Social Media is The Home Based Business Owner's Friend

If you are starting a home based business as a second career, you may be out of touch with today's electronic tools.  I know I was when I started my networking business.

Social media had started up and come into it's own while I wasn't looking.  I was more interested in whether I had to police the PC use of my daughters than I was about how social media could help my business.  If you can relate to this, then you know that my daughters (precious and well behaved as they were) were not that forthcoming with details about the social media they were using.

The good news is that many social media sites are free or at least have a free account that is perfectly adequate for most users, even online network marketers.

The bad news is that there are literally hundreds of social media sites ranging from the big boys all the way down to neighborhood focused sites.  How do you choose which ones to use?

Believe me, there is much more good news than bad news when it comes to social media sites.  They are an excellent way to increase exposure for yourself, your business, your products or opportunity ... as long as you use them correctly.

It is critical to avoid common, beginner, mistakes on social media sites - you can easily damage your business or reputation!

With that caveat, here is a short list of some of the biggest players on the social media scene. 

Twitter - new kid on the block; short, tweet, and to the point - 140 character limit per tweet

Facebook - over 100 million members, a truly big player.  More social focus, less business focus

MySpace - over 100 million members. The original social media site; personal, social focus

Linkedin - over 40 million members.  More career, professional, and old school network oriented.  Here is a Quick-Start guide to using Linkedin.

FastPitchNetworking - comparatively small, but business oriented

As I said, there are many, many more sites and a significant number rank in the double digit millions of members.  The ones that have been around longer are typically quite a bit more robust in features they offer, plus of course they offer access to the largest audience.

I recommend all small business owners strongly consider social media as part of their marketing plan. 

Why would you pass up access to 100 million people if you are trying to attract prospects or customers to your business?