WHY SHOULD YOU CARE ABOUT SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES?

Location, location, location. If you had a retail outlet you wouldn’t set up shop where there’s no foot traffic, would you? Well, your customers and clients are already at social media Web sites. They’re on MySpace, they’re LinkedIn, and they have Facebook pages. They share photos at Flickr and upload family movies to YouTube. Bottom line is that you need to go to where your customers are.

HOW TO GET STARTED WITH SOCIAL MEDIA?

Don’t worry: every person and every business had to make a first, tentative step into the social media landscape.

Look: With so many social media sites out there, you may want to do some investigative work to find out where your best customers are. Since these sites offer free memberships, it only costs you in time to join multiple sites.

Listen: Once you’ve joined, listen to the conversations around you. Each site may have its own mores, but generally people don’t want you storming into a conversation to tell them how great your products or services are.

Join In: Once you feel comfortable with your surroundings, feel free to join in. Just don’t make it a sales pitch. Find a group that you can participate in. If you sell dog products, find and join dog lovers’ groups.

Start: If you’re feeling really daring, start your own group, and invite current clients and colleagues to join in. A real estate agent might start a group focused on the local area (restaurants, schools, taxes, etc.), getting local business owners and residents to join together.

HOW TO SUCCEED WITH SOCIAL MEDIA?

Succeeding in social media has everything to do with providing content for people to digest. It is not a straight forward relationship between client and business anymore. People don’t respond to blatant / lazy advertising attempts anymore. Instead conversation has to be engaging and it does not necessarily have everything to do with your product ALL the time.

In addition, engaging people through a greater marketing concept / campaign is essential. Social media can generate traffic and interest but it has to be used with tact and has to fit into a greater plan of action. It is not really possible to go into all the details here in a general section but a good online marketing campaign will make all the difference.

IN CONCLUSION

The social media rules are still being written. Where does social networking end and commercial networking begin? Is this the future of the Web, or just another evolutionary step? Will today’s social media leaders be around tomorrow, or will some other interupting technology crash the party?

The only thing that seems certain is that people are congregating at these social networking sites at an astounding rate. The landscape is changing, and these sites have become the backyard fences, the coffee shops, and the street corners of the 21st century.

Ignore them at your own risk.