LONDON, ON, July 21, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Companies should be staking claims on social networking services by creating pages and groups, just as they did by registering Internet domain names in the late 1990's, says Info-Tech Research Group in a new report to be published this week. 
 

"Social network pages are the domain names of Web 2.0," said Tim Hickernell, associate lead research analyst with Info-Tech Research Group. "Companies need to consider mainstream public social network services to be the new Internet and will wonder why they missed the wave if they don't accept the relevance and benefits of social networking now."
 

Social networking sites have become a significant entry point for Internet users, so for consumers to find a company there needs to be a social network 'shingle' hanging outside.
 

"Companies should 'own' the way their brand is presented and have some control on content," he added. "It's not good if the Big Box Company doesn't have content ownership of the Big Box social networking site on Facebook and its interests are misrepresented."
 

It's important to understand the difference between public social networks and enterprise social networking software. Public networks such as Facebook, MySpace, Friendster and LinkedIn can be exploited for recruiting, product marketing and public relations and reach a vast global audience, but the enterprise has little control over network services. Enterprise social networks enable businesses to use software from independent vendors to create private social networks for specific audiences such as employees, customers, suppliers and partners, providing full content control by the enterprise but reaching only a network of users they build themselves.
 

Either way, social networking sites shouldn't be just a billboard on the Internet highway. Eventually companies do need to exploit the unique qualities of the network, to attract people with a community of interest to build business value and form a network of collaboration and trust associated with the site.
 

"Social networking provides great brand awareness, the ability to attract the right community of interest either locally or globally and ultimately drive profits," Hickernell concluded.