If you’re like many business owners trying to make it work online, you’ve gone and joined MySpace, Facebook, Ryze, LinkedIn, and every other social network that you can find hoping that your business would just explode through the roof. It hasn’t, and now you’re just plain miffed. Well, it could be that, like Click Wisdom, you’re approaching the social networking game all wrong. It could be that you’re on the wrong network to begin with. Maybe these tips will help you rearrange your Facebook for more effective networking:

According to Click Wisdom

1. Include a Photo: You should include a photo of yourself on any social network you join. People don’t like networking with strangers. A photo will help them get to know you better.
2. Incorporate Twitter: I’ve never used Twitter. Others are using it like crazy. My understanding is that people use Twitter because you can just jot down a quick message too small for blogging. My thought is, if you’re too busy to blog then you’re too busy to Twitter. Free up some time and start a blog. Like Michael Martine, I think you’ll get more mileage out of a daily blog than you will out of any of the social networks. But if you’re going to Facebook then it does make sense to be active and to make your Facebook page interactive. Twitter seems like a good enough tool for interactivity.
3. Post Links of Interest: No kidding. I think it helps to have a target market. Are you on Facebook to make friends or contacts for business? If the former then keep it personal. If for business then narrow your network only to people you are trying to target for business. Don’t be general, be specific. Develop a demographic and target it, but be aware that it’s not a sales tool. It’s a networking tool. So put links on there that will benefit your target audience and stay away from fluff.
4. Fill Out Your Profile Info: No brainer? You’d think. If you want people to network with you, give them a reason to. Who are you? Let them know.
5. Change Your Privacy Settings: Privacy settings are there for a reason. I figure if you use Facebook correctly then privacy isn’t as big an issue as it could be. I’d never put my address and phone number on a social networking site. Not my personal information anyway. Business phone is OK if you want any old Tom, Dick, or Henrietta calling you at any time of day or night to talk about your blue widgets. Remember, you could be networking with people in Hong Kong or the Phillipines, so keep the time difference in mind. If you need it, change your privacy settings.
6. Friend People; Don’t Sell Them Stuff: I totally agree with this one. I am so annoyed when I make someone my friend and they immediately try to sell me something. Don’t do it. Make them your friend before you start making offers. Otherwise, don’t be surprised when they drop you like a hot potato.
7. Friend With Privacy: Yes, you can change the privacy settings for each individual on your friends list. Good idea.
8. Calm Down When It Comes To Applications: Do you really need a wailing wall that shouts “Ooogedy boogedy boo!” to every new friend when they accept your friend offers? Seriously, folks, too many applications make you look like a pimple-faced high school kid chasing a cheerleader around the lunch table. If that’s what you’re aiming at, load up another application.
9. Bow Down To The Coolness Of The Timeline And The Feed: Yep, even Facebook has that cool RSS feed. You’re in business, right? Use the feed. But don’t abuse it.

All of these are great suggestions. But I’ve got one more to add. Don’t go on a willy nilly friendship spree. You don’t have to make friends with everyone on Facebook. The idea is to look for people with similar interests. Do you have anything in common with that cute little ballerina with the curls or do you just like looking at her picture? Buy a magazine. Use Facebook as a networking tool, but if you can’t find a use for it for your business then don’t waste your time. Go to LinkedIn instead.

I learned something new recently about social marketing. It was actually sparked by a reader who left a comment on this Social Marketing Journal post. Just in case you missed it, here’s a snippet of his comment:

What you and your like-minded colleagues describe is not social marketing. Social marketing is a concept first explicated by Philip Kotler & Gerald Zaltman in 1971, to describe the application of commercial marketing principles to health, social and quality of life issues. (Cf. Kotler, P. and Zaltman, G. (1971) “Social marketing: An approach to planned social change. J of Marketing. Vol. 35, pp. 3-12.)

Thanks Craig for the correction.

I’ve confirmed Craig’s comments by doing a little research on this topic. This article from another blogger confirms his comments.

