Social websites, once dedicated to personal use, are quickly becoming marketing and communication tools for business owners. While a professional and comprehensive website should still be the focal point of your on-line presence, E-Mail marketing and strategically utilized networking sites could be valuable additions to your marketing plan. The digital landscape is crowded with Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Blogs and You-Tube all vying for market share. Many business owners and individuals maintain pages on multiple sites and while all of them rank fairly high with search engines, there are pro’s and con’s to each. How do you decide what is right for you? Let’s review what they are in an effort to narrow our choices.
Facebook: Businesses all across America connect with one another through Facebook. You can use the site to join a professional networking group, search for a job, or create your own profile. Facebook contains a strict set of preferences giving you control of every aspect of your page.
Linkedin: Linkedin is a business-oriented site mainly used for professional networking. This site works the same way as Facebook, but it is strictly for businesses use and job seekers. It has features for finding people that you have worked with in the past, or for finding talent in a certain specialty. The site allows you to email invitations to colleagues and friends and once linked to your profile, they can see your other connections. You can also create groups, post articles and start discussion threads.
Myspace: A MySpace profile is easy to set up and maintain and is very similar to Facebook. While these profiles tend to get ranked fairly well by Google there is a downside to the site for business owners; a lack of control. Why? Because the people who ‘friend’ you can post information on your site that may not be professional or flattering.
Blogs: Having a blog is another way to post content that is different than the content on your website, and is also searchable by Google. A blog can be set up by a web developer, or can be implemented with very little effort by a novice… in fact, you can get a free blog from Google with no monthly or up-front cost. Posting new content keeps the site active within the search engines, thereby allowing potential customers to find you more easily on the web.
Twitter: Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates known as tweets. Tweets are posts of up to 140 characters in length which are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers). Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow anybody to access them.
You-Tube: One of today’s largest video sharing websites is You-Tube. On this site, people from all around the world can upload, view and share all types of information. It is a place where you can “broadcast yourself” or your business. The site started out as a place for cute kid and pet videos, but of late Cisco and other large companies have posted product overview videos on the site. Each video is searchable by Google.
Once you choose a site you should follow some basic guidelines.
1. Professionalism is extremely important. Make sure your employees know what’s acceptable and what’s not acceptable to post – in terms of both content and images.
2. Connecting with other businesses and people. You control who you are connected to by adding a business or person as a friend. Be sure that employees only connect with others who have a page that’s in good taste or that is professional.
3. Protect your confidential information. Obviously you’ll want to publish general contact information so that potential clients can reach your business. But other information – like a staff directory that shows a clear chain of command and individual phone numbers – should stay firmly offline in order to discourage your competition, headhunters, and others from learning too much about your company.
4. Stay protected from spyware and viruses. Malware, (computer infections), have plagued popular social networking sites. If you’re going to use one of these sites to promote your business, you should take extra precautions to make sure you and your employees’ computers have up-to-date virus definitions and security patches.
Should you have a page on all of these websites? No, but experts agree that having more than one web presence will increase your ability to be found by search engines. Adding new content on a regular basis is also very important. The unanswered question; which site is right for your business? My suggestion would be to maintains both a website and a blog site where content can be posted periodically. I also strongly suggest that a Linkedin profile is created and that an email marketing campaign be established. Providing useful information and staying in front of clients and prospects is essential, and will be well worth the cost and effort!
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