You’d be hard-pressed to find someone these days that isn’t a part of at least one social network. You should use this to your advantage. By joining, finding free ways to push your website development, you can get valuable incoming traffic. Social networking is one of the easiest ways to stay connected to friends and family, near and far. Sharing pictures, stories and sending messages are popular pastimes. This activity has spread into the business world and is now seen as a valuable marketing tool. Joining a social network is free so there’s no reason not to give it a try. This is a much more effective way of communicating than e-mail.
Which sites should you use? The following sites have been found by business owners to be the most appropriate: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube and MySpace. The results from each site are different for every business so don’t be afraid to test and track which ones yield the best outcome for your business. You can get started quite easily by just indicating your e-mail address and password. Using sites like these, you can create a page that tells all about you and your business. Look for friends, family and business associates who are also connected so you can keep up with what is going on in their lives and businesses as well. Let’s look at a site like Facebook. It is highly popular and can be beneficial for both business and personal use. In business terms, post links to your website when you launch new products, spin the newsletters or to publicise sales.
If you blog, post links to your newest blog posts (or to guest blog posts you’re doing elsewhere around the blogosphere). Draw attention to contests, invited guest bloggers or other events. Do you have an online radio show? You can invite friends to listen to live podcasts to learn more about your business. On a site like YouTube, you can post videos and add the links to your Facebook profile, Twitter stream, etc. Invite friends to view and leave comments. The beauty of these social sites is that business contacts and friends can distribute your links to other people who may be interested in what you do, as well. Quite possibly viral marketing at its best!
As any professional will tell you, always remember when promoting your blog or website within social networking arenas that you must not do so blatantly. Relax and get to know the people you are trying to reach out to. Be careful, because they say that social networking can be addictive. You should set boundaries and be somewhat cautious, but if you grow your business, this can be addictive by itself. Just like so many other online marketing tools, the name of the game is relationships. You can build meaningful ones not only with friends and family, but with your target audience and business associates on all the social networking sites like LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, Facebook of course, and others. Try and comment on your friends’ posts and surf to their links. As an Internet marketing tool, social networking works both ways. It’s not a means to an end, but is a fun way to market and grow your business. Above all else, remember that it is free!
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Facebook and twitter work the best for my site.