Posted by To run a successful business, whether it’s traditional or online, it helps to keep up with current technology. More importantly, learning to use the latest technologies to your advantage. One great tool that savvy business owners are using to promote themselves is social networking.
There is no doubt that in order to run a successful business in today’s market, it helps to keep up to date with current technology, especially on the web. Learning about Social Networks and in particular how social network advertising can be used in your business is definitely something you want to be aware of.
So what are social networks? Basically, they are websites that allow people to join, find their friends, and share information with each other. Most people use these sites to find friends they haven’t seen since high school or stay updated on what their friends are doing in real time. I am sure you have heard of popular social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. These are just the tip of the iceberg – there are many others out there that are much smaller, but perhaps even more useful.
LinkedIn is a site that is smaller, but gaining popularity. The beauty of it is that it’s geared specifically for business networking, rather than simply networking with family, friends, and people you haven’t seen in years. This is a great place to start off your social network advertising campaign. It’s easy to open an account – you don’t have to be a techie – and post information about yourself and your company. You’ll be amazed at how quickly you start making useful contacts!
Everyone’s doing it – well, maybe not everyone but the numbers are massive and increasing daily. Because they are so easy to use, people from all walks of life are using these sites. And they’re talking about them to. It’s hard to turn on the radio or TV without someone directing you to their Facebook page or Twitter account. The beauty of social network advertising is that you really have to go through all the work of gathering emails and contact info to develop your own network, you can market through ones that are already there.
So, social networks are obviously a great way to connect with business partners and customers you already have, but how can you use them to expand your business? Easy – once you develop a network of people with similar business interests, you can post things to everyone on your network. Not only will they pass it on if they are interested, but their contacts will see it on their page and will look at it too. Pretty soon, your content and marketing materials are spreading through the Internet like wildfire. – Viral marketing at its most powerful!
An important thing to consider when venturing into social network advertising is not to spread yourself too thin. The problem with having accounts on social networking sites is that they can be extremely time consuming. It can be tempting to use every single networking site in order to reach every single potential customer. This is a big mistake as you will be using up all your time and resources to maybe only reach a few people. I would recommend you focus on a couple of social networking sites, for example Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter and see what sorts of traffic you can generate through them. This will allow you to prepare a much more targeted campaign that will undoubtedly give you better results. If these social networking sites don’t work for you then try one of the many other ones until you find the ones that are best suited to your business. Yes, it’s a lot of work at the beginning but the payoff in the long run will make it worth it!
The following are a few resources which can help you on your way:
Click here for a free report on how to use Twitter
Click here for a more in depth resource on how to drive traffic to your site using social networks and other media.