Using social networking websites as a tool for your business can help increase awareness of your brand and connect to your clients for a minimal cost. There are downsides to social networking as well, including the amount of time necessary to keep your network informed and the potential misuse of your brand on social networks.
The Market
According to an August 2010 report by The Nielsen Company, 22.7 percent of all Internet time in July of the same year was spent on social networking websites. This means that social networking has becomes a destination of Internet users that can open up a new or existing business to a larger audience than they might expect from hits to a company website. Social networking websites are where Internet traffic is being directed so using the medium for your business taps your potential market.
Community Building
One of the advantages of devoting resources to social networking for your business is the creation of a community. For example, if every customer you consider to be a potential client becomes a fan of your Facebook page or follows you on Twitter, you have a built-in community with which you can share new products or company news and accomplishments that can then be shared by your community with their friends, causing your own business to grow.
Cost
Social networking websites often are free to join. This means your company is given a platform to advertise and share information with consumers at little to no financial cost. Rather than using pay-per-click advertising, you can develop a page for your company on Facebook, Bebo or MySpace that is added to the site's directory. Add the URL to your own company website and business cards to direct your current and prospective clients to your social networking presence.
Large Effort
A disadvantage to social networking in business is the time and resource investment required to stay current. Every site you use for social networking needs to be updated consistently to keep your community interested. If your company only used social networking to announce new products, then the time in between the product launches becomes dead air that can cause your community to be disinterested. You will need a member of your business to carry out the task of always giving your community something new to read, see or hear.
Responsibility
If it is not managed properly, a social networking website can be a way to tarnish the reputation of your company. Companies that have their employees linked to their Facebook or MySpace page, for example, can find that potential customers are seeing employees of your company engaging in behavior they might deem inappropriate. A message posted to your Twitter account is seen as coming form the company so if an employee posts an attack on another company or individual, your company becomes responsible in the eyes of your readers.
