for car related communities and join these as they may provide mutual contacts.
Further developing social networking to promote your business
As with all business development strategies, it is important to set aside time to analyse results and take stock of the costs and benefits. Try different approaches to Facebook, look at integrating your blog to Facebook. Importing your blog is fairly straight forward and will appear on your Facebook homepage and will update as you update your blog.
Some final advantages and strategies to use social networking to promote your business
- Develop Fan Pages to promote your business. In contrast to standard user or business profiles which are behind a login, most Fan Pages do not require a login and get indexed by search engines.
- As with all Facebook pages, pages can include links providing a link back to your website.
- If you go down the Fan Pages route make use of the “update to fans”. This sends updates or messages to members of your Fan Page.
- In the current climate a final but huge consideration is that Facebook is free.
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