Social Networking Communities

Copyright (c) 2008 Sean S Sampson

Social networking communities offer another opportunity to join the social media channels. Every effort you make to identify your brand and web presence can be increased tenfold when you join a consumer-driven and user-generated community such as MySpace, LinkedIn, or other social networking platform. These sites encourage regular interaction in a casual and conversational style; although you won't be submitting specific articles or content, you will be growing your brand presence with your users. IN addition, you can use the Search features on any of these sites to narrow down your target market.

VIDEO SHARING

Video sharing can work well in conjunction with your article and content submissions, and is becoming especially popular with social bookmarkers. Creating and publishing videos to deliver a message can easily be picked up by many social bookmarkers and shared instantly; the idea is to create something unique and creative so that more people are driven to view it-and ultimately, head back to your website!

VIRTUAL REALITY AND EVENTS

Virtual reality and events are another way to attract new viewers to your website, and can create an instant impact with other marketing efforts. If you submit a press release about your event or the latest innovations on your website to different social bookmarking networks, the chances of increased exposure are much higher.

Making sure all of your submissions are tagged and indexed in the right categories will help you create a strong presence in the community; essentially, you are notifying your community of the upcoming event or news in press release form. If you catch onto a trend or other newsworthy subject, you can gain instant favor on a variety of social bookmarking communities such as Digg, Technorati, or Reddit. This is a great example of buzz marketing at its best, and can benefit your website promotion efforts in multiple ways.

ONLINE AUDIO EPISODES

Developing online audio episodes of content is quickly becoming a popular activity for bloggers and website owners, and including this type of media on your website can help you promote your work in a new way. The immediate attraction of audio on your website can also be submitted to social bookmarking sites and other media channels, and once you have a system in place for publishing these files on your site, you can start sharing the link on a regular basis. Sites including Digg and Technorati now have a section for podcasts and audio files; more people are becoming interested in simply listening than reading, and you can begin to reach a much wider market by taking advantage of this trend.

LIVECASTING

If you have a business or website that can create news, tips, or advice, then Livecasting may be another opportunity for you. These segments of online video are designed to share an idea, showcase an event, or even stage a seminar. The idea is to generate enough interested users who 'join' the session from anywhere; livecasts are online events that can be used to generate buzz. A press release that highlights the event can easily be submitted to social bookmarking sites and directories for instant exposure.

MEDIA SHARING

Media sharing is one of the precursors to social bookmarking and networking, developing from the concept of photo sharing and music exchanges. As these sites have grown, more people are learning to share and create profiles so that they can fit into different communities naturally. Flickr and Zoomr are just a couple of examples of these, and you can create a small profile of your own to join. Always remember to include al ink back to your main website, as this will be the ultimate driver of new traffic.

All of these social media platforms offer you an opportunity to establish a presence within a community, and then start to network with other individuals. Always keep in mind that any piece of content that is published on the web has potential for sharing; the link is what will be submitted to social bookmarking directories and networks, and you can work on building a profile of your won, or counting on your customers to do this for you. The goal is to create a valuable and consistent presence in a variety of social media outlets so that the chances of being bookmarked and shared are much higher.