Jul
27
Small vs. Large Social Networking Sites
Filed Under Favorite Posts, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Social Media and Social Networking Sites | 15 Comments
Even people who don’t go online and don’t understand social networking have heard of MySpace or Facebook, names that might conjure up fears of predators or identity theft.
However, that’s not my point.
My point is that MySpace and Facebook are so much talked about that they have pretty much become household names, and serious business networkers have or ought to have a presence at MySpace, Facebook and Linked In — and at other major social networking sites.
Many of the important online networking sites are listed for your convenience:
- Mashable’s Catalog of 350+ Social Networking Sites
- 50 Social Sites That Every Business Needs a Presence On
- Wikipedia’s List of Social Networking Websites
There are also industry specific sites. For example if your business is real estate related, consider joining ActiveRain Real Estate Network and Wanna Network, if you don’t already belong.
To find business networking sites specific to any industry, try plugging the industry name and the words “networking sites” into your favorite search engine.
But wait, the story doesn’t end here.
Smaller and newer business networking sites also deserve to be included in your online portfolio. After all, less can be more.
When Diane Hochman Zigs, I Zag
Diane Hochman, the founder and director of My Private Classroom for Marketers, often instructs, “Don’t Follow the Flock”. When others are zigging, you zag.
Diane is a Web 2.0 social media rock star. Many people follow her every move. They go where she goes. They do what she does. They zig when she zigs, and they zag when she zags.
People like Diane Hochman and Mike Dillard have their own flocks. Since I don’t want to follow the flock, nor live in somebody’s shadow, when Diane and Mike zig, I zag.
When they’re hanging at Facebook and Twitter, I’m chillin’ at one of the newer smaller sites such as Sta.rtUp.biz, a site that caters to small business entrepreneurs, or Natural Networkers, a social networking site for proponents of attraction marketing.
I might also be list building at Direct Matches or schmoozing at Yuwie, since they are not.
I think you get the general idea. It fits in with my online social networking strategy and my personal branding strategy. It’s common sense. I have plenty of room to maneuver.
You too might be best off charting a different course than your competition or industry leaders.
Choosing Business Networking Sites
There are many possible criteria for choosing business sites. However, at the end of the day it’s largely a matter of trial and error.
Nevertheless, let me share a few of my considerations with you. Perhaps I’ll share more in a future blog post.
Some social networking sites are funded by membership fees, some by advertising, and some by a combination of the two. I mainly prefer advertising supported sites. I’m not reaching out to a very elite crowd.
I do admit, I’m a paid Executive Member at Direct Matches since 2005. I highly value the package of services they provide for a modest monthly fee, and I appreciate Bill Weber’s personal touch. You may prefer to join Direct Matches for free.
It is the only social site I pay to use at the present time. The other sites I use are either ad supported or offer free memberships that I find suitable.
Some networking sites make it easier to connect than others. I like to reach out to a large audience and prefer sites that make it easy for me to do that.
I like to be able to browse and add friends or contacts by demographic characteristics or by geographic location. When sites offer that option, it’s great. When they don’t, I look to a site’s groups or clubs to find people in my target market.
Short Lived Networking Feature
Some new social networking sites let me send mail to all my contacts or to all members of groups to which I belong. I love this capability and use it effectively without abusing or spamming.
I like to let lots of people know about my new blog posts. If I didn’t have a blog, I’d send links to useful information and thereby build my relationship with fellow members.
Unfortunately, as a networking site grows, spammers inevitably move in and ruin it for everybody. It’s impossible to keep a step ahead of them, so all sites eventually limit or eliminate this wonderful feature.
Don’t Let Spammers Ruin Your Day
I don’t like spammers and wish they’d stick with safelists or classified ads, but I don’t let them ruin my day, nor do I let them dissuade me from using any particular social networking site.
If I can cope with tailgaters and drivers who cut me off on the highway, I can surely cope with spammers.
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May
25
Creating a Home for Your Blog
Filed Under Networking and Marketing Strategy, Search Engines, blogging | 4 Comments
Your web presence is an asset not unlike real estate.
You’ve probably heard about the three most important factors in real estate.
They are:
- Location
- Location
- Location
A little exaggerated, perhaps, but not much. Properties can always be fixed up, but they can never be moved. If you buy a lovely house in a bad location, you’re stuck in that location.
What are the three most important factors in a web presence?
- Content
- Content
- Content
Or are they?
Location is an important factor in the value of an Internet property too.
When you set up your blog in a blogging community such as Blogger.com or Wordpress.com, you benefit in several ways:
- You get free rent; you don’t have to pay for hosting
- You’re up and running very quickly; no WordPress.org set up and no upgrades to struggle with
- You might get indexed right away — no big deal — but you might also get page ranked quickly, and in the short run perhaps that helps you
- Your community might work a like a social networking site and give you extra exposure
The main thing you give up is control.
