Advantages of Networking in Business

A look at the advantages of networking in business will show just how easy, fun and profitable social networking can be in virtually any organization. In business, any type of networking is beneficial since it lets others know your business is there and ready to serve their needs. Once you've taken your business online, networking websites are a fantastic way to showcase your business.

What Are the Advantages of Networking in Business Online?

Networking allows you to promote your business. Online networking has its own advantages including these.

• Huge Exposure: Marketing your business online through social networking websites gives you a huge number of prospective clients or customers. YouTube alone has 3.75 million user channels and growing. These are all prospective clients.

• More Pointed Exposure: When you use a blog to provide information on your product or service, you'll boost the number of people that come to your website specifically for your product or service. They've come online to look for a specific product or service, which you are delivering. You aren't marketing to people who may not need your service.

• Inexpensive: Networking online is less expensive than any other type of advertising or marketing. Consider it the online version of word-of-mouth advertising. You could spend millions launching a product through commercials and advertising, or you could spend a few dollars to get a blog going, to register at a few social websites and to interact.

• Find Partners: Networking is not always about getting the customer; social networking online can help you get the partners you need as well. Put up a MySpace page and talk about the new product idea you have. Sell your idea to the 100+ million users on MySpace and find a partner to finance it.

• Gauge the Waters: Networking in business is a fantastic way to find out what others think before you invest time and money on promotions that are not profitable. For example, use your Facebook profile to gauge the interest in your local area in a new club concept you have.

Networking Your Business

To see the advantages of networking in business, consider how you can use websites like YouTube, Facebook, and MySpace to create a network. Most of the social networking websites available today offer free registration. Once you've registered an account in your name, or you business's name, you can fill in a profile. The profile will include information about you, your services, your products and your reasons for networking. With registration complete and a profile to go on, you start networking. Soon you'll be talking to other people who are reading your website. You can befriend other businesses for a business-to-business network. You can build a friend network of potential clients in your local area. You can use message boards, forums, and even blogs to build up a steady stream of people to your website who come because they know you and your product enough to want to learn more. Provide your contact information, your website, and other key information so potential customers easily get in touch with you.

How to Get Started

Getting started in social networking for your business is the best route to see the advantages it can offer to your unique business. Visit the websites of social networks and get started.

• MySpace, LinkedIn, YouTube, FaceBook, and others are options for creating profiles and interacting in these communities. Interact with other business owners, potential partners, and potential clients.
• Create a blog and use it to update readers on your business promotions, news and to give helpful tips to solve their problems. For example, your carpet cleaning blog not only promotes your business but also gives stain removal tips.
• Use social networks like Digg, StumbleUpon and similar tools to get your website and blog posts out there. You'll see more traffic come to your website that's interested in what you have to offer.

The only way to see the advantages of social networking in your business is to use it regularly. Daily blog posts are a fantastic way to increase traffic to your website, for example. Interacting with people on Twitter about the new promotion you are running is a great way to get people to stop by to learn more.

Networks in Business

The advantages of networking don't just come from social networks online. They come from all networks you create for your business. Here is another way to see how those connections can work for you.

• As a fitness gym owner, you network with the local health food store by offering discount memberships to employees. In turn, the health food store promotes your fitness center. This local networking can be translated online in the same way, from one website to the next. Both profit from the other's services.

• Being a member of a local church, you create networks of people who know you and respect you. In turn, they may patronize your retail outlet or restaurant knowing who you are more often than they would otherwise. When you build a relationship with people using Facebook or Myspace, they know you, respect you and patronize your website.

Networking in business is necessary because it creates buzz about your business products and services. Don't overlook how powerful it is.

Chuck Reynolds
Contributor