Social networking has become a huge part of people’s lives in the last 5 years with Facebook and Twitter in the forefront. People now use social networking sites to communicate, discover and get their news. If your business isn’t using social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook then you are losing hundreds if not thousands of potential customers.

One of the best forms of advertising is word of mouth, Twitter and Facebook utilize this. How do you choose where to take your business, by price, location or maybe by recommendations? Many of us will take recommendations from our friends and family, the people we trust. If you friend or family member has had a good customer experience with a business then he/she is likely to mention it to their friends and family, and considering many people communicate online and through social media you can’t afford not to be involved with Twitter or Facebook.

So through word of mouth over social networking sites you can quickly build up a happy client list. Let me give you an example of what I mean, If I want to eat at a new restaurant I will check for reviews online, like many people would by typing the restaurant into Google, if the reviews are mainly positive that’s great, but what I’m really looking for is a Twitter or Facebook page, it means that customers enjoyed the restaurant so much they took the time to go to Twitter or Facebook and follow or “Like” them.

Having a Facebook or Twitter account also means that you can stay in constant communication with all your clients, both current and potential, you can send out messages and emails with all your latest deals and promotions completely free. This form of advertising is fantastic because you are penetrating a specific demographic, if you send out flyers or put an ad in your local paper all you are doing is “scattergun advertising” (randomly advertising) meaning you are advertising to all demographics, but through social media you can advertise to people who you know are interested in your business because they have visited before.

People have hundreds of friends online so when they “Like” or follow your business some of their friends will be notified, so from that one person you can grab several of their online friends, and all this for doing absolutely nothing, that is the power of the internet, it never sleeps so your business will be advertising 24/7.