dgunter@sohobizsolutions.com.
Best regards
Donna Gunter
http://www.onlinebizcoachingcompany.com
Social Networking: How to Make it Work for Your Business
It seems as though everywhere I turn I'm bombarded with
information about some aspect of social networking --
Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, Ryze, Fast
Pitch...the list goes on and on. I've been quite slow to
jump on the social networking bandwagon. I did create a
MySpace profile about a year ago, and recently gave up on
doing anything with it, as I wasn't seeing any results. My
new choice in the social networking arena is Facebook,
which is where my target market appears to be hanging out.
Based on my use and evaluation of several of these
platforms over the last few years, here's my synopsis of
the 3 primary social networking sites important for online
business owners: Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn:
Facebook: This one is the current fad, with many people
conducting teleclasses and coaching programs on how to best
use it. I do like its clean interface and easy-to-read
profiles. Many people, from all demographics, seem to be
on Facebook. The service offers the ability to add friends
by searching for high school/college classmates and by
searching former/current colleagues in the workplace. The
downside to the application is that you must have a
Facebook account in order to view anyone's profile. More
and more plug-ins (small applications) are being added to
Facebook every day that tweak how this application
functions. If you're an author or a business owner,
Facebook permit you to add stand-alone pages about your
business(es) or book(s) to your profile. Lastly, if you
blog, you can plug your blog feed into your profile to
update your friends from your blog every time you make a
new post.
LinkedIn: This has been the steady, reliable, social
networking platform that's very career and job focused.
Your profile consists primarily of your job history,
without much flexibility to promote your business. If your
target market consists of corporate types, this is probably
the social networking platform for you. You have the
ability to add connections in the same way that Facebook
provides, and your connections have the ability to submit a
recommendation about you if they wish.
MySpace: I still find MySpace the most annoying of all the
social networking sites, and hear too many horror stories
of MySpace stalkers and of people having to close accounts
due to harassment by other users. This is still the domain
of teen set, although most musicians and many artists
successfully create followings here for themselves.
MySpace offers many options to personalize and customize
your profile, which renders many profiles virtually
impossible to read. If your target market leans toward
teens or creative types, this is the social networking site
for you.
Here's what I have learned along the way to make social
networking a successful marketing strategy for your
business:
1. Pick one platform. So many business owners spread
themselves too thin by participating in several social
networking sites. I've discovered that you could easily
devote your entire day to this endeavor and never
accomplish anything else. Pick the best platform that will
get you in front of your target market and stick to it.
2. Determine your objective. How does this social
networking task fit into your overall marketing strategy?
What's your objective -- to sell more info products, to
grow your list, to develop joint venture or strategic
alliance partners? Determine your goal and remain focused
on that goal in all that you do when spending your time to
work your platform.
3. Work the platform. No marketing strategy will succeed
unless you pay attention to it. In order to successfully
use social networking, you need to work your platform every
single day. Ideally, this means devoting 30-60 minutes
each day on activities like seeking new
friends/connections/, commenting on other people's
profiles, updating your own profile, and notifying your
connections about your current activities.
4. Be patient. Rome wasn't built in a day, and you won't
see results of your efforts in a day, either. This is a
slow and steady process, much the same way that
face-to-face networking is. You've got to be out there
building relationships and helping others before you're
going to see your social networking goals realized.
5. Invite others. Don't hide the fact that you're playing
in the social networking arena -- invite your contacts to
play along with you. Most platforms offer you the ability
to send out these invitations from your contact database.
Let your ezine subscribers and blog readers know as well --
never pass up an opportunity to get to know your contacts.
Like it or not, social networking is here to stay. Follow
these five tips to make social networking a marketing
strategy that works for your online business.
----------------------------------------------------
Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Online Business
Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals
learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their
expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To
claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing
Toolkit, visit her site at http://www.OnlineBizU.com . Ask
Donna an Internet Marketing question at
http://www.AskDonnaGunter.com
