Social Marketing Guide

Social networking sites revolutionized the way we do business online since
initially being introduced in the mid 1990's.
With instant access to your target audience, and the ability to keep a steady
pulse on what our market is currently interested in, it has never been easier to
connect with potential buyers and long-term customers.
Social networks provide people with the opportunity to create profiles, blogs
and individual pages that reflect their individuality, interests and experiences.
It puts people in quick contact with old friends, or helps them make new ones.
When it comes to generating new interest or exposure for your online
business, social networks can help you quickly locate potential buyers,
connect with authority figures in your niche, expand your outreach and even
conduct niche research to determine current buying patterns, trends and
overall demand.
There are literally hundreds of social media sites that have sprung up over the
last few years, however due to the time involved with engaging and interacting
within these communities while establishing credibility in your market in order
to build the most effective marketing campaigns, you'll want to focus only on
the most established, active social community sites.
This report reveals the top social networking websites where you can build an
online presence quickly and easily while subsequently tapping into some of
the most profitable niche markets online and location potential joint venture
partners and important business contacts.


These community sites will help you to develop brand awareness while
maximizing your exposure and outreach.
Facebook
Sign Up: http://www.Facebook.com
Facebook surpassed MySpace and became the most popular social network
online in 2009.
With Facebook, you can interact with those in your market by adding them as
a contact, but you can also generate exposure a number of other ways from
within the Facebook community:
1) Create Facebook Advertisign Campaigns
Facebook offers its own internal advertising center where you can set up
"Adwords style" advertisements that appear whenever specific keywords are
entered within the Facebook community.
You can customize your Facebook ads so that they become visible only to
potential customers based on gender, age, or even location.
With Facebook advertising, you can pay per click (CPC) or impression (CPM),
and can schedule your ads to run for a specific time or on an ongoing basis.
You can create your advertisement by visiting
http://www.Facebook.com/advertising
2) Create Facebook Fan Pages
A free (and effective) method of generating exposure and building a reputation
within your niche market is by creating a Facebook fan page. A fan page issimilar to creating a new Facebook profile, where you can add notes,
messages, download links, and images to your fan page, while managing your
fan pages all directly from within your main Facebook account.
One of the greatest benefits of building fan pages is that you can provide
potential customers and leads with free samples or downloads of your
products, or you can build a list by featuring an opt-in box directly on your Fan
page!
Marketing Resources:
When marketing your business with Facebook, there are many different
applications available to help you maximize your exposure and maintain your
account, including:
My Profile Box
Download: http://www.facebook.com/xsmyinfo
Social RSS
Download: http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=23798139265
Facebook Video
Download: http://www.facebook.com/VideoApp
iEndorse
Download: http://www.facebook.com/iEndorse


MySpace
Sign Up: http://www.MySpace.com
MySpace, created in 2003, is a great contender when it comes to being an
integral part of every successful social marketing campaign.
MySpace is used by millions of people all over the world who log onto their
MySpace pages and browse through related pages and sites featured within
the network.
With MySpace, you can quickly create squeeze page style templates,
generating interest and fresh exposure to your products and services and can
also quickly locate potential partners, joint venture offers and others interested
in your niche market.
In order to create a memorable MySpace page, consider customizing the
design and layout.
There is a free service available at http://www.Wix.com that will help you
develop attractive, flash based MySpace pages quickly and easily.
Ning
Sign Up: http://www.Ning.com
Ning, launched in 2005, offers people with the opportunity to create their own
social network. In addition, you can browse through thousands of social
communities and join those that relate to your niche market.
You can customize your social network with a unique blend of design
customizations and layout ideas.
You can take things a step further by developing surveys, polls and allowing those who join your network to respond to profile questions, open
conversations and threads.
If you develop your own social network within Ning, you will be given a unique
URL that you can give to your customers, peers and associates.
You can also enhance your network by adding in modules through a simple
'drag & drop' system, and best of all, users only require one login to access all
of the social networks and communities they become a member of from within
Ning.
Twitter
Sign Up: http://www.Twitter.com
Twitter took the online business arena by storm when it quickly grew in
popularity attracting millions of users who can choose to 'follow' updates from
those they are interested in.
Twitter offers a flexible API system that allows third party developers to create
Twitter plugins and applications that enhance their accounts overall
functionality.
One of these services is found at http://www.SocialOomph.com where you
can set up automatic greeting messages that thank those who follow you for
becoming a contact, while being able to promote a squeeze page, incentive
offer or gift of some kind.
This is a great way to quickly build a list in your niche market, while
establishing a relationship with those who choose to follow your updates andpublic timeline.
With Twitter, you can quickly build a profile that features your website URL
and photo, while integrating keywords within your bio field to attract visitors to
your page whenever similar keywords are entered in Twitter's built in search
engine.
One thing to keep in mind when using Twitter as a marketing channel is that
the more interactive you are, the more exposure you'll receive.
Every post you submit through your Twitter account will go out to everyone
who follows you. In addition, your posts will be archived within your main
profile page so that new followers can browse through previous updates.
Twitter is an incredibly useful tool when conducting niche research or testing
the viability of a market.
From newspapers to television stations, Twitter has become an easy way to
post instant news and alerts, and as an online entrepreneur, you can utilize
this information to determine what your target market is consistently
responding to and interested in by following those who are established within
your market or industry and keeping an eye on their current broadcasts and
launch announcements.

Linkedin
Sign Up: http://www.Linkedin.com
Linked in is a business oriented social community where you can invite people
to become part of your connections and well as quickly locate relevant leads
and business contacts by importing contacts from your email accounts and
external social community lists.
One of the greatest aspects of creating a Linkedin account is in being able to
generate organic traffic to your site from the major search engines.
Website links featured on your Linkedin profile page will quickly rank within the
search engines and by modifying existing labels and tabs to feature relevant
keywords relating to your niche market, you will be able to quickly optimize
your Linkedin account and boost your search engine ranking!
Linkedin is also helpful in promoting your blog's RSS feed by connecting your
Linkedin account with external blog sites, including Bloglink, Blogger, Live
Journal, Movable Type, Vox and Wordpress.com
Xanga
Sign Up: http://www.Xanga.com
Xanga launched in 1999, originally offering users with the ability to share
music and book reviews, and has since grown to become one of the most
popular social networks online.
Xanga offers users with the ability of creating blogs as well as to quickly
connect with your target audience through their social networking community features.
Each site created within the community is called a "Xanga Site" where you can
post frequent updates, including blog posts, and article content.
You can also choose to make certain posts private, preventing access to the
material unless the reader joins your contact list.


So there you have it, the top social community sites where you can quickly
build an online presence and generate massive exposure for your online
business.
Spend some time creating your social networking accounts and post frequent
updates to retain your following base and establish contacts and leads through
your broadcasts and interaction.
In closing, I've provided a list of additional social networking sites worth
joining:
Friendster: http://www.Friendster.com
Orkut: http://www.Orkut.com
Zorpia: http://www.Zorpia.com
Bebo: http://www.Bebo.com
Flixster: http://www.Flixster.com
Tagged http://www.Tagged.com
hi5 http://www.hi5.com
Fubar http://www.Fubar.com