Are Social Networking Sites Useful for Business?

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When all things remain equal, people want to work with people they think they'll have an interesting relationship with," Julian says. His firm is represented on five major social networking sites, including YouTube (GOOG) and his blog, and a couple of smaller ones.

"Geometric Extension" and Search Optimization

It sounds like a full-time job, but Julian points out that you can cut and paste some of your content from site to site. "If I put up a YouTube video to create awareness, I might have some discussion on YouTube with the responders and then also put it on my blog, on my Facebook company page, and promote a link to it on Twitter. Just by generating that single asset, I've populated all those networks with content without having to come up with an original piece of content for each of them. There's a geometric extension of your reach," he says.

Robert Jenson, CEO of the Las Vegas-based realty firm the Jenson Group, takes a strictly corporate approach to social networking. "Rather than blogging stream-of-consciousness opinions or using the venue as a diary of sorts, I educate visitors on important, universal industry matters. I try my utmost to ensure the content I post is not just applicable and of interest to those in Las Vegas, where I operate, but also to any real estate consumer nationwide," he says.

He puts bylined articles he's written on his own blog and on social networking sites and uses them to establish his credibility as a real estate expert. "This serves as a 'risk reliever' for both prospective consumers and business affiliates, while also increasing my chances for media coverage by establishing myself as a reliable expert source," Jenson says.

Last, but definitely not least, is the value of social networking sites to search engine optimization (BusinessWeek, 6/20/08). The more sites that include your name and link back to your Web site or blog, the higher your profile rises in search engines, where more and more of your customers are likely to find you, Jenson says.

Business Exchange related topics:
Social Networking
Web 2.0 Marketing
Search Engine Optimization

Karen E. Klein is a Los Angeles-based writer who covers entrepreneurship and small-business issues.