
Hi guys,
This article is targeted at small to medium size business owners and will hopefully interpret the ’social networking’ buzz word you will have no doubt heard colleagues mention in passing. Many of our clients still don’t really understand how their website can benefit from using websites such as Facebook, Digg, Google buzz, StumbleUpon, Yahoo buzz, Twitter and Linked In to their advantage.
In a previous article titled ‘Insider Tips For Non Techy’s Regarding Self Search Engine Optimisation‘, I discussed a few techniques into how you can use the internet as an asset for self promotion.
Social networking sites
What is a social networking site ? They are websites that aim to increase communication between a variety of target audiences who share similar interests. Their main focus is typically targeted at putting friends/businesses in contact, old and new, however as popularity increases a business angle seems to creep into pretty much all of them. Initially for the owners of the site to make some cash using internal advertising which later leads into generating extra revenue by encouraging its members to market themselves to the same audience.
How can I benefit from this ?
Facebook : You may already have an account, click on advertising located in the footer and follow the on screen instructions to create your own advert. Why? because it’s highly cost effective in comparison to other marketing mediums and gives its advertisers a lot of control over who the ads are visible to. You can create an advert then decide on its target audience by a range of filters, from age range, demographics, job titles, interests to pretty much anything a user has entered on their personal profile page. As a user, there are also tons of ways to market your company for free, you can create a group, create a fan page, create a business listing and invite countless people to join and read the content not to mention the ability for them to invite countless more in their contact circles. Remember the 6 degrees of separation?
You can also integrate your account with other social networking sites to update your status on the fly informing facebook users of new news without you even logging in, for example your current status updates on twitter.
Linked In: Think of a more basic facebook targeted at the business sector. Add your business profile to its network and create new contacts. You can even use the site to search for jobs in your industry and hopefully increase your annual turnover.
What all the buzz about? What are Digg, Google Buzz and Yahoo Buzz
These sites allow their users to inform other members of websites they deem interesting / worthy of reading. Once you register for an account on Digg etc, you can choose a topic, i.e design or business and see a live feed of information of what the internet is currently buzzing about.
How can I use this? Buzz about yourself and its its half worth the read other people will agree and spread the love, this will increase traffic to the site considerably and it a fantastic method of self promotion particularly if you are launching a new product or have insider news on something/one. The link itself will also act as a backlink to your website in Google’s eyes which in Google’s own words ‘acts as a positive vote from site A to B’ making you site more resourceful in the search engines eyes.
Will people ever StumbleUpon my site?
StumbleUpon is one of the internets best tools for generating legitimate traffic to your website, its also a great passtime so be careful of staff getting carried away with it at work
The way it works is, open an account, tick boxes on the topics you are interested in and then click the start stumbling button. The site will then display countless websites that are associated with the topics you ticked as interesting and expect you to either thumbs up or down the site if you like/dislike the content.
How do I use it as a business? Go to your website and be the first person to stumble it, just click on the thumbs up button on the downloadable toolbar StumbleUpon offers and write the first review, when you categorise your site and click OK you effectively throw your site into the face of users who have setup their profile stating that they are interested in viewing websites in your industry. If they like it, the number of users your site is displayed to will increase and generate regular traffic.
Can you hear the brids singing? Twit Twoo!!
Twitter has grown massively over the past few years. In its most basic form, allows users to follow other members and keep informed of their activities, this could be celebrity stalking or buddies letting each other know where they are in town, although you could probably just call them.
And as a business? Well you can create a business profile upload your logo and a background graphic then generate a following by following other members and messaging them to increase the visibility of your profile. There are also a variety of buttons you can put on your website urging your existing website visitors to follow you on twitter and keep informed of new products, sales and anything else that they might be interested in.
Your followers can also retweet your posts and spread the news to other branches/circles or contacts.
This all sounds awesome but I don’t have the time/technical knowledge/skill set to do all this!
I would seriously try to find the time, it would be very rewarding if you get it right, as usual though, if marketing scripts, techy skills are not your forte just contact us and we can put together a blazing hot social networking plan for your business. It costs nothing to ask. Visit our main site here : www.corporatewebsolutions.net or phone (UK) 08444 145 932.
To all who have read this article and think its worth spreading the love amongst your contacts/internet networks please do so via the SHARE button below the post. Thanks in advance
In the next article I’m going to cover a few more marketing tricks and techniques plus a few techy tricks. To ensure you dont miss out, enter your email into the subscribe box in the top right corner of this page and I’ll make sure you receive an email when the next post goes live.
Thanks for reading, comments/suggestions are always welcome…..



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