Thanks for being patient. Sorry I didn’t do my routine 5-day weekly posts this week, but something prevented me… a sh*tload of fun for the past two days, and hey… Tellman only comes to town once in a blue moon. Mea culpa. 
But I’m here to talk about Social Business Networks. You know the ones I mean: LinkedIn, Entrepreneur Connect, Partner Up, StartUpNation, etc. All great places to belong to, if you’re a business owner. You can use these places not just to connect with other business owners in your niche, but to find services that you need to run your business. These networks are not only convenient, but can make a world of difference in your business life.
My question is: How many sites can you join? Well… The answer, of course, is all of them.
You can.
But how many will you actively participate in? How many do you have time to find friends in or write content for, and on and on.
My advice is to find a network that is rich with members of your niche, and then, to work in that one with the limited time you have. Build a killer profile, and make lots of friends. I-n-t-e-r-a-c-t! Don’t just throw a profile up there and expect it to do you any good.
I strongly encourage you to check out some of the social networks. They can be a blessing to new business owners, especially those dedicated to your niche. Not all niches have this option, of course, but SelfGrowth.com, for example is an excellent place for self-help and healthcare providers to meet up and plan joint ventures or whatever. Sometimes, all you need is a little moral support and things start falling into place.
Social media is expanding and contracting at quite a rapid rate. And Pownce announced yesterday that it would be closing on 12/15. I was suprised when I went in to update my account, but also have to admit that I hadn’t been there in weeks.
It’s all about Twitter, after all, isn’t it? I mean, there are apps out the ying-yang for Twitter, Twitter grader, Twitter pix, Twitter this and Twitter that. How could another micro-blogging site co-exist? I know there are others, but am wondering if they won’t suffer the same fate as Pownce.
And what about all the networking sites? I mean, once MySpace was King, now, it seems it’s Facebook. But what about Social Marketing Central? Or, Victory Online University, or Sta.rtUp.biz? Or all the gazillion social sites inundating the Internet? Do we have time for all of them… NO!
I mean, social marketing is great, no doubt about it, and it’s a lot of fun. Yet, Powce is one example of how enough is enough. People like Twitter, cool… so do I. People like Facebook, and so do I. And though I really like all these new places, there are just too many. Being the social butterfly is fun, and good for business, but at one crucial tipping point, spending too much time socializing has to give way to real production.
Plus, the more places that spring up, the less and less likely they will be to succeed.
My advice?
Pick the places where you can relate to the people in the group. Hell, build your group in Twitter or Facebook or wherever, and spend time there. You may have time for a few. But when you get right down to the nitty-gritty of it, you’ll get some traffic, but you’ll also lose sight of your prize. Focus on what’s important to you and then, allow social media to fill the gaps.
Today, one of my workmates needed to know page rank of blogs for a project she’s working on, but had no Google Toolbar or anything that would show it to her. Immediately, I asked her what browser she was using and she told me Firefox. Yes!
Do you know how many very cool add-ons for Firefox there are? I mean, wow! You can go nuts. Here’s my list of must-have add-ons for SEO and social marketing in alphabetical order:
- Bookmark Duplicate Detector: Oh, yeah… We’ve all done it, right? We think we need to save a site, and end up with a hundred bookmarks that we just keep adding. Nope! Not with this tool. It keeps my bookmarks unique and I love it.
- Clipmarks: Save the stuff you enjoy and add it to your online account. Clip it! Or, add it to your blog or whatever. Neat.
- ColorZilla: click the icon and get the hexcodes for any color you rest your mouse on. I also like a little program called “Pixie” for this, which you can get at http://nattyware.com free. It’s great for getting matching color codes when you’re not using a browser.
- Fast Dial: Allows you to add icons for all the sites you visit regularly. No more searching, even in neat bookmarks. Just click and you’re there.
- Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer: This is awesome if you have more than one computer. Foxmarks stores all your bookmarks and when you log in to your other computer with Foxmarks installed, you’re golden. All your bookmarks are always up-to-date.
- IE Tab: Switch between Firefox and Internet Explorer interfaces with the click of a mouse. This is great if you need to see web pages in both browsers or if a site just doesn’t work with Firefox. You don’t have to open the other browser, just click!
- Rank Checker from SEOBook.com Let’s say it’s SEOElite lite. You can check the rank of any site in Google, Yahoo, and Live right from your browser.
