Social media websites offer a company with networking opportunities that can be used to target and connect with potential and existing customers. A business can take advantage by building the company’s presence using social sites and reaching out to potential customers, businesses as well as employees.

The way a company markets and promotes its business on the internet has evolved in recent years. In addition to traditional internet marketing methods such as search engine optimisation, pay per click or banner advertising, it is essential to promote your business on leading social media websites and networks.
An active social media optimisation strategy is essential to maximise the benefits of internet marketing.

It is common for a company today to use social media to promote its business. Websites like Myspace, Facebook and Twitter have become important resources to promote a business. Other websites like LinkeIn have become established tools for building contacts with other businesses as well as establishing relationships with existing or potential customers.

There is an increasing number of social networking websites targeting businesses and entrepreneurs. This is a list of 20 useful social networking sites for businesses and entrepreneurs.

Social Bookmarking Websites:

The first four websites featured in this list are popular social bookmarking websites that a business can use to drive traffic to their website or blog. The remaining part of the list focuses on other social media and professional networking websites for businesses.

1. Digg

Social Networking Website for Business - Digg

www.digg.com

Digg is another popular social bookmarking service. It is a website that allows users to discover and share content from anywhere. It is an excellent resource for promoting your content as well as for discovering new content of interest to you. You can also participate by voting or commenting on conversations.

According to Compete.com , dig attracts more than 236 million visitors annually. Digg is easy to use and you can tap into its huge following by promoting your online resources including articles, posts or news on digg. Visitors can submit and browse articles in categories like technology, business, entertainment, science and more.

Key Features:

• Submit News, stories, Images and Links
• Vote or comment on stories
• Search, browse or discover online content

2. Reddit

www.reddit.com

Social Networking Website for Business - Reddit

Reddit is a popular social bookmarking website. You can upload stories and articles on reddit and drive traffic to your company’s website or blog. In addition to receiving direct traffic from new submissions, if you submit quality links frequently, you can improve your company’s presence and establish a loyal user-base of followers.

Key Features:

• Find out what’s new and popular on the web
• Submit your links – news article, blog entry, video
• Comment or vote on submitted stories or links
• Create your own Reddit -  Start your own topic or group
• Also, RedditJobs.com – An independent community powered Jobs portal

3. Del.icio.us

www.delicious.com

Social Networking Website for Business - Delicious

Delicious is another popular and high ranked Social bookmarking website. It is a social bookmarking service that allows users to tag, save, manage and share web pages from a centralized source.

Due the number of people who use popular sites like delilicious, businesses can benefit by promoting their website, blog posts or articles and improving traffic to their own site or blog.  Del.icio.us encourages users to organize and promote interesting items on the internet.

Key Features:

• Store all your links in a central place accessible form anywhere
• Promote content on your website or blog by submitting links
• Submit your news, stories or articles
• Discover the most useful and interesting bookmarks on the web for any tag

4. Stumble Upon

www.stumbleupon.com

Social Networking Website for Business - StumbleUpon

Although Stumble upon works somewhat like other social bookmarking websites, it is still unique in many ways. It is a powerful tool for improving your presence on the internet. It can provide your website or blog with a whole new audience with minimal effort.

Stumble upon is known especially for driving highly targeted traffic to your website or blog. Stumble Upon results in highly personalised traffic based on the market or interest group you are targeting. The traffic you receive is served as a result of active requests from users who are looking to discover sites related to your theme.

Key Features

• Create and personalise your profile
• Others can subscribe to your submissions
• Users rate submissions (thumbs up). As pages are thumbed, they are given more coverage and served to more users
• Highly targeted traffic
• Download and use an easy to use Toolbar to manage your submissions

Professional-Networking  / social media websites for business

The rest of this list below focuses on social media and professional networking websites useful especially for businesses.  By registering and participating on these websites, your business or company can benefit by driving traffic to your company website, promotional, networking and recruiting opportunities and more.

1. LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com

Social Networking Website for Business - LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a place for professionals to network and collaborate. It is a popular social networking website with over 40 million users. It is a website that allows professionals to connect with others and expand their contacts. It is website where business associates, graduates and other professionals get introduced and connect with each other.

Key Features:

• Inbox and Messaging system to communicate with others
• Groups – Join or start your own group
• Q&A Section – Where you can you post a question, ask for help, and get answers from any of 35 million people
• Events feature – Post your events with automatic notification to others in your network and address book
• Many other applications to chose from for your profile

2. Facebook

www.facebook.com

Social Networking Website for Business - Facebook

Over the years Facebook has become popular among businesses in addition to its growing popularity for personal use. Facebook can be an excellent tool for promoting your company or business. Facebook pages is a section of Facebook dedicated purely for businesses. A company can create a page on Facebook pages in order to share information or promote its services. The popularity of Facebook is increasing every year. Due its sheer popularity, Facebook offers a powerful medium for businesses to connect with others as well as drive traffic to your company’s website or blog. It has an established community and there are a range of applications that can further enhance your profile on facebook. It is easy to syndicate content between your website or blog and Facebook. This makes it easier to share and promote your content.

