Social Networking Sites: Emerging Marketing Tool

Every Internet user is believed to be a part of at least one social networking site, be it Facebook, Orkut, MySpace, Hi5 or LinkedIn. Reasons may be many. Some want to keep in touch with old friends, while most others look for friendship online. Through these sites one also keeps track of the latest happenings in one’s area of interest. These sites also provide huge opportunities for business networking to its users and most importantly now pose as great marketing tools. Groups and communities on social networking sites are being increasingly used to showcase product offerings of various companies who wish to strike a chord with their potential clients. Strangers sharing common interests get ample opportunities to network and many times strike good business deals.

In the Indian market, social networking sites like Orkut, Facebook, Hi5 and corporate websites like LinkedIn and Zing have a great fan following. Apart from maintaining regular contact with friends, users can avail of features that allow them to make new corporate contacts.