I read a thread on Technibble today on the topic of social networking sites and whether or not using them for marketing your business was actually beneficial. The responses were somewhat mixed but the general consensus was that they are. Interestingly, the individual who posted the initial query was not a fan of sites such as Facebook and had reservations about using it for business purposes. This is not an unusual position.

I have talked with a number of tech business owners who have no interest in social networking. In their view, sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter seem to be mindless diversions or a waste of valuable time. They are also somewhat intrusive. They don’t want their personal lives publicly displayed on the net for all to see or search for on Google. They don’t want to market their businesses in a fashion that to them is perceived as “unprofessional”.

I have also talked with those who wholeheartedly embraced social networking either on a personal level, a business level, or both and who invest a lot of time daily to exploit this type of public exposure to its maximum potential. They are not afraid to Twitter the day away or publish the most mundane details of their lives on Facebook with the ultimate goal of building online relationships with family, friends, associates and complete strangers for fun, profit or both.

 I certainly do not subscribe to the notion that social networking as a marketing tool is a bad thing or a waste of time. Neither do I think it is always the best or the only way to go. I do, however, think that utilized wisely, social networking on a professional level can be a very useful and effective tool in marketing your business. The key, as I view it, is the approach.

There are businesses that do quite well with sites like Facebook and Twitter. They have developed relationships with their customers on more than just a professional level. Using social networks these relationships have become both more professional and personal in a positive way. By monitoring social networking sites these companies watch and listen to customers more closely and customers enjoy a more direct and instant communication with the companies they do business with. This one-on-one relationship is in complete contrast to the typical phone IVR and web based customer service models which typically serve to insulate companies from their customers and their needs, effectively hurting customer relationships instead of nurturing them.

Of course, not every company “gets it”. There are many businesses that jump into the social network marketing model without a clue as to how to do it right and ultimately hurt their reputations instead. This is because, as with everything else, there is a right way and a wrong way to do it.

For instance, there are a few companies I followed on Twitter that seemed to treat every “tweet” as if it were an ad. Each post was a blatant shout to buy a service or product, often in repetitive, word-for-word carbon copies. There was no useful information in the posts, no links to newsworthy or interesting blogs on a mutual topic of interest, no attempt to engage me personally in any meaningful dialogue. They were all just mindless billboards with sales pitches in 140 characters or less. These are companies I did not follow long and I did not consider to do business with.

I also heard of companies who started out with a less than stellar reputation for customer relationships and turned their reputations around with social networking. These companies followed their customers, listened to the chatter on these social networking sites from those customers who had issues with the company and then contacted those customers personally to resolve those issues and make things right. These companies were actually listening to their customers and responding to their needs. They weren’t selling to their customers, they were building relationships with them – and that is what “social networking” is all about.

There are a few companies with loyal legions of fans and followers who have built their businesses and profits through social networking. Any company can do this if they follow proper social “netiquette” and utilize social networking sites for what they were designed to be – not as conduits for commercials, but as tools for personal interaction with others.

Is social networking a good and viable marketing tool for your business? That all depends on how you use it and how you want to interact with your customers. If your goal is simply to make a quick sale and move on to the next, probably not. If, on the other hand, you’re in business for the long haul and your goal is to develop long-term, meaningful and profitable relationships and develop a loyal customer base with word-of-mouth referrals (the best kind of advertising in any book), then social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are free and powerful tools that can help you achieve that objective.