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Part 12 (final) of social media marketing: social networking tools
June 3, 2008
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Social marketing is complex, but it is a valuable way to build your business profile inexpensively. With the volume of sites beckoning you to join and limited time on your hands, knowing where to place yourself is key to your success.
According to Alexa.com's ranking, here are the top 10 most popular social networking websites overall*. I recommend creating 2 profiles (out of the 10 provided below) and manage and build your reputation before tackling another one.
1. Facebook - great for building your brand and connecting to others
2. MySpace - good for music venues, events and clothing stores. Get creative here and incorporate your branding.
3. Hi5 - it appears this would be a good place to advertise if you were in the sex industry, say Adam & Eve store.
4. Orkut - a Google run operation
5. Fotolog - take pictures of your store, your business, and others and add to this site to share with your customers.
6. Skyrock -for the younger crowd
7. Friendster - old and new can join and play on this site
8. Flickr - like fotolog...
9. Livejournal - discuss events in your business, tips on getting ahead, etc.
10. Multiply - media-sharing website without all the sex involved...
*Note: if you have dial-up access, all of these have slow, or very slow, load times.
Click here for their ranking of social media websites (on Wednesday afternoon June 4).
Check out all the Alex rankings for the social media sites (coming on June 4).
When it comes to
business social sites, I recommend selecting 2 of the following popular ones to participate in*:
1.
Yahoo! Answers - post a comment, answer a question, be an expert in your subject matter. It's the most popular social marketing site, so I highly recommend this one.
2.
Wikipedia - Create a wiki about yourself and edit subject matters you know a lot about.
3.
LinkedIn - Create a profile for yourself and link to others. Link to me too:
4.
WikiHow - Add to a wiki about how to grow your business, brand yourself, sell clothing, etc. It's a collaborative effort to build a huge how-to website.
5.
Xing - Similar to LinkedIn, it employs the 6 degrees of separation methodology.
6.
Mediabistro - If you're a writer, freelancer, artist, or looking for one, this is an incredible networking site.
7.
Spoke - Another LinkedIn and Xing connection type site with access to over 40 million people (this makes me curious...)
8.
Jigsaw - It's the world's biggest roledex, according to Inc. Magazine
9.
iKarma (not in top 10, but it's close) - Build your reputation and find out what others think...
(*note: most have slow load times for dial-up)
For promoting yourself locally, I recommend trying 1 of the following:
1.
Going.com - create a "place" for yourself in your town and have others recommend you. You also have the option of recommending yourself. If you're hosting an event, you can post it and invite people.
2.
Outside.in - If your town isn't listed, they ask that you help grow your neighborhood by
suggesting stories about local happenings — or
submitting your blog. If you're not in one of those cities, you can put your community on the map by suggesting stories or blogs, too.
3.
Tribe.net - join in the discussions about retail business and trends if you like.
4.
i-neighbors.org - create a local community in your area and email, set up events, market yourself, etc.
Viral Content Aids - Join these programs and add these icons to your the content pages to help it travel:
1.
del.icio.us - social bookmarking
2.
Ma.gnolia - social bookmarking
3.
Digg - content submitted, and voted on, from other sites
4.
Blinklist - social bookmarking
5.
Furl - social bookmarking
6.
Reddit - content submitted, and voted on, from other sites
7.
Newsvine - content submitted, and voted on, from other sites. The difference with this site is you are able to create your own newsvine page for discussions on the news you deem important.
8.
Spurl - social bookmarking
Shopping social sites: - FYI if you're in the clothing industry:
1.
Stylehive.com - very popular site for clothing and accessories
2.
MyItThings.com - write about your store, your business, the trends you think are hot, etc.
3.
Iliketotallyloveit.com - create a profile and submit your merchandise and/or have others manage it for you.
4.
SmashingDarling.com - Designed for the fashion industry, join in to collaborate, get feedback, sell items you created.
Part 1: research & evaluation / benchmark what people are discussing | Part 2: ensure your website is visit-worthy | Part 3: create bookmarks & tagging for your content | Part 4: increase your linkability & reward your inbound links | Part 5: evaluate the online channel strategies | Part 6: work to build your community & participate yourself | Part 7: promote your company and yourself | Part 8: measuring your progress | Part 9: improve the benefit and the experience | Part 10: help your content travel | Part 11: use the 22 psychological needs to make a difference | Part 12: social marketing tools
Posted by Suze Bragg on June 3, 2008 | Comments (0)
