Benefits from Social Networking
A Social Network will enable your company to provide your target audience with the tools to interact and communicate while bringing several advantages to the company.
Social networking Web sites leverage Web 2.0 technology and rich and personalized user-generated content, to create what Tim O’Reilly has labelled “architectures of participation”. With social networking sites, the two-way Web has morphed into a massively interconnected Web in which value is built upon the relationships among users and the content they’ve contributed.
Every person who has experienced the benefits of a Social Network easily realizes the following benefits:
- Increase Traffic According to data from industry researchers, in 2006 online social networking became the highest-traffic category of Web site. In the UK, member community sites attract over half of the Internet population and almost 1.8 billion pages are viewed every month. (Nielsen//Netratings, 2006-02-06)
- Brand Loyalty and Awareness Five of the top ten fastest growing Web brands are social networking sites. As members of a Social Network spend time on the site, exposure of the company increases towards its members. In addition to regular ad campaigns, there are many possible ways of promoting the company on the site and capitalize on the high exposure.
- Knowledge from Communities According to Forrester Research, both younger and older consumers are paying attention to their online peers: 75% of online adult consumers and 92% of online youth use one or more forms of user-generated online content, including blogs, wikis, message boards, and online classified ads. Through a branded community, members will have greater opportunities to interact and communicate with their peers and suppliers, providing companies deep insight into customer needs and improving the relevance of product marketing.
- Marketing and Advertising Through viral marketing and community, social networks cultivate large audiences quickly, allowing site owners to, in turn, generate revenues through online advertising and sponsorships. Social-networking sites entice users to spend considerable time and view many page views, and many sites are seeing those numbers increase. This improves the vital statistics which are often the fundamental issues for advertisers when making their decisions.
- Customers’ insight Members of a Social Network are required to provide information about themselves in order to create a personal profile in the network. This information does not only include personal details such as gender or age, but also likes and dislikes, interests etc. Each network specifies what information shall be mandatory, and in that way control what will be stored in the database. The database can prove to be an invaluable asset when it comes to gather and analyze information.
- Direct Revenues Social Networks can build revenues from advertising as mentioned before, but also from membership fees. Each network can define what each type of member group have to pay in order to get access to different parts of the Social Network. It is possible to give access to search lists, but impose a fee for those who whish to search or add classifieds.
- Market Differentiation Every Social Network helps any company to differentiate itself from competitors, and also provide a competitive edge that may be crucial in a business of fierce competition.