The fact is if you’ve not heard of Facebook then you’ve probably been living with your head stuck in a sand dune for about the last eight years or so. Heck, you’ve probably not even heard of the internet in that case. Maybe you don’t even know what a computer is? Are you still using a typewriter? Point is; love it or hate it – Facebook is HUGE. It’s the granddaddy of all social media, knocking Myspace off its perch and hot on its heels comes Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Google+ and about a gazillion other sites with a different take on how they perceive social media to work. And if you are trying to promote any type of business or product or yourself, you need to be on them.
But, with so many of these sites out there, which ones should you be hip to? Which ones will blossom among the weeds? Well, for starters, you want to be on Facebook. That’s a no-brainer really. And then you should probably be on Twitter. Not only is that the second most popular social media platform, it may be worth noting that it’s super easy to ‘tweet’ (aka: write something) when you only have to express yourself in 140 characters or less. With tweeting, you can easily add a link back to blogs or updates on your website, or you can write short but sweet phrases with those really annoying text acronyms.
After this, you should probably consider LinkedIn. It’s a more business-minded community and geared towards people wanting to connect with professionals. Either way, it’s a popular site and something you should consider joining. Especially good for people looking for a career or for freelance work.
If you’re feeling creative, experience Pinterest. Although it is known as being a bit of a girly site, there are tons of successful companies using it. At first sight, it would seem to be just for people to pin cute pictures to virtual pinboards, but if you can use it the right way, you can get people to re-pin your images. And behind these images could be links to your blog, which would then drive traffic to your website. As a plus, Pinterest connects to Twitter and Facebook too.
You will probably also want to put yourself on Myspace and Google+. Yup, Myspace still exists, and it seems people still use it. Both Myspace and Google+ are somewhat similar to Facebook in that you can share posts, videos and photos, but at the same time, both are also different in layout and direction. Myspace now caters more to the music and Generation Y crowd, but it’s a terrific place to find an alternate audience. Google+ is often thought of as a ‘thinking person’s Facebook’ and is where you’ll find a different type of audience. It also balances nicely with Pinterest. Pinterest is generally used by females, whereas Google+ is used more by males.
After this, the playing field really opens up and which sites you should consider joining may be based on what you are trying to promote and to what market you’re interested in targeting. One place you should seriously consider joining up with is YouTube. Most people don’t realize that this site is not only famous for posting silly videos, but it’s also where videos often go viral. If you can be extremely creative, you may find yourself with quite the following.
And just in case you were wondering, some of the sites you and your business probably don’t need to be on are:
Red Karaoke – Amateur singing site
Divorce 360 – Failed marriages community
My Free Implants – ‘nuff said…