Yesterday, in the first part of this two-part series, we went over the basics of social networking, why you should participate, and the potential for promotion via social networks.
Today, we’ll be looking at specific networks, types of networks, and how you can use them.
Group 1: The Big Boys
Facebook.com, MySpace.com, Virb.com, Mog.com These all offer very similar features, but their popularity is constantly in flux. They offer profiles (most social networks do) and lots of ways to add your own content to your page. Most any entity (person, company, etc.) seems to use one or more of these services — they’re almost as ubiquitous as a resumé. Myspace has been the biggest but is waning. Facebook is the hot one right now and Virb could be the next in line. Mog is a bit different in that it is heavily music-based so while it might not fit every promotion, it might be essential for musicians and music-related websites.
Try them all. Each allows you to attract and communicate with "friends" as well as post blogs and other content. Myspace, mog and Virb are more attuned to music groups so if that is your focus they will offer additional features for bands such as song sharing. Mog is one of the few places where artists actually own and post on their accounts (Ben Gibbard is a notable example: mog.com/ben_gibbard) instead of some PR firm like most Myspace profiles. It is all about authenticity in these communities. It is also worth noting that Virb and Mog are the most customizable in terms of look and feel — they arguably look the best out of the box, too. Facebook has no customization options in terms of pure look and feel, MySpace is home to some of the most aesthetically-challenged content ever seen on the Internet.
One more to keep an eye on in this category is Ning. Ning is a service that essentially lets you make your own Facebook. You can create your own branded social network (with a custom URL) right out of the box complete with most of the features that you'd expect. Users can make accounts and join your network just like they can on MySpace or Facebook.
Social News and Bookmarking
Links bookmarking networks such as Del.icio.us, Reddit, Newsvine, and Digg are essential ways to potentially bring in Slashdot-level traffic. With these sites, interesting content is submitted by community members, and then voted on by the community to determine which are most popular. The most voted-on stories are promoted to the top of the home page and RSS feeds, exposing them to huge audiences. Getting your content featured on one of these websites might the single biggest traffic driver you can conceive. Be aware that these communities are more sensitive than the others to self-promotion, so be sure that you’re truly an active member before contributing your links.
Photos
Flickr feels like the only game in town for photos. Not only do they have the backing of Yahoo!, and a user base of millions, but nearly every social networking site/tool integrates with it making it easy to publish your photos in one place and share them with users on many networks. You can spread your Flickr images far and wide. Google’s Picassa, of course has potential, but hasn’t really caught on yet.
With Flickr you can post photos from your PC or even a mobile phone and display them on any website. If you’re a photographer you’re likely to find a large community of photo lovers. But nearly any business can benefit from the exposure of their imagery on Flickr. Try posting product photos, examples, samples, and even portfolios on Flickr. The extra traffic can be substantial with very little effort. Here at Element Fusion, we put our best work up in a Flickr gallery.
Video
YouTube is essential. It probably offers the lowest quality video, but it's traffic is unmatched. Google video will probably go away now that Google owns YouTube, but for now you can’t beat the ability to get more content indexed. The rest have limited appeal. Blip.tv is unique in that it offers an unbranded player when you want to display your videos on another site. Revver has some potential, too as they offer ad revenue sharing should you make something really popular (YouTube is rumored to have a similar offering on the way). We see a lot of use of Vimeo, too, but it’s primary differentiator seems to be that is allows private videos just to your friends — not exactly necessary for self-promotion.
Consider hosting any online video you might use on one or more of these services. Not only do they provide free, quality hosting and bandwidth, but the extra traffic they can generate back to your site can be significant. And don’t forget to post your videos on the other networking sites!
Micro Blogs
Tools like Twitter, Tumblr, Pownce, and Jaiku offer a unique way to promote favoring short, instant-message style blog posts. They are great for posing a quick question to your network or sharing a link. Twitter is the most popular and lets you post lots of ways including via SMS on a mobile phone. Jaiku is newer but has all the functionality of Twitter along with the ability to add most any RSS feed to your stream. It’s recent purchase by Google makes it an instant front-runner, too. Pownce is newer but was developed by the founder of Digg so it has a good buzz. More than promotion, the real value in these networks may just be in research. Monitoring the Twitter feeds of your friends, customers, and web pundits can provide an instant snapshot of the pulse of the web at any given time. A quick reaction to a hot topic might lead to a new opportunity.
There are too many social networking tools to list. Try these to start out and then look for more. It can be a lot of fun to participate and even more fun trying to find the next big social tool. With a little time and creativity you can get promotion for your website that money can't buy.
Posted on
Friday, January 11, 2008
by Jason Zimdars