Are Social Networking Sites Effective Marketing Tools?

[Rob]

Check out my blog today which features a survey on use of social networking sites - for business or pleasure?

Now I admit I don't have any social network accounts. Am I missing out on something here?

Have you generated any business from Facebook/My Space etc? Would you say that these sites are becoming, or are already, essential tools in a marketer's tool box?

[C.A.B.s]

Hi Rob

Now i must admit i am now a member of several online networking sites, and although my membership on Ecademy is nearly 2 weeks, the other sites still have not generated any business for me .....so far....... but there is always hope;)

Caroline

[strategic]

You do need to put some effort into the free social networks/sites around.

I use AnswersYahoo and find I get visitors from the answers I posted for many months, and the answers get archived, so a few good answers could result in visitors for years

I also like building Squidoo Lenses, and they get me a few visitors every week from each of the lenses I link to my sites... you can see some of them here:

http://www.squidoo.com/lenses-for-sale

I also make sure my squid lenses use the rss modules to subscribe to at least one of my website blogs, as yet another way of linking to the sites.

MySpace was the first site I got involved with and I have been a fairly consitent contributor, every week. I post bulletins to friends with links in my signature, and post copies of the bulletins into my Blogs for my subscribers, and to keep the links hooked up forever on my blog archives.

http://www.myspace.com/helene58

I also Stumbleupon and Del.icio.us some pages on my websites that I think are relevant and a good read on specific topics

I also social bookmark some of my Squidoo lenses to increase their ranking, as google likes to index them quickly, and would increase the value of the squid links to my site on that topic.

I also tried building pages on GeoCities (Yahoo) and sometimes get a bit of traffic from them, built years ago and not updated... so I should spend more time refreshing them, I guess.

I also built a www.freewebs.com site that I should build more of. http://www.freewebs.com/acne-treatments/

As my websites have their own automated blog created from each new page added or refreshed on the site, I dont maintain any external blogs yet. I feature the blogs on my Squid lenses too, and I subscribe to my own blogs on my Yahoo and Google home pages to give them a bit of a lift.

So along with the classic article directories strategy for links, I think there is merit in the social networking... but its easy to spend your life in forums and social sites and get no work done. So make sure your work always leaves a footprint to your internet business, or you are just playing games ... doing 'busy work' without really achieving anything.

- helene malmsio

[Rob]

Helene,

Thanks for such a comprehensive overview of social networking! Your advice re the amount of time spent on such marketing efforts is spot on ... it's so easy to throw away the odd half an hour (except for time spent on this Forum of course!).

Despite being the new way to market online the basics of time management still apply I guess - focus on what will produce results and ration your time accordingly.

[PaulSimister]

I like Squidoo because you can quickly create some attractive, interactive lens that rank well for the longer keywords.

Squidoo is also much more commercial than Hubpages who are very strict on what you should do but because of this, Squidoo has received at least a couple of slaps from Google which reduce its impact.

[PaulSimister]

If you want to learn how to get more for your time and money invested in social media, you will be interested in these best practice guidelines (http://www.smallbusinesssuccess.biz/forum/showthread.php?p=871#post871).

Each has a good free element with a more detailed paid for option.

You will see guidelines on:


Using Twitter
Using Squidoo
Writing a Wordpress blog
Other social media

[Rob]

Paul,

Thanks for that list of links - very useful overview of the subject.

[Jennyuk]

Good survey report, well i have used facebook and it really work for you

[bsfweb]

Well I haven't used all social network website but still have used Facebook for all my business issue's and promotion and it really helps. You might want to try use there application setup or even generate a fan club of your product or website :)

[honey]

in the Consumer Electronics Coal Mine?
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An interesting article in the Wall Street Journal this Monday raised a provocative question: are we entering a new era where consumer electronics retailers will wrest competitive advantage from consumer electronics manufacturers? Over the past couple of decades, the balance of power has been squarely in the hands of the manufacturers. Companies like Apple, Sony, Panasonic, LG, and Garmin have largely competed by introducing better performing products. General retailers like Amazon and Wal-Mart who sell electronics along with other products have done well in this era. The leading U.S. specialist retailer, Best Buy, has also thrived. But other specialty retailers have struggled. For example, Circuit City sought bankruptcy protection late last year and liquidated this year. Monday's article described how Best Buy's store brand business is booming. For example, the company sells a global-positioning system that has Google search functionality and a digital picture frame that lacks many of the...





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[sharon33]

I think it really depends on the industry and the audience that the social network is capturing.