You've probably heard about social networking sites such as Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Maybe you've read about their popularity in the news, or maybe you've overheard your teenage son or daughter talking about "tweeting" with her friends. But have you considered using these free channels to help promote your business?
In this blog I will talk a little bit about what these websites are, how they work, how you can use them to drive traffic to your sites, and how they can compliment your existing website. And to answer your next questions... it's free and it only takes a few minutes!
What is a Social Networking Website?
It's difficult to define, but you might say that a social networking service is a website that provides tools that help people to find and communicate with each other. You typically create an account for free, enter information about yourself (your profile), and then either find and connect with other like minded people, or sit back and wait for them to find you.
Typically these sites are compartmentalized into different "channels" for different topics. So while teenagers might use Twitter to keep friends up to date with their latest news, a business might use Twitter as a simple way to communicate with the world.
Why Use Social Networking for Business?
There are a lot of "little" reasons why you could use these sites to promote your business. But let me focus on a few "big" reasons:
Volume: These websites get billions of hits- it's really quite amazing. Sites like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace challenge Google for page views. And while you should not expect the world to beat a path to your pages, even if you got visits from a tiny fraction of their audience, you will get a significant boost to your site visits and brand awareness.
They're Safe: TV News programs love cautionary tales about the dangers of the internet, and in fairness there are opportunities for trouble if you disclose too much personal or private information. But in a business context, there is little that can go wrong if you keep your profile professional.
They're Important: During the recent presidential elections in Iran, the US State Department asked Twitter's management to postpone scheduled maintenance downtime. It turns out that news blackouts by the Iranian government left voters with few ways to communicate with each other and the outside world, and Twitter was the chosen mode of communication. These social networking sites have gone far beyond texting tools for kids- they're part of the fabric of global communications.
They're Easy: Like anything else, you will get out of these sites as much as you put into them. But setting up an account and adding your profile and links to your business websites takes only minutes and doesn't cost a cent- continue reading to learn how.
Getting Started
Here is information on some of the most popular social networking sites on the internet, but this is by no means an exhaustive listing.
Site: Twitter
Website: http://www.twitter.com/
Purpose: Post short messages.
Business or Personal? Both
Signing up: Go to https://twitter.com/signup and enter your name, email address, and choose a username and a password.
In their own words: http://twitter.com/about#about
In my own words: The beauty of Twitter is in its simplicity. There is really only one thing you can do with Twitter- post short messages and links (up to 140 characters). But it's that simplicity that makes it so powerful and popular. There are no instructions to read. No rules to learn. No guidelines. Just post messages.
Getting started: Go to https://twitter.com/signupand enter your name and email address, and choose a username and a password- and that's it!
Recommendations: At Site Caddy we use Twitter to summarize activities and update clients on new releases and interesting industry news- we have our twitter feed plugged into the Site Caddy login page. You might use it to highlight special offers or make important announcements.
Site: LinkedIn
Website: http://www.linkedin.com/
Signing up: https://www.linkedin.com/secure/register
Purpose: Creating connections between businesses and business people.
Business or Personal? Business.
In their own words: http://press.linkedin.com/about
In my own words: LinkedIn is a powerful networking site intended for business users. It intelligently builds connections between people based on your profile and your existing connections.
Getting started: Sign up and create a profile. LinkedIn will help you to create your first links based on the information in your profile (e.g. your location, work history, schools attended).
Recommendations: LinkedIn is the online equivalent of a networking event. LinkedIn makes many recommendations on how to improve your profile- the more information you provide and people you connect to, the better you will do. It's not necessarily a great channel to market, but it is a good way to increase your exposure online and meet potential partners, clients, and staff.
Site: MySpace
Website: http://www.myspace.com/
Signing up: http://signups.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=signup
Purpose: Posting information about yourself for all the world to see.
Business or Personal? Personal, but has business uses.
A bit of background: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MySpace
In my own words: MySpace was originally all about social networking- allowing people to meet and share information online. But when 100 million people sign up, business will surely follow.
Getting started: Sign up and create a profile. Explore. Be amazed.
Recommendations: Start simple and populate your profile with the same keywords you promote on your website. Remember your goal- drive traffic to your website where you convert visitors to sales.
Site: Facebook
Website: http://www.facebook.com/
Signing up: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php(specifically for business signup)
Purpose: Posting information about yourself for all the world to see.
Business or Personal? Personal, but has business uses.
A bit of background: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook
In my own words: Same as for MySpace.
Getting started: Same as for MySpace.
Recommendations: Same as for MySpace.
Site: YouTube
Website: http://www.youtube.com/
Signing up: http://www.youtube.com/create_account
Purpose: Sharing videos.
Business or Personal? Both.
A bit of background: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youtube
In their own words: http://www.youtube.com/t/about
In my own words: YouTube is not so much of a social networking site, in that it does not help people to connect with each other. But I wanted to include it in this post because in this context it is relevant- it's originally a social website that now has business purposes.
Recommendations: Many small businesses have promotional videos available and YouTube is a great forum. For example, rather than embedding a video directly in your Site Caddy website, upload it to YouTube and then add the YouTube video to your site (help is available on the Site Caddy help site.
Other social networking sites: Friendster, Bebo, Classmates, and dozens of worldwide sites.
General Advice
Remember The Mission
The point of using these social networking tools is to increase awareness of your brand/business and drive traffic to your website.
Something is Better than Nothing!
Don't get overwhelmed by all of these things you feel like you should be doing to promote your business on the web. Start small and simple. It would take less than an hour to sign up for and create profiles on all of these sites and more. If you have time later to extend your profile and build connections, great. If not- then your profile will still drive traffic to your site and increase brand awareness.
Create Valuable Content
People typically don't go online to search for ads- they search for valuable information? If you create useful content on these sites and your own, you will have better results. For example, if you run a coffee shop, you might post daily tweets with simple coffee recipes or trivia. People know when you're trying to sell them something- at least make them feel like you are working for it ;-)
Personalize
The web (and especially the younger audience) is all about personalization. All of these sites provide tools that allow you to personalize your account with your logo, color scheme and more. It's not necessary, but it does look a bit more professional!
The Next Steps
The information in this post is hopefully a good start for those that were curious about these sites but unsure how to apply them as marketing tools. Search online for more information and tactics- there are thousands of articles on this subject.
Be Creative. The information I am providing in this article is very basic, and all the sites discussed are easy to use. But don't feel you need to stop with just a profile. Apply the same logic and creativity you use for your own business to these sites. Mix things up. Try one strategy on one site, and something different on the next. You can be both professional and different!
Link them all together. In Site Caddy you might create a page in the "About Us" section on your website named "Follow Us". On that page, you could include links to all of your social networking pages. On each of those pages, create links to the other sites, but emphasize the links to your business site.
In my next post to this blog I will talk about how success on the web is not dependent on a huge budget or a silver bullet. In my opinion it is a combination of many "little things" that separate the good from the great online marketers. Posting your information to these social networking sites is a good example of little things you can do to increase your business exposure on the web. And yes- they do make a difference.
Thanks for sharing such valuable information. Keep posting such great info for us, thanks.
Posted by: Alberta | 12/07/2011 at 03:30 AM