Tweet

Using Social Networking To Your Company's Advantage

Written by: Greg Gaskill

Article Overview: You probably will not attract paying customers overnight by signing up for a Facebook account, but ignoring the social networking venue would be a mistake. Social networking is not the place for a hard sell; think of the greater social networking marketplace as an enormous yet relaxed coffee shop atmosphere. We all have a story to tell, but "shouting" it repeatedly turns most off.

Using Social Networking To Your Company's Advantage

If you have paid even the smallest amount of attention to emerging trends in online business marketing, then you have surely heard about social networking websites like Facebook. These sites' primary function is to keep people connected to the family, friends and coworkers in their lives. The interface of a site like Facebook is quite clean and clutter free; it is also very fluid and intuitive, allowing people to share items of interests with their friends; post pictures; and comment on practically anything imaginable while doing so.

To remain competitive, then, it is important that you give your company a presence on a site like Facebook. Setting up a basic account there is free; however, just the act of opening an account on Facebook by no means guarantees any sort of immediate gains. Adding people to your friends' list can be onerous and quite time consuming, but when done correctly, you will have a large and varied selection of people to share your message with in an easy, unobtrusive way.

Being unobtrusive is, in fact, one of the biggest draws to a site like Facebook. Unlike many other sites that scream at you with loud ads and effects, Facebook relies on understated, clean cut appearances to make itself heard. The same goes for people who participate on the site; those who choose to buck the prevailing trend and spam their friends almost always end up getting blocked - the same as, essentially, hanging up the phone on an irritating telemarketer.

When marketing your business using a site like Facebook, the last thing you want to do is alienate your customers by getting in their faces and lambasting them with news about your products and services. Study how others communicate on the site to get a feel for how to subtly get your point across. The goal is to keep the friends that you have - and to keep them from blocking status updates and other news from you. Therefore, keep the information relevant, interesting and not annoying.

Selling your company image and expanding your customer base are great goals to have when setting up a Facebook account for your business. However, like any other type of advertising, make sure you are adding people who would truly be interested in what you have to offer. Familiarize yourself with how to search through people on Facebook to narrow down your results to the demographics that matter most to your company. Add easy to use buttons on your main company website so that visitors can add you on Facebook with a simple click of the mouse button.

In addition to interacting with existing and potentially new customers, Facebook is an excellent resource for keeping in the loop as far as your company's industry goes. Therefore, make sure to add peers from within your own industry to keep yourself as up to date as possible on any emerging trends or important news. This is also a great way of getting new ideas for conducting yourself on Facebook; see how other companies are going about it to find innovative new ways of using Facebook to its best possible effect.

By taking your time when joining a social networking site like Facebook, you can use it to maximize your company's marketing efforts. Learn how to become a part of the culture on these sorts of sites, so that your company fits in. At the same time, keep it interesting so that your message doesn't get drowned out. Strike a good balance, and you will see huge payoffs.

Related Articles
  How To Use Social Media For Your Business
  Using Social Networking Websites to Promote Your Business
  How to Find the Right Social Networking Marketing Video Course to Meet Your Marketing Needs
  Home Business Expert: Importance Of Social Networking
  Home Business Expert: Importance Of Video Social Networking

Article Tags: business marketing, coworkers, div, draws, endif, facebook, family friends, fareast, footer, gte, mso, orphan, paper source, prevailing trend, social networking, style definitions, time consuming, times new roman, xml, zoom



Related Forum Posts
Re: How can a social networking site make serious money? - Hi There, It is quite interesting, that some Social Networking do produce an income. I think testimonials are always a benefit to share. See one below: This Social Network has changed my life! Every night is a Friday night and everyday is a Saturday!! Because of it, I have been able to leave the workforce 10 years early.It has given me back my life. Many of us would like to retire early. I am sure there are many more. The point is of focusing with great determination. The ongoing challenge is to stay focussed and not be sidetracked into a newer scheme or so. Also I have read, during this financial turmoil, more people turn to Social Networking for various reasons.
Re: Tactics for Blog Traffic - some more tips to drive traffic to blog or to promote a blog. Squidoo Lens Creation Hub Pages Creation Social Bookmarking (Digg, Delicious, Stumble, Reddit etc.) Be helpful in forums Social Networking (Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, LinkedIn etc.) syndication blog commenting (other blogs) Guest post
Re: UPDATES: New Campaign! New Layout! New Ideas! - GT - thanks for the FYI - I'm not sure if we'll put a link back. Something to consider though! Trent - the new category is "Social Network and Media" which was put in to compliment the Online Businesses category that currently exists. Overall the new categories are: - Looking For, Networking and Events - Review My... - Social Network and Media - Brags and Rants These came as a result of Ringo doing research on other forums and thinking about what could be improved on ours to give a better experience for everyone. I hope you enjoy them! David, I'm looking forward to reading your Brag / Rant!
Re: Simple Idea - Great Advice. - What your success stories on Social Networking for more contacts and connections? Do you have any good business books to suggest? I love the idea of connecting and sharing with other entrepreneurs. Thank you for your input!
Re: Social Networking Site Endorsements - You must be cautious in endorsing any one on Social Networking site. You must ony endorse people you are very familiar with. Endorsement people you don't know is not a good thing.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Resistance to Change and How to Deal With It

Fighting the Saw-Tooth Affect

Selling On Ebay The Good The Bad And The Ugly

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.