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Top 10 tips for social networking

Written by: Tom Lindridge

Article Overview: Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have become a driving force behind increasing brand awareness online. With the best strategy planned out, your company can take advantage of these free services and further promote your organisation on the web. Social sites have expanded from being your standard platform to communicate. They have developed their services focused on benefiting companies and help create an arena for business interaction. So take a look at my top ten tips for social success and see what opportunities avail

Top 10 tips for social networking

As more businesses explore the idea of using social networks to attract new clients and customers,Ireveal ten top tips to help maximise your brand's identity and the key concepts behind maximising your social awareness.

Promote your brand

Sites such asFacebook and Twitterare free to register with and give you an instant online presence. Once registered create a profile that informs people of services you offer, along with a brief company background. Once you set-up your profile be ready to interact with fellow users.

Keep updated

Make sure you maintain an accurate perception of your brand. If you make changes to company related matters, such as locations or services, be sure to inform your 'followers' online too.

Build a reputation

Through posting a range of content online you will quickly alert people that have similar interests. Producing regular, quality material will inform people of your knowledge within the industry and influence them to get in touch. Networks such as Linkedin allow users to recommend each other and drive extra people towards your profile.

Generate extra traffic to your site

Every time you upload an article or update your status, your 'followers' or 'fans' will be notified. This is an constructive method of linking them back to your site. For example, each time you upload a blog, by notifying people on social networks on your new post, you are encouraging them to visit your website.

Advertising

As well as having a profile you should also take advantage of their advertising prospects. Using either pay-per-click (PPC) or cost-per-impression (CPM) you can get your message across to millions of users. By setting up a campaign you can set your target audience and promote attractive promotions.

Build a fan base for potential and existing customers

Keep active to create a reputable image online. By encouraging people to follow you through various sources you can easily keep everyone updated and use your 'base' as a tool for customer interaction.

Alert people of new deals & promotions

Social networks provide a convenient and fast way to get your promotions online. Through status updates you can alert customers of promotions such as new deals or money off coupons in a second.

Check out fellow competitors

Social networks present a perfect opportunity to scout out competitors and provide inspiration for future promotions. This also provides the opportunity to share ideas and help develop the quality of services in your given industry.

Increase SEO

Networking sites are popular, therefore their SEO is exceptional. Registering your company name on these sites will help improve your visibility in the search engines. Through other tips mentioned in this blog, you can also drive traffic towards your site and encourage more inbound links to your site.

Job advertising

Linkedin is a great example for demonstrating an opportunity for companies to scout out special talent. With individuals using social sites as an opportunity to express their talents, businesses can easily become notified. As well as looking for candidates, you can also advertise your products. With millions of users online, your advert is guaranteed excellent exposure.

Is your company using social sites? If not consider the prospective business you are missing out on. These sites have developed beyond simply acting as a social arena,developing their services to be more business focused.

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Article Tags: accurate perception, brief company, company background, constructive method, existing customers, facebook, fan base, fellow users, followers, key concepts, nbsp, pay per click, ppc, prospects, quality material, reputation, social awareness, target audience, twitter, using social networks



Related Forum Posts
Re: Owning a social network software...How is it?? - Hi, I am a big fan of social networking software (75% of our business) but what we constantly have to remind people is the concept of a social network has been around for ages. It just so happens MySpace & Facebook made the ability to do it free & online mainstream and the rest is history. Our company finds that pre-developed social networking applications do not create good internet business. The simple reason is a social network is not an internet business; all it is a group of link minded individuals that are able to communicate with one another through the medium you provide. A construction company can build an office building...but that does not make it a profitable business. You need to (1) build your business and (2) build social networking software features around that business. So my advice to you, just like facebook.com opened up their code, make your social networking software open so ANYONE can modify it to meet their needs. Jeff
Re: Social Networking and You - Hello David, Thank you for this post, you have given some great information on where we can expect this industry to go and I found it both fascinating and a bit worrying. The thought of having to completely re-focus our efforts on social networks and putting less emphasis on the traditional methods will I am sure test all our resources and tenacity if this comes true. It will be interesting to see how social networking develops in the coming years but you have given a very good overview on what we can expect. I agree that at the moment social networking is barely scratching the surface in comparison to what it can and will become. regards, Mal.
Re: Owning a social network software...How is it?? - [quote="WebBizIdeas.com":1ckdc0r2]Hi, I am a big fan of social networking software (75% of our business) but what we constantly have to remind people is the concept of a social network has been around for ages. It just so happens MySpace & Facebook made the ability to do it free & online mainstream and the rest is history. Our company finds that pre-developed social networking applications do not create good internet business. The simple reason is a social network is not an internet business; all it is a group of link minded individuals that are able to communicate with one another through the medium you provide. A construction company can build an office building...but that does not make it a profitable business. You need to (1) build your business and (2) build social networking software features around that business. So my advice to you, just like facebook.com opened up their code, make your social networking software open so ANYONE can modify it to meet their needs. Jeff[/quote:1ckdc0r2] We were talking about this on another thread. There are plenty of social networks online, so it seems at this point if a person plans to start a new network - what makes them special or unique? What will be their approach to entice people to join and more importantly to participate on a regular basis? Chris
Re: Best looking social networking site? - Hi Kevin [quote:3h76yt08]With so many social networking sites to pick and choose from, what influences your decision to join a particilar site? Is it just your friends, the content, people using it or looks??[/quote:3h76yt08] For me, the most essential criteria in selecting a Social Networking Site is its Content followed closely by popularity- in terms of daily visitors. Then comes the Content followed by the Friends and looks. Most of do social networking to attract traffic to their website(s) and as such the Content and Popularity of the site are important. btw, the list doesn't have digg or netscape or del.is.us which are the top social media sites.
Re: Twitter, Social Networking: What's Your method? - [quote:3jvh79yz]From my experience, social networking traffic (Twitter included) also converts at a far lower rate than search engine traffic. People who find you via a search engine are looking for answers to a particular problem and are more likely to buy your product / service. Twitter and other social networking visitors can help your traffic numbers but they usually come out of general interest and don't end up buying what you're selling. I haven't seen a website owner yet say they prefer social media traffic over search engine.[/quote:3jvh79yz] I couldn't agree more! I've been trying to drive this point into people's heads on my blogs and various forums for at least a year now. Yes, you can get a lot of traffic from social sites but if it doesn't make you any money (or very little) then what's the point?! You can use the same time you spend on social sites building up your rankings in search engines to get traffic that actually converts into money!


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