Social Networking

Hello everyone

As we all know Social Marketing has become a major part of internet marketing . I am curious to hear what sites everyone finds to be most successfull. I am aware of the obvious sites such as craigslist, flickr, ebay but i would like to hear any other suggestions.

Also, what do you make of MySpace and Facebook as a social networking tool ??

I would have thought myspace / facebook are social network and I would not consider craigslist or ebay.

MyBlogLog, Twitter are a couple of others that come up - but then you have some of the other things like Digg, Stumbleupon, etc.

There are many social networking sites popping up. I use myspace although I am in the process of cleaning up my page to be more professional and less social it does work well.

I also found out about another new one called www.mybigz.com. The person who started this business networking site orginally posted in this forum. You can find my biz on there along with several others from this forum too.

I have found ebay and Craig's list to not really be worth my time for the types of products I offer.

Good Luck!

LinkedIn and Cardbrowser - two morning that come to mind

I find that Myspace is probably better then facebook, the primary reasons i say this is myspace using CSS in your profile is available and can really make your myspace page look very clean, bar maybe the advertising they require to stay at the top. Where as Facebook, does tend to get to cluttered with the apps that seem to be very much a part of the site. I suppose it would be possible to make a business from this aspect however just how much i am not sure.

Social networking sites have become a big niche i think and many people are making money from them. However i dont think that this will go away any time soon, it will always be changing and anyone that can change with it will see a good return.

How would you define successful? Are you looking to actually network with people through the sites or are you hoping for traffic? Are you looking for sites that lead to sales or are you looking for sites that lead to people linking to your site.

There are a lot of different facets to social media marketing. Most people think of the traffic a social site might send, but often that traffic is the least valuable aspect of social sites.

You should also be thinking of the sites that are related to your business. For example a site like Digg is very popular and many sites have become successful almost solely through building a profile on the site or having their content do well on the site. But the community around Digg is a high tech one. If your site revolves around something low tech you probably won't do well with the Digg community.

Looking at your site I'm not sure how much interest there would be in either MySpace of Facebook. I'm generalizing, but MySpace still tends to be a young community, perhaps too young to be interested in event planning. Facebook skews a little older, but still probably dominated by a younger crowd.

On the other hand A site like LinkedIn has a community of working professionals who would be more likely to have a need for event planning.

What are your goals for social media? What are you hoping it will do for you?

I heard something recently while speaking at a social media / networking conference... one of the panelists observed that most business people don't really have a strategy for making social media / networking work, a way to stand out in the "noise". I think its true.

Here are three questions to ask yourself:

(1) What is my goal for social media / networking? Sounds obvious but most business people don't have a "dollar-productive" reason to do social media. (Your goal? Get as many quality registrations for your free as plan as possible?)

(2) How can I "educate" and engage people in a way that makes them want to learn more and respond to my offer?

For example, take a look at most of the videos and other content in the social media space... most do not identify or offer specific solutions to specific problems facing people in their target market, nor do they "tag" their content with irresistible offers that point readers and viewers to a specific action.

(3) Is "social media" worth the time investment based on my business goals and the other marketing options available to me?

---
Specific to You:

Create a camtasia-based video using PowerPoint that educates people on the 5-10 biggest mistakes people make in promoting their events. Give specific examples based on the kinds of events that work best with your site. Highlight one of your case studies (http://spongecell.com/promote/website/in_use). Then point them to your site as the solution. (You might include a coupon code for some extra benefit to track the effectiveness.) Offer the video from the sites you use. Also, consider running a contest where the user who demonstrates the best use or benefit wins something. Have each entry submit a video you can use as part of your marketing meshup. Have you considered partnering with one of the smaller business or community oriented sites to become their "meeting" and calendar partner?

- Ramon Williamson

I think everyone would agree when I say that online marketing is the new best practices model for many companies. Social networks are at the forefront of this online revolution. If you take a look at a lot of name brand companies and how they're executing their advertising, you'll see them immersed into these solid communities where their core audience is located. Think about it, that's a huge market companies are just now tapping into, and integrating their assets towards a targeted demographic. I think that strategy is extremely effective for small businesses as well.

LinkedIn is more suited for professional businesses. In terms of business contacts and networking, its a site that i really would pay attention to. I am currently also using myspace and facebook, which i find them to be more of a "fun to join" kind of socializing platform.

I do recognize that the social part of the web is growing too rapidly for any businesses to ignore. But my experiences are that it has yet to deliver any true value in terms of traffics and conversions. Others may have better experiences. Who knows?

<Signature to Be Set Up via User CP>

puti1 there's a lot more to social media than direct traffic and conversions. You have to see it as more if you want to succeed on social sites.

There are branding opportunities and networking opportunities and yes you can get traffic from it. I think people see social media as a traffic first thing, but for most the traffic won't come until after you've immersed yourself in the community for awhile.

Also different social sites will have different strengths and weaknesses. The most important thing if you want to get involved is to participate in the site and take the time to understand what that site can and cannot do.