4 Reasons Not to Add Social Networking to Your Site

3. Your customers are already members of social networking sites. Think about the customers who are coming to your site. Are they already social networking site members? If so, try a different marketing approach to reach them — such as interactive gaming — which may be a better fit than creating profiles, chat rooms or instant messaging, any of which members of social networking sites already receive as members of these types of sites.

4. It’s easier — and potentially more lucrative — to integrate with existing SN sites. Let’s say you’re trying to get the attention of the 18- to 30-year-old market. Why not create clever, original content that users will want to share with their friends on MySpace, YouTube or Facebook?

With combined memberships into the hundreds of millions, this may be a better awareness generator than creating your own SN site from scratch. When you make it easy for users to add your content to their current SNS pages of choice, they automatically share it with their friends.

Les Kollegian is founder of and creative director for the Jacob Tyler Creative Group, a San Diego-based design firm specializing in Web design and development, product design, and online marketing. Reach Les at les@jacobtyler.com.