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The Best Social Media Sites For Business

May 12, 2011 By VernMarker 44 Comments

This is a guest post by guest author Vern Marker.

BIA Kelsey Use of Social Media Is Widespread
Image Credit: BIA Kelsey Social Local Media Advisory Service ~ Click Image to see full size

The challenges facing business today, everyday, are not so dissimilar from those a generation or two or three ago. The equation is actually rather simple. Open a business which performs some sort of service or sells products. The delivery of those products or services may be to consumers or perhaps other businesses. Once the capital has been invested and time taken to develop plans of action the company needs one single, crucial element in order to have a fighting chance of staying in business and succeeding.

What is that all-important aspect which is required for success? The customer. Ever since the concept of charging for one’s wares came into existence, the concept of having someone to sell to was along for the ride.

In today’s business world there are fancy, intellectual names assigned to the various aspects of how companies and customers are co-dependent upon each other. Here are but a few:

  • Customer Relationship Management
  • Customer Acquisition
  • Practice Management
  • Customer Services
  • Consumer Satisfaction
  • Client Retention

Somewhere along the evolutionary line of business development the saying “The customer is always right” came about, perhaps much to the chagrin of those providing customer services. Today, it might be more accurate to say the customer is always right, sometimes. Some may be more right than others.

So how is it that modern businesses employing the Internet with its vast spectrum of resources can figure out which clients are the most right, which need a bit of hand holding, and which customers should be fired altogether?

Enter the opportunity presented by social media websites. Just 5 or so years ago, these online destinations were in their infancy and really hadn’t started maturing to the level of becoming viable business resources. Today, one might have to look far and wide for an individual who has not heard the likes of Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, to name a few of the most popular social sites online.

Even though these communities have been built and millions of users have come, are they necessarily required for the successful use by businesses large or small? The challenge faced is determining where to put ones business budget in order to see a quality return on investment of both time as well as money.

With few exceptions, creating and maintaining a presence on Facebook has almost become the default standard any business or organization must undertake. The great news here is that the communities using this social site count into the hundreds of millions, are located around the planet, but also have the distinct flavor found in local community organizations.

Twitter can be effectively used by many businesses provided they exhibit just a bit of restraint. When a tweet comes from a business it should either be about helping its current customers – or on a very limited basis be marketing deals or great opportunities. As soon as the volume of Twitter messages becomes overwhelming, followers will block the business from sending anything more to their message list.

For companies dealing mostly with other business, LinkedIn should not be passed by.  Also, human resources professionals can find tens of thousands of potential candidates for job openings within this social community.

One interesting area of social media which has been growing rapidly for only a couple of years is called geo-local services. Essentially, these websites are using services like Twitter to broadcast a user’s physical location to their friends and followers.

From a business perspective, geolocal social sites provide members with access to specials and great deals only found when using the social community service. Additionally, users can easily send messages to their friends located close by, effectively bringing you more business.

The best advice to give curious businesses considering social media sites is do the work. Once a platform has been chosen, become effectively active. Not too much, not too little. Provide real answers to those asking questions about the company’s products and services. Though determining ROI precisely can be a challenge, the word of mouth generated by social media is inexpensive, and can be quite effective.

Vern Marker is a freelance writer who is currently working on a project to create forms, which will allow him to edit pdf pages

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Filed Under: Small Business Advice, Social Media Networking SMM, Twitter Tagged With: facebook for business, social media, social media for business, social media sites, twitter for business

Comments

  1. Gary Stewart says

    March 20, 2012 at 1:51 am

    I absolutely agree that social media is an appropriate way to share your business. Less hassle, convenient and it’s really helping. Yes i agree with the other who says that you must then be active in that social media you have been registered.

    Reply
  2. Ellie says

    December 23, 2011 at 9:52 pm

    Twitter, WordPress blogs, and Facebook combine for an unbeatable business combination.
    Ellie would love you to read ..Anxiety Attack CureMy Profile

    Reply
  3. Assaf says

    December 16, 2011 at 8:19 am

    It is kind of a generalizing to set the “Best SM for business”… I mean every business has its own unique needs, and depending on the defined targeted audience that the business owner wants to reach, the social media should be picked.

    So the general rule, where a business owner would like to have presence is to look where his/her targeted audience are at and then make an effort to be a significant player in that social media site.
    Assaf would love you to read ..Kollagen Intensiv™ Downsides and AdvantagesMy Profile

    Reply
  4. Joe Anderson says

    November 22, 2011 at 1:11 am

    I guess I’m not speaking from complete experience, but I would say that online marketing is not nearly the challenge of traditional marketing. Just look at all the avenues you’ve listed in just one post!

