How to Start Your Social Networking Empire

As with all things, building a good social network (SN) takes time. You have to be patient, diligent and take pride in small victories, because as they say, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Don’t have time, patience or fondness of small victories? We’ll get the job done for you.

Moving on!

There are a handful of sites that any respectable web guru would consider indispensable to creating an effective SN. A List of Social Networking Sites:

Facebook.com
MySpace.com
Youtube.com
Flickr.com
Twitter.com
Zannel.com
LinkedIn.com

All these sites can be used to grow the amount of people who are a part of your social network.

I’ll dig deep into the nitty gritty of each one in future posts. For now you should know how to sign up for each of these and also have an idea as to what each one can do for you. But before I get into that, I’m going to back up just a little bit to share with you the single most important aspect to social networking. Think of this as the overall key to your eventual success (or failure) in the world of SN.

Generally speaking, people (your potential clientele) sign up on social networking websites for fun. Everywhere they go they are constantly bombarded with advertisements and sales pitches. The last thing anyone wants, is to add you to their list of friends so that you can remind them everyday about the sharpness of the blades on your new blend-o-matic 5000 and try to get them to come to your store/website to buy one. When people join your network, you want them to think of you as a friend or at the very least, someone who can benefit them in some way. After all, would you even be reading this blog right now if every other sentence had a link to our social networking services? (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)
You’re not interacting with us to be solicited to. You’re here because you want something, and so will the contacts in your network. Bank on offering tips and advice in your area of expertise. Want to sell blenders? Offer good recipes once a day to those in your network and health nuts (or alcoholics) will be banging down your door to be in your network to be in the loop for your latest concoction. Offer something of value for free and when it’s time to make a purchasing decision, you’ll be the first on their list.

Now, back to the list of SN websites…

What is facebook

Facebook allows you to add friends (ie, family, customers, clients, colleagues, etc…) to your very own “friends list” ie, your “network”. You can make status updates that will be viewable by everyone in your network. The content of status updates include but are not limited to:
-Thoughts about the weather.
-Projects you’re currently working on.
-Upcoming sales or special offers.
-Questions about anything.
Anything is potential subject matter on facebook. Aside from posting simple updates you can write on a contact’s “wall”, post images, videos, “poke” people, link to your website and search for new contacts based on various criteria.
To sign up, simply go to Facebook.com and fill in the required fields. *IMPORTANT* when signing up for Facebook, do not use a generic email address such as info@yourdomain.com or facebook@yourdomain.com. Use an email address with a name such as Joe@yourdomain.com. Also, be sure to jot down the user name/email address and password associated with the account somewhere so you don’t forget it. Facebook will take you through a setup process. When you’re done, go to the email account you used to set up your account, find the email from Facebook, open the email and click on the link to confirm your account. To learn more, check back soon for our article on the ins and outs of facebook.

What is myspace

Myspace allows you to add friends (ie, family, customers, clients, colleagues, etc…) to your very own “friends space” ie, your “network”. You can make status updates that can be viewed by everyone in your network. The content of status updates include but are not limited to:
-Thoughts about the weather.
-Projects you’re currently working on.
-Upcoming sales or special offers.
-Questions of any kind
Myspace is best known for it’s commenting aspect. When you are someone’s “friend” you can comment on their page. Your comment can be seen by anyone viewing that person’s page. Most times, a comment can include a link to your website or to anything else of interest that you may wish to link to. Your myspace page will also include a free blog that you may choose to utilize if you wish to.
To sign up, simply go to the myspace.com sign up page and fill in the required fields. *IMPORTANT* when signing up for Myspace, do not use a generic email address such as info@yourdomain.com or myspace@yourdomain.com. Use an email address with a name such as Joe@yourdomain.com. Also, be sure to jot down the user name/email address and password associated with the account somewhere so you don’t forget it. Myspace will guide you through setting up your profile. Just go with the flow and you’ll be done in no time. Lastly, log into the email account that you used to sign up, find the email from “Welcome to Myspace” and click on the confirmation link. Yer done.

How to Youtube

Youtube is a video sharing website. The creation of youtube marked the first time when any average Joe could upload his own video to the internet and share it with the world… FOR FREE! People who aren’t daunted by the task of producing entertaining or otherwise valuable videos will find that Youtube.com can connect them to millions of people all over the world.
To sign up for youtube you’ll need a gmail account. If you don’t have one you can create one during the sign up process. To sign up for Youtube you’ll start by entering a user name and some other info. After that is done, the next page will ask for your google/gmail address. If you don’t have one you have to sign up. To sign up you can simply enter your current non-google address (yahoo, msn, your own domain, etc…) in the appropriate field under “No. I need a new Youtube | Google account”. After you’ve filled everything out, just log in to the email account you’ve used, open the confirmation email sent by accounts-noreply@google.com and click on the link to confirm your address.

Flickr website

With Flickr.com you can upload and share images with the entire world. People search Flickr all the time.

You’ll need a yahoo.com email account to sign up for this one. If you don’t have one, sign up for one here . Then you’ll simple go to Flickr.com and click on the “Create Your Account” button located at the top of the page. Sign in using your yahoo ID and password. The next page will prompt you to create Flickr screen name. Enter any name you like, then click “Create A New Account”. You are done.

What is twitter

Twitter is like a giant news ticker. Only difference is, the news can be whatever anyone wants it to be. And of course, it doesn’t have to be real news. With a twitter account you can “tweet” (twitter’s word for post or shout) whatever you like. Make good tweets and soon you’ll have a following. That’s right, just like on facebook and myspace, people can choose to follow you on twitter. The real difference between twitter and site like myspace or facebook is that twitter is simply about communicating. When people follow you in twitter they’ll see every tweet you make. You can use this as an opportunity to update your loyal fans with sales pitches for your blend-o-matic 5000 or you can post things they want to see
We’ll do a full write up on twitter in a later post.

What is Zannel

On it’s own, Zannel may be the least important of all of these networking tools. However, link Zannel to your facebook, myspace, twitter, flickr and youtube accounts and it instantly becomes your network’s main hub. Want to make a post, but dread the thought of copying and pasting it over and over? Just type what you want into zannel and it will update your entire network. We’ll give you step by step instructions as to how you can set this up in a future post. For now check out zannel.com, sign up and start tinkering around.

What is LinkedIn

The last SNing tool of note that I will mention today is LinkedIn.com. LinkedIn is quite different from the other sites listed here because LinkedIn is at it’s heart a networking site for business professionals. Have a question about business law? Sign in and ask away. Need to find a job? Search through their job listings. Or if you’re hiring, post a job listing of your own (postings don’t come cheap however…). One of the greatest things about linkedIn is the ability to become listed as a recommended service provider. That means, when someone comes to linkedIn looking for a service of some sort (which is what people do on linkedin), you’ll be on the list… FOR FREE! Are you beginning to see the “free” trend with these sites?
Sign up for LinkedIn now and have a look around.

After you’ve finished signing up for these pages, keep the user names and passwords you’ve used for each one handy. You’ve now taken your first big step to growing your business on the web with a social network.

Is it all still looking intimidating? Let us manage your network for you starting today!