Social Networking: Shaking hands and making business contacts onlineThat's my definition. And if you don't know it by now, online social networking is exploding. In fact, this phenomenon is so huge and changing so rapidly, that to not be a part of it means being left behind as far as Internet Marketing is concerned. Yes, it's THAT important. Though it's 99.9% likely that anyone reading this knows all about the idea of online social networking, it's worth reviewing the basics - especially for those of you are are just getting started.
Social networking is an ongoing and never ending process in which you are doing four essential things:
1) Expanding your circle of influence
2) Building good relationships
3) 'Branding' yourself
4) Driving traffic
You have simply GOT to get your name, message and/or product out there for the whole world to see. And that's what the Internet is - the whole world! It doesn't matter what business you're in, you can never know too many people (especially the right ones) and you can never have too much publicity. You want to build a real and lasting online business that will grow enough to fuel all of your dreams, right? Well that's a long-term project, so it's not too early to start thinking about the months and years (yes, years!) to come.
One thing that is critical to your long-term strategy is to start building a branded presence within the Internet Marketing community at large. In short, your face and your name need to be EVERYWHERE - with both linked to your blog or other business website. Social networking sites are springing up so fast now, that there is seemingly one major new one every single week. If on the off chance that you have never seen one of these, here are two random links to explore (both old and new):
Direct Matches
Swom
The truth is that I am a part of many such sites and I seem to keep joining new ones every day. In time, there are probably going to be an infinite number of them! But guess what? That means that there will be an infinite number of ways to promote yourself.
Social Networking is very serious business. Ignore it at your peril!
