Social Networks 301: Building Business Social Networking for Profit

This is part 3 of a 3 part series on social networking.

 

The more popular and user-friendly business to business social networking site is LinkedIn.com. A free business social networking site that has several features including: Question and Answer (Q & A), Jobs – both to list and to find, Groups to join and network with other like minded business professionals and promote your company, a comprehensive profile to highlight your expertise, experience, interests, past and present positions, email, company profile, and new applications such as WordPress blog links, RSS feeds, and the ability to build your network with people across the world.

 

Recently nominated as one of the top social networks on the web, as stated on a member’s home page is FastPitchNetworking.com, a business social networking site, which is also free to join, but has the option to upgrade for added features. Free elements include: comprehensive profile, photos, video, RSS feeds, join groups to promote yourself and your company and increase friend network, post company events, other tools include adding your profile to other personal and business social networking sites and micro-blogging sites including Facebook and Twitter. With an upgrade on Fast Pitch’s business social networking site, a member is able to link their blog to their profile and have a FastPitch logo inserted on their blog site, take part in Tuesday Live Chat, and a new feature for Premium and Platinum members is to utilize 3Step Contact, which is their email marketing partner. For a small monthly or annual fee Premium and Platinum members are able to market their company through a top-rated business social networking community for less than one newspaper advertisement!

 

Search Circus recently asked an open-ended question on LinkedIn for its group members, “What issues do you foresee your company experiencing for 2009 regarding marketing?” The answers are starting to roll in as this blog is being written. So far the answers have been blogging, joining and building business social networking with several sites. You can do it too.

 

We recommend the following B2B social networking sites for all types of businesses and their employees.

 

Facebook.com

LinkedIn.com

FastPitchnetworking.com

Plaxo.com

Twitter.com

 

We welcome your comments how business social networking has affected your online marketing campaign.

Changing Business Social Networking Trends

Have you heard of the latest business social networking trends? We’re not referring to those meet-and-greet after work coffee hours either. We’re referring to the same social networking trends that high school teenagers and college twenty-something’s have been using and a few other B2B networks.

Social networking trends are changing as businesses jump on this inexpensive marketing bandwagon. According to eMarketer, advertisers will spend in excess of $40 million on online social networks to reach business audiences. That number could more than quadruple in the next four years. What do these social networking trends tell us? It’s time to join more than one social network for businesses to attract different audiences.

The most popular social network for all users is Facebook, although it doesn’t consider itself to be a business to business (B2B) social network, it has captured the attention of more small businesses around the country with its new Visa Business Network. Social networking trends tend to change with what more audiences want, and they want to attract more people to their business.

LinkedIn, the more popular professional social network, has more than doubled in one year and has opened the arena to even more B2B social networking trends. FastPitch Networking, Digg, Vois, del.icio.us, Squidoo, and Plaxo have all made their presence known to many businesses, large and small, to connect to others and offer social networking trends, tips and answer questions on a variety of topics.

Experts also suggest that businesses only keep 3 to 5 active social networks, which also follow social networking trends to attract the most active users at any given time. Although employers and employees don’t need to keep the same active networks, it’s a good idea to diversify and belong to different social networks to maximize your advertising potential.

Social networking trends are constantly changing to attract business across the globe and consumers who are using these social online networks to not only connect, but also conduct business.

Facebook is Leader of Newest Social Networking Trends

As of this year Facebook has become the fifth most popular Web site in terms of visitation. With so much popularity, it’s easy to see why Facebook has become the leader in terms of new social networking trends.

 

One of the newest social networking trends that Facebook is promoting to its users is a social advertising campaign geared at getting companies on their Web site. This will allow users to connect to companies they enjoy, and extend their reach through similar interests.

 

Only information the users willingly put on their profile will be seen by the companies. This will then allow the users and the companies to interact online. Companies can then inform them about special offers and sales that may only be available online. This social networking trend helps decrease spam and unwanted contacts.

 

With new social networking trends such as Facebook’s newest advertising campaign, it is easy to see why companies are looking at social networking sites to help grow and expand their business.