Social networking isn’t just the next big thing; it’s already the big thing! Here’s why:
It used to be called word of mouth, but the idea is that business is developed based on referrals from people you trust. So if someone has a great experience and recommends you to 10 of their friends, and those 10 recommend you to 10 of their friends, suddenly you have 100 potential customers who have heard that you’re great.
Social networking expands on that concept, in that the recommendation is spread across the internet. So instead of a thousand people hearing about how great you are, you suddenly have a potential audience of 7 billion (i.e., the number of people who use the internet, although the reality is that the actual audience will be quite a bit less).
The How part depends on the product or service that you’re offering. If you are selling things, it’s reasonably easy to add a set of share me buttons in your shop, or to particular product or promotion pages. If your service is a little more varied then it may be a little more complex.
A couple of variations are:
- Like buttons, which include things such as Google‘s +1 or Twitter’s Tweet me button. These don’t require you to do very much apart from having a button on your site.
- Facebook / Twitter logins (OpenID integration) more complex integration which can link logins from various social networks into your system. It’s a little bit more effort that can result in a big payoff.
With OpenID integration, users of Facebook and Twitter can log into your system via their respective accounts. It’s fast and efficient, and the signup is all done via the social network. From there it’s possible to set up competitions, user product reviews, discussions, you name it.
Either way, social network integration can be relatively easy and can result in a big boost to the traffic of your site! And as you know, more traffic equals more sales!
If you’re interested in discussing how social networking can benefit you, please contact us and our friendly staff will be more than happy to have a chat.