    Reply
  5. Johnson.J says

    October 21, 2011 at 2:19 am

    Depends on what you mean by business opportunities and exactly who the market is. Facebook does seem to have a good handle on very targeted advertising. For example, I put into my profile that one of my hobbies is sewing and now I get ads for fabric. I think that’s very clever because those ads actually interest me! It’s not based on my broad-based demographics like my age or income- although I get that too. For example, the other day there were anti wrinkle cream ads (based on my age I guess) and and ad for the Killers (based on my ‘alternative music” profile I think) . But there are limits to how businesses can use this information. Not many people will tell you their hobby is CRM mgt. Certainly LinkedIn is a great business networking site.

    Twitter is interesting. There are people who follow me and I don’t know why. I follow people/groups that interest me. But it’s not a destination like Facebook and LinkedIn. I use Facebook for personal use, LinkedIn for business and Twitter cause I’m trying to figure out what it can really do. Myspace seems to be the music destination and YouTube the video one. Sites like Classmates and Reunion (now MyLife.com) seem to have focused on selling premium memberships rather than building value in the site on its own merits. LinkedIn provides a lot of value even without a premium.

    Reply
  6. Tom Gray says

    October 21, 2011 at 2:24 am

    A copied comment spammer left this excerpt from Tom Gray’s Evolving Internet Marketer blog. It was such an interesting suggestion that I kept part of the excerpt and linked to the source.

    “I believe that the basic 4 are LinkedIn.com, Naymz.com, Ecademy.com, and Facebook.com. That is where everyone needs to start. Then the blogging and micro-blogging sites like twitter.com and plurk.com are wonderful to building relationships and credibility.

    I believe that each person has to find their favorite or most comfortable site to dig in and network and do their business the most good. Realtors have activerain.com, for example. Professional speakers do well with speakersite.com. There are so many.

    Because I use social media every day, youtube.com and blogtalkradio.com are critical to my success, and the networking aspect is wonderful on both of them.

    Using feeds from your twitter, your blog, and youtube for example, can update your profiles on many sites even if you do not visit that often.”

    Visit his post at the link above to read the rest.
    Tom Gray would love you to read ..By: henryMy Profile

    Reply
  7. Danny says

    September 17, 2011 at 11:06 pm

    I still see social media like FB more like an extra service. Making it a bit easier for the customer to get an answer.
    If people don’t know you then they won’t find your fb page that easily.
    It helps when people like and become a fan of your business page. But for that to happen there should be a good relationship between you and the customer already.
    Though internet visibility is very important, so if you have the time it’s an easy thing you can do.
    Danny would love you to read ..Remington RM1015P 10-Inch 8 Amp Electric Pole chain SawMy Profile

    Reply
  8. BASATI says

    July 5, 2011 at 11:48 am

    Now that google has new fb like feature. I think Fb will begin another additional features in their site. This is good for business owners to reach more people .

    Reply
  9. KarenSaulmy says

    June 11, 2011 at 6:29 am

    I am old school, I had the new world where talking and writing proper english have been replaced by texting in a foreign language (LOL). Oh the irony
    KarenSaulmy would love you to read ..treatment for hemorrhoidsMy Profile

    Reply
  10. Adam says

    June 8, 2011 at 12:15 am

    Why digg is not on the least, to my surprise ! I having much success in posting @ Digg than in FB. Or is it only me :p
    Adam would love you to read ..Airplane Simulator GamesMy Profile

    Reply
  11. Anthony says

    May 29, 2011 at 9:00 am

    Hi,
    Very nice covering topic. I am not at all surprised that Facebook is at the top and in a higher rank than twitter. This is only because Facebook attracts people from all over the world by its varieties of applications and for “easy to use” feature. It’s very easy to make friends there. It makes every thing much easier and faster.It shows what a good social media site should be. Thanks for sharing.
    Anthony would love you to read ..Making a DIY Chicken Coop – How BigMy Profile

    Reply
  12. Alice says

    May 28, 2011 at 5:59 pm

    Although Twitter is good for the business exposure, I like Facebook more. It is because most of my traffic came from Facebook. I haven’t tried e-mail marketing and other social networks strategy. I like the idea that the customer is important aspect which is required for success.
    Alice would love you to read ..5 Lottery TipsMy Profile

    Reply
  13. Peter says

    May 26, 2011 at 2:26 pm

    Seth Godin has answered the question of Social Media and businesses recently. Just go to youtube and search for it. His answer is quite enlightening!

    Reply
  14. Dave says

    May 17, 2011 at 3:00 pm

    Nice article. We try and use all avenues for several different businesses, including facebook, twitter, blogs, local services, and commenting on others blogs. We communicate a lot.

    Of the businesses this one has the most facebook followers. We were surprised to here from a marketing firm that is a 3rd party fb ad seller that haven broken over 1,000 followers we have hit a threshold that is difficult to achieve. Didn’t know that. I’ll say this it took over 1.5 years of consistent work. A 2nd thing we noticed is that we appear to have more fb fans than any other such business. It takes a lot of work and time. That is the biggest difficulty from the perspective of the business.

