Which social website is best for business use?

Too many questions need to be answered before anyone could give you advice. What are the demographics of your customers? Facebook has the most people connected to it but that does you no good if selling in China. Are you a B2C or B2B company? LinkedIn may be great for B2B connections but haven't seen any case studies on good B2C uses. Figure out where your customers are located and you'll be close to your answer.

I'm in the camp with those who say that it depends on your business. If you're selling a B2B product, LinkedIn is probably better. But if you're selling B2C, you have to be on Facebook and/or Twitter because that's where your customers are. Every one provides another link back to your company's website, and the more of those you have the better. So it's good to at least have a page on lots of them. But before you decide which ones to concentrate on and work more regularly, know your audience and understand your purposes in social networking. I use it not only to find customers, but to find new products for my site and to build my reputation as an expert in my field. Different social networks provide different benefits.
And isn't it curious that we're all posting these answers on Focus, and yet not one of us has responded that it's best for business?

Linkedin remains one of the best social web sites for business use. It's because I can join several groups from different industries like call center or small businesses. I am pretty much open to anything for as long as there's real engagement with our target users.

There is really no one ultimate site you can use for business, as each social website has its own purpose, type of audience and style. What you can do is make your research first on who your target market is, find out where they hang out on the Web - and interact with them on those sites. If, for example, you've found a group in Linkedin where your prospects are sharing ideas, mingle with that group and share yours as well. By building relationships, you are building that 'trust factor' which will aid in pushing these prospects to make a buying decision - becoming your customers. But, the job doesn't stop there and social media marketing is a continuous effort to turn these customers into loyal, brand advocates. Good Luck!

Each social media platform has its strengths and weaknesses for individual industries, ad campaigns and specific products or services. I have personally had outstanding results from Facebook, which I may lean on as my favorite, for one reason: in many cases you have an *established trust*, high school memory or hometown unity with the prospective buyer that evokes a positive reaction and hopefully a laugh or two.
"Feeling good" about making a purchase is not ONLY done with a price point or flashy ad, but more importantly the interaction experience for the buyer.

What I feel is essential for any size business in regards to social media:

#1 - To be LISTED on each site ranked by Googles search engine, even if only to provide contact info and a link to your home website.
#2 - Encourage each employee to create LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+ profiles and like, share and +1 the company page.
#3 - GET INVOLVED! Become an expert, post on forums and share information beneficial to your target audience. If the content is creative, compelling and easily accessible, users will follow, like and share!

Jason McSweeney
Marketing Mastermind
http://www.dream2ink.com/

I agree with most of the answers here in that it depends on your company and business goals. Before asking which social sites are best for business use, first ask why you want to utilize social sites in the first place?

Is the goal to build a community around your brand? Excellent, but why? Is the goal to extend the arm of your customer service team? That's wonderful, but how specifically? Is the goal to make internal processes run more efficiently? If so, figure out which processes are inefficient and research platforms to help streamline them.

Once you drill down and truly understand the "why" behind using social media sites (internally *and* externally), it will become easier to choose which are "best" for your business. And no, you do not have to be on all of them- but you do have to understand why you are or aren't.

It depends on the intended use.

For marketing focused business connections, you can't beat Linkedin

For blanket marketing, Facebook and Twitter are excellent (Look at Richard branson on Twitter - amazing).

For serious, secure, accurate, instant, audit-able, business communications, Myloop has no peer.

It all depends on the business and where your customers are. If they are not on Facebook - why spend the energy on creating things on Facebook?

However, in very general terms - the big four social networks are a great place to start: :LinkedIn, FaceBook, Twitter, and Google+

If I had to choose only one of those, I think I would put my efforts into Google+, simply because of the SEO benefits of the social platform (your 'friends' see your recommended sites in their search results). I also think that because Google+ is the new kid on the block, that it will be easier for businesses to find a footing and be able to get a little better ROI on that Social Network than some of the other ones that are somewhat saturated.

