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Click on my name to add me to your PLURK friends BTW ;)
It's important for businesses to be more transparent and reach out to their audience, to show a personal side. I believe it has the most influence for companies entering social networking as a means to form relationships.
LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com/in/lookadoo
From a pure business profile standpoint, this would be top. It's Answers section is a resource for best practices. The conversation is always professional and PG. However, it's not setup for ongoing dialogue.
FaceBook - http://www.facebook.com/people/Dana_Lookadoo/10...
Great for getting to know people and finding friends from the past. Some companies have done well to create apps, polls, gain attention and following. Most professional groups I've joined, however, don't update it often, making it stale.
FriendFeed - http://friendfeed.com/danalookadoo
This is a great way to expand the conversation and is a great resource for seeing what is important to peers in the industry. Businesses could effectively use FF Rooms as a way to have group discussion.
I have made a lot of good business connections via Twitter, which have in turn led to an introduction to a journalist I needed to pitch, interesting Webinars and blogs I didn't know about, a way to invite local bloggers to an event, etc.
I think the fact that it is really a conversation makes a big difference, because you start to feel like you know these people, which makes for a much better relationship.
I wrote a blog post on how Twitter has been useful to me if you'd like to check it out: http://newworldpr.blogspot.com/2008/07/twitter-...
I also use LinkedIn, but have not found it as useful as a few others in our company. One of our sales staff has found it to be very useful. He and another colleague have recently started using Twitter and that has proven useful, and effective, as well.
Great post. I voted Twitter:-)
Jimmy Adames
Real socializing, go twitter and Delicious...
let me know if you need more info.. i have tons of examples on that one.. but i don't think that's what you are asking..
It seems some sort of convergence between them would be ideal, but I wonder what impact too many features would have on functionality? Can't be everything to everyone.
Jimmy, David, Rose and Mindy - I wonder if the way you learned of this poll influenced your answer? Just curious.
Voted for Facebook, as it is in my mind really the "social network" of most value. However, Linked In would be a second choice. FriendFeed and Twitter, while both having important social elements,especially Twitter in terms of connections and conversations, I find them useful for listening,learning and checking out things.
I will be interested in your final findings for sure.
To all, feel free to retweet and pass the link around so we can get a good sample: http://tinyurl.com/socnets
I don't think so. Twitter is just the most obvious social networking tool right now. Of course, that's my opinion.
I actually use it more to find out what's going on at this very moment and it has connected me to some real nice folks who I have continued to communicate with on other social networking platforms.
Jimmy Adames
In any case, thanks for an informative and interesting read.
As an Internet Marketer trying to blend the new wave of social networks into my business can be a bit overwhelming.
I have always been a person who loved to socialize so using it to grow my Internet business has been a good thing, but it can also sidetrack me.
My ultimate goal is to integrate both Internet and Social Marketing but being careful not to hurt my relationships online.
More importantly, I have to test which networks I can leverage for the long term success of my business.
Jimmy Adames
What's crazy to me is not the social networks that we are most accustomed to but the large number of new social networks popping up. With the release of the iPhone 2.0 software there have been an additional 5-10 based on the location features on the iPhone.
I currently have accounts set up on: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn. I will be signing up for FriendFeed to test with as that seems to be gaining traction. I have 2 MySpace accounts (one is for my restaurant) but don't really use it that much anymore. However I still have a couple friends who don't have other social network accounts. My other accounts I enjoy using and am constantly trying to put more time into using them as I think they are a great personal and professional tool.
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/justinlevy
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Justin_Levy/9028927
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/justinlevy
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/spd368
-Justin
Although when used correctly, I think Twitter has a lot of potential as well, especially for researching.
However, I eventually want to start my own search marketing business and Twitter has been the most convenient in keeping me in the loop of what's happening in the search/social/blogging world. I don't follow a million people; I mostly follow those I want to learn from and who I know will provide reference to good information--quickly. I have a LinkedIn profile and could probably use it more for business networking.
I use Facebook for goofing around with my friends.
It seems that different social networks serve different purposes for people, so the one dimensional nature of this poll only scratches the surface.
Still, if a business is considering entering the social networking arena, there is a short list of sites to get started with.
If you had to pick just one or two social networks for a business to "get their feet wet", which would they be?
LinkedIn has very important components that can help professionals communicate at a higher level, such as the recommendation tool.
I chose Twitter in your poll, because it fits the goals of my Internet business building much better and I answered based on my needs.
While it is only 5 months old, it is a virtual economy where users have access to tools, resources, advice, funding, and networking both online and offline.
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=566203510
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborgeseo
Twitter: http://twitter.com/berniebay
I also like Sphinn, Small Business Brief, and Gooruze (online marketing). All great places to network with industry pros.
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/
StumbleUpon: http://kjripp.stumbleupon.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/KariRippetoe
Gooruze: http://www.gooruze.com/members/kjripp/
http://marketinggurl.stumbleupon.com
marketinggurl on digg
and marketinggurl on technorati
I would have to vote for Linkedin. Another network in beta that is not mentioned here is behance.net. It is specifically geared towards those in the graphic design/advertising field.
I wish Digg should be in the list. :)
Twitter http://twitter.com/tilakbisht
Digg http://digg.com/users/tilakbisht
LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/tilakbisht
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=673473407
This is the order of importance according to one of the top social media experts
( Lee, I referenced your site, hope it's ok! :-) )
The longer your own facebook the better it becomes for your business. Especially if you link up with so called gate keepers. A little research on facebook will help yu determine who these people are.
Twitters allows you connect with new people all of the time. The only time I talk with someone I already know on twitter is if I referred them using my link. Most of the time they're people I want to consitently talk with in short powerful burst.
Here's a idea. What if twitter allowed you to speak into a mic and it typed out everything you said. Then you say update and your post updates hands free. I think twitter would easily jump to number one.
Does anyone have any idea if there is a socail network out there for online marketing businesses?
I thought I'd mention my social networking site for Internet Marketers & Entrepreneurs, since you said at the beginning of this post:
Quote
"Please also share other business social networks, especially any that are niche or vertically specific."
It's a social network that I've been working on for quite some time, and I'm just about ready to open it up for registration within the next few weeks...
FireStorm Marketer - Internet Marketing Social Network
I use a number of different social networks like Twitter, Facebook, etc but haven't used them extensively since I spend so much time coding my own site. Hopefully when I'm finished with my site I can focus more of my time on participating on other various networks including my own.
Anywho, I'm rambling on due to lack of sleep(haha). Any feedback you might have would be appreciated, either negative or positive. Thanks and great blog by the way.
Jason Counts
It is also an amazing place for advertising. I looked them up more online and I actually found out that they are based right here in AZ. They are one of the biggest marketing agencies (branched from Spot 200). Not to mention they were dubbed to be the fastest growing website online by Alexa.com in May '08.
Before I found the site, I had never heard of it before and after asking pretty much everybody I know about it; nobody really had ever heard of it... well, up until now.
I highly recommend checking it out
Has anyone used this? If you have what is your opinion?
Thanks!