When I first discovered YouTube, I thought it was an amusing time-waster. I could watch TV commercials I loved as a kid on my computer — how cool was that?
Then, however, it started creeping into my work life. Companies like Hero Septic in Athens, Ga., Nix Tank Co. of Gainesville, Fla., and other pumpers and portable restroom operators started putting commercials and informational videos on YouTube and reporting good results.
And my opportunities for connecting with other Internet users in new ways didn’t stop there. I’ve received several invitations to join LinkedIn and Facebook and a few more obscure social networking sites like “Timber Home Nation,” which I can’t quite figure out, since I’ve never owned a timber frame house. I also hear the word “Twitter” (a site where people blog 140 characters or less per entry, called a “Tweet”) more than I hear actual bird songs these days. And everything I read on the Internet wants me to approve it with something called “Digg” or bookmark it with something called “Delicious.”
This has all led me to ask: “What’s the deal with social networking? Is its primary use getting back in touch with your prom date or is it a valuable business tool that I should recommend readers of PRO start using if they haven’t already?”
I’ll admit, I’m somewhat a novice when it comes to social networking, but I’m discovering the answer lies somewhere in between. Social networking is being used to enhance business communications, but only when the business has someone who’s willing to put time and effort into it.
Since most social networks are free to join, at least at the basic level, there’s little or no monetary investment. The cost is time, but don’t underestimate that. Some large companies have created a position devoted to nothing but social networking. Others spread the duties around to five or six individuals. For a small business, the responsibility probably falls to the owner, who most likely has a full plate already.
SOCIAL NETWORKING 101
Social networking is simply communicating online and, over time, building relationships. Social networks are online communities of people who share a common interest or activity. There are a variety of ways people interact with others in their social network from blogs to e-mail and instant messaging to RSS (Rich Site Summary) feeds that retrieve the latest content from sites users are interested in, saving them the time of visiting sites individually.
You may think you’ve never been involved in a social network, but in all likelihood you have. Have you ever posted a comment on the PRO Online Discussion Forum? Did you ever leave feedback for someone you purchased something from on eBay or reviewed a book at Amazon? Have you offered your well wishes on “CaringBridge” or a similar site for someone with a serious illness? Then, technically, you’ve dipped your toe into the social networking waters.
WHY IT WORKS FOR BUSINESS
Social networking can be an effective marketing tool for a business because it is relationship-based advertising. Discussion, often called “word-of-mouth advertising” has always been a useful sales approach. The Internet is just a tool to start discussion.
Once you understand the basic uses of the various social networking sites, you can figure out which ones could benefit your business. So, my first suggestion is to explore some social networking sites. Read all you can about them. Ask your friends and associates where they are on the Web. Play around on some sites.
A Place to Start
As an example of how social networking could be used to market your business, let’s start with one of the largest social networking sites, Facebook.
Facebook, boasting 175 million users, is a place to make connections and is more personal than LinkedIn, which is primarily a career networking site for professionals.
To use Facebook, a person creates a profile and then invites friends to join them. The beauty of Facebook is that users can look at their friends’ list of friends to quickly grow their network.
Businesses that want a Facebook presence create profiles called “pages.” With a page, those interested and following a company can become “fans” (rather than friends), and when they do so, all their friends will see this. A business can store photos, videos and information about the company on a page. Pages are made publicly available so search engines can find and index them, which should optimize the company’s search engine position. And of course a business will link from their social networking page to their company Web site. A company’s page can be promoted via e-mail, a blog, and through the Facebook network to drive more traffic and build up the fan base.
Groups on Facebook are similar to pages, but are meant to be built around a group of people rather than an individual business or brand. Groups have no “become a fan” feature, and do not share as much information with users’ friends as users interact.
As of this writing, a Facebook search for groups using the words “portable restrooms” reveals three groups. Each group has detailed information about a specific portable restroom company and members who post nice comments about the company … more word-of-mouth advertising.
Groups are for sharing opinions and information, and can be formed around anything from a company to an idea, like green business practices. Groups can be open or closed. To boost your special events business for example, you could start an “outdoor wedding services” group within your local geographic network and invite florists, photographers and limo companies to join. Within the group you could discuss ways of marketing your services together to couples.
Facebook also has a powerful advertising engine that enables businesses to specify a demographic target, see how many people that demographic will hit, and advertise to that demographic. This, of course, is where social networking starts costing money.
IS IT WORTH THE EFFORT?
After playing around on some social networking sites, I concluded that if all a business person does is put up a page, but doesn’t use it or update it, they’re not being very social, and the result will be very little networking. But by putting some effort into social networking, a small company could establish itself on the Internet as an expert in a field, engage their customers and bring qualified leads back to its Web site. If you are a persistent networker, constantly reaching out to interested parties offering compelling information, then you have a great chance to leverage Web 2.0 as a marketing tool.
One final note: No one likes the overly aggressive salespeople at in-person networking events and no one likes them online either. This isn’t about the quick sale, it’s about building a good reputation. And once you understand how social networking sites work, the sky’s the limit. You might tap into a whole new customer base, and, as a bonus, find out what your prom date’s been up to for the past 20 years.
