Social networking should now form part of your overall marketing activities.

The use of social networking allows you to communicate more readily with your customers and the public at large. It is widely known that referrals from within social networking web sites increases the likelyhood customers will buy your products or services.

There are literally 100's if not 1000's of social networking channels. For your business it is important to choose the right one for you. 
The main four social networking channels you should consider are, Twitter, Facebook,YouTube & LinkedIn

 

Twitter

Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access.  Twitter has over 40m users worldwide, average age 31.  You can list your tweets within your website automatically.

www.twitter.com

 

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Since September 2006, anyone over the age of 13 with a valid e-mail address can become a Facebook user. A business can set up a Facebook business fan page and engage convesations with your fans and customers. This can be a method of asking and fielding questions and feedback. The average age of a Facebook user is 26.

www.facebook.com

 

YouTube

Using YouTube to market your business is an increasing trend. There are over 2 billion videos viewed each day and the average age is 35.

One of the best success stories from YouTube is "Will it Blend", which was literally a $50 investment at the onset. The video below has had over 8,000,0000 views. The YouTube campaign has increased the companies turnover by 700%, whilst this is exceptional there is plenty of scope and use for YouTube within your business. For example, you could create a series of "how to videos", post them on YouTube and embed them in your website.

www.youtube.com

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a business social network. The purpose of the site is to allow registered users to maintain a list of contact details of people they know and trust in business, communicate and engage with them. There are 65 million linked in users [even more than facebook] and the average age is 40.

www.linkedin.com

Blog

A blog is often a mixture of what is happening in a person's life and what is happening on the Web, a kind of hybrid diary/guide site, although there are as many unique types of blogs as there are people. A blog is a great way to interact with online users, tell them what you are doing and keep in touch . A blog would be the modern day equivalent of a "news" section.