These days, everybody has a Facebook page and an online presence of sorts. Most businesses also have a social media presence which comes with substantial advantages. Some businesses prosper a lot more with the internet than others, however, especially if you have a new business, it pays to have a positive representation online.
One of the most important benefits is connecting with your customers and shareholders. For a small and new businesses this is especially helpful as it makes more people aware of their existence and location, and allows friends and loyal customers to share information such as offers, events, promotions, business reviews and comments, although these can be both positive and negative, and can essentially allow the business to prosper and grow in ways that were not possible before. For larger and longer established companies, it allows their customers access to news and current progress which is not considerable enough to make it into news outlets.
Social Networking sites also allow your business to have an augmented voice that before their existences, would have been much quieter. It has become much easier to express the values of your company, to show people the projects that you support, to shine a new light on your business that before was unseen. You can promote articles that reinforce your principles and remind your audience why you are providing the right product for them. This can help to refine your target audience and to reach out to the people you believe will benefit the most from your product. You can connect with ease to other business within your community to expand your clientele through collaboration and support.
It takes a mere matter of seconds to make a post that conveys a message, which saves more time to focus on your business, providing you don't get distracted by the social media itself. If you have a gas leak and have had to close the cafe for the day, you can tell your customers before they've even left home. If you have a promotion on, it's free to tell your online audience.
Social networking for businesses does however also come with negatives. If you have an upset customer, they also have more of a voice and more power to express their dissatisfaction to your audience which can potentially damage your reputation or your business. Some review sites will not allow you to take down bad comments, even if unjustly and unfairly made against you. Customers can often rate you on a system and if a customer has a personal vendetta against your business it can have serious ramifications to your online presence and therefore have a knock on effect to your customers and overall income.
Also, tourists and new residents will often only judge a place based on it's online ratings which is an unfair and over simplified representation of everything you do, however people will still insist that the top rated attraction in an area is the only one worth seeing.
In the rare circumstance that there is any public scandal related to your business then absolutely anybody has the ability to anonymously vilify and slander you online. People tend to be more confrontational on the internet because they can hide behind their computer monitors.
Overall, a strong internet presence tends to be a positive thing and with a little bit of attention, it can provide a lot of extra benefits and income for your business.