Social networking is big now, and I could tell you I have always utilized various social networking tools. Back in 1999 when AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) and Yahoo Messenger were the tools of the trade it was a way for me to communicate with several of my clients throughout the day. I also participated in Work at Home Moms, and Digital Women. This was early social networking. I even have an article I wrote for IT Magazine in November 2000 that covers how Dot Com Parents can utilize such tools to network for business purposes and to maintain communication with clients. This article led to me being featured in a news interview about Dot Com Parents on the local television station.
Almost 10 years later Social Networking is the latest craze or phase in utilizing web tools to market your business. Not only business but news papers and the media in general are Tweeting like crazy these days. How much of our news for Iran came from Tweets? I even found it amazing that I was Twittered Michael Jackson’s death before the news reported it. Like it or not this is part of communication in the 21st Century.
But what other social networks are there? As a business you need to think beyond Twitter and Facebook there are thousands of companies just like you utilizing these tools, so you need to think about what other social network websites will be beneficial to marketing your business. You can and need to look beyond Facebook and Twitter.
Here are some of my favorite social networks and how you can utilize them.
Linkedin: LinkedIn offers many resources for entrepreneurs, such as groups, including the very popular “On Startups” group that has over 54,000 members. I participate in several groups related to my business industry this is really good to help you have a network to ask questions related to your business, share business tips, and overall you can gain a following by your peers.
Flock.com: Keep all your social media in one browser while using IE, Firefox, or Safari for other business purposes. I really enjoy this application I can do all my social networking in this one browsers.
FriendFeed: FriendFeed enables you to discover and discuss the interesting stuff your friends find on the web. What makes this very useful is the fact that FriendFeed allows you to Read and share however you want — from your email, your phone or even from your Facebook and Twitter Account. Publish your FriendFeed to your website or blog, or to services you already use, like Twitter. This saves twitter and Facebook time. Essentially one post and you can update your social networking sites.
Digg: You can DIGG anything. Websites, pictures, blogs, anything you find interesting you can Digg. Digg can help improve site ranking simply by allowing others to DIGG your site, or digging your site after you post will help unique visitors to your site.
MyMediaRoom: A platform that allows organizations to publish their press releases, event announcements, blog and more on a dedicated website.
Netscape.com – Netscape has changed and is now longer a browser now it is now a a social news aggregator with voting of stories similar to Digg.
Newsvine.com – Users can write articles on current news events, save links to external content; vote, comment and chat on article pages created by both users and by journalists.
Reddit.com: You vote up or down on a story making it move around on the home page. You can share your story, vote up or down the story (and others) creating another feed to your own website. Having a reddit button on your site will publish the story to reddit for you.
Your webmaster should be able to place on your site a Like It Share It Button that allows others to share your site to most of the above mentioned sites, therefore saving you from having to go through an effort of visiting each social networking site. Allow others to share your site, but also take the time to have your webmaster or someone from your business share your site as well. There are professionals such as our company that can help you in maintaining your social networking circle of sites.
Also with sites like LinkedIn I advise you to be active, the more active you are on these sites the more of a following you can establish.
Next article will cover interactive community portals. If you have an interactive community portal please forward us your link.
