With web 2.0 and social networking, you can expand your business and gain new social contacts by making connections through other people. It refers to structural characteristics such as proximity to others, frequency of social contact and the type of relationship one is in. Social networks are both a collection of ties between people and the strength of those ties. Social networking establishes organized Internet communities that help people make contacts that can be good for them to know, but that they were unlikely to have known otherwise. This is owing to the fact that social networking is viral in nature. Joe knows Sue, Sue knows Mary, Mary knows Bob, and it just keeps growing.

Through social networking sites people not only interact to each other, they also share photos, music, TV clips, likes and dislikes. In this way social networks are used by companies in order to promote their brands or products. By getting to know your target audience you may make better use af your advertising because you can get to know their habits and what types of products that they would prefer. This can save you countless hours trying to sell the wrong product to your audience. Joining a social networking site is one of the best and easiest ways of advertising your business absolutely free. It is a great method of increasing your client base and you are not even restricted by geographical boundaries. So while you can make a community of local businesses in order to garner your local target customer, you can also join communities of other similar businesses in order to be visible to the overseas buyer who is in another country or continent.

There are several advantages of social networking in any internet marketing campaign.

-Most social networking and web 2.0 websites are free of charge, so there is less economic strain when you are trying to gain a larger target audience.

-This is a great word of mouth promotion. The internet is a vast and potentially powerful tool when dealing with the masses.

-People who use social networking and web 2.0 as a promotion tool, have total power over the style and image that that they create for themselves.

However, you need to aware of the obvious disadvantages of a social networking exercise before you venture into it -

-The target audience is not always selective and there can be a distinct lack of privacy.

-If not used properly to build a positive image it can be your downfall, as word of mouth can also be viewed as a negative reaction if the niche groups are not harmonious. It can be very difficult to retract a negative image from the public.