Utilizing Social Networking To Grow Your Small Business

If you are in business today, it has become almost imperative that you have a website. If you are in business and are planning to make a significant long term income off of your business, it is an absolute must. And, most businesses have jumped on the website bandwagon, filling the internet with millions and millions of websites.

On the other end is the user. One person, often looking for just one thing. With so many options to choose from, how do you get them to focus in on you, on your product, your service, or your store location?

One of the most recent answers to this question is Social Networking. With all of the buzz around Social Networking and Web 2.0 you've probably had at least minimal exposure. You might even have a Myspace.com account. But, how does this help your business?

There are actually hundreds of ways, but today I'm only going to focus on one with concrete steps for you to take so that by the end of the day you will have a whole new lead and customer generation stream.

Although Myspace isn't necessarily the absolute best social networking site, it is the biggest, so that is where we are going to start.

1. If you don't have a myspace account, go to http://myspace.com and sign up for one. Use a name that is as close as possible to your business name for your account name, as it will show up in your URL as Myspace.com/YourBizName

2. Once you have an account, take ten minutes to fill in a profile. Load in a picture. If you are a consultant or individual service provider, put a picture of yourself. If you are a retail location, put a picture of your store. If you manufacture a product, put a picture of the product you make. Then fill out profile questions that match your business. Keep it professional, and fill out the questions from the standpoint of your business, and don't be afraid to do a bit of promotion. If you have your own website, it should definitely be included in your About Me section.

3. Once you have a profile, you need friends. If you have a business email list, that is by far the easiest way. Simply write to them, tell them about your new myspace account, and ask them to be your friend! This is perfect because it then locates you in a social circle that is already targeted to the types of people who are your customers. If you have a retail store, make up little cards with your site on it, and give them to customers inviting them to become your online 'friends'.

4. Joint venture with other users. Find people in myspace who are in your market, and ask them if they will post a bulletin introducing your site to their friends.

Once you have built up a small friends list, you can then truly start some promotional magic. Myspace allows you to post blogs and bulletins. The blog is on your Myspace page, and the bulletin actually gets posted to all of your friends 'Bulletin Board' area.

As often as you can, you want to come up with a creative little promotion, and post it to your blog and send it as a bulletin. If you were a restaurant, maybe you would send out daily meals specials. If you were a software company, maybe you'd post articles about the different cool points of your software.

Bulletins move quickly, as if anyone else posts a bulletin to one of your friends after yours was posted, yours will get moved down the board, and will eventually disappear. This is why it is important that you post regularly, and if you are only posting once a day, try to make it at a time when you think that the demographic of people who are your friends will be online.

Keep this up, and you will see growth in your business. You will be exposed to new potential customers, and if you are lucky you might just get big enough to be featured, which can generate a huge buzz for your business.

Estimated time: 20 min. Set Up, 4 minutes daily posting a bulletin