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December 22, 2010

Social Networking Sites: Leading Your Small Business into the 21st Century

In today’s global marketplace, it’s essential to devote time and effort into developing a strong web presence to competitively promote your product or service as a small business owner.  In addition to maintaining a business website, many successful entrepreneurs also incorporate social networking sites such as MySpace or FaceBook into their marketing plans with the goal of driving traffic to specific websites.

Understanding the Impact of Social Networking Websites

It’s imperative that you take the demographics of each social networking site when developing marketing strategies. MySpace is a favorite among teenagers and college students staying connected with friends and families.  Career-orientated professionals take advantage of FaceBook to showcase personal portfolios highlighting educational accomplishments and work experience.

Only a couple of years ago, MySpace landed on the top three listed of most visited websites, ranking it sixth worldwide.  Facebook, almost equally as popular, ranked fifth as the most visited in the United States and ranking 8^th world-wide.  The rankings of these two social networking giants continue to grow in popularity, and many business owners are capitalizing on their popularity.

Despite MySpace’s initial popularity, FaceBook is quickly superseding it with 120 million plus active users, with about a quarter million users adding a personal profile every day.  While the demographics of FaceBook users are very diverse, users age 25 and older compromises the largest group of new users.

Implementing Social Networking Sites for Marketing Purposes

As a business owner, you’ll soon discover many appealing advantages assuming you’re willing to put forth some sincere time and energy into marketing your product or service using a social networking site.  It’s possible to build brand loyalty, establish a reputation, engage with customers on a more personal level and even redirect strong sale leads back to your site.  FaceBook is definitely a marketing tool to be reckoned with as more and more small businesses and large companies are utilizing the site for targeted marketing.

Initial attempts made by small business owners to successfully market products or services using one of the many popular online social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace may prove to be a difficult marketing strategy.  However, a much easier task for seasoned business owners that knows the tricks of the trade when implementing social networking sites to promote new releases, launch new products and build a loyal customer base.  If you’re interested in expanding your marketing into social networking sites, but you lack experience, consider hiring someone to help get started.  Experience goes a long way when venturing into uncharted endeavors.

Tags: social networking,  MySpace,  Facebook,  marketing plans,  marketing strategy