You’ve probably heard something about social networking in the news—especially twitter. You might have received request from friends or from colleagues to connect on facebook or LinkedIn. Or you might even use social networking for personal use but wonder how you can use it for your business. Is it just the latest web hype or is there something to it?
Social networking can be a way to increase your business web presence beyond a website or blog. If you don’t have a website or blog, it can be a way to start your business web presence without the cost and time of developing and maintaining a website or blog. There are many social networking sites out there, but for most small businesses the main 3 to consider are twitter, LinkedIn, and facebook (in no particular order).
Before you begin signing up for any social networking service, there are a few questions you need to ask yourself:
- What do you want to accomplish with your web presence?
- Who are your target audiences on the Web and what’s the best way to reach them?
- What market do you compete in and who is your competition on the Web?
Keep these questions in mind as you learn about social networking through the links below. These links are just a starting point—there’s lots written about social networking. After you have a better understanding of what your business has to offer a social network and vice versa revisit the above questions and formulate a social networking plan.
Social Networking
- Social Networking in Plain English from commoncraft
- Twitter in Plain English from commoncraft
- Twitter Search in Plain English from commoncraft
- Defining Twitter Goals: A Tip for Successful Use of Twitter from TwiTip
- 10 Easy Steps for Twitter Beginners from TwiTip
- 19 Twitter Desktop Apps Compared from mashable
- 8 Ways To Find Relevant Followers On Twitter from Small Business Trends
- How to: Build Community on Twitter from mashable
- Twitter Marketing: Why You Don’t Need to Mass Follow Users from Dosh Dosh
- What is LinkedIn? from commoncraft
- Making Your LinkedIn Business Network Pay Dividends from lifehack
- Market your Company on LinkedIn from Gordon Choi
- Using LinkedIn as a Small Business Owner from Don’t Eat the Shrimp
- 13 LinkedIn Action Steps from Liked Intuition
- How to Use Facebook: How to Register & Join Facebook form expert village
- Facebook Pages Get More Business Friendly from Duct Tape Marketing
- 10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know from All Facebook
There’s lots of resources out there so let us know if you find one that’s a must read.
This is an updated post from April 2009
You might be interested in:
Share this Post
{ 2 comments }
Thanks for featuring the Linked Intuition blog in your list above. The article referenced is one of over 100 posts available helping others more effectively use LinkedIn
Sean
Sean, thanks for stopping by and letting us know more about your site. Lots of great resources. Jo and I are both a member of Linked Strategies, which is how we came across your site.
Comments on this entry are closed.