SOCIAL NETWORKING
What's all this talk about social media and what does it mean
for my business?
Today, there are countless social networking sites, many of which are primarily for making casual, non-business related connections. For the business word, the top dogs have become LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Yeah, I know there are others but most of the buzz is around those I mentioned. Here is my 2 cents on them.
LinkedIn was created with the business community in mind, from small businesses to large corporations. There are an estimated 36 million people registered on LinkedIn. I joined a year ago but didn't pay very much attention to it until the last few months and now I see how powerful it is. If you are not a member, it's easy to join and like Twitter and Facebook, it won't cost you anything. But just like anything else, the more you time you put into it, the more you will get out of it. I could easily write pages and pages on how LinkedIn can be used as a business tool but there are several sources out there that have done it already. For now, here are the main features of LinkedIn:
- It's a way to find possible employers if you are looking for a job, and employers too can find potential candidates for any open positions.
- You can find groups in your particular industry and engage in discussions while establishing personal connections with others in that group.
- Since virtually every industry is represented, you have access to potential vendors, business partners and yes, customers. Once you register, find me at http://www.linkedin.com/in/houseofgraphics
As far as Twitter is concerned, I was very skeptical about this one. The whole idea behind it is for you to answer the basic question, 'What are you doing?' in 140 characters or less. Not only does it sound simple enough, but kinda silly - especially when a whole bunch of tweets (that's what the messages are called) are things like "I'm heading over to the bar for drinks," or "I'm listening to the new song from the Flying Monkeys." If you find someone interesting enough, you can choose to 'follow' them. Others, in turn, can choose to follow you. Many people are just in it to try to get as many people following them as possible so they can feel important. Quality is definitely preferred over quantity so don't get caught up trying to get as many followers as you can. Once you cut through all the noise, however, Twitter can actually be a good way to post interesting things about your business and hopefully draw attention (and customers) to you. But be interesting and relevant. You can also find others who may offer something of value to your business, like consultants, vendors, etc. and follow them. Keep in mind that you need to cut through an awful lot of totally useless stuff to find anything of value to you or your business. It's not for everyone.
You can check me out at http://twitter.com/pigonastick
Facebook is another one that has a mixture of people that are in it for either personal or business use, but mainly personal. I use it more for personal relationships since I have LinkedIn for business use. However, keep in mind that if customers, employers or other business contacts find you on Facebook it might not a good idea to have those pictures of you with your friends after having a bit too much to drink.
A great advantage of investing some time and effort into these sites is that it's a good way to drive traffic to your website and also to increase your ranking in search engines. You do need to invest some time in updating and keeping content fresh and relevant but this really is the new direction that businesses are taking in seeking and communicating with their customers.
By John Carranza
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