What Social Networks Should I Join?

Networking Sites Exploding in Popularity

People talk. If you have a product or service on the market, chances are people are talking about you, whether you want them to or not. It doesn't matter if you care to participate in the conversation or not—they still talk.

There are many places, or “social networking sites,” where people talk online. Some major ones include Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Youtube, and LinkedIn. There are other specialized social networking sites, too, such as Squidoo, ChaCha, and Mechanical Zoo's Aardvark, where avenues to experts and hard-to-find information can be found.

To give you an idea of the potential marketing power of these networks, let's consider the growth of Facebook and Twitter. As of Feb. 2009, Compete.com ranked Facebook number one in visits and length of stay per visit, with MySpace second, and Twitter skyrocketing from number 22 to number three! (See Top 25 Networking Sites.) Facebook has added over 100 million (yes, million) users in less than a year.

Online marketing expert Erik Qualman put Facebook's growth in perspective by saying, “If Facebook were a country, it would overtake Indonesia as the fourth largest country in the world by September at this pace.” (See “15 Maxims for Marketers, p. 15.) That's a ton of customers just waiting to be engaged by your products or services.


Get Into the Social Scene

To maximize your social networking strategy, the first thing you need to do is delineate your own target market, and then determine if each social networking site's demographic makeup matches yours. Surprisingly, the biggest users of social networking sites are the Baby Boomers, that is, those in their mid 40s to 60s, not those in their 20s and 30s. In fact, the younger folks are slowing down when it comes to using social networking, perhaps due to information and technology overload. (See Gen X and Gen Y.)

Listed below are some important social networking sites that you can use (with creativity) to promote yourself, your products, or your services. Don't be afraid to experiment.


www.squidoo.com
Appeals to anyone seeking high-level expertise.

Mr. David Meerman Scott, marketing strategist and author, recommends using Squidoo to drive traffic to your site. (See The New Rules of Marketing and PR, pp. 236-37.) Squidoo allows you to create what is called a “lens,” which is basically a single page catalog of your expertise. Searchers can search for your expertise on Squidoo, and when they find your lens, you can direct them from there to your website.


www.facebook.com
Originally only for students, now open to anyone. Women seeking to reunite with old friends are a big part of the membership.

Mr. Scott also describes how to make good use of Facebook. (See The New Rules of Marketing and PR, pp. 231-35.) This strategy is threefold: 1.) use the “post a message” feature to let people know what you are doing (new product release, new book published, attending a tradeshow, etc.); 2. Create a Facebook Group to gather people together with a common interest (i.e., users of your product or service); and finally, 3.) Use Facebook's ability to make customized applications to access as wide a market as possible from the Facebook users.


www.myspace.com
Not just for teenagers anymore, entertainers and musicians, for instance, employ MySpace effectively to build a large fan base and stay in touch with enthusiasts.

Myspace profiles are a good way to connect with a lot of people. Mr. Scott warns, however, that “authenticity and transparency” are critical. (See The New Rules of Marketing and PR, pp. 229-31.) Ad agencies have been known to create false profiles for selfish benefit, only to see a huge backlash when their scheme is discovered. Mr. Scott suggests that one way around needless trickery is to emulate Volkswagen's idea of creating a fictional character that everyone knows is made up who can then humorously and shamelessly promote your product.


www.twitter.com
Appeals to young and middle-aged professionals alike.

Twitter is easy to use, and focuses on the ability to get quick answers to questions. While Baby Boomer individuals aged 45-54 are the largest segment of Twitter, the second highest segment is individuals aged 25-34, indicating that both aspiring young executives as well as seasoned business veterans benefit from, and consistently use, this social networking site. (See Social Media Optimization.)


www.yourwebsite.com

Remember, the quality of your website and its content is critical because the whole point of harnessing the power of social networking is to drive people to your site. When they come, you want them to stay! For more tips on making your website the best it can be, contact HIT Web Design.