Hide the sketches?

This is a question that seems to come up a lot lately, and the short answer is not really… unless you want to keep up with 95% of the businesses in the industrial world, along with tens of thousands of others worldwide.

Social networking is nothing more than a fad – we can easily tell by the way it’s done nothing but get stronger and more prevalent for the last 10 years. Anyone who doubts this should just log onto Facebook, Linked[In], MySpace, or one of the dozens of other emerging sites and post a poll. Within a matter of minutes, you’ll be instantly connected to thousands of other people from all around the globe who feel the same way.

In all seriousness, though, the social media trend isn’t just another passing idea. What makes it so strong, exciting, and very likely enduring, is that it isn’t so much a new technology as it is a better use of what we already had. In other words, it might seem like a new thing, but what it really represents is a better way to stay connected. With a few keystrokes and mouse clicks, anyone with an Internet connection can see what’s going on with their friends and family, and vice versa. And it isn’t just personal acquaintances who can benefit – smart businesses are taking advantage, too.

One reason has to do with convenience. In the same way that many people have made sites like Google and MSN their first stop on the web for years, social networking pages are now a popular first destination, drawing dozens of hits a day from individuals at home and in the office. It’s a classic business strategy at work: to find new customers, you just have to go where all of the customers are hanging out.

The second reason social networking sites are so popular with marketers has to do with their interactive nature. Few other types of media can’t compete with the major sites like Facebook and Linked[in] when it comes to spreading a one-on-one message. Want to tell all of your clients and colleagues about a special you’re running, or point them towards your newest blog post? All you have to do is update your page or send out a personal message.

What’s more, you can get a lot more mileage out of the words and ideas that you do send. That’s because, if they are targeted and scripted correctly, these messages will be passed on from one user to another without any further time or effort on your part. Having access to that kind of platform has been a dream of marketers for decades, but now social networking has made it an everyday possibility.

To set up an effective social networking campaign – and actually profit from it – takes more work than simply setting up the page and watching the orders come in. But done correctly, it can allow you to reach your perfect customer, in a fun and interesting way, more easily than at any other time in history. And that’s good news for all of our friends and contacts.