Proactive Public Relations - 3 Reasons You Cannot Dismiss Social Networking As a Fad

Public Relations and marketing must be proactively planned for in your business. Without planning your approach will be haphazard at best and you will not be able to accurately measure the success of the tactics that you are utilising.

When you are planning your PR and marketing you cannot dismiss the power and opportunity that comes from social networking. Social networking is not a fad and it is here to stay. This article contains three reasons why this is so. You should not dismiss the opportunity that these free tools offer you to market your business to more people on a more personal level. You can proactively build your brand and the level of trust associated with your business.

Social networking is extremely popular and this popularity is growing- Recent statistics show that there are over 500 million registered accounts with Facebook- the most popular of the networking sites. More people are signing up every day and there are also other increasingly popular sites including Twitter and, LinkedIn and Foursquare. You may find that not all of these sites are relevant for your business but chances are that a large chunk of your target audience is using at least one of these websites.

Social networking allows for a two way, many-to-many conversation- A many-to-many conversation is not necessarily a bad thing for your business. It is not something that you should be scared of. If you empower your greatest fans to talk about you with their friends your message can spread virulently in a way that could never have happened before in history. Empower your greatest fans and watch the $$$$ come rolling in.

Facebook has the added benefit of the news feed- I am a big fan of Facebook. It is my favourite social networking site. My favourite feature of Facebook is the news feed where your 'friends,' those who you have connected with, are updated any time you do some activity. Each time one of your fans interacts with something in your group or on your Fan Page this will appear in their news feed and the news feed of their friends. This can potentially place your business in front of hundreds or thousands of further potential customers.

Social networking is no fad. It is here to stay and it's popularity and pervasiveness will only grow. These websites provide a great opportunity for your business to interact with your target audience- to grow your influence and grow your bottom line.

Hamish Jones is the founder of Best Business Deals. Check out the blog for more advice on social networking for your business.