It has increasingly became apparent that social networks are here to stay. Granted, there are a lot of unsuccessful followers in the field, but the giants of social networks like Twitter and Facebook continue to stay abreast for the foreseeable future, come low or high tide.

What does it mean for a business owner like you ? In this post, I’m going to talk about three companies who use social network as a way to maintain close communication with their customer; and about my experience as their products’ user.

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First, some explanations are due. The three companies are :

1. Digsby

Digsby is a recently popular chat program that tries to incorporate all your usual chat platform in one software. They are aiming to be a swiss-army knife of instant-messenger applications, – so to speak. At the time of this blog posting, you can use it to chat with your Yahoo ID, MSN Live, GTalk, Facebook Chat, AIM, – and even updating your social networks status in Twitter, Facebook and Myspace. Their Twitter page can be viewed here.

2. Flock

Flock basically is a Firefox equipped with a custom-built add-ons, making it a browser where you can instantly get signed-in in your various social networks and engage in their activities. There is even a built-in blog editor where you can write a blog post without going to your blog platform website. For the newest version of Flock and its features, you can visit its website.

3. Evernote

If you are anything like me, you will feel the need of organizing various notes or snippets of text files that you jotted down whenever you think of something. Standard methods of filing in Windows folder just don’t seem to be enough as it can get wildly confusing after a couple of weeks or so. Here’s where Evernote figures. An organizer software where you can store practically anything, it will also give you a free online account ( with some limitations ) where you can back up your important notes. A couple of months ago, I wrote a short review of Evernote and what it can do that you can read here. Alternatively, you can visit their website.

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What those three otherwise-very-different companies have in common is : They all use Twitter to communicate with their users. By this I mean, they create a special Twitter account where they then use to scan various issues other users may have about their products; and replying whenever necessary.

Now, as a user of their products, I can think of at least 3 ( three ) reasons why I will continue to use their products. Bear with me as I get to the following points :

1. Because they are companies who care about their customers

Some of you may argue this point, stating that of course any company will care about its customers, that’s where the money comes from. Indeed. But a company who cares enough to dedicate time and ( in some cases ) a special staff to communicate with their customer using a supposedly-intangible media as Twitter ? I am impressed.

2. Because of the speed of their response

Let’s admit it. Complaining, – or even just asking, about a feature of a product you just recently acquired is most of the times frustrating. Those dreaded automated phone systems or faxing proof of purchase almost always spends more time than necessary. On the contrary, the three companies I mentioned respond to their users’ complaints and enquiries almost instantly, – sometimes even under a couple of minutes.

3. Because I am dealing with companies who update themselves on new developments of technology

To average people you meet in the streets, Web 2.0 raises more questions than it answers. This means that as a technology, it is still relatively new. Not in the term of age, mind you; but in the sense that more people don’t know about it than those who do. All it implies is that Digsby, Flock and Evernote are companies who make it a point to keep on updating themselves of new technology. I surely can’t complain about company who has that characteristics.

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Let’s stop here and consider my experience as the customer of the three companies and why I’ll be a repeat user of their products. Do you want a loyal, repeat customer who buys your product more than once ? How about five ? Or a hundred, even thousands of them ?

Depending on the nature of the business, now may be the right time to take a plunge to the lake of Social Networking. Sink or swim, it’s your choice…

There really is no easy answer for this question.  And while there are many ways we could approach this issue, I would suggest that first of all, you ask yourself this question :  What kind of industry the domain of your job is ?  That is, what do you do for a living ?  Could you benefit in any ways by engaging in a, – or several, social networks ?

Now, I am going to assume that the readers of this blog are surely familiar with the concept of social networks.  At the risk of being redundant, let it be said once again that in short, social network is the place where you socialize online, – being a network where there are interactive communications, mostly almost instantly delivered, thanks to the increasingly popular AJAX-based sites.  The most famous of them include some well-known names like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.

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Going back to our question, I believe that there are business fields where you don’t exactly need to do some serious social networking.  For example, a plumber will need to dedicate his free time more in increasing his knowledge of his trade, rather than replying to some conversation threads in Plurk.  Or a London taxi driver will risk tarnishing a well-known legend if he spends his time in front of the computer instead of studying the streets of London until he knows it like the back of this hand.  Still, I am also of the opinion that even these kind of professions may gain a useful thing or two if they can dedicate a little bit of their time to socialize online.  Who knows, maybe our taxi driver may got a much newer and complete version of London map from his online contact.  The key is, knowing how much time do you need to spend, and act accordingly…

On the other hand, there are some professionals who absolutely need to be a member of some ( if not most of the ) social networks.  An obvious example would be web developers, programmers and writers.  Being a writer, I could tell from first-hand experience that you are only as good as your published works are.  These days, the fastest and simplest way to build your credibility is by publishing your work online.  If you’re good at what you do, people will recognize your worth and start bringing some projects in.  In this context, social networking helps by bringing a badly-needed traffic to your blog, – which is the place where you mainly write.

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So I hope it’s obvious by now that the question of how much should you engage in social networking will depend on how much your job need it.  This is not to say that it’s the only thing you should consider, though.  Blogger Deb of freelancewritinggigs.com publish some excellent criteria on this issue, which you can read here.

All in all, I believe that this is the main reason of social networking exists :  to help people gain edge in what they do.  Do so if it’s part of your job, but do yourself a favor and avoid the trap of idleness which almost always happen when a person is addicted to social networking….