7Productive Uses Of Social Networks

The most valuable thing you can put into your business is your time. This is because to make money you need time. However most of our time is pent on social networks and TV. Here’s a list that will show you how you can productively make use of your time without feeling like you’ve wasted it on social networks.

1. Business – Networking

Getting a deal is all about knowing the right people, and if somebody that you went to school with owns a multimillion dollar business and your company do what he is looking for, a social network is where you’ll find them.

2. Marketing

There are many success stories of people who made a success of their businesses through social networks. Such as Dell and their recent Internet Marketing strategy. Their outlet site sells refurbished PCs, and they post details about the newest ones on their Twitter feed. They also post special offers just for Twitter users, and they send information about sales, along with discount vouchers to their Twitter followers. The company has generated $6.5million in revenue from this venture.

3. Connecting with customers

With the rise of Internet Marketing, social media is being embraced by businesses more and more. Innovative ways of utilising these tools by connecting directly with customers are being found. Companies are seeing that the best way to conduct themselves online is to speak to their customers directly using these social networking sites, Twitter being especially useful for this. It increases the reputation of the company, gets them positive reviews and shows that they really care about the customer. It also gives a human face to the large corporation, meaning that customers or potential customers will feel much more comfortable coming back.

4. Purely Personal Reasons

The main reason for social networks existing in the first place was for personal reasons. The majority of people using Facebook or Myspace keep to the “social” label. It is used for its original purpose – to keep in touch with friends. Some people will go on simply to update their status or view their friends’ statuses, or to look at photos from the weekend’s night out. Some use it to connect to people they’ve met, a potential girlfriend/boyfriend perhaps, or someone who shares the same interests.

5. Staying informed

Some people like to stay in touch with current news and following pages such as news24 keeps them informed on news around the world and locally. News sites and channels have become prominent on social networks because they too know that this is where people spend most of their time, so why not take the news to the people as opposed to making them wait for the 7o’clock news?

6. Entertainment

Going hand in hand with the ‘social’ element of Social Networking, people sometimes go on purely for entertainment purposes. Myspace is a prime example of this, as many famous artists have been discovered through these sites . Music is a big part but also videos, such as Youtube viral offerings, are easily spread on social networking sites.

7. Creating awareness for a cause

Facebook has a feature that allows you to create a page and invite people onto it. This feature could be used in creating awareness for a cause of your choice. The page can also be used as a fundraising tool or as a start up for a new business.

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