Social Networking

So there are endless number of blog post out there about social networking and the importance of it for building your business.  However, I am going to post one too, so here is my take on Social Marketing at least as I understand facebook, twitter, linkedin and youtube. 

One thing to keep in mind is that if you are going to truly gain any value from having a social network of any type is that it will take time and effort on your part.  So often when I tell a client they need to actually update, post, connect and communicate with contributions to forums, discussions and commentary, they tell me they don't have time for any extra work.  This is one of the area we need to work smarter not harder.  With the number of emails each and everyone of use send everyday, making a post or commenting on somebodies post is no more than just one extra email per day.

The key to all of this is setting a solid foundation and establishing your social network accounts.  Once you have done this you then need to let people you personally know that you have these social networks in place.  Send an invite to your contacts via email.  Add links to each of your networks to the signature of your email address.  Don't underestimate the power of email itself as a social network.  Emails get forwarded and passed around all the time and if your signature has links back to your website and all of your social networks you never know when someone will find you via a random email.

Now that the foundation of your social marketing has been put in place you need to promote it.  As I mentioned your email is a great place to start.  Your website is another.  It is standard practice to have links to all of your social networks on your website.  So what about the commentary or contributions to other blogs on the net.  Most sites will give the option to put a signature in your posting names.  You may be able to add your website url and your social networks to these signatures.  This is largely based on the website owner and mediator. 

You are now on a forward moving path towards success with social networks.  Now that you have some traction in place you will start to gain momentum and your networks will start to grow beyond your imagination.  More and more people will start to know who you are and know what you do.

Hope this helps someone to start to gain a better understanding of social networking to point you in the right direction.  If you have additional information to share regarding social networking I encourage you to add your commentary.  Please note spam will be removed.