subject: Internet Marketing - Using Social Networking For Your Business [print this page] It's not supposed to be done, and if you read the conditions of using most of these sites you will see that they frown on the idea of businesses using them for their own ends. But they are free (for the most part, at least, and certainly for our purposes) and they are easily able to accommodate people who have an interest in a specific subject and want to share that with like minded people.
So for example, you might have a website that regularly sells USB gadgets. And of course you would be fascinated by all the different USB gadgets that are on the market, wouldn't you? So why not share your thoughts and knowledge with all the other people out there who like the same thing and have a growing selection of them themselves?
You will be able to have a link to your website on most social networking sites - in fact they usually have a specific place where they ask you to type in the URL if you have one! That's fine by them - but what they don't like is blatant advertising. But you aren't going to do that. All you are going to do is share your fascinations and interests with people. They will naturally follow you onto your website anyway, so you won't even need to try and sell to them.
Can you see how effective these social networking sites can be for finding potential new customers? Lots of businesses do this and it doesn't cost you anything to get it started. You do need to invest some time in it to get the best results though, and this is where planning ahead really helps. Remember what I said just now about planning your free marketing efforts? This is exactly what I am talking about. You can put in just a few minutes a day on this, so we're not talking about taking on a full time task here. But you need to be doing this regularly so that people will come to realize you are around on a regular basis. When they realize this they will be more likely to follow you and what you have to say - and that can be a very important step towards turning them into a future customer.
What kind of site do your potential customers frequent?
This is another example of why it is worth spending that little bit more time thinking about how you are going to proceed with your free marketing plans. Ask yourself this question. When you think about social networking sites, what is the first one that comes to mind?
Now unless you already happen to be using another one, I can virtually guarantee that your answer will be either MySpace or Facebook. That's understandable, because these are the main two contenders that everyone knows about.
But that doesn't necessarily mean that they will be the ones that are ideal for finding the people you are looking for. So investigate ALL the possibilities before diving in, and don't spread yourself too thinly either. You are always going to be better off concentrating on using just one or two sites and really making a mark there, at least to begin with.
Whatever you do, make sure you're twittering!
Ever heard of Twitter? This is one site that doesn't seem to mind you using it for business and promotional purposes, provided you aren't too blatant about it.
And I am making a special mention of this because it is the easiest networking site to start using. I have had particularly good results with this and have plenty of followers, which is why I would recommend you use this as well as another more in depth social networking site. You only have 140 characters in which to communicate with anyone reading your page, so you have to be brief. That's why it is so easy to fit into your day, no matter how busy you are.
Just launched another new gadget? Tell everyone on Twitter about it. Just added a new page of products to your website? Make sure everyone knows.
You can see the possibilities here, and once again if you put a little regular effort in and tweet your updates every day or so, you will get a merry band of followers who will also check out your website to see what else you are up to. Job done, and no cost involved. Perfect.
Now Pay Close Attention --
On the next page you will take a sneak peak at the upcoming secret system release for driving herds of targeted traffic to any site, affiliate or product and dump wads of cash into your bank account using this hidden facebook secret
So if you want to take a behind the curtain pre-release look at the facebook secret that is about to shake the internet to its core then I strongly recommend you read everything on the next page before it's too late!
