What is social networking?
The idea behind social networking is word-of-mouth marketing. Groups of people align themselves by interests, identities, and professions and through these alignments build relationships.
Why use social networking?
One is the loneliest number, as the song says. People network socially to meet new people. Finding points of commonality can be difficult in a disconnected world; but in the online world, interests, identities, and professions are variables in a massive database. Sorting these variables can connect the searcher with a social network larger than any face-to-face net-worker could ever imagine.
How does social networking work?
Pick a starting site and create an account. I suggest Facebook because there are over 140 million users. Might as well invest your time in a popular place.
The key to successful social networking is having a large network of “friends”. Social networks require plenty of recipients in order to be effective. While the idea of friends on Facebook is based around having a real relationship; asking a total stranger to be a friend is required.
Start by updating your profile with enough information to group you with other people. Your favorite book, movie or TV show; a former employer, school or cause; groups, games or hobbies all can become points of connection with new people. Ask people to be friends. Most strangers will blindly accept your friend request, especially if they too are looking for new personal and business relationships.
Always be mindful of peoples’ time, otherwise people will leave your circle of friends. Don’t try to make direct sales presentations; build your network and be social. Go slow and be methodical. Start with adding eight or ten friends a day. If Facebook tells you to slow down, wait a few days before adding more friends. Search for people in your target demographic and send “friend” invites. The worst they can say is no. Every new friend gives you access to other people who can become friends.
Join groups that interest you. Become a fan of a political issues or someone famous. Comment on pictures of friends. It is easy to comment on old high school buddies’ photos, the real trick is adding friend-building comments on photos of total strangers.
Short, person-to-person commentary is the essence of microblogging. Made famous on Twitter, microblogging also works on Facebook. The idea is to keep your network of friends apprised of your daily activities. When you write a blog article, post a brief description with a link to the blog. When you make a change to your company website, send a blurb to your Facebook friends with a link. See a repeating pattern?
The natural tenancy is to make direct sales pitches: “Buy this…”, “Do business with me because…” Don’t do it. Abusing your Facebook network with unwanted advertisements will turn people away. Become a conversationalist, be interested in others, be playful, and supportive of the activities your friends share.
The number of inbound links is almost as important as quality page content. Sharing your daily activities with links to your website or blog site will have a link multiplying effect. The ultimate goal of your social networking activity is to increase inbound links to your company websites, which in turn will improve your over-all search engine visibility. While your social networking activities will rarely show a direct ROI, the long term benefits will more than pay for your investment of time.
If inbound links are the ultimate goal, then quality content is paramount. I suggest you use a blog site as an intermediate step between your social networking site and your company website. Write your blog articles as single topic focused, personality based presentations. Be conversational, but don’t answer all questions. Leave the door open for the next article to answer more questions.
Ed Bejarana
Tags: blogging, business, internet, marketing, microblogging