The goal of business owners is to make money, Right?
However, to sell the product or service that you provide
you need a way to get your message to your potential
prospects. After all customers can’t buy from you if they
don’t know that you exist.

When it comes to advertising there are many business owners who literally cringe because advertising can cost big bucks. And as a business owner you want to make money not spend it!

Although you may have to spend money to make your business what you want it to be, there are ways to promote your business and the products or services that you sell without having to spend any money on advertising.

In comes social networking…..

Did you know that a large number of Internet users, in fact millions of them, belong to at least one social networking site if not more.

Many of them are using social networks for business. In fact, that was originally how social networking got started. If you are a small business owner, especially one that operates an online business, there is a way that you can use social networking to your advantage.

Although social networking sites are traditionally focused on those that would like to make online friends or develop online relationships, there are networking sites that are designed just for business owners.

If you have a website that is selling products or services, you may find it pretty easy to use social networking sites to your advantage. This is because, if you wish, you could do product or service spotlights. Each day, week, or month, you could showcase one of the products or services that your website sells. This could either be done right on your profile page or on a blog page, which is provided by most social networking websites.

When it comes to promoting your blog on social networking websites, you have a number of different options. Your first option is to include a link to your blog in your community profile or profile page. This will allow other community members to checkout your blog, only if they wish to do so.

The other way is to inform your online friends of your blog through private messages. Once you join a social networking website and create or join a network of friends, you should easily be able to communicate with those friends. Sending each of your friends a private message with information and a link to your blog tends to be more effective than just placing a link in your profile or on your profile page.

As you can easily see, there are a number of different ways that you can promote your online website, no matter what type of website you have or what you use it for. By keeping the above mentioned points in mind, you should be able to see an increase in your page views, in no time at all.

Social networks –
Virtual communities that allow people to build personal web pages and then connect with others to share content and communication. Some of these venues appeal to broad groups, (i.e. Facebook, MySpace), whereas others are built around particular niches and demographics (i.e. LinkedIn).

Forums –
Areas for online discussion, in which multiple users can create topics of interest and then comment on these topics. Forums came about before the term “social media” and are a powerful and popular element of online communities.

Blogs
Perhaps the best known form of social media, blogs (short for web logs) are websites that typically feature posts, by an individual or group, which readers can comment upon. Blogs may vary in nature but tend to be popular, as they often provide an unvarnished, insider perspective on a particular topic.

Microblogging
social networking combined with bite-sized blogging, where small amounts of content (‘updates’) are distributed online and through the mobile phone network. Twitter is the clear leader in this field.

Content communities
Sites that allow users to post and share particular kinds of content. Such communities exist around anything from videos and photos to stories and links. Some of these sites include voting functions that allow the community to determine the relevance of content. The most popular content communities tend to form around photos ( Flickr), bookmarked links
( del.icio.us) and videos ( YouTube).

Wikis
Wikis are community-generated documents and databases. Approved users can create content and augment the content of others in the interest of creating better resources. The best-known wiki is Wikipedia.com, the online encyclopedia which has over 2 million articles in the English edition alone.

Podcasts
Audio and video files that are available by subscription, through services like Apple iTunes.

Virtual Worlds
This represents one of the most novel areas on the web, in which users can engage in immersive worlds. Some of these spaces closely mimic real-world notions such as community and economics.

FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube are definitely the top dogs when it comes to social networks, but it didn’t start there. There are hundreds of social networks on the internet. Some are very broad, like hi5 and Orkut, while others are very specific like Model Mayhem. Here are 3 social networks you should definitely know about:

1. hi5. hi5 is just like MySpace and FaceBook. It is catered towards teenagers and young adults and is very user friendly and safe. hi5 has been around just as long as MySpace has been around, and has millions of members. It is great for networking amongst friends and colleagues.
2. SoundClick. SoundClick is for musicians and you can upload and sell your music. It’s great for musicians who are trying to make their buzz bigger by allowing fans to hear all of their music. There is no upload limit, so you can just upload as many songs as you wish. It’s also a great place for listeners to find new music. SoundClick has charts, broken down to every niche genre, so you can find all the new music you want to.
3. LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a social network catered to business professionals for networking. This is great for entrepreneurs and professionals who are looking for like-minded people to conduct business with. Whether you want to start a business, want consultation, or want to find a trading partner, LinkedIn is definitely the site you should be on if you are in business.

There are so many social networks popping up everyday. Ning.com allows users to create their own social networks on topics which they choose. Odds are that if you have an idea of a social network you would like to join, there is one available out there. A simple Google search should help you find it!