Monthly archives for April, 2008

You Can Social Network In The Strangest Places



I was discussing all things web related with a friend and his wife yesterday and one of the topics that came up related to her interaction on the web. Now she spends as much time as I do online, however she has a very small number of activities and sites she visits. Her partner has a small blog that relates to parenting issues.

One of the sites she does spend a lot of time on is a parenting forum type site. On this site she has a lot of authority ranking in the sites top 20. When you consider there are over 10000 registered members, being in the top 20 is nothing to sneeze at – in fact she is now an administrator. What does this have to do with social networking? Good question.

Many months ago she invited me to join and I did, however I only pay passing attention to the site, mainly having a quick peek when she points something out to me. Our discussion yesterday centered around the types of discussions and questions that get asked. I had a closer look today and discovered that, despite being a parenting site, everything was discussed, even politics. Not only that, members quite often sent external links to each other. Now there is a social networking opportunity if ever I saw one.

These types of sites are good for getting feedback on various issues including products. Over time you can also drop links to your own sites – so long as you don’t spam. Social networking opportunities are everywhere now. Treat the sites as ‘social networks’ first, and marketing issues second.

Posted in Social Networking - Tagged

Where Should You Start Your Social Marketing?



Social marketing has become an important aspect of general web promotion activities and the first question most people ask is ‘where do I start’. The answer is easier said than done.

Research is the key to any social marketing campaign. You need to spend time visiting the various social sites in an attempt to determine where your potential customers/readers/visitors hang out. Once you identify those sites and the areas within those sites, then you can start to target your efforts.

Bloggers are particularly bad in this respect. They tend to hit as many sites as possible and often take a scattergun approach – if I spray enough about, I am bound to hit some targets. The scattergun approach is often caused by time, if you are targeting six or seven sites, you simply do not have the time required to network effectively within each one. Unfortunately that approach can lead to some negative aspects for social marketing.

You do need to target more than one site, however if you can identify where your ‘market crowd’ is then you can avoid the scattergun approach and spend quality time developing your image within that site. Social marketing is after all dependent on developing a good reputation.

Social marketing is about finding your target audience and wooing them. This takes time and patience however the rewards can be very satisfying. Your target group will not come to you unless you can get to them and that is what social marketing is all about.

Posted in Social Marketing - Tagged
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