Nedra Weinreich is a social marketer. I and the other social bloggers mentioned in the blog post where Craig made his comment are social media marketers. It’s a slight nuance, but one worth mentioning. Social marketing has the aim at trying to improve society through people-centered marketing and is usually done in health care and other charitable or non-profit circles. Social media marketing is a strategy used by new media marketers to promote their businesses online and through digital media. I guess I should have called this blog Social Media Marketing Journal. Sorry folks!

MySpace is still one of the most visited sites in the whole wide world. But to hear Rebecca at SEOmoz tell it, it’s the worst website in the universe.

In all actuality, I’ve heard a lot of negative stuff about MySpace lately. It was bad before Rupert Murdoch took it over, but it’s been a lot worse since then. Is MySpace still a good place to network and market your products?

I think it is, but not for everyone. Keep in mind that most MySpace users are teenagers. How much spending power do teenagers have? Do they even have credit cards?

OK, some do. The rich ones. But are those the ones hanging out on MySpace? Probably not.

I think MySpace is best used as a branding tool if your market is the high school middle- and lower-middle income bracket SES. Otherwise, Facebook might be the better option for you. One word of warning: Don’t sign up for a MySpace account to market your product thinking that you can just start sending out spam messages and get people to buy what you offer. Spam doesn’t work - even on MySpace.

One of the most popular features of Facebook is the ability to develop your own application. Of course, you can always just use one of the 500 million Facebook apps already available. But if you can’t find one that does what you want it to do then you can create your own.

In fact, Facebook has a subdomain set aside just for application developers. It’s really not hard. All you have to do is read the small print and get started. You can get great information for application developers that includes:

• Platform documentation
• Everything you need to know about the Facebook API
• A library of resources you can use
• Tools for testing your Facebook application
• The latest news from the Facebook development team

Facebook was designed as a community for people who like to network. Your own Facebook application can go a long way to helping you build your network. So why not?

After doing some social bookmarking of my own, I’ve discovered quite a few social bookmarking sites that do well over all. Some bookmarking sites are good for certain industries and some are not. For instance, I don’t like to Digg SEO articles because they typically don’t do well, but interesting technology stories do. So when it comes to social bookmarking, you have to know the sites well enough to maneuver around and pick the right sites for the right article or blog post that you want to bookmark. The following five websites are websites that I’ve found are good for bookmarking for social marketers:

• StumbleUpon - StumbleUpon is a staple in the bookmarking and networking community. Different people categorize social websites in different ways. I like StumbleUpon because once you submit a site it’s added to the list of stumbles and anyone who “just goes stumbling” could discover your website. Stumblers are real socialites. They love to discover new and interesting sites and if yours is worth discovering then StumbleUpon is the place to be. Plus, if you find a hard core stumbler with some clout and they like your site, you’ll get lots of stumbles.
• PlugIM - PlugIM is not well known outside the Internet marketing community, but if you plan on doing any Internet marketing then you should know about it. The categories at PlugIM says it all: Business, Development, Marketing, Products, Search Engines. Can you submit in other categories? Yes, but the designated categories usually do much better than “others” no matter where you go. Another indicator of the type of material you can submit to a social bookmarking site is to look at its “Most Popular Story” list. PlugIMs consist of these stories: “WordPress Plugin: PlugIM Votebox,” “Why It Is Good To Link To LZZR,” and “LZZR Linking - Black Hat Or White Hat.” If you do Internet marketing, PlugIM is for you.
• Marktd - Marketing news for marketers by marketers. Great tag line. It’s also true. Marktd has the stories every Internet marketing practitioner needs to read. If you do any social marketing and you want to share your stories with others then this is the place to do it.
• Sphinn - Anybody who is anybody Sphinns. Perhaps the most popular social media site for Internet marketers, all the SEO gurus with any clout are using Sphinn. If I were you, I would too.
• Hubspot - Hubspot is my least favorite the list of five, but I add it on here because I think it has real potential. It’s tagline is “Social Content For Marketing Mavens.” Not strictly for social marketers, you’ll see articles on a variety of business topics. But it does have a heavy lean toward toward social and Internet marketing topics. I highly recommend it.

