Social Media Websites – increasing the power of advertising
Blogging, twittering, YouTubing…they’re all different types of social media, but what do they all do and which offer the greatest benefits to promoting your business?
I came across a useful article recently on the flying solo website by Tristan Boyd of Boyd Design about social media websites. It explains in laypersons terms what each type of social media website does and the benefits each can bring to your business. Here’s a summary of the contents:-
Social bookmarking: a site that allows you to add your favourite websites so that other friends and users can see them and comment on them. Delicious and Digg are two examples.
Social networks: social media websites that focus on building communities where you can create or join groups, make contacts and communicate with other people in your network.
Social media: YouTube is a well-known example where you can create a page or “channel” of videos or images. You can upload and share video clips on YouTube and across the internet through websites, mobile devices, blogs and email.
Blogs: a form of journal where articles are posted on a regular basis and then archived over time. The social aspect is the comment function where a visitor can respond to any of the posts in the blog.
Twitters: a relatively new form of social media where you can post short text messages letting people know what you’re up to. You can do this either on the twitter website, via SMS or other external applications.
Forums: they’ve been around for a while and enable people to discuss particular topics that are of common interest to the forum group. In most cases, you’ll have to register or be a member to join a forum but you’ll probably get alot out of them. The Flying Solo forum is a good example, another one I’ve come across is Open Forum
Not all of the above social media will be suited to your business. Do some research and check them out. Take note of those that offer the greatest opportunity to network with potential customers or suppliers or even those that give useful help and advice. But don’t get overwhelmed by the limitless opportunities – be strategic and gradually network to build your online reputation and generate interest in your business. I’m off to do some networking now…(after a quick cup of coffee).