Ryan
http://MassachusettsWebDesigns.com

I totally agree with Thomas: "the short answer is that this entirely depends on your business". Before asking this question you have to define your objectives with social media. If you want a B2C model, probably the best places are Twitter and Facebook, if you are a B2B I would say Twitter and LinkedIn. These are the first steps you can do in Social Media. After you can start thinking about regional networks (Orkut for Brasil, Tuenti for Spain), segmented networks (Focus, Small World), satellites networks (Slideshare, Youtube).

LinkedIn definitely...for professional purposes. Facebook for personal purposes. And for the most part, I keep the two groups separate.

Facebook

I agree with Jon. LinkedIn is the best, irrespective of what your business is. The Groups give you a very diverse audience to what you say. Be selective, join all groups that matter, and participate. Say what will attract people to you, and bingo, they contact you to find out more after seeing your profile.

There is a new product coming from IBM called "Connections" which represents a significant leap beyond Facebook, Twitter, LinkIn and others imho. The foundation for Connections came from the acquisition of Lotus by IBM in 1995 and is built upon the extremely powerful networking, communication and collaboration software product called Lotus Notes. The significant step forward in Connections is the integration of IBM's information discovery or analytics technology with the communication and collaboration features of social networking. It is cloud-based and enables the corporation to reach out to customers, vendors, other correspondents as well as internal and external databases. We are going to evaluate it internally, having been a Notes reseller and developer for nearly 15 years....it looks pretty exciting.

The one where your customers (and prospective customers) are.

LinkedIn or Focus

In general, I agree there is no unique answer to this question. However, I recently read a paper about the building blocks of social media. The authors suggested seven different elements that shape the social media. Finally, they discussed that Facebook covers most of them. For more information please refer to http://beedie.sfu.ca/files/PDF/research/McCarthy_Papers/2011_Social_Media_BH.pdf

This question being in my "top questions of the week" proves one thing. Focus is not the answer

If we define "business use" as person to person use in business, I have to vote for linkedin. This site is defined by very nature as a business site. I think it is possible that Google+ will become a major factor given the structure they are following. It seems they could be the site that allows users to do both business and personal in one place. That would be the best solution. The fewer sites the better. Facebook just doesn't work as a business site. It is personal.

It depends on your intended use:

#1 for blanket awareness - Twitter & Facebook (Just ask Richard Branson)

#1 for useful collaboration, focused awareness / general marketing - Linkedin

#1 for accurate, instant, mobile, safe, secure, audit-able business communications - Myloop

Oops, excuse my clumsy finger. I answered twice. :)

It really depends on the type of business. If you are into retail, you may go with Google+, Facebook etc.

1. linkendin
2. xing
3. ziggs
4. ihippo
5. brazencareerist
and of course there are and social networks for entrepreneurs and freelancers especially!

For the professional firm Linkedin is the best option. million of people are connected there. it is the best place to exchange ideas, and good place for business promotion too.

http://www.nichesuite.com/

LinkedIn & Thumbtack

It really depends upon what your doing with the social media. I love Linked-in because I like to discuss technical issues with collegues and industry peers, but it I where just advertizing new products or services I would use Facebook or twitter because they offer a more popular mass media type access to consumers.

In my experience as a consultant and manager of relationship marketing and technology at Enfotactica Peru, I have always recommended it to my customers to integrate business intelligence applications and programs ERP CRM and such as Oracle Siebel CRM and SAP Business One to the Facebook platform, which is not only a very crowded social network and active, but with a management policy pages and highly segmented profiles, user can get an excellent experience to manage relationships with customers (deals) from this shelf CRM-ERP-Facebook, can be integrated Linkedin profile and a well-segmented and filtered external database, allowing a continuous supply relationships with new prospects (leads).
The idea is to turn leads into deals, while keeping your customers.

LinkedIN, Google+

What do you use the respective networks for?

We like to think that our (relatively new) site All Star Voices will one day soon be the best place for those in the radio and voice industry! Check us out: http://www.allstarvoices.com

Ideally business should have presence on facebook,twitter,Google+ and linkedin.
And there are regional business networking sites e.g ushi in China, which is also important for business.

http://www.yesteryear.co is no good for business use, but is wonderful if you enjoy history.