It's definitely true, now is not the best time to be trying to launch a site to compete with Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. However, many businesses could benefit from that strategy, although applied to a different, more targeted market.

In your market, is there a message board, website, blog, or other place where your customers (or those you want to be customers) tend to congregate online? Odds are, there are dozens of them, each offering a particular value proposition. Many companies are finding that launching a social network - where customers are featured over business owners, where customer reviews take precedence over product copy - may be a solid business decision.

Recent developments in standardization and learning from the leaders have shown the essentials for site functionality, design, etc. Along with this have come some very reasonably priced options to build your own social network.

Building a social network on your site may be a perfect solution to building new audience, developing more content, and nurturing a team of influential online advocates. Keep in mind, the technology and strategy must come together for this to take root and blossom.

Contact Spartan today to discover how you can capitalize with your own social network.