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Social Networking websites are those which enable people to connect with other people to:
- meet new colleagues, friends, customers and business partners
- find entertainment
- learn new things
- share information and contacts
The most popular 'generic' websites have advertising mechanisms:
However, there are a wide range of niche social networking websites popping up everywhere on the web. These niche sites have far less members than the likes of Facebook (which has over 300 million active users) although conversely niche social networking sites allow you to get right to the market you wish to capture. Two examples are:
- OnlineRadioStations.com – a community of 46,000+ music lovers who listen to radio stations over the internet.
- FellowFisherman.com – a social network for showing off your fishing style and sharing it with friends.
Most corporate owned social networking websites offer the ability to advertise and generally work much like a PPC Campaign – you create a brief advertisement, define keywords or categories (e.g. gender), set a budget and publish your advertisement. Based on the keywords or categories you specify your ads appear on the website pages, people see your ad and click to get further information.
Apart from physical advertisements on social networking sites, there are other ways to promote your business that don't generally cost anything except time:
- creating a profile or fan page and sharing information with your customers
- posting events, videos and photos
- sharing content and articles