If you are good at talking to people and enjoy meeting many new faces, networking can be the ideal option for you to generate business. Although many people realise that talk is cheap and action is important. You have to remember that people buy from people, a brand provides trust but if the customer service is shocking or the representative does not treat you with respect, you would probably not bother purchasing. Networking can be a low cost method of getting your name out there, and with online networking you don’t have to be the most confident person in social situations.

Online networking now offers many methods to gain visibility and talk to potential contacts, websites such as Twitter, Ecademy and facebook all allow social networking. It is fairly easy to set-up an account on these websites, they ask for basic information and then allow you to create a profile page. Often from this you can join groups which are suited to your industry or audience, these groups promote and encourage discussion where you can join in.

Twitter.com is a micro-blogging website that repeatedly asks its users one question - “What are you doing?” Peoples responses come in many forms, often people publish websites that they have found useful or are currently reading. Businesses generally discourage using the internet to communicate with others outside of the workplace. This is a very big brother approach and it makes you wonder if productivity and sales would increase if employees were allowed the freedom to connect and network with people on many different platforms.
In my experience I often have had access to instant messaging programs whilst working, my previous roles have often been quite demanding. So I would use these programs to ask others work related questions and also to have a little joke or laugh from time to time when encouragement is needed. Social networking allows for the same level of interaction and helps you expand your professional profile and contact list.

Businesses that create company profiles on these websites would allow the business to talk directly to its customers. This can be very effective to shout about how successful the organisation has been or to highlight current special offers and incentives.
Ecademy is a different website for social networking, it is all about building up contacts and then pushing your message out to your contact list in hope that they will be interested in what you have to offer. Ecademy requires ongoing payments to gain full access to all of its features, although if you request that your friends sign up, you can try out the full access for a limited time.

Facebook is very much like MySpace and other ‘Friend’ networking websites, it started out as a website aimed for students. It quickly turned into a massive website with millions of users. Facebook allows you to create a profile and is primarily designed to share photos by ‘tagging ‘ areas of a photograph to identify who is in each picture. This alone does not provide the best platform to promote your business, but recently facebook has started to offer Pay Per Click advertising opportunities to suit all budgets. The demographic segmentation offers more targeting options than standard pay per click, for example you can select the following criteria to choose who to market your message to:

• Location
• Sex
• Age
• Keywords
• Education
• Workplace
• Relationship Status
• Relationship Interests

When creating a profile on these social networking websites it is useful to understand how best to get your point across and present yourself online. Your profiles need to be catchy and display a level of impact when someone visits. A photograph is a must these days, people like to know who they are talking to. From including a picture, visitors to your profile will have a added level of empathy when they learn about you. Remember that pictures can say a thousand words (Good and Bad!) consider including product images, photos from trade events and award ceremony’s within your profile.

These days website design and development organisations often offer professional social networking design and creation for you, although they need to understand the art of presentation and effective communication to really offer a strong service.
From using social networking websites for business use you can take advantage of these closed community’s who only allow members to talk to each other. If your competitors have not yet taken full advantage of these methods you could be the first person to offer your products and services.

There are many ways to develop your online presence, search engine marketing and pay per click are more structured methods of promoting your business online. However, social networking is relatively cheap and could provide the viability you require.

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