Every one knows about facebook, twitter and all the various social networking sites. From the articles I have read on various internet marketing strategy blogs the general consensus is that every and all types of business should have some type of social networking strategy. I disagree in a few of the general principles of how and who should be using social networks.

I don't deny the possibilities of using these networks to grow a business. They great for reaching out directly to your potential client base. The downfall is simply that social networks are just not for every company.

I have family members that run a roofing company. They do rather well and recently launched a facebook page. I have been watching their growth over the past few months and to be honest there was very little to see. This is not due bad service or a poorly updated page.

I believe the lack of steady interest lies in the fact that no one is going to follow a roofing company. You might at one point in your life need their services but that is simply not enough for you to follow or like their page. Now perhaps they will come up with some way to gather interest but what?

Its commonly suggested that using social networks to promote specials or discounts work well. If we take a look at the page dedicated my families roofing company this idea of promoting discounted rates would not be viable. No one is going to hire a roofing company to redo their roof simply because they have a discount. The only time someone will look for a roofing company is when they having an issue with their roof.

Point is that if someone needs a roofing company they will find one. Offering a social network discount would perhaps help to get a few initial jobs. The major downfall however is if five clients take up the discount that's a lot of work being done for relatively cheap prices. Your five clients might be very happy and love the work done but there will be almost no long term interest or repeat business.

What the roofing company should do in my opinion is focus on delivering quality service with a good pricing structure rather then wasting man hours on promoting their social pages. A good service or product will spread further via word of mouth then any social network.

Unless you believe your business will draw a large, long term web following there is no need for a social networking strategy. The internet is getting flooded with companies trying to promote products or services that simply will never engage users in a way that would entice them to like their page to follow all their company.