Is Facebook going to boost your business?
Monday, July 2nd, 2007
Have you joined Facebook or MySpace? Are you blogging? These fast growing social media have been touted as a great way to reach new and different groups of customers. You may be wondering if they are going to work for your business.
Unfortunately, there’s no simple answer. Every time you add something like a blog, or set up a profile on a new networking site, you will definitely reach new people. Actively networking on Facebook by joining relevant groups, or linking up with likeminded folk on MySpace will put your business name in front of people who haven’t come across it before. But there’s not guarantee that this will lead to sales. Michelle Lawrie, who runs babysigning company Chelltune set up a MySpace page and says, “I haven’t looked there for weeks. I did get a phone call from a chap who had found my site from MySpace but it hasn’t resulted in any sales to my knowledge.”
However, what you are doing, is building potential customers for the future. The users of many social networking sites tend to be in the 16 to 30 age group. Michelle says, “I’ve had plenty of hits from Facebook but again no sales. I am yet to see if it is worth while or not. I’ve had more sales from forums such as those aimed at Childminders.”
And people who see your MySpace page may not be looking at some of the other media you use to reach new customers. Like every promotional activity, neither Facebook nor MySpace nor the best blog in the world will give you a booming business on their own. Successful business promotion is based on lots of small bits of promotional activity.