How Social Networking can Improve Your Business

Published On 2010-10-05 09:00:00

Are you a business owner looking for a great way to reach both loyal and potential customers? Well, with social networking websites, you can achieve these goals for practically no monetary cost.

These great resources will give you the chance to connect with hundreds of millions of people. So, whether you’re a small local business or a transnational powerhouse of a company, you’ll find your business can reap a great number of benefits that come with the increased Web presence achieved through the use of social media services.

Let’s look at Facebook, to begin. The website, which has been around for over six years, has attracted over 500 million active users internationally. This means that roughly one in every fourteen of us are logging on frequently, reading our individual news feed and engaging with this massive online community.

You’ll find that when you visit the website, you have the chance to create a page for your business, and as soon as you add all of the necessary details, you’ll be connected to this massive population of prospective customers. To that end, you should take some time to gather your thoughts and think about how you want to describe your company to the public on your Facebook page. Once you have it sorted out, you may then start sharing the URL of your company’s Facebook profile to others, watching as more individuals become fans of your page.

Of course, it is not always as easy as generating a page and leaving it there to grow, hoping that your target audience will stumble across it. In order to really see how helpful an online social network could be for your business, investing a significant amount of time into your social media presence is necessary. This means going above and beyond the minimum requirements of information you need to give through frequent status updates about any new developments or promotions that will benefit customers.

Furthermore, if your business is one that sells particular products or services, you should upload photos of what you have on offer for consumers. For example, if you are the proprietor of a nearby patisserie, a great way to entice both locals and passers-by into your shop would be to post an album with some photos of all of the delectable goods you make yourself.

Maybe you’re running a landscaping business. If this is the case, it’s a good idea to start taking some ‘before and after’ photos of your client’s lawns, gardens and grounds (with their permission of course). Once this has been done, you can post the transformation on your business's Facebook page with a portfolio of the work you do. Photo albums are a great way to demonstrate just how excellent your services are and why local consumers should reach out to get in contact with you.

While the examples of a bakery and a landscaping service show how Facebook is helpful for local businesses that have the potential to develop and grow, let us look to some more international businesses to see how social networking can help them continue to stay on top.

If you are an international restaurant with franchises in select locations around the world, Facebook is a novel concept where local pages can notify customers of upcoming special promotions as well as new items that are being added to the menu.

Restaurateurs are not the only ones that have a lot to gain from the use of social media, though. Many specialised consultancy firms are well aware of the power of a web presence across social media platforms.

For instance, if you work for a large advertising firm, this is a great way to keep potential clients informed of your new projects and the successful campaigns you have helped to ignite. Once they see your portfolio this way, it could be a tipping point for them to reach out to you to hire your services.

This is also true for large media companies such as a television network. With social media tools, these broadcasters may create pages to update users about upcoming programmes they will be producing, post trailers for upcoming episodes, and also notify users as to when and where they can watch their favourite series online. The discussions which can take place about the shows users love the most will also bring ensure lively debate.

On top of having a Facebook page for your business, you also have the opportunity to take out advertising space on Facebook. These promotions are only shown to demographics that share your interests, allowing you to gain more profit in your business. This could be because of the higher levels of traffic social media generates.

While Facebook is an incredible resource worth taking advantage of, it’s certainly not the only one that you should use to get your message across. It’s a good idea to expand your presence to Twitter, which operates on a micro-blogging basis. Many people describe this as a continuous flow of status updates. Here, each update is brief and to the point, as they cannot exceed a length of 140 characters. While it is an extension upon the ideas of Facebook to bring individuals together, it remains a unique entity that your business will easily manage.

Just like Facebook, there are already a huge number of people actively 'tweeting'. In fact, nearly 115 million individuals throughout the globe are using this service and the numbers are continuing to grow as the word spreads about Twitter’s advantages.

The best thing about a social networking website such as this is that it is free of charge. So, even if you don’t have a huge budget available to you for massive marketing campaigns, you can still be proactive and get your message across to a wide audience.

In order to be successful in the world of business, one always has to be aware of trends. As such, don’t let any opportunities for growth pass you and your business by. Make the wise choice to start using social media to deliver your company’s message to the masses.