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Social networking Web sites such as MySpace and Facebook aren't just for teenagers keeping up with their friends. Business owners are increasingly tapping into such sites as an easy, affordable marketing tool.

These sites were developed for people to make connections and friends by posting personal information and messages to each other. Now businesspeople — from real estate agents to theater marketing directors — are trying to connect the same way.

After two years of updating a MySpace page, the Maryland Ensemble Theater launched a similar site on Facebook last week, said marketing director Sara Straw. The nonprofit theater also has connections on Fredrocks.net, a local social networking site that focuses on entertainment.

"We use it like a person would use MySpace and Facebook. We just use it to promote our shows," Straw said. "Our goal is to get people to come to our Web site and purchase tickets."

When Fredrocks.net marked its one-year anniversary Aug. 28, the site boasted 200 registered members, 145 blog entries and more than 200 photos. Four months after the event posting feature was added in April, the site welcomed 63 event postings, including from businesses such as Flying Dog Brewery and The Temple Paul Mitchell Partner School.

Straw said the theater will likely post regularly on only on a few sites, including a blogspot.com site since January, instead of using as many sites as possible.

"You don't want to spread yourself too thin," Straw said. "You pick one or two and stick with them. We're going to focus on better utilizing the tools on MySpace and Facebook. There's a lot of ways to stay constantly connected."

The theater uses Google Analytics to track visitors and how long they have looked at the site and what pages they have viewed. The technology does not reveal names or e-mail addresses, but tells Straw where visitors are coming from — for example, by Google searching, linking from another page or typing in the URL. That helps her determine where to advertise, she said.

Portrait photographer Barbara Campbell, who owns of Studio 11 Photography in Frederick, has used the site to market her niche to her target audience — high school seniors. Students post their photos from her on their own sites, drawing more interest, she said.

"Of course, everybody has one," Campbell said. "Most people who find me on MySpace are through the ‘friends' that I have."

She has posted on MySpace and Flickr, a photo-sharing site, for two years. She created a group for female photographers to post about their shoots the Frederick area. Campbell started blogging on Vox two months ago, posting a few photos and describing how the shoot went.

"It doesn't cost anything except time," Campbell said. "It really does help get people to see what I'm doing. … I haven't seen many photographers on MySpace, but I think it will catch on. It's free, for one, and so many people are on MySpace, I can't imagine it going away."

Jon Bailey, co-founder of Wood Street, a graphics design and Web site development company in Frederick, said many restaurants and retail stores now have a Web presence beyond their main site. For his clients, Bailey has honed sites with technology such as Twitter, a photo-sharing site and contacts databases.

"Especially if you have a membership organization, you can stay in front of members and do outreach," Bailey said. "It's more viral than just having a main Web site and you can point people back to your Web site."

Real estate agents are also using Facebook itself to promote seminars and draw clients.

On the Web site Active Rain, sometimes called the "Facebook for Real Estate Professionals," 127 Frederick County businesses are among 106,678 members in the industry that have created profiles. Among them are Geoff Littlehale of Parlett-Littlehale Realtors in Ijamsville and Justini Johnson of Inspiring Design in Urbana. Both created profiles on the site with pictures and a link to their businesses' Web site, along with basic biographical information.