Social Network

What is Social Networking?

A site or community on the Internet where members can interact with one another and share content. This term is more or less used interchangeably with “social network” in reference to Internet marketing.

Social networking is the use of internet-based social media programs to make connections with friends, family, classmates, customers and clients. Social media can occur for social purposes, business purposes or both through sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Classmates.com and Yelp. Social networking is also a significant target area for marketers seeking to engage users.

Social Networking Marketers

Marketers use social networking for increasing brand recognition and loyalty. Because it makes the company more accessible to new customers and more recognizable for existing customers, social media helps promote a brand’s voice and content. For example, a frequent Twitter user may hear of a company for the first time through a news feed and decide to buy a product or service. The more exposed people are to a company’s brand, the greater the company’s chances of finding and retaining new customers.

Advantages of Social Networking for Marketers

Marketers use social networking for improving conversion rates. Building a following provides access to and interaction with new, recent and old customers. Sharing blog posts, images, videos or comments on social media allows followers to react, visit the company’s website and become customers.

Customers may compliment the company’s offerings and encourage others to buy the products or services. The more customers are talking about a company on social networking, the more valuable the brand authority becomes. As a brand grows stronger, more sales result.

Increased company posts rank the company higher in search engines. This helps establish a brand as legitimate, credible and trustworthy.

A company may use social media to demonstrate its customer service level and enrich its relationships with consumers. For example, if a customer complains about a product or service on Twitter, the company may address the issue immediately, apologize, and act to make it right.

Disadvantages of Social Networking for Marketers

Although social networking itself is free, building and maintaining a company profile takes hours each week. Costs for those hours add up quickly. In addition, businesses need many followers before a social media marketing campaign starts generating a positive return on investment (ROI). For example, submitting a post to 20 followers does not have the same effect as submitting the post to 20,000 followers.

Because every business is unique and has a different target demographic, history and competitive marketplace, no single marketing strategy works for every business. The fact that it is constantly evolving also makes keeping up with changes challenging and influences a company’s marketing success rate.

Because social networking companies want businesses paying for advertising, companies often restrict the amount of reach businesses may receive through unpaid posts. An example, if a company has 500 followers, followers may not all receive the same post.