Twitter, Facebook & Social Networking for Business

So how do people find social networking sites when related to business. Are they worth the time investment, or are your efforts better placed in other forms of online marketing?

I've had a dabble with facebook, and tried some advertising, which is pretty cheap and generates clicks, but didn't generate any business.

Have an ongoing experiment with twitter, but the jury is out at the moment as to how effective it is.

Be interesting to hear of any other experiances.

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cheers Steve
Forum Admin - teaboy and general gofer...

Forum Rules and FAQ's at a glance | Find me on Google+ | or even Facebook!

My Local Services - The UK and US Online Business Directory | JobsVitae - Recruitment Help and CV Creation

If you're here to spam, then expect a ban

Facebook is getting a bit uneven now, was mostly for friends and family when I was travelling SE Asia, now I am back and working, it has more and more work related people adding me and joining, I don't mind, the real friends understand.

As to twitter, I am pooh with it, the wife uses hers and has more than twice the amount of followers I do, but then she is prettier too! We do get a few links from Twitter, but only around 20-30, facebook & google still tops for us!

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Web Design Portfolio | Social Media beats SEO

I know a lot of people now separate facebook accounts and have one for work and one for personal use. I suppose its the worry of overspill from work and personal life, or displaying to many personal details to people you don't really know.

Like steve, I'm not convinced ref the business use, but watching steves efforts with interest

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Thanks
Clive

Forum Rules and FAQ's at a glance

My Local Services - The UK and US Online Business Directory | JobsVitae - Recruitment Help and CV Creation

Well, from a cynical start, I progressed with a new Twitter background thanks to Kip and actually started watching how different people use twitter.

Targeting and following entrepreneurs and business people has given me a following of over 700, and targeted newsworthy tweets have resulted in traffic on both buisness directories and this forum. We've also made a couple of sales on the UK Directory which I'm still baffled by!

So I'm less cynical, and now starting to appreciate the appeal and power of twitter.

Sending constant sales stuff just doesn't work, but link to something interesting or perceived as interesting and you have an interesting traffic generator.

I have a long way to go, and looks like a lot more to learn, but it's progress!

As always, be good to hear any other feedback, good or bad.

I may even tweet this

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cheers Steve
Forum Admin - teaboy and general gofer...

Forum Rules and FAQ's at a glance | Find me on Google+ | or even Facebook!

My Local Services - The UK and US Online Business Directory | JobsVitae - Recruitment Help and CV Creation

If you're here to spam, then expect a ban

I would be interested to know the verdicts on the business related aspects of those Social sites as well. My kids have told me about advertising on those sites, but I'm still a bit doubtful. I do not want to miss out on an opportunity if it does work. Where is that crystal ball of mine? Oh, it's in the shop. That's it! Any experience you can share with me would be educational.

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Cheers,
TrangSLe
http://www.Medilutions.com

Hi TrangSLe, I think it all depends what your business is, I know that with B2B facebook (In my opinion) is a waste of time, whereas twitter is bringing the work in on a B2B side, I do know of a lot of B2C's using Facebook advertising and doing rather well out of it.

My (personal) thoughts on Facebook have changed dramatically, I used to have it open all day, now once a week is more common, and my work has picked up no end, Facebook draws you in (Hence why it is so succesful).

I would certainly not rule out setting up a fan/business page on there, and linking it to your site, but thats as far as I would go. (Can always help if needed)

Twitter is a slow and steady lead gatherer, I know from Steves blog that he can now thank Twitter for signed up and paid clients, though I could not tell you how many.

I say Twitter, Twitter and thrice Twitter!

Hope this helps

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Web Design Portfolio | Social Media beats SEO

Kip, I have a software business that provides Ambulatory Medical Software systems for medical practices. It has been a slow start so far. As I'm still new at this page ranking concept with Google, Yahoo, and the likes, I know that my targeted traffic can't be generated from those search engines anytime soon. I'm diligently working towards that goal, but in the mean time, I would like try out all other available options. I will give those sites a try. Thank you much for your input.

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Cheers,
TrangSLe
http://www.Medilutions.com

I have always found people doing their own SEO achieve a lot more, unless a huge corporate, I have a regular client that I do design work for that spends roughly $1500 a day on his Pay Per Click, but his organic SEO he does himself too, and took his little West Mids company Internationally!

Stick with it, loads of good help on here if and when its needed buddy.

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Web Design Portfolio | Social Media beats SEO

Hi there TrangSLe

Social networking is a powerful tool that used properly can yeild low cost solutions. Theres no great secret, more a case of testing and see what works for you.

Unlike other marketing medium, social networking is either free or low cost, so the key is to experiment.

As Kip suggested, on Facebook, set up fan pages, I'm sure MySpace has similar functionality. But the most powerful tool of the moment has to be Twitter.

Sign yourself up, search for people who would be possible customers if you have a particular demographic, follow them, and they will follow you back. Right a decent Bio, and your weblink, then Tweet gently! No full on sales messages, no spam.

If in doubt, watch other peoples tweets, look at people with thousands of followers, and look at their style of writing. Waht do they tweet about, can you adapt a simialr style. Open a second account and experiment, make your mistakes on a test account.

So its all trial and error I'm afraid, but if you master it, the rewards are there.

Good hunting!

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The original Homer!!

Facebook and Twitter are both massive in terms of reach, so surely both are worth a shot. Here's some stats:

- Facebook has 350 million active users globally and they claim 50% log on daily and more than 700,000 local businesses have business pages on Facebook.
- Twitter has 75 million user accounts.
- LinkedIn has 11 milllion users across Europe.

You have to take these reported stats with a pinch of salt somewhat, but the scale is surely an opportunity, whatever business you're in.