    In this business type, to date, we have found that the most important element is our website. Its where intent comes in from people thinking about the service. We link back and forth between the site and the fb page. Traffic of some levels flow between the 2 sites.

    Frankly we are very much on a learning, evolving path…..and expect to be in that capacity for some time.

    Nice article

    Reply
  15. Christopher says

    May 17, 2011 at 9:47 am

    Wow! To be honest I would have thought Twitter would have been more popular than Facebook, how wrong I was!

    Your last paragraph is just a fantastic block of really useful advice 😉

    Great article – interesting and informative!
    Christopher – Technology Bloggers Admin Team

    Reply
    • Andrew says

      May 19, 2011 at 4:46 am

      I am not surprised that Facebook is at the tops but i am expecting a higher rank for twitter… Anyway, whatever is first or second, social media as a whole made business operations a lot easier and faster.

      Reply
  16. Tony says

    May 15, 2011 at 4:31 am

    Facebook now become the #1 social media and there are a lot of free traffic that you can have by many ways. Why not try it ?

    Reply
  17. moses says

    May 14, 2011 at 5:31 am

    Social media z the perfect way to increase website traffic!

    Reply
  18. Steve says

    May 13, 2011 at 12:12 pm

    I am actually a little surprised at how low twitter scored. I would have thought that (done by your stated guidelines) Twitter would have a far greater reach into business.

    Perhaps this shows that there is still a lot of opportunity to really make a mark on twitter
    Steve would love you to read ..How a Single File Manages an Entire Internet BusinessMy Profile

    Reply
    • Jenny says

      May 14, 2011 at 7:59 pm

      Steve, the reason for this is because Twitter is highly prevalent in all industries where most of the participants are tech savvy. If you think about the whole spectrum the results seem about right to me.

      [Sorry, Jenny. Gambling related sites including Bingo are considered “bad neighborhoods” which non-gambling related sites need to avoid. I don’t suppose you have any other sites that would not be bad neighborhoods?]

      Reply
  19. Ashley K. Edwards says

    May 13, 2011 at 12:34 pm

    @Social Puma It will change in the future, and probably fairly quickly! That’s why it’s so important to keep up with trends, articles, news and information. But it’s fun!

    Reply
  20. Ashley K. Edwards says

    May 13, 2011 at 12:33 pm

    @seocoaches Well, it can be a time drain, sure, but worth it in the long run. The way I see it, too, is even if a customer/client says something “bad,” it’s an opportunity to interject yourself into the conversation and rectify the situation. It’s really nothing new (e.g., mail/letters, telephone, e-mail, etc.); now we’re just afforded the luxury of talking directly to customers.

    Reply
  21. John says

    May 13, 2011 at 11:43 am

    I just love how social media marketing works for my business. I bet a lot of small business owners love it too. No wonder why Facebook ranks at the top. Social media marketing through Facebook is sky rocketing in just a matter of few years. Amazing!

    Reply
  22. Zone says

    May 13, 2011 at 11:41 am

    Twitter is the best social site for marketing 🙂
    Zone would love you to read ..HTC Flyer is available for Europe todayMy Profile

    Reply
  23. Shivam Garg says

    May 13, 2011 at 11:30 am

    Hey Vern,
    Nice stats there.I feel that social media is going to be a dominant force in business in the near future.It has so many features that we can utilize it anywhere in the market.

    Reply
  24. Ashley K. Edwards says

    May 13, 2011 at 7:22 am

    Also, I’m not sure I 100% agree with @laforge129. At this stage in the game I think social media should be a natural integration with all marketing efforts, therefore not necessarily “second.”

    Reply
  25. Ashley K. Edwards says

    May 13, 2011 at 7:21 am

    “Once a platform has been chosen, become effectively active. Not too much, not too little. Provide real answers to those asking questions about the company’s products and services.” I think this is the best advice in the entire piece. There’s nothing worse than a dormant Twitter or Facebook profile…particularly if it’s a company’s!

    Social Media can be a very effective means to acquire/retain business, as long as it remains authentic and transparent.

    Reply
  26. John says

    May 13, 2011 at 9:57 am

    Although digg is not listed above but it is also a good network. I use digg and consider it better than any other.
    John would love you to read ..How to Keep a Man InterestedMy Profile

    Reply
  27. Jeff says

    May 13, 2011 at 8:13 am

    Great post. While we are not as powerful or influential as twitter/facebook heck us out at FoundTown (www.foundtown.com) We recently expanded outside of our beta cities and provide a platform for businesses to create a social profile in their city – hyperlocal aggregation of social updates from local businesses..

