Sunday, January 13, 2013

Top Social Sites & Top Networking Sites You Must Have for Business Success

Top Social Sites & Top Networking Sites You Must Have for Business Success

Social Networking and Using the Top 5 Tools

The most common question I'm asked when teaching Social Media is "Which Social Media Sites are the Most Important for My Business".  The answer may surprise you. While many people think that Facebook is a must for business, it is a site you could theoretically do without.

Social Media University New Media
There are three elements to look for when choosing social media sites to engage in.

First, the social networking, social bookmarking, video, or other social media site must have plenty of active users. These are users who visit the site on a daily basis. 

Second, the sites must include the persons in your target market and/or professionals

Third, the sites must be SEO friendly, which means that these social media sites appear on the search engine results pages, such as Google, Bing and Yahoo, often.

These are the Top 5 Social Media Sites that meet the required criteria and you must use to have greater success in your business. Lets count them down:

5. Facebook  AlthoughIt almost didn't make my Top 5. Facebook is intrusive, not very professional, but it has over a billion members. The key to using Facebook for business is creating a Business Page, formerly called a Fan Page, with an interactive and engaging iframe. Other than that, Facebook is a useless tool for business since no one is listening and those are are speaking are speaking nonsense. The tool I find most useful on Facebook is events.

4. Twitter  This Social Networking / Microblog site is growing and becoming more practical. It still lack engagement for most, but it can be a useful tool for business.

3. Foursquare  I'm still waiting for businesses to jump on the Foursquare bandwagon. This is a great tool for business owners because you can proactively engage and attract new customers to your brick and mortar locations by offering check-in specials and mayorship offers.

2. Google+  The fact that Google+ Plus is closely related and interact with the Google Search Engine, and with Google Places, makes it a must-have for all businesses. As business owners realize the importance of being on Google+, this awesome Social Media tool will explode in members.  Be sure to add a +1 button to your website and watch engagement grow.

1. LinkedIn  By far the most important Social Media and Social Networking tool, LinkedIn has enough members to fit out criteria, and these members are, for the most part, the professionals you need to engage with to create more business and increase your sales.

These Top 5 Social Media sites are just a small portion of what a great social media strategy should. Social media network, social media bookmarking, social photo sharing and other social networking sites are opened constantly.

Keep your eyes and ears opened when you are on Google for the next, "big" or "greatest" site. If a site pops up often when you are researching your company, industry or competition, then that is the site you need to create a keyword-rich profile on. And don't forget to add your professional picture or logo to the profile.

Manny Sarmiento - President / CEO
New Media, New Marketing, Inc.
http://www.nmx2.com / manny@nmx2.com http://www.linkedin.com/in/mannysarmiento
 

3 comments:

  1. I agree with your list of top social media sites to utilize for marketing your business, but I think Twitter deserves to be higher on the list. I like Foursquare as well. You're right that not many businesses are using it but they should. It would be a great marketing tool for them.

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  2. You have provided excellent social media marketing sites which are very useful for business owners to become social and make their business more popular. Thanks for these top social media networking sites.

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  3. Social media brings together an interesting mixture of different personality types and characters. It gives us a chance to discover new content. how to get instagram followers and likes

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