Working at Balihoo, I have the privilege of working with franchise owners across several different brands.  A common link among these brands is the franchise owners’ interest in learning how to improve their local store marketing without drastically increasing their marketing budget. One way to promote local store marketing is to market your services or products on social network sites.

I read an interesting article Learning to Use Social Networking Sites for Business by TJ Philpott that gives some helpful guidelines to marketing on-line. The article lays out three points to focus on while marketing to social sites: you can’t please everyone, engage in discussions, and don’t overextend yourself.

You Can’t Please Everyone: When marketing on social sites you have to understand that you can’t please everyone. Not all site members will agree with your statements and be ready to take criticisms. But try to use the complaints and criticisms to help improve your company.

Engage in Discussions: Don’t just sit back and watch the conversations; actively participate in discussions. Try to get to know and understand those members. It is a great way to get feedback from current and potential customers.

Don’t Overextend Yourself: Don’t overextend yourself by participating in multiple on-line social sites. In the beginning try to focus on one site therefore you are able to devote your time to building relationships with those members. As well as learn how to communicate effectively on-line. 

Jeff Bezos said "If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends" Local Internet Marketing on social sites can be very successful if you have the time to devote to developing relationships but be cautious because it can also have a negative impact if done incorrectly.