By: Sophia Konopelsky, Client Relations Manager, RKC infotech (7/8/2009)

Online networking capabilities have advanced quickly within the last 10 years and their popularity has sky-rocketed. MySpace, Twitter, Friendfeed, Technorati, Tweetscan, Buxxlogic, Face book, LinkedIn, YouTube, Blip. TV, Flickr and Photobucket are among the top favorites of Users. The versatility of these networks is the secret to their success. People are using these online tools to connect, for business networking, promoting their personal experiences, social action and getting what they need: information, support, products and ideas. The beauty of social networking are the simple functions employed by these sites that allow people to use them to their own advantage.

This is vital because it is has created a large volume of users that businesses can tap into. At the same time, the principles of the networking sites allow businesses to reach users at a more personal level which is the foundation to creating strong relationships, leading to stronger customer loyalty and economic success!

Start by creating an image for your business

Create a profile on LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace. LinkedIn can be considered the official professional site; however FaceBook has options which allow users to join groups or become fans of products, services, companies or whatever they desire. They are all desirable and allow you to represent your company in different mediums. It is a good idea to utilize all networks.

Get Vocal

Creating and maintaining dialogue in the online social arena is extremely important. Creating a blog is a great way to do this. Blogging interesting and unique thoughts will encourage people to join your networks and fortifies a credible position for you in your industry. Similarly, the ability to do this through posting on FaceBook and MySpace is a great way to keep your visitors current on what is going on with your company. The tools on all these sites are great mediums in which you can communicate to your members about promotions going on or new products. Twitter is the quickest form of online communication. It allows you to send out just a short “Tweet” that is fast, simple and to the point, a favorite among the younger generation.

Keep in touch/ manage your visitors

Once you have established an online identity for your business you must keep it current. These social networks move quickly and thrive on new information. Chat with your visitors, post new information your company, update with pictures and videos. This gives your company a personal side and allows you to reach out to your customers and potential future customers.  

Twitter

Blasting the internet in 2007, the overwhelming popularity of this site caused multiple traffic overloads. Wikipedia, ranks it as the third most used network. This article would not be complete without a closer look at the newest site that has people crazed! This service acts as an instant messaging service which allows users to send and read updates of up to 140 characters known as tweets. Twitter gets about 6 million monthly visitors; high traffic but the retention caps at roughly 40 percent. Twitter is most beneficial to companies that need quick information and often; such as those in the finance industry. One obvious limitation posed by this site is the service charge required for internet access from a mobile phone. Analyze your company to determine how much energy should be spent on it.

Challenges

The challenge of working with the networks is finding the time to keep up with posting, maintaining your profile and responding to inquiries. It is best to have the same person or persons working on this task to maintain consistency. Also, dedicate a certain amount of hours each day or per week that will be used to work on this. It was reported, on average, companies with company size ranging from 1-100 employees, on average spend about 7-10 hours on social media marketing per week. This is a very do-able figure!