It’s no secret that the teenagers and twenty-somethings of this country can often be found behind a computer screen. Hunched over laptops in coffee shops, bustling in and out of computer labs between classes, or getting online with their cell phones, America’s “Generation Y” is always on the move – and always online. Are they studying? Online shopping? Sure – but 9 times out of 10, they’re checking their MySpace.

There’s been a lot of talk lately about social networking sites and how to use them to benefit your company. How do you do it? There are actually a number of ways, and no one method is right for every business. Here’s a little bit of Social Networking 101 for local companies.

The obvious answer is to create a profile. Facebook and MySpace are the biggest ones, with around 68.5 million and 58.5 million unique monthly visitors, respectively. On Facebook, users can become a “fan” of your business; on MySpace, they send you a “friend request” which you’ll need to confirm. In either case, this links their profile to yours and allows them to post things about you on your profile page. If this doesn’t open a can of worms for your business, it could be a good way to go.

A newer and perhaps more interesting option, if you already have a web presence, is advertising on these sites. With three-quarters of the 17-34 age group signed up on MySpace or Facebook, and plenty with accounts on multiple social networks, this is a lucrative advertising opportunity. Both MySpace and Facebook have advertising systems that allow you to target users based on factors such as age, gender, interests, and – best of all – location. In theory, this would enable local companies to place relevant ads on social networking sites, targeting those most likely to respond. What’s nice about it is you can “pay per click” – so even though we’re all getting good at “tuning out” advertisements, you’re only paying for the times someone actually notices your ad and acknowledges it.

I’ll give you the bad news first: targeting ads by location is a very inexact science, depending upon how it’s done. Facebook’s ad targeting system primarily uses IP address analysis to determine a user’s location – this means they look at the unique “address” associated with your computer’s Internet connection to decide where you are. This is a nice idea but when the majority of local Internet users go through a large broadband service provider, their connections frequently get lumped in with a larger network. For example, I use AT&T at home and my Internet connection always shows up as being in either San Jose or Oakland. Suddenlink sometimes says it’s in the Bay Area; other times it says Texas. AOL users are supposedly in Virginia. Many local Internet companies route through these same larger networks, so as far as an ad targeter would be concerned, you’re still not in Humboldt County. Look up your own connection – one site to try is www.hostip.info.

The bottom line here is that if you placed a location-targeted ad through Facebook, you wouldn’t get impressive results because so many people you want to reach would appear to be located elsewhere. Facebook does target based on physical addresses, but very few users actually provide one. They currently don’t use their “geographic networks” (location categories selected by the user) for ad targeting, but if/when they do, it won’t help unless they create one for Humboldt County. Local Facebook users have to choose from Redding or San Francisco.

The good news is that MySpace’s system employs a more useful location targeting method (user zip code, which each member is required to enter), so you’re actually focusing your time and money on targeting users in your area. You decide how far of a radius to extend from a particular zip code, and your ad is shown to MySpace users throughout that area. For those companies who only want to advertise locally, this can be a powerful way to reach the local “Gen Y” public.

If you’re looking to expand your client base beyond the Redwood Curtain, any of these networks might be useful for you. Also keep an eye out for Twitter.com and Bebo.com, similar networks currently on the rise, but which do not yet have their own advertising systems. Google Ads, which display ads across a gigantic network of sites, also use IP address targeting, but this can be a great resource if you’re looking to reach out to the whole world based on what search words they’re using.

The Internet is such a wide-reaching medium that it can seem intimidating – but it can make as much of an impact as television, radio, or print. With such low minimum budget requirements, you shouldn’t be afraid to test the waters!

Your local network for technology issues is the Redwood Technology Consortium. Check them out at www.redwoodtech.org.

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Christi Coffman is a Marketing Assistant with Coast Central Credit Union, specializing in web design. She is a member of the Redwood Technology Consortium.

Copyright 2009, Eureka Times Standard Newspaper. The print version of this article first appeared in the 6/4/09 edition of the Times Standard.