Remember those handy little rolodexes that sat upon your desk? There sat 100 contacts or more at the flick of a finger, which had a hope and promise of drumming up new sales leads or keeping current clients happy.
As an online marketing professional, I can honestly tell you, I do not have a rolodex nor a little black book containing business cards from people I’ve met at various social networks, seminars and business meetings. However, what I do have, and more business professionals have the same, are several profiles on various social media sites, which connect me to not only hundreds, but thousands of potential clients and industry professionals.
Social media marketing is a company’s most important means of communication and marketing their unique brand.
According to a recent article from Website Magazine, there are 50 social media marketing sources to build your brand online, find potential customers or clients and get the buzz going about your company to millions, yes millions, of people.
The Top 10 (of 50) Social Media Marketing Sources For Communication & Branding Online
1. Facebook.com – not just a social network for high school and college students; it has now become a full fledged business network.
2. YouTube.com – the buzz for 2010 is video marketing – anything from 10 seconds to 10 minutes.
3. MySpace.com – there’s still a market for some businesses to network online here – great for building your business profile page and frequently updating it.
4. Twitter.com – 140 characters or less to build your brand with social media marketing. Many companies have found much success using the real time search functions as well as using the various Twitter apps.
5. Flickr.com – yes, a site devoted to graphics, photographs and the like has quickly grown into a social media marketing platform not only for blogs, but also brand marketing. Especially useful with using the Creative Commons feature.
6. Photobucket.com – another high traffic site for finding the best photos and graphics to add that visual aspect to anything online.
7. LinkedIn.com – Search Circus loves using LI for prospecting, participating in group discussions, becoming an expert in SEO and social media marketing; there are so many opportunities for businesses to grow using this site.
8. Digg.com – if you can Digg it, more people are likely to find your social media profile, your Web site, Webinars, podcasts, events and more. Social media bookmark sites are replacing your “Favorites” file on your computer as well as allowing millions of people find you and your company online.
9. Ning.com – if there’s not a social media market for your niche, then you can create one in 30 seconds to build your brand and your online presence.
10. Yelp.com – if you want to know what others are saying about your business, this is the place to find out. Businesses can also list themselves in this directory, and provide their own reviews.
Wow, free and useful information that doesn’t come across as a sales pitch! It’s all too uncommon, which makes me very happy to have found this. Thank you for sharing some solid and unbiased info.
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