How social networking sites can help small businesses

9 June 2008

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Where do you start if you are new to the arena of social networking? It is likely you will need to use an open social network, geared for business. But what are the benefits of using these websites? Here is some guidance.

Promoting company products and services, for free

Given there are over 1.3 billion people on the global Internet, networking sites geared for business must be a good thing, whenever they offer free and effective space, for marketing a company via the private profiles of its personnel. Employers should urge employees to promote the company in their private profiles. You should, however, consider selecting someone in the company to mentor excellence in this area. Read Point 5, below.

In terms of finding the right people for short or long-term hire
Business social networking sites can reduce to near zero, personnel search costs, normally associated with hiring external head hunters.

Wasting employees' time?
It is undeniable that 'friendship social networking sites' such as MySpace and now Facebook with 69 million users, are very popular; in fact, so popular, that some employees have been found wasting considerable amounts of time - yet 'the market has spoken' and business will respond. Therefore the choice is about which networking site(s) employers of small companies should encourage employees to use - any site must be geared to contribute to the bottom line.

Building excellent employee profiles
Before a customer searches and locates an interesting person in your company, it is vital your employee's private profile grabs a visitor's attention. Here are five pointers on how to help them make a great private profile:

Make it easy to verify the accuracy of the information on the profile: as well as text, use downloadable documents, photos, video, even mp3 audio.
Show that there's a real person and company behind the profile. Add in a photo of profile holder. Attach PDF files with company literature. Add in the company's website link.
Highlight the expertise of the individual within the company as well as the products and services the company can provide. Making the profile look expert also means avoiding errors of all types, no matter how small they seem.
Show that honest and trustworthy people stand behind the person who is displaying their profile, this can be achieved, for example, by offering to invite visitors to meet or talk with very satisfied business partners and clients.
Update the profile content often - at least show it has been reviewed recently. Use restraint with promotional content (e.g. ads, offers), the aim of the profile is to get your business talking with potentially useful people.

About the Author
Rupert Douglas-Bate is the founder of www.Jabberwot.com, a new business social networking site that links business subjects to many other subjects, thus promoting vertical integration. He conceptualised the site having been inspired by his time at the Centre for the Study of Language and Information, at Stanford University, where he doing a Fellowship supported by the Reuters Foundation.

Tel: +447951 958758 Email: Jabberwot@googlemail.com Web: www.Jabberwot.com

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