The term Social Network applies to a number of different online platforms including the familiar Face Book and My Space web sites as well as social Bookmarking services like Digg and Stumbleupon. Also Services like Twitter and Squidoo fall into the social Networking category. But its worth taking a look at how the more familiar genres can help the Entrepreneur and Online Marketer.

The social nature of Facebook means that the Home Worker can grow a friends list very quickly. Add a friend wait for them to confirm and then explore their friends for people you know.

Before long theyll have a network of people with which to exchange contact numbers, ideas and events. But where it gets interesting is when they organize their contacts into Groups. This allows people with an interest in what your group is about to join. Suddenly the Home Based Entrepreneur has a captive audience of like minded people to market to. I regularly get invitations to plays that my friends are performing in, as well as parties that friends-of-friends have organized.

To add to this natural way of creating a captive audience on Facebook, there has been, for about 18 months now, the opportunity to place adverts on the site. Much like Google, with Facebook Advertising you would set your advert up to appear for search terms and you can specify the target audience i.e. 18-20, University Graduates, over 50s and so on. When trying this a year ago I was stunned by the response I had from my 3 by 1 inch advert. But the main draw for using Facebook Advertising is that, as of this writing, the cost per click averages about 33% of what you would pay Google or Yahoo. So your investment is very low compared to the main players in this space.

Like any online service there are rules for the submission of adverts. All adverts must be circumspect, with tidy graphics and grammatically correct copy. Once submitted, the ad is perused by a human being who makes sure that the advert doesnt conflict with the smooth lines of their Graphical User Interface. And once they're happy, your advert goes live.

As with other cost-per-click services, Facebook also provides analytics so that you can measure your adverts performance and make changes if necessary.

So why not consider the alternative advertising platform of other social networking sites including Facebook and push your Home Based Business to the next level.