Social Networking Sites

In today's Dallas Morning News, there was a great article by Angela Shah about entrepreneurs turning to social networking sites.

I would link to it but it hasn't been posted on the DMN site. Here are some points that stood out in the article:
1. Increasingly, small businesses are turning to such sites as Facebook, MySpace and YouTube as a way to reach young customers who have embraced them as part of their lives.
2. For firms with little money to spend on advertising, the Web sites can be a cheap, efficient marketing tool.
3. Basically, you search the individual profiles for people who might be interested in your product and invite them to join your network as "friends" or customers for the small business owner. You can then send messages about your company to these friends.
4. Membership in general online networking sites reached as high as 41 percent for 18-29 year olds.

In my experience, many moms with young children have MySpace accounts.

If your target market is geared toward this age group or moms with young children, your marketing and PR plan should include social networking sites. You should take the time to create a page on any or all of these social networking sites.

I recently read a great book that could guide you along the way, "MySpace for Dummies."