Social Networking for Business

In the past, how do organizations drive traffic to their business? Radio jingles, TV commercials, bill boards, newspaper ads, and other crude unrefined means just to get the targets tilt their preference towards the organization’s business over its competitors’.
With internet connection now rampant in almost every nook and cranny the world over thanks to mobile computing platforms such as mobile phones, organizations now have websites to showcase their business offerings and company information where targets can access the organization’s information 24/7, hence the now common practice to see on every business card, the website of an organization printed on it for prospective clients to visit and gather more information. This has however gone further with organizations using 3rd party websites such as alibaba.com to promote, advertise and create global awareness of their business.
Social networking sites have also created a platform for organizations to even generate more awareness of their businesses at next to no cost. It is estimated that there are over 500 million users on facebook of which over 4 million are Nigerians and over 175 million twitter users of which over 1.5 million are Nigerians who access their accounts every hour via computers and mobile phones which is even more widely used due to its mobility and ease of access.
A social networking site as the name implies is a platform created for people to interact and network across borders as obviously boundaries dont exist on the World Wide Web, hence people can find long lost friends and families using social networking sites, while making new friends. These have however evolved as we now see advertisements on these sites due to the high volume of traffic they command. People now see it as a means to be known, especially celelbrities who now see followership of their celebrity brand on social networking sites as a status symbol.
Social netowkring sites go a long way in promoting businesses with advertisements, and providing direct interaction between organizations and their targets and present customers. it provides visibliity to the millions of users available on these sites and also comes in as a medium of interaction between the organizations and their target markets.
Organizations, multinationals and NGOs including banks and airlines have seen this as a means to drive traffic to their websites as they now have in their commercials and ads the words “follow us on twitter” or “like us on Facebook” to draw targets to these social sites. Even news magazines, TV and radio stations are not left out as they see it as an opportunity to catch those of their audience who are not available to view their programs as it is aired. NGOs, sports clubs and even religious organizations have a presence on these sites as a medium to reach out to their congregation.
Therefore even with its perceived draw backs, a social network presence aside the regular website presence is a quality medium to increase awareness of an organization’s brand or image.