If you accidentally — or intentionally — violate the community’s terms of service, they may very well terminate your blog. It happens, and it’s painful.
After all your hard work, you discover that you built your house on a mushy landfill.
Certain widgets or other site customizations may not be as straightforward either compared to marking up a Wordpress.org blog.
Look at it this way. You’re building a site for long term use. Do you really want to be under the thumb of a capricious landlord who can put you and your belongings out into the street on a cold winter night?
Having said all this, it’s still your personal call. The advantages of a Blogger.com site may outweigh the disadvantages as far as you are concerned, especially if you’re funds are tight right now.
And that’s fine. As long as you’re making a well though out determination for yourself.
My personal choice was and still isWordPress.org. I use a variety of Wordpress plug-ins which I will list and discuss seperately.
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May
25
Before You Begin Blogging
Filed Under Networking and Marketing Strategy, Search Engines, Social Media and Social Networking Sites, blogging | 2 Comments
The decisions you make and the actions you take before you set up your marketing blog are at least as important as the steps you take once your blog is up and running.
Proper planning can help you avoid many false starts and much backtracking.
Start by asking yourself basic marketing questions such as these:
- How will you monetize your blog? For ideas refer to Blogs and Blogging for Fun and Profit.
- What will you sell?
- Which are your target markets?
- Can you reach them through advertising? Offline business networking?
- Can you connect with them at social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Direct Matches, Yuwie or Ryze? While you’re building credibility with the search engines, you can use online social networking and forums to enlist subscribers and readers for your blog.
- What can you write about in your blog or what other content can you offer that will attract them?
- Which keywords are they searching for that are relevant to your project?
- Which keyword searches can you realistically compete for?
- How will you position your products and brand yourself?
Asking these questions up front will make it possible to develop a coherent plan of action, and we will consider them in coming weeks.
You will need to choose a home for your blog, and that raises another key question.
Will you join a blogging community such as Blogger.com or Wordpress.com — or will you host your blog independently? I explain in Creating a Home for Your Blog why serious bloggers usually prefer to host their sites independently, and later we’ll look at what that entails.
And you will also need to evaluate your marketing and technical skills. Where are you on the learning curve? What will it take to get up to speed? Will you require some amount of personal guidance to get off to the right start?
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May
22
Blog Marketing
Filed Under Favorite Posts, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Search Engines, blogging, communication | 3 Comments
Blogging and Personal Branding
Personal blogs and business blogs often factor into the marketing mix of both large and small businesses.
Blogging is interactive and enables direct communication with the customer or end user, a subtle form of business networking.
Blogging as a form of networking is not as direct as attending a meeting of a chamber of commerce or a small business association — nor does it replace online social networking at social networking sites. However, it builds credibility while refining and reinforcing the blogger’s personal or corporate brand image.
Search Engine Optimization
As I stated in Top Reasons Why I Blog, “Blogging endears me to the search engines.”
Search engines love to deliver fresh content to their clientele, and that’s what blogs are all about. Each blog post creates new content for search engines such as Google to sink their teeth into.
Search engines send visitors. Some of those visitors become readers and bond with the blogger and his or her company or cause.
Make Money Blogging
This bond presents opportunities.
For example, when bloggers are looking directly to monetize their blogs, as is very often the case in the world of blogs, their readers are often redirected to another site or to a sales page to purchase an endorsed product or service.
This transition is easy once a trusting relationship has been created between blogger and reader.
To learn how to make money blogging, my previous post, Blogs and Blogging for Fun and Profit, is a good place to start.
We’ll continue to explore the relationship between blogging and search engine marketing.
Be sure to visit the Blog Marketing and SEO Training page.
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May
7
Rationale for Social Networking
Filed Under Favorite Posts, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Search Engines, communication | 1 Comment
Last November I examined the popularity of social networking sites.
In a series of four posts I examined the reasons I believed that online social networking was very relevant:
- “High Tech/High Touch” - As sterile technology increasingly impacts our lives, we crave greater and greater intimacy to offset it.
- Digital Age - Our technical capablity permits, even inspires us, to share multi-media digital files with our friends, family and colleagues that contain valuable information, memorable experiences and enjoyable entertainment.
- Communication - Online social networking sites are capable of providing us with the functionality that e-mail did in the past plus a big additional benefit, file sharing.
- Search Engine Optimization - More and more marketers are turning to social networking both to connect with users and to get free traffic. Traffic comes from within the community and, thanks to the search engines, from without as well.
On March 24th I looked at Social Networking vs. Advertising and how people tend to approach social networking with an advertising mindset. If you haven’t seen that post, I highly recommend it.
