Online Networking – Social Media As an Online Business Tool

The concepts of business promotion and marketing strategies have changed drastically during the last decade. In today’s world, internet is the most powerful marketing tool and many surveys lead to this conclusion. Earlier, organizations relied highly on conferences, press releases and small business conversations where you exchange your business cards with others to create a successful business network. One drawback of this communication technique is that the key people of an organization must take part in it, irrespective of their busy schedule.

With online networking, organizations have better control over their business promotion because they have the flexibility of hiring professional to successfully promote their business. Instead of a company’s key person answering customer questions, a FAQ box where customers can submit their queries will be sufficient. Social media websites such as Facebook has over 350 million members and websites such as LinkedIn only focus on online business networking. These sites have also added value to HR units as a social recruiting platform. This is why every organization should make use of social media as an online business tool to promote their business to the maximum number of potential customers.

There are a lot of advantages when you plan to use social media as an online business tool. Some of them are

o Flexibility- Compared to business conferences, you can promote your business through social media at the comfort of your office, home or even a smartphone. Access to social media websites through your PDA or smartphone helps you to update about your business and stay in touch with your customers even if you are on a vacation or travelling etc.

o Better Interaction with Customers – You always have the opportunity to hire experts to answer your customer’s questions for you. By hiring people to address your customers, you can stay connected with a large number of people which is a big plus point of using social media as an online business tool.

o No Geographical Boundaries – This is probably the best advantage of using social media as an online business tool if you are selling your product or offering services to customers worldwide. Organizations can cut down the number of direct business conferences which will help them to bring down their marketing expenses.

But choosing the right social media marketing strategy for your business is very important and this usually demands a lot of preparation. You should target the right people and always make sure to build up an interaction platform with you employees as well. This is very important to make sure that your communication is very effective with customers as well as employees. Not to forget attractive more talent to your company via social recruiting. However, when you plan to choose social media as an online business tool, you need a lot of patience because internet is totally a different world and you might be a stranger there.

This is why you should add people you know, including your employees so that when you introduce yourself to new people, your credibility will be higher. There is no harm in seeking professional help each social medium may not be the right choice for your business. Depending on the services that you offer, you can choose a couple of social networking strategies that can attract your customers. The importance of social media as an online business tool is increasing each day and you should not be very slow in adapting it.