Social Networking - What is it and how can it help your business?

Last week at our regular Winning Women networking meeting I initiated a discussion around Social Media Networking.

Suprisingly, the room was divided between those who were social media fans with facebook pages, and who tweet regularly and those who were green to the concept.

Winning Women networker, Sam Russell from Sardine Design, recently wrote in her newsletter on this very subject. Sam has kindly agreed for me to share her article with readers of this blog.

If you are new to the concept of Social Networking read Sam's article, here.

"Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs - we've all heard of them, but will they help or hinder your business?
Used correctly, they provide another way for potential clients to 'get' to you in addition to your website and provide your company with another platform to reach your target audience. This month I'm focusing on Blogging:
A Blog is an abbreviated version of 'weblog', it's a frequently updated, personal website featuring diary-type commentary and links to articles or other websites.
Blogs range from the personal to the political, and can focus on one narrow subject or a whole range of subjects.

It's INTERACTIVE so people can leave comments which you, or other users of your blog, can respond to.
You can add a feed (you've all seen the orange symbol to the right). A feed is a data format used for providing users with frequently updated content which means that if a user has subcribed to your feed then every time you update the content, that user's feed is automatically updated so you can distribute information quickly and effortlessly.
Blogs are also great for search engine optimisation as they are updated regularly which tells Google that the site is important and being used.
Your website is like a shop window for your business so you want to make sure you keep it interesting. Adding a blog to your site can be a great way to do this as it will be updated regularly providing new content and information to users.It's also a great way to communicate with your existing and potential clients and can be used in a number of ways. You may want to share fun stuff your company does making is less formal than a website or you may use it to publish short articles that users will find helpful."

Contact Sam today to find out how a blog and other social networking sites can benefit your business and increase traffic to your site.