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Social Sites: Networking or Marketing?
By Jennifer Smith
Social sites such as Twitter, Stumbleupon, MySpace, Facebook, etc. seem to be popping up everywhere on the internet. These sites also appear to be gaining popularity among all age groups as a constant way to keep in touch with your friends and business associates as well as offering an easy way to follow current and updated information from a variety of sources. I first started learning about these sites as they were being touted as a "free marketing tool for your website." At the time, I belonged to a selling venue that encouraged its shop owners to sign up to numerous sites and promote their items for sale. Numerous forum threads were flowing with "follow me and I'll follow you back." Thinking about the word "free" I eagerly signed up and started following anybody and everybody. This consumed a ton of time, but I figured, why not...it's free! Once I had a few of my social site accounts underway and started shamelessly promoting my items to anybody and everybody, I quickly realized that that was exactly what everybody else was doing too. My inbox was literally flooded nonstop with "look at my new widget" from a ton of people I didn't know and for items that really did not interest me. At first I thought that this was nothing more than a tiny annoyance, and I continued spending hours and hours each day touting my goods too. After a while, the whole endeavour to get the word out with the goal of gaining as many "followers" or "fans" as possible just started to seem more like a high school popularity contest than a marketing tool. In recent weeks, I have started to not only closely analyze where my target market is, but also to review where my sales are coming from. The embarrassing reality is that while the social sites have garnered many views for my site, the sales still appear to be coming from a result of my carefully planned, paid advertising spots as well as from customers who are finding me via an old-fashioned Google search. Do I still use social sites? Yes, I do continue to use Facebook and Twitter, but I have made big changes in how I use them. I have a personal page on Facebook to keep in touch with my friends and family, and I also have a Facebook business page so that once a week, I can let my "fans" know about new items or upcoming specials. I also continue to use Twitter to read daily news updates that interest me, to find articles about SEO, etc. that interest me, and I only list a promotional "tweet" 2-3 times per week. On both of these sites, I have greatly decreased the number of people I follow as I have finally gotten past the need to be the "most popular" and to have the "most fans" or the "most followers." Now that I see these sites as the socializing tools they were intended to be and not as a nonstop commercial generator for my site, I value their usefulness a lot more. I encourage everyone to give some of these sites a try. My tip is that when choosing who you are going to "follow" or "fan", use your own best judgement. You might be pleasantly surprised with the fascinating stories, information, and interesting people that you will uncover. |
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Great Intel! When I was reading it, I thought as it was me who wrote it:) I've been having exactly the same experience with using social media for business purposes.
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