Social Networking and Marketing

Have you ever wondered how to reach millions of potential clients within seconds? Well now there is a way. Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have become very popular over the past few years. These sites boast millions of users that access the site daily. Social networking is an effective marketing strategy for all types of businesses. This is because social networking is the new word of mouth referral, businesses have the ability to give up to date feed on promotions and events, and it is totally free! Businesses would be silly not to utilize these resources.

Users of these social networking sites are able to share their finds with friends. For example: on Facebook users are able to "like" certain pages. Therefore if you are a business that has created a page, a user "likes" it, in page automatically shows up in the news feed. If Shelly "likes" Decals Unlimited her 500 friends now see's this, and say 3 of her 500 friends "likes" the page as well, then their 500 friends have access to that as well. That is 2,000 potential Consumers reached with little to no effort! This seems to be the new word of mouth referral, consumers are able to read testimonies on the pages, as well as see work they have done. Facebook boast 750 million active users! Hey, who wouldn't want to get this kind of response when all you had to do was create a simple webpage?

It seems a lot of money goes into advertisements these days; billboards, newspapers, radio ads, and so on. A lot of times not seeing an immediate response. Say Decals Unlimited is having a trunk sale at the Reedsville Volunteer Fire Department August 6th for 12-5pm, they are able to create an event and seen it to numerous members to let them know. It is like the old snail mail invitations, only you don't have to lick envelopes. The word of mouth referral falls into this as well; members already invited are able to send the invitation to their friends, which is if the invite is public. Businesses are also able to set up promotions such as, "Like our Facebook page and receive 10% off your first order." This gives consumers that little extra push to spread the word. The possibilities are endless.

When starting off a new or even running an existing business it can be very stressful. Money always seems to be a concern. Things like employee pay roll, utility bills, and so on seem to obviously take priority over advertising. We all know that without clientele, there is no money coming in. So wouldn't it be nice to advertise for free? The popular social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook are totally free to users! With millions online every day, the possibilities are out there. I do not feel that just using social networking alone will help rep large revenue, but it will help to get some extra cash in. The extra cash could go towards newspaper ads and such. In reality what does a business have