Simple Steps to Build Your Social Media Presence
Some great tips and resources here from @lissaduty - including some that even I didn't know about. My favorite kind of find!
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The BIG Idea File: Social Everywhere – Simple Steps to Build Your Social Media Presence
Posted by Lissa Duty on November 23, 2010 · http://www.momeomagazine.com/?p=6316">View Comments
When you think about social media do you immediately think of the big four – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube?
However, there are lots of other social networking opportunities available that will help you get the word out about your business. When you create a social media presence you want to include some of these other sites in your social media plan. The key is finding the social networking platforms that fit your business.
#1: Directory Listing Sites
Every business should go out to the directory listing sites and claim their business. Many have a place where you can list your business hours, website, and your customers can review your business.
Don’t just think of reviews as negative. Customers like to give positive reviews for a job well done. Remember, whether you use social media or not, your business is still being talked about online. You need to be involved in the conversation.
Yahoo Local (www.local.yahoo.com/)
Best of The Web (www.local.botw.org/)
Bing Local (www.bing.com/local/)
Google Places (www.google.com/places)
HotFrog.com (www.hotfrog.com)
Merchant Circle (www.merchantcircle.com/corporate/)
Yelp (www.yelp.com)
Urban Spoon (www.urbanspoon.com)#2: Article Marketing Sites
Writing articles and blogging is an important piece of social media and is one of the best methods for branding yourself as an expert in your field. After creating an article or blog post, submit them to FREE article and social bookmarking sites.
Go Articles (www.goarticles.com)
Ezine Articles (www.ezinearticles.com)
Article Directory (www.articledirectory.com)
Digg (www.digg.com)
Delicious (www.delicious.com/)
StumbleUpon (www.stumbleupon.com/)
Reddit (www.reddit.com)When you submit to the article sites, you cannot be self-promoting, such as listing your business name, your name, website in the body of the post. However, you can list those in the
biographical information. It takes some effort and in some case revisions to get approved, but once you get through the red tape you will be on a roll submitting content.On some of the social bookmarking sites you cannot submit your own article content. You’ll need to find a strategic partner and submit their content for them and in return have them submit yours.
#3: Event Listing Sites
If do you do public speaking, or host workshops and webinars, event listing sites are the best way to expand your audience and brand yourself as an expert. Plus taking your online connections to an offline venue, builds the relationship.
Plan Cast (www.plancast.com)
Zvents (www.zvents.com/)
Event Sync (www.eventsync.com/)
EventBrite (www.eventbrite.com)#4: Niche and Upcoming Social Media Networks
There are many other Social Media sites out there and new networks are developing all the time.
Bizzy (www.bizzy.com) Bizzy is a newer social networking site that is growing and expanding to new cities/states. Get in on the ground floor, if they are in your city and grow with them.
FriendFeed (www.friendfeed.com) Friendfeed is quite similar to Twitter. You can set your GoogleReader to feed to your FriendFeed account, which you can setup to post to Twitter as well.
Plaxo (www.plaxo.com) Plaxo is in essence an online address book. It syncs with your Outlook. It has been making some updates and has a social networking feature. You can post status updates to your network on Plaxo and get a weekly birthday reminder email of connections who have birthdays coming up.
NameChk (www.namechk.com/). The NameChk site will let you see all the social networking sites where your username is available or taken to ensure your branding is universal across the board. I recommend only registering for the popular or growing sites.
Don’t be overwhelmed by all the websites out there. Take it one website at a time. You cannot do it all of overnight, but once you have mastered one, add another one into the mix. Eventually, you will be using them all and won’t even realize it.
Social Media can be time consuming, but in the long run is worth the effort! If you find you have difficulty mastering some of the technology, there are lots of social media professionals that would be willing to help you out and get your accounts set up for you.
Special Thanks to @AnaLuciaNovak for her added contribution to this blog post. Your HotFrog.com find and share is another great example of your social media knowledge and willingness to share resources with fellow professionals!
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