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Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Networking Sites for Free Advertising

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With the vast growth of Internet use nowadays, business advertising has enjoyed a more advanced phase. There are more options to advertise. You have wider selection for media, advertising cost, advertising purpose, and market range. The challenge is to find which one to focus and set as priority. Among the many options, social networking site has turned out to be one of the most promising media today. The advantages can be substantial if businesses utilize them optimally, while the drawbacks can be tactical.

With the vast growth of Internet use nowadays, business advertising has enjoyed a more advanced phase. There are more options to advertise. You have wider selection for media, advertising cost, advertising purpose, and market range. The challenge is to find which one to focus and set as priority. Among the many options, social networking site has turned out to be one of the most promising media today. The advantages can be substantial if businesses utilize them optimally, while the drawbacks can be tactical.

1. Social networking sites are great for building customer relationship. It is so easy to interact with customers at social sites. You basically need to set up accounts at popular social sites, gather the community or customers of your product, provide relevant and useful information, and update the networks regularly. Customers will be pleased to join the community as they regard it as a place to share their experience and find relevant information about their purchase. Once the community is set, you can add more features such as poll, question and answer, discussion, and review. The more you can engage the people, the deeper they will feel the personal attachment to your product. Social networking sites are really powerful to serve for building customer relationship. In long term, your business will build better customer loyalty.

2. Social networking sites are great for attracting more customers. The network is unlimited. If a customer is connected to you, his/her family or friends will be able to see the information about your business in the account as well. You know words of mouth spread quickly. The network can soon grow wider and even more. Also, many social sites have integrated widgets and features that help businesses to promote their products and services. There are fan box, fan page, profile badge, customized link, collaborated features that enhance the methods of updating information, and many other examples. You should make the most of them the exposure is unlimited!

3. Social sites can increase leads and sales. You put the relevant links to your business on your profile. If there is information about new products, special offers, or others that encourage purchase, your customers can react soon and take actions. As social site has become a considerable part of most people's life nowadays, they are online for hours in a week doing activities and interact with their network. By updating the vital information at social site accounts, you present the news directly in front of their walls and profiles. The chance to be read is much better than if you post on the traditional methods of advertising.

4. Social sites are not that effective for building brand awareness. This is true, unless your business has been long enough to be remembered by consumers. They mainly work for attracting new customers, increasing sales, and providing customer service. Brand awareness is usually built through big advertisement on TV, banners, newspapers, and other repeated ads which focus mainly on the brand. However, social sites help to build brand awareness indirectly, especially through long term satisfaction and influence of community. This is the most obvious disadvantage of social sites. But even businesses should no regard it as big constraint.

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