My good friend Ivo Jackson, a very gifted writer, wrote a blog post April 8, the 7 Reasons Why You Should Do More Networking Than Selling that looked at networking from another angle.
Ivo provides an excellent rationale for social networking that applies to offline as well as online social networking. These are the points she makes:
- People don’t like to be sold.
- Selling only works when people are ready to buy, and most of your network is not ready.
- People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
- Selling yourself or your brand is easier than selling your product or service.
- The law of averages is real - long term success is relative to the size of your network.
- If you help people get what they want, you will eventually get what you want.
- If you expect a great harvest, you must first plant some seeds.
Visit Ivo’s blog and read the complete article.
I wish to add just one point that I made in my March 24th post. Networking allows you to determine what people really want so that you can customize your offer to them.
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Feb
6
Books: The Go-Giver
Filed Under Favorite Posts, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Personal Development and Success, Testimonials, books | 6 Comments
Nearly 100 years ago Wallace D. Wattles wrote a short book, The Science of Getting Rich. Wattles inspired Napoleon Hill and others to write about the power our thoughts have over the world around us, and about the beneficial consequences of having certain beliefs and acting in a certain way.
The Secret book and video recently repackaged this body of knowledge for mass consumption. Whether all the hoopla over The Secret will have been justified by a tangible positive shift in peoples’ lives remains to be seen. I’m not at all aware of any new paradigm shifts in the world at large since The Secret was distributed.
I don’t want to sound cynical, because I’m really not. And I love personal development books and courses. Nevertheless, I cannot help but notice that despite the course’s apparent lack of impact, its promotion was a huge marketing success.
The success of The Secret hasn’t stopped with the book and the video. Bob Proctor and his Science of Getting Rich program have seemingly managed to keep the momentum and monetization of that momentum going.
Is this the only way to spell $u¢¢e$$?
Meanwhile, two accomplished social networkers and authors, Bob Burg and John David Mann, brought out their new book, The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea
This short book teaches us how to achieve success by relating an inspiring parable about an ambitious young man named Joe and his encounter with The Old Man. We learn The Five Laws of Stratospheric Success as well as the importance of applying them as soon as we learn them. Each of the laws is exquisitely illustrated within the narrative.
The first law, The Law of Value, that “your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment,” is also exemplified by the authors’ present undertaking. They and their publisher have made this wonderfully written hard cover book available through Amazon.com
It’s one of those books that I know I will re-read again and again in the months and years to come. Each time I will progress farther to integrate and internalize The Five Laws in my life.
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Jan
13
Top Friends, Favorites and Bookmarking
Filed Under Networking and Marketing Strategy, Social Media and Social Networking Sites | Leave a Comment
We consider three ways to organize your contacts within social networking sites.
Many social networking sites let you select Top Friends and Favorites, public and private lists respectively of your most important contacts.
Visitors don’t need to click through to another page to view your Top Friends. They’re right there “on top”.
You implicitly recommend to others that they visit your Top Friends and connect with them.
Sites generally establish a maximum number of Top Friends. Therefore, as you meet new people, or as your priorities change, you may need to delete some Top Friends to make room for new ones.
Your Favorites on the other hand cannot be viewed by anybody except you. Sites do not generally establish maximums for Favorites or the maximums are large.
You can use your Favorites for your contact list, people with whom you wish to stay in touch. And when you decide that you no longer wish to re-contact a person, you simply delete them from your Favorites.
I use my Favorites list this way in Direct Matches, MySpace and Yuwie, three of my favorite networking sites, as a sort of folder.
If you prefer, you can organize your contact list in a more detailed or systematic fashion using your browser’s Bookmarking capabilities. You can save a link to each important contact’s profile page or each important blog post.
You can easily create folders and sub-folders of Bookmarks (even a sub-folder for each contact with links to his or her profiles and blog posts on multiple social networking sites).
While Bookmarking can be tedious, it offers plenty of control and flexibility.
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Jan
9
F-O-R-M
Filed Under Networking and Marketing Strategy | 1 Comment
Years ago I learned the acronym F-O-R-M standing for Family, Occupation, Recreation and Money. Talk about these four things and you’ll quickly learn what a person needs and how you might be able to help him or her.
I suggest that you use this formula in your online dialogs but with one important caution.
You cannot discuss money before you and your friend develop adequate mutual trust, since money can at times be a very sensitive topic.
Be aware that three areas of discussion that often lead to conflict are politics, religion and sexual orientation. Unless your agenda encompasses one or more of these topics, you will be prudent to leave them out of your conversations.
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Jan
6
Mobile Friendly
Filed Under Acknowledgment, Announcements | Leave a Comment
This is a quick news flash!
My social networking blog can now be accessed from your mobile phone in a mobile friendly format, thanks to help from my friend and colleague I.C. Jackson.
