Posts Tagged ‘Social Networking’

Business Networking

Business networking is used to create opportunities through like-minded people.

The goal of business networking is to build new relationships and thus generate business. It can be more cost effective than other forms of marketing. Social Networking is one form of networking, but offline business networking is often more effective.

People do business with people they like and trust. Like and Trust is easier to achieve in a face-to-face format. That is why professional networking is still so popular among small business owners.

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Tips:

• Get out and talk to people.
• Meet with everyone you know to share what you are doing and ask them for referrals.
• Always think about how you can help the person you are talking with.
• Ask for a business card. Give them one of yours.
• Connect with them online. Ask them to subscribe to your mailing list/newsletter.

Resources: Places to Network & People to Network with

• Chambers of commerce
• Alumni Groups
• Friends and family
• Twitter meet ups
• Career fairs
• Religious groups
• Parents of your children’s friends and classmates
• Neighborhood groups
• Professional organizations
• Networking organizations

Social Bookmarking:

Social bookmarking allows you to store, organize, search, and manage links to web pages on the Internet. Social Bookmarking sites use metadata “tags” to organize links which lends to search engine optimization of the content. The social bookmarking sites offer web feeds of the bookmarked links which enables users to find new bookmarks that are shared by others.

Tips:

• Bookmark articles relevant to your customers or business using one or more of these sites.
• When you see relevant articles to your business, write a comment and link back to your site.

Resource List:

• Digg – Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by our users..
• AddThis – AddThis is the #1 bookmarking and sharing button on the Internet. We help website publishers and bloggers spread their content across the web by making it easy for visitors to bookmark and share content to their favorite social destinations.
• Delicious – Delicious is a social bookmarking service that allows users to tag, save, manage and share web pages from a centralized source. With emphasis on the power of the community, Delicious greatly improves how people discover, remember and share on the Internet.
• StumbleUpon – StumbleUpon uses ratings to form collaborative opinions on website quality. When you stumble, you will only see pages that friends and like-minded stumblers have recommended..
• Facebook – Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. Millions of people use Facebook everyday to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet..
• reddit – reddit is a source for what’s new and popular online. vote on links that you like or dislike and help decide what’s popular, or submit your own!
• Mixx.com – Use YourMixx to tailor the content categories, tags, specific users and groups, and we’ll deliver the top-rated content as chosen by you and people who share your passions. Lists user-recommendations for stories, photos and videos. Customize the start page, join private groups, and rate content.

Surveys

A survey is a means of collecting quantitative information about a group. It can be used to collect opinions or quantitative data. Surveys can be used in several ways.

Tips:

• Ask questions of your customers to engage them and start a dialog.
• Gather information on what your customers want.
• Identify the demographic you want to be talking with.
• Quantify feedback from your customers.
• Collect the opinion of your customer.

Resources: Surveys

• Zoomerang – The Leader in Online Surveys with Over 1 Million Satisfied Customers. Quickly and easily create online surveys to get the insights you need. You can build a survey in minutes with free access to over 100 professionally-designed online survey templates. Then, analyze and share your results by creating customized charts, posting them to your blog or website or just exporting your data to Excel, PowerPoint or a PDF.
• SurveyMonkey – Using just your web browser, create your survey with our intuitive survey editor.  Select from over a dozen types of questions (multiple choice, rating scales, drop-down menus, and more…).  Powerful options allow you to require answers to any question, control the flow with custom skip logic, and even randomize answer choices to eliminate bias.
• QuestionPro – QuestionPro is web based software for creating and distributing surveys. It consists of an intuitive wizard interface for creating survey questions, tools for distributing your survey via email or your website, and tools for analyzing and viewing your results. You simply build your survey and email it to a list of potential respondents. QuestionPro will take care collecting and recording the responses. Results are available in real time.
• PollDaddy – With your free account from PollDaddy you can create online surveys and polls for your website, blog and social network. Find out what your visitors are thinking today. Create your surveys and polls using our custom templates or create your own. Use our in-depth reporting engine to aggregate, print and export your results.
• Snap Surveys – With 27 years survey experience and thousands of users, Snap Surveys can supply survey software and research services for your specific market sector. Snap 9 is our user-friendly survey software for market research. Snap provides the tools you need to get your research done. Professional IT and research services for survey management and data processing from our in-house SurveyShop division.

Social Networking:

A social networking website facilitates community building among people who have something in common. They provide a means to connect with people you know through school, work, or activities. They also aid in the creation of new friendships.

Ways to using Social Networking to Grow Your Small Business:

• Find directories related to your specific industry and add your company profile or link. You can do this by going to Google and typing “my industry directory”.
• Post and comment in Yahoo and Google Groups with a link to your site in your signature.
• Yahoo Answers - Answer questions in your niche. Only answer questions related to your product. Include a direct link between the question and your link in the source box if you don’t want to get banned.
• Create a Google Notebook and include your site’s link.
• Create a presence on the leading free social networks. It’s another way for potential customers to find you, it’s free, and it can drive more customers to your website. The links back to your website help to give you a higher page rank in the search engines. Popular social Networks include:
  • LinkedIn – LinkedIn is an interconnected network of experienced professionals from around the world, representing 170 industries and 200 countries. You can find, be introduced to, and collaborate with qualified professionals that you need to work with to accomplish your goals.
  • Ning – Ning lets you create and join new social networks for your interests and passions.
  • Bebo – Bebo is a popular social networking site, owned by AOL/Time Warner, which connects you to everyone and everything you care about. It is your life online – a social experience that helps you discover what’s going on with your world and helps the world discover what’s going on with you.
  • Facebook – A social utility that connects people, to keep up with friends, upload photos, share links and videos.
  • Myspace – Young demographic and with strong interest in music.
  • Ecademy – A Business Network. Create new contacts and find friends, Market your business and get found on Google, Share knowledge, opportunities and do more business
  • Biznik – Biznik is an award-winning community of entrepreneurs and small businesses dedicated to helping each other succeed.
  • Nexopia – Canada’s largest social networking site for youth. With over 1.2 million members, and hundreds of new accounts created every day, Nexopia is quickly solidifying its reputation as the online place for teens to connect and express themselves.
  • StudiVZ – Germany language social networking site that is popular in Germany.
  • orkut (popular in Brazil) – orkut is an online community designed to make your social life more active and stimulating. orkut’s social network can help you maintain existing relationships with pictures and messages, and establish new ones by reaching out to people you’ve never met before.
  • Hi5 – hi5 is the most globally diverse social networking site in the world, with over 80% of our users from outside the US. The hi5.com site was designed for this global audience from the beginning, and was the first in-language social networking site in many countries around the world. The site has been translated to over 40 languages and dialects (with more than 60 planned by the end of 2008).
  • Xiaonei – Chinese – The most real effective Social networking platforms, in-depth to meet your social, entertainment, information, and many other needs.

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