Social Networking Sites for Branding Your Business

The top 5 social networking websites are Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Ning. Social networks have existed on the web for a few years in the form of chat rooms, discussion groups, online communities, bulletin boards, and matchmaking services.

Social networking websites can help brand your business. Using social networking websites can create mass appeal for your brand. They are viable for businesses but it is much easier to build a network from existing social networks such as Myspace and YouTube. Members of MySpace have profiles and many of those people own businesses. Social networking website help users find what they need by providing easy search features, ability to connect with other users, and various features customers can access.

Social networking emphasizes user reviews that users are the most concerned about, reviews from their family and friends. Allowing users to voice their opinions about your products or services and send to their friends, family or other users encourages users to return to the website. Social networking websites provides you with likes and dislikes of visitors.

Facebook has over 600 million users. Myspace has over 90 million visitors where you can load photos, get news about music groups and view profiles of visitors that shows their likes and dislikes. If you want to reach professionals trying using LinkedIn. YouTube allows users to watch and share online videos on various topics such as current news events, social issues and political topics. YouTube allows users to share videos with friends and family, upload videos and connect with other users.

If you wish to target children or college students trying using Facebook. Facebook has a network of over 17 million college students. Bret Taylor, a senior product manager at Google points out that new applications allow more people to discover your website which can translate into greater revenues.

Wharton marketing professor Leonard Lodish points out, the cost of gaining new customers is practically nothing because users join voluntarily and provide their own content through their profiles. In addition the cost of running the sites' web servers is relatively low.

Nitin Gupta, an analyst with the Yankees Group in Boston says, it's important to look beyond traditional forms of web advertising to see the real potential – which is leveraging the connectivity of the sites and using them to form communities around products, media or services to really be in contact with your users".

The best way to increase sales for your business is to do your research, think of creative and unique ways to capture your target audience. Here are 7 tips to brand your business using social media.

1. Active. Keep your profile active and post comments on a regular basis.
2. Link. Link to other sites and connect with those with larger followings in your industry.
3. Videos. Create podcasts or videos and post on YouTube. Link them to all of your social media websites.
4. Name. Use your first and last name for your social media profiles or a short name that identifies your brand.
5. RSS. Link your RSS feeds on all of your social media accounts.
6. Content. Make sure comments and content you post is original and to the point.
7. Followers. Follow your top followers or friends on your social media profiles to see what they are interested in and comment on those topics.

How to Establish Business Credit

Two-thirds of new businesses survive at least two years, and 44% percent survive at least four years. Thirty-three percent of self-made millionaires are entrepreneurs. Now is a great time for entrepreneurs to start a business.

It is important to establish business credit when you are running a business because when you apply for business loans or credit, companies will look at your personal credit and your business credit profile to determine: if you will be approved, the amount approved, the terms of the approval and if you will have to give a personal guarantee. It takes about 6-9 months to establish business credit and up to 2 years to establish good to excellent business credit.

When you separate your business and personal credit it makes it easier to file your taxes. Opening a business credit card account provides a professional image for your company and ensures other businesses perceive you as a legitimate company.

There are only a few payments options available when making business transactions such as credit card, PayPal, debit card and checks. Business credit cards provide higher limits and higher rewards than personal credit cards.

Before applying for business credit and to ensure you are approved you will need: two years of financial statements and tax returns, one bank reference, and a good relationship with your local bank. You can do this by opening a CD for 3-6 months. Once it matures take the money out and open a small personal loan. Pay the loan back on time or before the loan end date. This helps establish a relationship with the bank. Now the bank will be more willing to approve you for a business loan or business credit card.

Here are 6 tips to establish business credit:
1. Open a business credit card or trade line with your business tax id to keep your personal credit and business credit separate such as Staples, Office Depot, UPS, FedEx, Office Max, Exxon, etc. You will need 5 trade references reporting to Dunn & Bradstreet.

2. You can apply for a business credit card with your SSN. However, if you make a late payment your personal credit is damaged.

3. Establish a business profile with Dunn & Bradstreet and get a Paydex score (business credit score).

4. Get a credit card with no personal guarantee. This ensures that if the business fails you are not responsible for any debt owed.

5. Get a secured business credit card.

6. Setup business credit reports with at least 3 agencies (Experian, Equifax, Dunn & Bradstreet, TransUnion, etc.)