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Jan
2
Comments, Messages, Bulletins and Blogs
Filed Under Networking and Marketing Strategy, blogging | 5 Comments
Most social networking sites provide several ways to communicate, and depending on circumstances, one way may be more suitable than another.
Let’s discuss and compare the most common communication forms:
- Comments, guestbook entries or testimonials
- Private messages
- Bulletins or notices
- Blogs or web logs
Comments tend to be overused by most networkers. They are popular because they aren’t intrusive, they’re public, and because they link back to the poster’s page.
Comments have several drawbacks to consider:
- They aren’t suitable for personal messages which might embarass the recipient.
- They aren’t suitable for commercial messages. Comment spam is a major annoyance on networking sites.
- They can easily go unnoticed or unread if the recipient doesn’t require comment pre-approval.
Comments are great for gaining exposure and for creating back links to your page. They are also good for giving kudos.
Private messages tend to be underused by most networkers. Perhaps they’re afraid to intrude. Perhaps they’re using comments for some good reason and go on to use them for all their correspondence. Or perhaps they’re just going along with the rest of the herd.
Private messages ought to be used every time you desire direct communication. Messages will get opened and read. Do not use private messages for spam. If you have a commercial message, get explicit or implicit approval to send it.
Bulletins are useful when you have a very large number of friends or contacts. Theoretically, they allow you to reach out to all of them with one post. Unfortunately bulletins easily scroll out of view before they can be viewed, and unlike private messages, recipients can easily ignore them.
A possible solution is to use your blog to supplement your bulletins and other communications.
Spam is tolerated more in bulletins than in comments or private messages, but you should neverthelsss avoid it. Put unsolicited commercial messages in your blog, if anywhere.
Your blog is a public forum for your ideas and a place for public dialog, and your blog brands you in the mind of your readers.
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Dec
9
Online Social Networking Entering New Phase
Filed Under Favorite Posts, Networking and Marketing Strategy, News | 2 Comments
Many readers will recall that late in August I discussed money making opportunities in the online social networking industry.
I said that the industry was hot, was growing, and was worth some attention and speculation.
I suggested promoting Yuwie, a free MySpace-like site that paid a share of its ad revenue to users. I rejected paid membership sites, since the trend indicated that sites were giving more and more to members without any charge.
I was right about two things. One, the industry is hot. And two, you can certainly keep your credit card in your wallet.
The industry is so hot that new sites with the most exotic names are cropping up daily, each looking for a piece of the pie, and many willing to pay members to use and promote them.
The market is expanding with new users, but I don’t believe that it is expanding rapidly enough to support the proliferation of sites.
My prediction is that the lion’s share of new industry players will fail to reach the critical mass required to sustain themselves long term.
Whether any particular one will make it or not, your guess is probably as good as mine. However, let me offer you a plan of action.
- Use social networking sites to network, to make new friends, to make new business contacts, and to make deals. Do not use them only to get paid by them. If you want to make money, doing business through these sites has much more potential than creating income streams from the sites themselves.
- Join, use and refer people to sites that you enjoy, that offer the services you want, and that attract the types of people you wish to network with. Do not join sites because you are impressed by their hyped-up revenue sharing plan.
- Avoid paid membership sites unless they are the only ones that provide the services you require and attract the clientele you seek.
- It’s tempting to join loads of cool sites and spread yourself thin. Do not do it. Limit yourself to just a few. If you spread yourself too thin, you’ll miss the opportunity to get to know people on any of the sites, and you’ll be no more than a virtual social butterfly.
- Invite people you meet on one site to join you on another site, especially a well established site such as MySpace. This way your friendship can survive a site’s demise. And not only that, when people connect on more than one site they tend to establish a stronger bond than when they connect on only one.
- Take stock often of the situation to determine whether you need to change your strategy. When you drive a car, you need to be looking beyond the car ahead of you. Here too you must try to anticipate trouble ahead.
- Don’t hold it against me if I recommend a site to you that doesn’t work out. After all I can’t see into the future, and I’m making educated guesses based on what I know presently and my strong sense of intuition. (This is my disclaimer.)
- Have fun! Yes, I said that. Social networking online or offline ought to be fun.
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Dec
2
Getting to Know You
Filed Under Networking and Marketing Strategy | 2 Comments
Little did Rodgers and Hammerstein know that their hit, Getting to Know You, from their 1951 Broadway musical, The King and I, would become my social networking theme song.
Social networking is all about people getting to know each other.
“That’s obvious,” you say?
Why is it then that so many individuals use networking venues both online and offline to spam or advertise to each other?
My advice to you is neither become offended nor get sidetracked by these annoying tactics. Stay focused on meeting people and on getting to know them.
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Blog Syndication
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Blog Statistics