When you start your social bookmarking, and particularly if you are a social marketer trying to spread the word about your product or service or just connect and share your knowledge of social marketing, then these websites will be helpful.

Less than 10 days ago, Social Marketing Journal posted about Google’s new video sitemap support. I knew it was just a matter of time before someone came out with a video sitemap generator. I just didn’t know it would happen so soon.

Video Sitemap Pro by Marc Liron looks promising, but remember that it’s in its first phase. Tweaks and new versions are already on the promise table. Does that mean it’s a bad product? No. It just means that, like no other new product, we can’t expect perfection on the first try. Nevertheless, if you do any viral video marketing then this looks like a product worth giving a try. Video sitemaps will make your videos more Google-friendly and give you some juice to help them be found more easily by video searchers. I believe this is a good second step to make the Web a better viral tool for all. Google took the first step when it announced its support for video sitemaps. The only question now is, What steps will follow to put viral video marketing on the same par as, say, pay per click advertising, and e-mail marketing?

I like predictions. And I usually like Mashable. But two days ago the largest social media website in the world made its predictions for 2008. Talking about lame.

The most interesting preduction for 2008 was that some old media organizations would go out of business because “they’re just too big to make the transition to New Media adeptly, and almost all their efforts have been moves in the wrong direction.” But there were no specifics on this prediction. Only the prediction that it would involve “two major record labels.” Really? Geffen? EMI? Which ones exactly?

I don’t think we’ll lose any major record labels. Maybe a few indie ones, but those are the ones who are using new media successfully. The old record labels may not be using new media real well, but they’re still billion dollar corporations. Their old media ways haven’t failed them yet. There still hasn’t emerged any one dominant new media music producer. Can you name one? I can’t. And if you try to share your recordings with your friends online you’ll get sued and go by way of Napster. So I’m not sure where Mashable is coming from on this one.

That said, I have a few predictions of my own for 2008:

1. Another recording artist will self-publish online to great success and beat all new media records
2. Facebook and MySpace will continue to make news, but not in a good way
3. Podcasting will finally come into its own
4. A few Hollywood strikers will form an online media company and shoot the bird at their TV-world producers once and for all
5. Mashable will continue to write great blog posts, but will occasionally write one that is just plain lame.

Let’s make 2008 the year of social media, shall we?

(Source) Venture capitalists are already looking around to see what they can fund in the way of original content, as evidenced by the news FunnyOrDie.com just got $15 million, and writers are banding together to see what they can launch. The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that three striking writers have joined up with a former MTV exec to start a web series called “The Void” for the WorldWide Biggies studio.

Hollywood writers love to socialize. They also love to write and if they’re not going to get paid for doing what they love from wealthy Hollywood producers then they’ll just go elsewhere. What would any self respecting content producer do?

But they’ll soon discover that the economics of online business is different than the Hollywood business-as-usual mindset. The bright side is that Internet citizens love to be entertained. They just don’t like to pay a whole lot for their entertainment. But they made need to. If creative television writers can create great entertainment for the Internet for a fraction of the cost, they can sell many more units for less cost and keep a higher percentage of the profits. There is potential to make even more money than they could make working for “the man.”

That’s the beauty of the Internet. It’s got a built in social networking. It’s also got a built in content development mechanism. The two things that Hollywood writers love and adore. They may not need their producers after all.

One often overlooked aspect of social media marketing is blogging. People sometimes tend to put it into a difference category altogether. When done right, blogging is social marketing. All you really have to do to make an impact and get a little link love and additional content on your blog is to make a list of your competitors and link to them. You can see this in action a few posts back on this blog.

Linking to your competitors in this manner does a number of things:

1. It builds camaraderie with other industry professionals
2. Plus, you’ll get great comments in return - from your competitors, who will drop by to thank you for including them in your favorites list, from others who admire them as well as you do, and from contrarians who disagree with your list or who may think that certain of your favorites don’t belong on it; at any rate, you’ll get comments and that’s a huge value
3. Other people could link to your list
4. The people on your list will likely trackback to it so their readers will see it
5. You’ll increase your traffic counts
6. And you may even pick up a few additional regular readers from your increased traffic

You can see this in action again at the Search Engine Optimization Journal. Notice the comments. Not all will be good, but that’s OK. Let the contrarians have their say. Those types of comments tend to generate a good discussion and that will mean more comments, more traffic, more regular readers, and a better blog all around.