- Amason S3Fox: It’s like .ftp for Amazon S3. All you have to do to access all your S3 files is click on the icon in your browser.
- Search Status: Give you Google Page Rank and Alexa Ranking plus a bunch of other stuff. Let’s you see keyword density of pages, highlight no follow links, and a whole bunch of other stuff.
- SEOQuake: I love this one. You get this tiny toolbar that appears every time you open a web page. It’s transparent and really unobtrusive, until you open it. BAM! You have Google page rank, the number of pages indexed, the number of backlinks, and similar info for Yahoo and Live. You can also access Whois, SEODigger, and a whole load of info in a heartbeat. This is totally cool.
- Tab Mix Plus: Lets you reorder your tabs, have tabs open when you click on links, rather than leaving pages, and you can really customize this one any way you want. It’s really great, too. Worth the effort to get it and plug it in.
- TwitterFox: I know, I know… You can really customize TweetDeck so much better, but TwitterFox just sits open on my browser all day. I can see when tweets come in immediately and whether or not it’s something I might want to check out or reply to. I mean, I’m so busy that I really don’t have much time for Twitter. If I had to use Tweet Deck or another stand alone program, I doubt that I’d be able to bother with it at all. If you’re as busy as me, you might enjoy this add-on.
I have a few others that aren’t worth mentioning, but these are my absolute faves. Try them. You’ll be amazed at what you can get one free and very cool browser to do for you.
Wow! There’s a very cool article in the Web Success Diva’s blog today about…
Social marketing.
First she takes you on a tour, and explains the power of Social Networking. Not all of this is obvious. I mean, you and I know that social media is important for getting yourself out there with a target audience. Bang! Big boost for your brand, right?
But did you think about how cool social marketing is for SEO? If you search for me right now, the first two entries are this blog and My Blog Log. My videos are on that page, including a horrible audition I did last year for Thor Schrock for his Top Affiliate Challenge. That was a kicking and screaming event. It was the end of a long day and it’s just impossible to say no to Thor, but I digress…
Aside from my own sites, there’s LinkedIn, GoodReads, Facebook, and on and on… all social media sites. Anyone who wants to know more about my brand, which is me and blogging, can do that easily.
The Diva also shows you how to use social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Plaxo. And tells you how to find even more stuff specific to niche marketing. You really should go over and read her post. It’s a winner!
Read Social Networking Taken to the Next Level Here. And tell her Pat sent you.
Hi… Yes, it’s me, minimalist Pat, again. I ranted about too much Twittering. Now, I’m here to rant about something else, something that I’m sure if you have a Facebook account, you’ll probably agree with me.
You will.
OK.
It’s those damned cutesy things that friends you don’t even know really keep sending and sending and sending, like every day or multiple times a day! It’s driving me mad.
I mean, I appreciate the thought, though Facebook kind of makes you pick like 20 people at a time, right? It’s NOT that strong an emotion, really, is it?
I mean, you didn’t say to yourself, “What a cute smiling cherub daffodil. I think it’s perfect for Pat. I’ll send it along to her with my best wishes.”
No, it’s more like, OK… I’ll send this flower to 20 more people and save the rain forest! Listen! Dude! you should own every tree in South America by now, and I hear you’re creeping into Central America, too. You’ve done enough! Really.
So please stop filling my mailbox with notifications. I can’t possibly be in Facebook long enough to answer all of those requests. What happens to them if you never read them? Do they just go into request limbo? I’m going to test that out.
I’m not answering any more requests from people who send me one to ten EVERY day. I appreciate the thought, really, but enough is enough, already.
There. I feel much better now.
Perhaps I’ll be less cranky tomorrow.
Not me!
Really.
I mean, I totally love Twitter and enjoy seeing what other folks are up to all day with the Firefox plugin TwitterFox. It’s rad because I can quickly see it just by turning my attention (not even my whole head) for a split second and then, it’s over. Or, I can reply with a snarky “me” (yes, I’m a snark in real life) comment or whatever.
Generally, I only comment on other people’s Tweets throughout the day, though they have to be important. I mean, I’m picky. Really. John Reese was in a car accident in Greece! Worth a Tweet? I think so. “Hope you’re OK.” Simple. He had to make a “get the heck off the road fast move,” says he. And on with my day.
But I usually reserve my Tweets for blog posts or something cool like being interviewed by Early to Rise (which I was for the second time last week, BTW). And I don’t spend a lot of time messing with Twitter, really, because I have too much work to do.
