Can social networking hurt your business?

Social networking is a great tool in marketing your business. A small amount of time and effort on a weekly basis keeps customers informed, and more importantly keeps your company's name in front of their eyes. But, is there a downside?

We here at SiteBoxPro can think of a few scenarios in which social networking can actually hurt you business:

• What are others saying about your business: you should not respond to every negative comment said about your company, but be aware of negative comment and we suggest you combat negatives with an equal amount of positives (real positives, not just stuff you made up).
• Right content, wrong location: Make sure the sites you use to network are used by the people who would benefit from your business. Different audiences and demographics use and prefer differnt sites, make sure you are hitting the right ones.
• Sitting it out: If you are one of those people who think that social networking isn't right for your business, think again. You can take advantage is a the most attractive feature, which is the price...FREE! Using the internet is a first step in making almost any purchase, make sure you products and services are respresented.

If you have a comment or question, post it here, We want to get you involved, and maybe others could benefit from your experiences. What has worked for you? What has failed?

Social Media Tips

If you are using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or other social media tools to promote your business or brand, make sure your website also drives traffic to these outlets.

This can be accomplished simply by creating a link or graphic to your Tweets or Facebook page or can be as complex as integrating your most recent Tweets or Facebook status updates directly on your website. This type of cross-linking builds fans, followers, etc. and it is great for SEO (search engine optimization).

For help with your social media marketing, contact SiteBoxPro today!