Take Full Advantage Of Social Networking Sites.
December 13, 2009

 Everyone loves free advertizing, especially businesses. Before the advent of social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace, and as of recently - Twitter, there has never been more of a golden opportunity to reach people with your message and ads like there is today. As an organization, company, or even as an individual, the time is now to start capitalizing on this wealth of virtually free advertizing.

Since the tough economic times that we're facing mandate us to make the most of our dollars, and to come up with ingenious ways to make money at little or no investment of capital, it is indeed prudent to put away the stigmatization of social networking sites as playgrounds for vainglorious, childish, and those who simply have nothing better to do with their time. These are essentially online communities where people are "hanging out". Consider it as a scenario like unto a crowded happy hour, or giant sports event where you can meander through the multitude with printed advertizement of your business to hand out to anyone who can reach to receive it. You can even think of it as an event where you are a vendor with a big tent smack dab in the middle of all the activity, and passers-by can get an earful (or an eyeful) of what you have to offer.

To get started, if you haven't already, you simply sign up at any or all of the aforementioned sites of Facebook, Twitter, or Myspace. It's easy, all you need is a valid E-mail address and any of the free web based account providers will suffice. Although I don't receommend it, you can use one E-mail account to sign up for all if you want to cast a wide net and join all three. I should also mention that Myspace, Facebook and Twitter aren't the only social networking sites available, although the are by far the three most popular. There are many more interest-specific sites out there, and may be more suited to your goals since the "big three" that I mentioned (and will keep referring to in this blog) are populated with users from all walks of life and interest groups, and from virtually all age ranges. Every business should have a profile on at least Facebook or Twitter, perhaps not always Myspace though- but it is a good idea to have one on all three if you're really an organization that has no real specific target audience.

Now if you're an organization such as an environmental watch-group, or agriculture forum, then you may want to establish a presence on Greenchange.org or a similar site. If you happen to be a band or musician, then the old school sites such as Soundclick.com or Garageband.com can help point people to your main website. This is the ultimate goal of social networking for businesses and organizations, or at least it should be.

Social networking sites can help out immensely with driving traffic to your main website, and can be good additions to any SEO plan. The way you go about taking advantage of these sites is up to you, and probably different depending on your organization and the goals of your organization. However, the theme is universal - to attract as much attention to your main website as possible, and to achieve some form of conversion goal, whether that goal is a sale, a subscription to a newsletter, or some user input into a survey or online form.

Many of these sites also have advertising space for sale as well, and more times than not, it's quite cheap. Myspace even has a form of pay per click that you can tailor to have your ad displayed to a select group of "friends" (people connected specifially to your profile where they're enabled to view explict details of your profile, post things on your page, etc.) that you specify.

So you can see now that these sites aren't just for the kiddies and stay at home Moms to post pictures and details of every mundane moment of their lives in vainglorious fashion. There's a plethora of benefits and ways to take full advantage of social networking sites for your organization. You simply have to be clever and intuitive enough to see the avenues and "loopholes" in the set-up of each of the networks.

Check back later to read on how not to use social networking sites so as to protect the good image of your organization. Schedule a consultation with 3.Media to see how we can assist you and your organization in capitalizing on the advantages of social networking to maximize your web presence and reach your website's conversion goals. Send an E-mail to the3@3dotmedia.com, or fill out the contact form.