Here’s the thing, though, and it really fries my bananas…
Some people Tweet about every stupid thing under the sun. I mean, I really don’t give a hoot what you ate for breakfast unless it’s something totally, incredibly funny or awesome. I mean, if you’re in Kawabunga and eat a tarantula or some monkey brains… Hey, that’s worth a Tweet.
But if you had cereal. Keep it to yourself, K?
So, don’t be a Twitter Whore. (I didn’t make that up, but the Friday Traffic Report had a cute video about that that I went to watch at: http://www.jackhumphrey.com/fridaytrafficreport/blog-marketing-videos/how-not-to-use-twitter-to-generate-traffic/. (Whew! Hey, Jack… That’s one long-ass URL, BTW)
Totally cracked me up, and then it dawned on me that people like that make me nuts. If you don’t have something really, really cool to Tweet about… tell your mom or your cat or someone who really wants to know this stuff, K?
Do you Twitter?
I don’t mean, do you chirp like a bird or talk inanely until your lips fall off? I mean, do you belong to Twitter?
Well…
Why not? It seems kind of silly to be “following” the activity of people, but I follow some pretty cool people, like Brad Fallon and his “Free Line Report” and Paul Colligan, podcasting journalist. So, when I go to Twitter, I can see just what’s up.
I get a Twitter from Brad daily, and if you’re interested in Web 2.0, the Free Line report is pretty cool. Takes just a minute to watch and keeps you up on the 2.0 news.
Paul Colligan posts to Twitter about a gazillion times a day. I try to stop by the stuff I’m really into, and keep the other stuff for later. There are just so many hours in the day!
I keep one open for education, usually first thing in the morning. It’s a “Tellman” thing. He says, “One hour of education; one hour of implementation.” It really works, and because of that bit of encouragement, I learn something new about our online world of glittery gems at least once per day.
But anyway, Twitter is so cool that some guy named James Buck, a graduate student in journalism from the University of California-Berkeley was arrested last month in Mahalla, Egypt while covering an anti-government protest. He just had enough time to Twitter “arrested” and his Twitter followers both here and in Egypt contacted the U. S. consulate to help him. How cool is that? James was freed and his one-word “Tweet” of “Free” was the next message he sent along. CNN even reported on it.
So, see? Twitter is useful.
And with folks following you and reading your blog and such, and some signing up for your list, it’s the best of all worlds.
Plus, it’s the quickest micro-blog on the planet.
Who doesn’t need more time?
Have you seen Don Crowther’s Stomper video about Web 2.0?
If you’re not convinced that social bookmarking and networking is important, that it’s not a significant change in the DNA of the Web, then you need to watch this…
http://www.stompernet.net/goingnatural2/
I love it!
Man, not only can you learn about Web 2.0, but a lot about making videos that people want to watch. These are the best videos I’ve ever seen online.
It could be that I lead a sheltered life, but I don’t think so. This is the kind of quality we see inside StomperNet and the type of quality information. Man, I wish I had an affiliate link. Andy, you reading this?
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So, I was over at Sphinn checking to see what’s going on in the world of Web 2.0, and I found a post on Cornwallseo.com about how the world of social media sites is so complicated that people should actually pay a consultant to crack the mystery of getting onto page one.
New media. New Web. New jobs. Interesting.
I never found the social networking sites to be all that complicated, but becoming part of the community definitely takes time. You could spend hours every day just working at Web 2.0., and I can definitely see where a consultant could be beneficial.
Hmm…
Wonder what a “social media consultant” would charge. And then, is this an adjunct of SEO or a whole new world? I’m not sure. I know I find the concept fascinating. Facebook would be easier with a guide, as would MySpace and Squidoo, and people have used those venues to make some serious jing. I mean, think about it, hardly anyone even know what Squidoo was a year ago.
No doubt, if you want to get right to the quick of things, hiring a social media consultant would be a very expedient, and if you’re busy making tons of money, how much time is there to waste?
Wow. I’d like to get that busy. Sure, I’ll hire a social media consultant. Where do I sign up?
I guess until I get so rich and busy I’ll just keep stumbling, digging, plugging, etc. But here’s the thing…
If I’m right about how important these sites will become in the future, it will be very worthwhile to become an expert. Looking for a new career or specialty? Start early.
