Firstly let's think about social networks generally and what their aims are. The best way to think about this is that they are similar to search engines where they want to make the best content available to users. However the value of the content is determined by the popularity from its members and not from a mathematical algorithm. For examples the articles with the largest number of diggs will find themselves on the front page of Digg.com.

I hear you asking, how can this benefit my business? Well let's think about what social networks can bring you, firstly they can bring valuable exposure and so increasing traffic to your site. They also can bring more back links to your site and so helping to improve your search engine ranking which in turn will bring more traffic to your site, which is the aim of the game.

Now I bet your thinking, how can I take advantage of these opportunities? Well it is very simple really and below are the main steps to using social networks to improve the profile of your business:

1.Research the sites you want to use. There are the obvious ones in MySpace, Facebook and Digg but there may also be some that are business specific and industry specific.

2.Once you have decided on your sites then you will need to set up a profile. Make sure this includes as much interesting information on your company as possible and includes a link back to your website.

3.Now you need to make connections. Firstly start by finding old friends from school, university and previous jobs. It is also a good idea to search for people that are interested in areas that are related to your business and try and build relationships with them.

4.Get yourself seen. A good way to do this is to go to Forums on your selected sites and join in discussions. If people are having problems that you can help with make every effort to help them, remember to include a link to your site. This will not only increase the validity of you and your business but will also increase your connections on these sites.

5.Update your profile regularly. Many social networking sites will send a notice to your friends if your profile has been updated and as people are naturally nosey many will come to see what you have done which will increase the coverage you get.

6.Send out announcements to your friends. If you have some company news or you have a special offer it might be worth letting all your friends know about it, this may bring you valuable business. Remember though be reasonable with this, if you are continually sending out notices and leaving information for friends they will rapidly become annoyed and disinterested which may undo all the hard work you have done.

Conclusion

Social networking is a vital component to any online marketing campaign and it should be included but not overused. The best thing about using social networking is that you get advertising for free so if only 1% of the people in your network use your services or buy your products you will still have an amazing return on investment. Forget the power of social networking at your peril.