MySpace has integrated PhotoBucket into its platform finally after owning the photo sharing site for quite some time now:

* Login to your MySpace profile and go post a comment on a friends profile.
* In the comments editor, click on “Add Image from Photobucket”, and you can log directly into your Photobucket album — all without leaving MySpace.
* Browse your Photobucket album to find the image you want to post; click on the one you like and click the “Add image to comment” button.
* All without leaving MySpace!

These look like cool features, but I wonder why they weren’t incorporated earlier. MySpace has allowed users the ability to upload photos, but they have not used a photo sharing site until now. If there is a downside to this it is the fact that Flickr is a much more popular photo sharing site than Photobucket, but Photobucket is gaining. Perhaps this move will get all those MySpace users to start using Photobucket and it will become, by fiat, the most popular photo sharing site. Stranger things have happened.

(Source) With every new development in social media, communications departments are faced with new challenges. If the end goal is to control the message – and that is the boiled-down purpose of communications departments – then the expansion and adoption of social media is a direct obstacle to that goal.

Everyone wants all the bells and whistles. That’s the new corporate tool. More bells, we like it. More whistles. Give us two of them. Social media marketing is cool? Hey, let’s try it.

Wait, not so fast. Did you know that with social media you can’t always control the message? In fact, the message might control you. Still want it?

That’s the question every company should be asking themselves. I’m not trying to say you shouldn’t use social media in your marketing strategy. I’m just saying that if you do use it, be sure you understand how to use it properly.

Social media is a powerful force. It can deliver a relevant message fast. Sometimes that relevant message isn’t so favorable. You could have a critic, an ex employee, a former customer, or the competition use social media to really do some damae. That’s why you should implement some kind of useful controls on its use and not get too happy too soon. Social media can be a powerful tool, but it can backfire on you. That’s why you need a good social media guide to help you along the way. If you’re looking, I’m available.

We have researched and compiled our first annual list of some of the most useful Social Marketing Blogs…other than the Social Marketing Journal!

Please feel free to visit these blogs as they provide excellent information! Please let us know if we missed any blogs off of this list.

1. SMO Blog
Blog URL: http://www.smoblog.com
A blog about social media optimization and marketing that provides you with info that can help you best optimize your social media efforts.

2. The Social Media Experience
Blog URL: http://socialmedia.ws
Dan Gluckman focuses on social networks and the ups and downs of them as marketing tools as well as other social marketing news.

3. Sociable Blog
Blog URL: http://www.sociableblog.com
This is one blog you can’t miss out on. It provides the latest news on social marketing as well as reviews and info on cool new websites that you can utilize or take notes from.

4. Buzz Networker
Blog URL: http://www.buzznetworker.com
Each post on Buzz Networker is extremely thorough and well written. These posts are not for the people looking for a light read. It’s for people really looking to read in depth about social marketing.

5. Online Business Networking
Blog URL: http://www.aside.in/blog/networking/
This blog is more focused on business social networks such as LinkedIn.

6. Social Media Blog
Blog URL: http://www.socialmedia.biz
Covering everything from web, social networks, Web 2.0 and mobile networking, the social media blog really informs the reader of all the going ons of social media currently.

7. Home with Heather
Blog URL: http://homewithheather.com
A blog about networking and sharing the latest tips and tricks on Web 2.0, Internet Marketing and much more. The author says that she is helping newbies with straight talk.

8. Ypulse: Media for the Next Generation
Blog URL: http://ypulse.com
A festive blog that is aesthetically pleasing with equally entertaining content. It beats reading the average mundane marketing blog.

9. Community Guy
Blog URL: http://www.communityguy.com/
Insight from someone who works at a social media consulting firm. The blog has valuable links and resources as well as information that is worth reading.

10. Social Media Optimization
Blog URL: http://www.smomashup.com
SMO Mashup is run by Greg H. who works for one of the top SEO firms in the country. His blog is interactive as it has great visuals and videos to view.