Key Features:

• Facebook pages is designed specially to promote businesses.
• Wide reaching advertising opportunities for businesses
• Event promotion
• Wide range of business applications can be added to profile
• Easy to syndicate content from your website or blog
• Expand your contacts using Groups or Fans

3. Twitter

www.twitter.com

Social Networking Website for Business - Twitter

Twitter Is one of the most popular and fastest growing social networks. It is a micro blogging service that allows users to communicate with short 140 character messages. Twitter has proved popular for personal as well as business use. Members communicate by posting short messages that users can then answer or add-on to. It has a follower system and your messages are displayed to all followers. Businesses have used Twitter effectively for a wide range of purposes such as providing product information, technical support, latest news or discuss new products. Due to the vast number of members, twitter has turned into a valuable resource for searching all types of information.

4. Xing

www.xing.com

Social Networking Website for Business - Xing

Xing was previously known as Open Business Club. Xing is a European business network with more than 8 million members who are business professionals from different countries. The website is available in 16 languages. It is a professional global network that allows users to do business and promote their career.
With its headquarters based in Hamburg and offices in other European cities, XING employs 250 members internationally and is probably one of the only Web 2.0 Company floated on the stock market. Xing is an established platform for business professionals around the world.

Key Features

• There is a vast collection of useful applications that members can add to their profile
• An established Jobs and career section

5. Ecademy

www.ecademy.com

Social Networking Website for Business - Ecademy

Ecademy prides itself on “connecting business people” through its online network, blog and message-board chats, as well as its premier BlackStar membership program, which awards exclusive benefits. A business network for creating contacts and sharing knowledge.

Key Features:

• People section – Find and connect with others
• Blogs with posts of interest to businesses and entrepreneurs
• Unlimited advertising for your business in the Marketplace section
• Groups – Join or start a group
• Post your events or find out about others in Events section

6. Focus

www.focus.com

Social Networking Website for Business - Focus

Focus is a business website where business professionals can share their expertise and opnion with others. Focus offers quality information for business professional that is freely available and powered by the community. Focus is especially beneficial for professionals involved with decision making by providing them with access to professional advice and expertise. Focus is a business portal for business professionals and decision makers.  It helps professionals by providing them with access to research and peer expertise.

Key Features:

• Buyer’s Guides:  Research and Product Comparisons to support your purchases
• Articles : In-depth reviews on the latest trends in an industry
• The In Focus Blog : Covering Latest product and industry news
• Focus newsletters:  Covering Latest business developments
• Webcasts : Covering the latest product and industry trends
• Q & A: Specific to industry or products
• Business Resource Centres: Review the latest trends and issues relevant to your specific business needs.
• Groups: Join groups of users with similar business decision needs and network with others

7. Squidoo

www.squidoo.com

Social Networking Website for Business - Squidoo

Squidoo is another popular website for promoting your business. Squidoo is primarily a content sharing website that allows users to create pages on any topic. The pages are commonly referred to as lense. Squidoo encourages users to create multiple lenses. It is different to a traditional article website as it offers a number of interactive features to include in your lense. According to Squidoo, “everyone’s an expert on something. Share your knowledge!” Share your industry’s secrets by answering questions and designing a profile page to help other members.

There are over 700,000 lenses in total as such it is a valuable resource for information on a wide range of topics. Businesses can benefit by creating profile and creating lenses to promote their business, products and services.

Key Features:

• Create a page to promote products, services or business.
• Very easy to use
• Squidu Forum – Popular forum for discussions or feedback on your lenses (Squidoo pages)
• Giant Squid program – Provides better rank, placement and exposure
• Lens of the Day and Top 100 feature can lead to massive exposure
• Ranking System – A complex ranking system that provides points for a number of items

8. Fast Pitch

www.fastpitchnetworking.com

Social Networking Website for Business - Fastpitch

Fast Pitch is a website for business professionals to network and promote their business.
It is a fast growing website for business professionals and connects millions of businesses internationally. Fast Pitch is easy to use and offers a simple method for businesses and professionals to improve their online presence.

It allows you to create a profile for your company and connect with others. It also offers a number of tools and resources to allow you to promote your company online.

Key Features:

• Post Jobs
• Post Classifieds
• Promote networking events
• Email Marketing – Send up to 50,000 emails
• Distribute your Content to Members
• Press Syndication
• Blog Promotion
• Ability to promote multiple businesses

9. Craig List

www.craigslist.org

Social Networking Website for Business - Craiglist

Craigslist is a simple but widely used website that offers classifieds and forums for many cities and countries across the world. It has a large user base covering many independent cities. It allows users to find almost any product or service specific for each city.

As Craigslist reaches a wide audience specific to many independent cities, advertising products and services on Craigslist can be highly beneficial and cost effective for businesses.

Key Features:

• Online directory
• Advertise your products and services
• A popular job section for finding as well as posting jobs

10. Ning

www.ning.com

Social Networking Website for Business - Ning

I have included Ning in the list as it is useful if you want to create your own social network. It provides an online platform for starting your own social network on the internet. If your many or business will benefit from having its own social network then Ning offers an easy method for doing so.

Ning allows you to create your own social network where your company or business can connect with customers, vendors and co-workers in a confidential and secure manner.

Key Features:

• Design your own Free social network online
• Ability to create private or public network

Find out how your business can benefit from Internet marketing.