In a way, it is surprising that social networks are enjoying the kind of stupendous success and popularity that makes everyone want to be on them, because you would think that people have better things to do with their time than to “poke” people virtually, be virtual “friends” with virtual strangers, or constantly tell the world what they’re thinking or what they’re doing in tiny messages. But, it is happening and social networks are ruling the roost. In fact, they are now being harnessed for purposes besides entertainment, like marketing services and products and promoting businesses. If you haven’t jumped on this bandwagon yet, it’s high time you did, because it’s not only free, it also reaches a host of people in the process.

When you’re trying to market your business using social networks, there are a few things that you need to remember:

• Don’t be a spammer: Social networks are not like mass email where you can flood people’s mail boxes with promotion brochures and other material. In this world, subtlety pays more than anything else. People are not here to have their faces stuffed with your business offers; rather, you need to let people come to you because they are intrigued by what you have to offer rather than badger them and risk offending them.

• Don’t be everywhere and nowhere all at once: And by this I mean that it is wise to choose just a few social networks where you can concentrate on garnering the clientele that suits your business instead of setting up a presence in almost every social network that exists online. When you go for quantity rather than quality, you don’t really make a telling effect on potential customers. Also, you’re unable to focus your attention or devote enough time to all the sites, so you end up neglecting most of them and losing customers in the process.

• Keep people interested: You need to know what interests your customers and keep them coming back for more. If you have a dedicated following, your first task should be to consolidate what you have rather than look for new followers. Yes, it is important to widen your operations and increase your popularity, but not at the cost of those who were loyal to you when you were but a fledgling.

• Stamp your mark: When you’re able to project your business as one of the leaders in the market, or when you’re able to make people turn to your profile for the latest updates and news in the industry. You need to build your network carefully and ensure that you update it regularly so that people continue to visit your blogs and social network pages.

• Show your personality: People are not going to give you their patronage if you are boring and talk about business alone. You need to go about marketing on social networks like you would try to attract a group of friends who you want to get interested in your business. So a little bit of personality helps in getting people to follow you, and your company in the process.

By-line:

This guest post is contributed by Bailey Digger, she writes on the topic of  web design degrees . She welcomes your comments at her email id: baileydigger189(@)gmail(.)com.

Related articles

• Build Your Own Social Network , Whether You Have 5 Million Friends or 50 (prweb.com)
• Social Networks: Going Public or Keeping Private? (e1evation.com)
• Strategy Analytics: Facebook and Other Social Networks Will Double Users in 5 Years (eon.businesswire.com)

Yet again it’s time for this weeks Saturday Six and this week topic was chosen by myself and there is only one question with six answers..

1. Name 6 of your favourite social network sites and why?
   

There we go, one question with six answers for you to have fun with…

Ok, that’s it, thanks for taking part and I’m looking forward to everyone’s answers. Don’t forget to hit the “Tweet” button to ReTweet this weeks Saturday Six.

Anyone using Twitter can be part of the process by tweeting me a topic, I will then pick one randomly and the chosen topic will be used and the tweeter will have a DoFollow link to their website or blog as a thank you.

If you would like to nominate a topic then simply tweet me @BalzingMinds with your nominated topic and the hash tag #Sat6

Yesterday, I was a bit stuck for a blog post so I stopped by the amazing BloggerLuv and posted an update which read “I’m not sure what to blog today, any ideas?”. Suffice to say my blogging buddies never fail to lend a helping hand.

Several of my fellow bloggers rallied to the call and came up with some fantastic ideas on different topics on what to write about and even places to visit to get ideas. All of which I can use and most probably will do.

So when you do get stuck for anything, you can always count on your friends and if you are a BloggerLuv member then even more so as the blog is called “BloggerLuv” it goes to prove that those in the community are there to help and are willing to take time from their blogging schedules and show some support.

The call also went out on Twitter via BloggerLuv, now how cool is that?

I'm not sure what to blog today, any ideas? http://bloggerluv.com/fVrBqeb

July 6, 2010 7:53 am via Blogger LUV @ ANYWHERE ReplyRetweetFavorite

@BlazingMinds

Karen

So if you are ever in a predicament where you need a little help from fellow blogger or even a fresh outlook on something, then I would highly recommend getting over to BloggerLuv, also use other social networks by asking others for ideas, ok you may not get everyone answering, but those that do will certainly of helped you out

It’s was a strange day the other day with Twitter, there I was happily tweeting away on my Twitter @BlazingMinds with my trusty Tweetdeck, when I got a read warning message about the Twitter API not working!

“Oh well, nothing to worry about” I thought, but it kept happening more and more, so I decided to visit the Status website for Twitter and find out what was going on…

It seemed to be the Twitter was suffering from “Site availability issues” which all boils down to one particular thing that we have been seeing on the Twitter website… The Fail Whale and Twitter Over Capacity!
Read the rest of this entry »

You’ve probably seen them, hell, I even have them here on Blazing Minds, I’m talking about social network share buttons.

Nearly every blog you visit has them these days and though us bloggers do love to have them on our blogs for those kind enough to click on to share a bit of love and Stumble, ReTweet, Digg, Like ……….. and the list goes on.

As you will see, here on Blazing Minds I have the SexyBookmarks plugin at the bottom of the blog post where readers can share the post they are enjoying on a selection of sites for others to find and also share and though there is a choice there to choose from I was wondering what sites people use the most and which ones are worth having which are not.

So when you’ve finished reading this bloggy post, check out the buttons and use the ones you are listed with, then leave me a comment letting me know which ones you think you would remove, which ones you would like to see and why, then I can take a look to see what are more popular than others.

I have tried to add the popular ones that I use such as Twitter, BlogEngage, StumbleUpon, Digg, Ping.fm and so on, but I’d love my readers input

Image courtesy of Ethan Hein via flickr

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.

Now the majority of us use social networking sites such as Twitter, FaceBook and FourSquare, but how would like it so that you could earn from these sites when you use your iPhone, you would then read on..

Those wonderful people over at IZEA, the comapny that has brought us SponsoredTweets and SocialSpark, have now launched WeReward.com which pays you to use your iPhone when you check in and compete tasks around the globe, it integrates the three popular social networks Twitter, FaceBook and FourSquare, so you can still get your badges and share the way you always have and all this can be done with a handy app for your iPhone, simply Download the App to your iPhone, select your desired social network, add your PayPal and your away earning.

Every point you earn you earn a penny, the more points you earn the more money you will make, so rather than using FourSquare on it’s own, use the app and take the advantage of earning something while you are out and about visiting old and new places.

So what are you waiting for! Download the App today and start making the most out of your Check ins etc

Sadly it seems that someone has been out Phishing again and earlier I saw a tweet in my timeline from the Safety team at Twitter with regards to the attack and that accounts that they think may have been attacked have been sent a password reset

Some users are being targeted in phishing and/or brute force attacks; we have pushed out password resets to users possibly affected.

June 3, 2010 6:29 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@safety

Safety

So if you do get an email from Twitter asking you to reset your password, first of all make sure that the link in the email does indeed go to Twitter and no where else and then go ahead with updating your Twitter.

Also: we'll NEVER auto-email you a new password; we use a reset process. Delete email attachments claiming to contain your PW; they don't.

June 3, 2010 6:43 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@safety

Safety

Be safe and always make sure your email from Twitter is real, if Twitter think that you are at risk then you should have received one of these emails already or you will be getting one shortly, another good point to remember is try not to use website that ask for your Twitter password and only use sites that use the Twitter OAuth for your security when giving access to your Twitter account.