The idea has been around for a while now and it seems like the marketing tactic is taking the online business world by storm: social networking websites.

This is not without reason, or a vain attempt at appearing trendy. Research has shown strong evidence that this marketing ploy can boost your stores online visibility and therefore increase your sales. For example, the most rapidly-increasing group of new members on Facebook made up of people 35 years old, or older. This is an interesting piece of knowledge as it is these people that tend to have more money to spend than their younger counterparts. Twitter is a great business hot spot as well. Its 40 million users may seem a bit underwhelming next to Facebook’s quarter of a billion members, but an interesting fact to bare in mind is that the average Twitter user spends significantly more (about two-thirds!) money shopping online than the average Facebook user.

Recent studies also indicate that social networking does have a significant impact on what products people choose to buy. Yes, many buyers do start out having a specific product in mind, and then proceeding to make purchases via search engines. However, not everybody buys this way. Some people prefer browsing. They have a vague idea about what they want to buy, and can easily be influenced by the word of trusted friends and acquaintances on their social networks.

Larger corporations are now using social networking to sell everything from cars to pizza. As an example, Ford motors gave away a hundred Fiestas to some bloggers, in exchange for which the bloggers would have to make and display videos-not necessarily positive ones-about what it was like to use a Fiesta. In a similar manner, you can actually get your customers to do your advertising for you. Quite a sweet deal for you, since many buyers are more likely to trust the word of fellow customers than that of the person trying to make a sale.

The very nature of social networking websites-whether they be Facebook, Bebo, MySpace or any of the others can be very beneficial to you if you give it some thought. You can post store announcements like seasonal sales information or your entire online store inventory on some or all of the social networking sites, attracting many more visitors which will hopefully become loyal customers. This is because the very nature of these social networking sites is to link people who are friends, or friends-of-friends, or share some kind of common interest, even if they have never met. Or to put it another way, think of it like a pyramid, you can reach just a view people directly, but then the people in their networks will find out about you, and then the marketing just spreads like wildfire. You can even offer better perks and services for your customers, as social networking sites are constructed specifically to facilitate fast, easy contact. Its definately something to look into and experiment with. Find out how much it can do for you!