Introduction
The Power of Social Networking
Social networking has taken over our homes and businesses. It has become how mainstream media taps into the society’s pulse. It is how friends and families stay in touch around the world. It is how new friends are made and new business ventures are launched.
It’s such a phenomenon that the creators and developers of the most popular social networking sites have become mainstream celebrities. Movies are even made about them and their rise to stardom and success.
As a business owner, blogger or website manager you can tap into the power of social networking to drive business, traffic and profits.
What is Social Networking?
Social networking is the practice of using a social network service like Facebook, Twitter or even YouTube. A social network service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on building relationships. The relationships can be defined by the social network service or they can be defined by the user.
For example, with a social networking service like Classmates.com the relationships are specifically classmates or past classmates from high school or college. For a social networking service like Facebook, the users create their own groups by liking others and by joining groups.
As a business owner, you can use this community building effect to build a community around your business. You can tap into the likes, interests, and hobbies of your audience and prospects. You can connect with your audience and thus build your business.
Why Participate? What Are The Benefits?
There are many ways you can benefit from participating on one or more social networking sites. As a business owner or a blogger you can:
· Increase Awareness
· Maximize Exposure
· Boost Credibility
· Build Community
· Multiply Profits
· Learn more about your audience
· Create partnerships
Sounds good, right? Especially when social networking doesn’t have to take much of your marketing budget. In fact, many business owners are able to achieve great results with social networking and spend very little.
What Are The Drawbacks?
Social networking however is not a perfect marketing or business building tactic. In fact, there are some significant drawbacks to it. They include but are not limited to:
It Can Be Incredibly Time Consuming.
It can take quite a lot of time each day to participate on social networking sites. The key to success is often the amount of interaction you have with other members. Small business owners generally don’t have all day to participate on social networking sites. To post and comment on other people’s posts can suck hours out of a business day.
It Can Be Slow To Generate Results. [click to continue…]
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