Have we missed any? Please leave a comment of other Social Marketing Blogs related blogs that might be worth reading.

SiteProNews ran a good story today on how you can make your website more social. The suggestions offers include:

• Make a Declaration - In other words, tell your visitors who you are; people don’t like to do business with strangers. I wholeheartedly agree. Reveal yourself.
• Create a MySpace Page - MySpace isn’t for everybody. Only do this if your product or service makes sense to target to the MySpace crowd. The key to any social network is to target your efforts to the right audience. I doubt very seriously that people who’d be interested in geriatric home services products would be MySpace users.
• Install a Blog and Post Weekly (add a del.icio.us bookmarking icon) - Blog? Yes, start a blog. Good advice. But if you can post more often than weekly then do so. Also, don’t just put a del.icio.us icon on your blog. Put an AddThis icon on your blog so that users can bookmark your blog posts at any of the bookmarking sites they visit.
• Add a Digg Button - Digg is good for some people, a waste of time for others. Again, social sites rely a lot on a particular type of audience. Know your audience. Your site might be better targeted toward other types of social news readers.
• Add a Forum To Your Website - Running a forum takes a lot of time. If you don’t have the time to run a forum then you’d be better off not putting one on your website. Nothing looks worse than a forum that doesn’t get used. Seriously, good idea, but it takes a lot of time to do it right.
• Allow Users To Review and Rate Your Products - This is perhaps one of the best suggestions in the article. If you sell products, invite your website visitors to review your products.
• Add RSS Feeds - Another good idea. Add RSS feeds for your blogs, forums, website content, articles, newsletters, and anything else you want people to see.
• Publish All Feeds to Feedburner - Another good suggestion.
• Post Videos to Video Sharing Sites - Yes, if your website is a viral website that would go well with the video marketing angle then send out those videos. This is a very powerful marketing medium.
• Embed Your Videos On Your Site - Especially now that Google is allowing website owners to add video sitemaps to their sites.
• Use Photo Sharing Sites - Of course.
• Provide “Send To A Friend” Features - I’m not as big a proponent of “Send a Friend” icons, but it couldn’t hurt.

Some of the suggestions on this list are better than others, but all of them have some merit for someone. You have to know your visitors and know what they will like. Implement the social aspects of your website that will fit in well with your audience. Ignore the others.

More good news for video marketers: Google has rolled out a new video sitemap protocol. This is a good thing for webmasters doing any kind of video marketing.

The video sitemap has the potential to explode your videos all over the Internet. Before, video marketers had to rely on YouTube and other video sharing sites to get the message out about their businesses. Now, you can go viral with organic SEO.

I knew the search engines would eventually find a way to make this happen. In addition to posting your videos on the video sharing sites, you should also upload them to your own website and add a video sitemap to the website to let the search engines know whenever you have new video content. But with the sitemap work with embedded videos? In other words, can you upload your videos to YouTube and embed them on your own website or blog expecting the search engines to crawl them?

I see no reason why you can’t do that, but it is likely that it will be considered duplicate content and YouTube will be the first choice for the search engines. If you want your website to climb in the search listings then you should upload the videos to your website or blog first then upload them to the video sharing sites. By doing it that way you increase your chances of getting indexed by the search engine for each video on your website - if you have a video sitemap.

Today, Mashable posted about 5 websites they’re sick and tired of writing about. Quite frankly, I can’t blame them on any of them. Interestingly, 3 of them are video sites. Which tells me that video is hot right now.

Seriously, if the No. 1 social media site on the Internet is tired of writing about these websites then they must be popular, right? They must be so popular that they’re being talked about - a lot. Then you should be there.

I’m talking about YouTube, Joost, and Hulu. These are by no means the only three video sites online, but they are evidently three of the most popular. And video is hot. It’s getting hotter. So you should be marketing yourself through video. And there’s no better time than now because video is only going to get hotter.

And if you do a lot of video marketing, you can have your videos mashed at Mashable. Anyone at the most popular social media site online can view your videos right there on your profile. It’s powerful. Check it out.