If you’re hunting for new business, aim for social networking sites. Forget cold calls, the new way to get in touch with clients is through social networking websites such as LinkedIn, MySpace and Facebook.

Small businesses are rapidly venturing into social networks, providing a prime opportunity for promotional consultants to reach new prospects. Twenty-eight percent of small-business owners have registered for at least one social networking site, according to research from Warrillow & Co.

They’re logging on to:

Classmates.com (18%),

LinkedIn (15%),

MySpace (14%)

and Facebook (10%)

The No. 1 reason these companies are logging on is for personal use (52%), followed by marketing or promoting a business by creating a profile page (49%) and peer-to-peer dialogue  (37%). So how can you use social networks to connect with small businesses? Dan Nye, LinkedIn CEO, says the first step is to leverage your company’s employee base, encouraging staffers to create profiles and engage in dialogue with customers. “Your employees’ profiles are part of your brand,” says Nye.

This is why, to be consistent, companies should issue guidelines on how to create profiles. IBM Corp., which has about 116,000 employees registered on LinkedIn, and Microsoft Corp., with about 25,000 staff members registered on the site, have established rules for employees to follow when creating profile pages.Another strategy for using social networking sites is setting up polls and Q&A features (such as LinkedIn Answers) to show your promotional products expertise and address customer needs.

Nye says a key strategy with these websites is adding value to the community. Southwest Airlines has posed the question, “How could an airline make your travel more productive?,” and solicited feedback in order to learn how to improve. Nye says companies must be proactive when it comes to dialogues among customers on social networks. “With community, someone can be your biggest advocate or your biggest adversary,” he says. Have you explored social networking sites to help build your client base?

Source: BtoBonline.com