As reiterated in previous posts, one of the new avenues that a small business may use to keep up with their bigger counterparts when it comes to advertising is internet marketing. Simply creating a profile in one of such sites would help in boosting a consumer’s knowledge about a company’s products or services.
However, as with all tools based on web development, there are advantages and disadvantages to using them. As such, a small business owner would be wise to heed some warnings and learn about the things to avoid when exposing his business to social networking sites.
One of the most crucial steps before utilizing social networking sites is to actually choose which site to use for advertising. Aside from the fact that some sites are not equipped to handle developing a good page for advertising, some of them can actually hurt small businesses. Some sites are filled with SEO made fake profiles that people do not visit them anymore. On the other hand, sites such as Facebook or even Myspace have good group sections that can help boost the company’s popularity.
Another thing that small business owners should take into consideration is that creating an online presence is not a one-time thing. More often than not, the usual action is that the owners of the small business create one, enjoy the initial success that it gets, and then leave it and lets it be. However, this action can make the company prone to attacks by bad comments and other negative publicity. The small business owner should be on top of this and be able to answer and fend off these kinds of attacks.
While the fact that social networking sites are definitely filled with positive things for a small business, one must always remember that it is not a magic bullet for all the company’s needs. They must always try to work on improving and developing their online presence.
