I’ll admit, I’m one that follows the pack and joins up on sites like LinkedIn, MySpace and Facebook, but to be perfectly honest, I’ve never really given much thought to how so many people are using it as a business or marketing tool.
Rather than spend hours upon hours trying to figure it all out, I was hoping there were some who have already cracked that code that might offer some insight into just how these types of programs work.
Do you use social networking sites or are you just an idle member like me?
If you do use them, what have you done and what have you gained from using them?
I tend to be one of those people who gets caught in the undercurrent and keeps falling deeper and deeper into reading while never seeming to end up anywhere constructive.
It must be the voyeur in me 
Tags: facebook, myspace, linkedin, social networking
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thanks for this post.
I have a personal Facebook. Have not tried one yet for my business. (11th grader this year)
Most of my friends talking about social stuff.
If you have any questions about Facebook just ask me? Maybe I can help.
Recently read either on
1) DouglasKarr Blog
2) ProBlogger Blog by Darren
That you should make the facebook or Myspace
and then wait for people to ask you to
friend them. I am going to try this
sometime soon. Let you know and what
I think.
Also, found your blog from
douglaskarr blog about Technorati
Thanks,
Elizabeth G.
Visit me at……….
http://BookTestOnlinecom.blogspot.com
http://BookTestOnline.com
Social Networking brings a more personal touch to your Marketing or Advertising efforts. Folks see you as a “real” person, instead of just viewing your ads or other marketing method as just one among many thousands of others. You build relationships, which eventually leads to trust if you are truly promoting yourself and your business in an honest way.
People tend to navigate towards familiar faces and those with common interests. If you are Socializing, instead of just trying to make a sale, people have the opporunity to view what it is you have to offer and make a decision on whether it is for them or not without being turned off by some “in your face” sales approaches.
This is called Relationship Marketing.
You have the opportunity to create a Business profile with a personal touch, and this brands who the person behind the face is. Folks will be able to make an informed decision on whether to Network with you based on more information than hyped up ads, which are quite often dupclicated, and not even your own words or firsthand knowledge behind the promotions.
Does this make sense to you?
I’m passing on some advice I got from “Bad Dad” (http://www.baddadradio.com/):
1. Search for people you know (past colleagues, school mates, clients, vendors) on LinkedIn and send them an invite. It’s easy to reconnect and if they change their email address over time, you can still reach them via LinkedIn.
2. Send a request for Recommendation to the people who you add to your contacts.
This must be the hot topic right now. I posted on it yesterday at WFHM. I have to confess that I am mostly an idle member. There are a few where I participate actively: Stumble, Sk*rt, Blogg-Buzz–but for the rest I just have a membership and I do nothing with it.
I do have a myspace page. My sister got me in on it and I am mostly an idle member. It’s not something I really get into though I do like putting the widgets up on my page but that is about it. I also social network over at cafemom.com I lead some groups over there and have met a lot of really wonderful moms.
This is #55 on my list of things to do… I like the didea of social networking but I don’t think I have the time to keep up with it all. I am trying to be better about it.
My host has Digg banned. I use del.icio.us and do see a little traffic from it.
I guess I can’t blame a host for not wanting to get Dugg on their oversold shared hosting servers.