    Would love feedback..

    Reply
  28. nazimwarriach says

    May 13, 2011 at 5:48 am

    Hi Vern,
    Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Blogs are top social networks used for present day businesses.
    Thumbs up
    nazimwarriach would love you to read ..Joby CouponMy Profile

    Reply
  29. Kelly says

    May 13, 2011 at 5:28 am

    I think companies should look at social media and how best it fits with their company, although I agree Facebook is the most popular – it might not fit with every company. As mentioned above already I am surprised LinkedIn doesn’t rate higher – I would be interested to see a comparable now, 6 months on, to see whether anything has changed.

    Reply
  30. Mani Viswanathan says

    May 12, 2011 at 11:22 pm

    Facebook is certainly the leader now. But I would love to see LinkedIN coming into Business as it is a professional network for a reason.
    Mani Viswanathan would love you to read ..5 DoFollow Blogging Community Sites to Submit your Blog PostsMy Profile

    Reply
  31. Vi says

    May 12, 2011 at 4:17 pm

    What are “other social networks” in the chart?

    Reply
  32. Denver says

    May 12, 2011 at 3:18 pm

    The conclusion nailed it. You have to be active with social media or its never going to do anything. And its not just something your marketing intern can handle on a part time basis. It needs to be a priority for someone to make it effective.

    Reply
  33. Marcus says

    May 12, 2011 at 5:10 pm

    I am not surprise with facebook being on top. Facebook is so huge with thousands of new users who are registering on the site daily. It’s simply amazing. Pretty soon facebook will outgrow Google in terms of traffic. The companies or organizations that do not adapt facebook into their marketing plan is bound to fail sooner or later.

    Reply
  34. Petra says

    May 12, 2011 at 12:00 pm

    “Twitter can be effectively used by many businesses provided they exhibit just a bit of restraint. When a tweet comes from a business it should either be about helping its current customers – or on a very limited basis be marketing deals or great opportunities.” – I’m not sure whether I fully agree with this statement. It is important to tweet about these things you mention, but I think it’s equally important to tweet interesting area-specific articles/information. For example, I work for a software company. I don’t limit myself to tweeting solely about our company and the software products we offer, but like to find interesting articles about technology, social media, etc, too. It’s important to promote your business, but it’s equally important to let your personality show and have fun (and let your customers know you have fun and enjoy what you do).

    Reply
  35. Dneprolab says

    May 12, 2011 at 11:30 am

    For me the main social websites Facebook and twitter. maybe because of my niche (Forex) social bookmarks and SN are not so useful.

    Reply
  36. Uttoran Sen says

    May 12, 2011 at 10:40 am

    good to see social media sites influence business so much on the internet, facebook is popular anyway and deserve the top spot, however i guess linkedin and twitter will increase further and take up the 2nd and 3rd soon.

    In the past when social media circled around digg, choices were very narrow, however in the present times it is not just available in plenty, it is absolutely affordable as well.
    Uttoran Sen would love you to read ..How to take your MedicineMy Profile

    Reply
  37. Chris says

    May 12, 2011 at 10:03 am

    It is certainly interesting how social sites have taken us by storm. I saw a recent poll about how we communicate with friends and family and the number one was facebook, followed by text messaging, email and then a distant fourth was via phone. Quite a dramatic shift from only a few years ago!
    Chris would love you to read ..1965 VW Bus for Sale- California 21-Window BusMy Profile

    Reply
    • Paula says

      June 3, 2011 at 2:02 pm

      It’s so strange when you think about it that a couple years ago when you wanted to talk with someone you had only the old-school telephone and you didn’t even know if you could catch your friend home answering.. So many things changed…

      Reply
  38. Paul Sylvester says

    May 12, 2011 at 2:57 pm

    Social media is something that should be consider as a second way to market but I like the fact that you can market through SEO links. It seems that works better for me!!

    Reply
  39. Jake says

    May 12, 2011 at 2:15 pm

    I use Facebook for my local real estate business and I have seen an incredible amount of growth just from Facebook! I agree with the chart!
    Jake would love you to read ..Rapid Cash Tornado BonusMy Profile

    Reply
  40. John Soares says

    May 12, 2011 at 11:01 am

    I’m not surprised to see Facebook at #1. Several local businesses in my rural area of northern California make really good use of Facebook, especially restaurants.

    I’m a bit surprised that LinkedIn doesn’t make the list. I’ve been putting more effort there lately and it’s starting to pay off.

    Reply
  41. Bruce says

    May 12, 2011 at 10:40 am

    Nice Post!

    I still can’t get some of my SEO customers to create (or let me do it) Facebook pages – they worry about the time-drain and the risk of getting a bad reputation via bad customer complaints.
    How to convince them it REALLY is worthwhile?

    Reply

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