Social networking sites are a great way to increase an advertising agency’s visibility, demonstrate its areas of expertise and reach specific markets.

According to a February 20 article in the Orlando Business Journal, social networking also is an effective way to attract new business. Citing local businesses’ success in reaching new customers through blogging, the article noted the explosive growth of blogs on sites such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn:

“Today, more than 116 million Internet users in the U.S. read at least one [business] blog on such sites per month, said eMarketer, a digital media and marketing research site. That figure will jump to more than 145 million users by 2012 — meaning an even bigger audience for companies’ marketing efforts.”

Read the full article here: http://orlando.bizjournals.com/orlando/stories/2009/02/23/story17.html?b=1235365200^1781524&ana=e_vert

Social networking should be part of an ad agency’s public relations strategy for telling its story. As is the case with publicity, you can reach a lot of people for free.

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to small- and medium-sized advertising agencies and businesses.