Social Networking 101 Online Networks Can Help Grow Your Business

Social Networking is one of the latest and most-used buzz phrases, but it really is so much more. Sites such as Facebook and Twitter have become household names as even the older generations are logging on to find long lost friends. These sites, along with several others, can do more than just increase your friend quota; they can also increase your customer base, connect you with other professionals, help you seek out vendors, and give your business an overall boost.

Twitter is essentially a micro-blogging site that allows you to send a short message, or tweet, of up to 140 characters to people who are interested in you or your business and choose to subscribe to your tweets. Conversely, you receive tweets from those people or companies you choose to follow. Twitter is a powerful real-time communication tool that can help businesses stay connected with their customers, share information, and gather market intelligence. Because Twitter gives you a way to have casual, public conversations with your customers, it can provide a customer service platform, help you find customers, enhance your company image, and build community around your brand. If you’re a newbie, or want to learn more about using the Twitter service, check out Twitter 101 for Business.

Facebook is a networking tool commonly used to find old friends and make new ones, but it is increasingly becoming a highly effective marketing tool for business. Facebook Profiles are for individuals and Facebook Pages are for businesses. Creating a Facebook Page for your company gives you the opportunity to share information about your business with Facebook’s 350 million users, provides a forum for your business to connect and engage with current and potential customers, and creates community around your business. You can brand your pages, link to your website, and import your blog posts and Twitter feed. Creating a Page is free, but will require your time to build, promote, and maintain.

LinkedIn is a networking site focused on connecting business professionals with each other. Use it to find, get introduced to, and collaborate with other experienced professionals within your field providing a trusted community to turn to for guidance and information. It can be used to post job listings and recruit new talent, as well as find new business opportunities or potential partners. Think of your LinkedIn profile as your professional autobiography. LinkedIn is free to join, but also offers a paid premium version that gives you enhanced features.

Plaxo (www.plaxo.com) is a smaller, yet dominant, social networking site that offers an advanced address book, ideal for business use with a newsfeed. Unlike Facebook, however, Plaxo realizes that not everyone is a good friend in real life. Because some people are good friends, others are business contacts, and still others are family, Plaxo allows you to share information accordingly. Plaxo’s address book, its original application, ensures contact information for your entire network is up to date and provides you with the ability to sync your contacts with Microsoft Outlook, as well as mainstream email accounts such as Gmail or Yahoo, making it a valuable business service.

Although these sites are the most popular, they are not alone in the social networking world, in fact there are many, many more. For example, Ning takes a different approach by allowing users to create, customize, and control their own networks. PartnerUp is a business networking site focused on the needs of small businesses: entrepreneurs can find new business opportunities, business owners can find new vendors and experiences can be shared. There is even a “find real estate” section so your business can find the right commercial space for your brick-and-mortar location. Ziggs is another social networking site that allows you to create and manage your online brand and use your profile for networking. Ziggs is less about belonging to specific networks or groups and more about making your business discernible in online searches and keeping track of your visitors.

Online networks can help you manage more relationships with less effort for little to zero financial cost, but they all require an investment of time. If all of this cyber-speak is making your head spin, a Cybertary can help you take your business beyond Main Street and into mainstream online media.