Extending the reach of your home office to the maximum number of customers or clients doesn't have to be limited to traditional means. While most of the traffic on Facebook, MySpace and others is personal, using it as a means to grow your business taps in to one of world's biggest networks.
There is much more to social networking than connecting with current friends and finding old ones. With the explosion of these types of services in recent years, the number of people that can be reached through them is immense. Right from your desk, you can connect with millions of consumers in mere minutes. Better yet, many services allow you to target specific groups with advertising or other marketing.
In addition, these sites and applications can do double duty by connecting you with others in your field. Not only might you find a few people with which to comiserate, but it could even lead to new business directions.
LinkedIn
If you're a professional looking for online networking, there is literally a site made just for you.
LinkedIn is a network of professionals that you can use to aggregate your current contacts and make new ones within your industry. It will keep track of those you email most, and can import your contacts through Outlook if you'd like. The service isn't limited to mere connection. There are job postings for those who would like some extra work, as well as industry experts to answer any questions you might have. Most importantly, the site isn't truly social networking - it's as professional as it gets and people know it.
Facebook
Any economics of marketing text will tell you that the 18-25 crowd has a decent cash flow and even more willingness to spend it. Basing much of its network on collegiate connection, Facebook has this group well covered, and the ranks grow larger each day. According to their site, there are over 140 million active accounts.
The site will allow anyone to create a page. Simply by entering your location and the function of your business, you are networked on searches throughout the site. Through your account, you can purchase ads that are circulated on the site based on your own marketing specifications to target users that might be interested in your business. These come with feedback and traffic monitoring tools right on the site.
MySpace
By far the world's largest social networking site, MySpace is the largest audience available through this method. Unlike Facebook, MySpace has a much less professional look and reputation. Despite that, the numbers game makes it worthwile, and it's an absolute must-have for anyone hoping to target teens.
Through your free profile, the most important thing to do is to make "Friend" connections. MySpace uses a web-like networking structure, with your profile name and icon appearing on your "Friend's" pages, giving more visibility. It's wise to send friend requests to as many people as possible - just don't go too far, or you will be flagged for spamming.
Others
There are many other options available, like Twitter, Del.icio.us, or InFlow. With the less-popular services, it's sometimes necessary to get creative in order to make them a worthwile use of your valuable time.
Twitter, for instance, lists anytime personal status updates and allows users to follow each other's dailiy activities. Describing how your time is being used, like "I'm working on spreadsheets," can spark conversations with your collegues. Updating for business activity, as in "Filling last Friday's orders," can give confidence to clients by letting them know you're on top of your work.
