Ask a Website Design Company ^BETA

25 March 2009
Social networking and social media is the new word of mouth. On how technology evolved in the last few years it have change the way we socialize. Before you have to go to your friends house to play poker, today you can just get on Facebook and play poker with your friends online. With social networking or social media it doesn't limit you just to your neighbors and friends but it gives you broader audience. Sharing thoughts and experience is much easier with social networking sites with the tools they provide to you to reach other people within their network.

30 March 2009
I think it may be also worth adding that you can generate bad unmanage traffic via social networking if it is done wrong.

For example, in facebook, you hav no control over what people write, what they call their 'groups'.

Remember to be quite soecific on who you target and where they are geographically in relation to where you business is, it's the old 'think local act global' but in reverse.

Spend a fair bit of your time in building a plan of attack and monitor the social network groups you are going to target, look for trends, demographics etc and most importantly start with really small steps.

goodluck,
craig

31 March 2009
I think it depends on the nature of your business and who your customers/end users are whether Facebook and/or Twitter will be useful to you.

Here is an article which discusses how businesses can leverage themselves on Facebook:
http://www.whitepapersource.com/marketing/facebook-for-business/

And Twitter can be addictive, and it is also what I like to refer to as a Weapon of Mass Distraction.

I personally find Twitter to be more useful to network with others in my field, while I use Facebook's Pages to promote my business to potential clients.

4 April 2009
This is how you can profit with social networking sites -

* invite your customers to join your network

* join groups or networks related to your business

* join groups from your location - city / state

* take part in some social reforms / discussions

* describe your business on your public profile

* put some pictures of your stores / products/ brands etc

* update your website with your public profile

* play games / quizzes with your customers

* send them greetings - bday / aniversary / xmas / new year etc

* find more about your customers - if they are from other culture

* see your customers public profile - learn what they like / feel etc

* communicate with your customers / they might refer you to there friends or relatives

Important Things -

1. do not create a profile with your business name, use your own profile

2. do not spam the networking sites

3. stay away from bashing or public fights, be diplomatic or remain silent!

4. do not add fake profiles or prony profiles

HTH

11 May 2009
Hi Linda

Social networking and social media can benefit you in the following ways:

Brand awareness
Customer service
Increase sales

Isn't it just going to lead to lots of traffic but with no sales? In response to this question I would say that social networks are an excellent way for you to reach your customer. Whether it can lead directly to people clicking onto your website then buying depends on various matters, above anything it is an excellent way of increasing awareness of your brand.

Is it any good for my SEO? If you are looking to increase your search engine ranking then I would recommend that social networking and social media is not the route to got, however, it can play an influential role in an online marketing campaign, especially a B2C one.

Some really good fashion networks to check out Polyvore and Stylehive, they are fashion bookmarking and social networking sites.

Facebook and Bebo are still very relevant and setting up a profile can open up communication channels with your customer allowing you to provide customer service and advertise any new products.

Twitter is used by a lot of retailers and again is a great way to communicate with customers. Check out http://twitter.com/asos for fashion related tweets.

28 May 2009
Social networking at its core is about building relationships and sharing information. It is no different for businesses using these types of sites. Don't get into Twitter or Facebook with the intention of only advertising your business and selling. Your aim should be to connect with people, to interact and to build trusting relationships with them so that if down the track they do need to use a service or product like what you're providing, they'll think of you.

Sites like these, particularly Twitter, are also great for monitoring your brand and what people are saying about it.

I think if your aim is only to sell, these sites may not work for you, but if you'd like to get into them to increase brand awareness, monitor your brand and build relationships with customers and potential customers, then it's definitely worth it. I know personally I've gotten quite a few clients through social networking sites.

17 June 2009
I think that it's definitely worth it, but it may take time to see results. Personally, I think that it's more about networking with other professionals then it is with customers, but that's just for me.

However, since you have a clothing brand I'm assuming for teens and young adults? You can definitely reach that demographic through social networking, but you need to keep adding friends/contacts and talking to people.

Maybe create a little banner that links to your site and then tell your social network contacts that if they post it on their profiles they can get 15% off clothing or whatever.

I'm not going to say that your store's sales are going to explode, but it's better than doing nothing right? It's all about persistence to see results.

Good Luck

Thanks, Bryan

6 October 2009
It's all about engagement, and not about selling. Once you "get" this, social networking isn't that difficult.

If you're just starting out with Twitter, maybe take a read of a recent article we posted here:
http://www.whichwebdesigncompany.com/uk/articles/7-steps-to-twitter-success