Technology, business and change
Choose your social networks
We can’t deny the fact that a good social network strategy is almost essential in today’s world. Being part of social networks is all about reaching more people and getting more traffic. You might or might not have a social strategy, but one way or another, I’m sure you’re involved in the community. Are social networks worth it and are you using them effectively?
Chose your battles
You can’t be everywhere at the same time. Are you subscribed to all possible social network and not generating a single visitor a day from these social networks? I used to be subscribed everywhere, but the reality is that it’s impossible while living a normal life to be active in every social network. That’s why it’s important to hand pick one, two or three social networks and build something around them. You will get a lot more by getting involved a lot in a single social network that getting involved a little in 25. I tried a lot of them before finding one that I felt I could use efficiently to drive traffic. You have to remember that to get traffic from a SN, it’s important to know how to exploit every little aspect of it. With million of social network members, not all of them are driving a thousands of visitors each day to their website. Why is that? Because they don’t know how to properly use them to drive traffic.
Do your homework
Analyze how the gurus do it. By joining a social network you can spot the big names out there and learn from what they do. I personally enjoy Blog Catalog and I think it’s a great Social Network. I use it to drive traffic and it’s working very well. I learned by analyzing how the big names out there were driving traffic from it. Some prefer Twitter, Facebook, My Blog Log or whatever other social network. It’s not about what’s the best SN out there or what is your favorite SN, it’s about how you can suck everything out of it.
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Don’t hesitate to share you Social Network strategy and your fabourite Social Networks, we can all learn! 
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Ain’t it the truth? I use Entrecard, Blog Catalog and Digg and stay active in those three. I stay busy enough with those sites and would hate to take on more!
The Hawgs last blog post..My sidebar runneth over…
I agree Ben.
It is pointless spreading yourself too thin in social networks.
And no one with any kind of real world life can master them all.
I have found getting fully involved in a few SNs has benefited me, both in traffic and opportunities.
I approach them with the attitude of giving more than I receive. It takes longer to get a result doing that sometimes, but the result you achieve is much bigger.
Dean.
well, it’s blog catalog who brought me to your great site. thanks to their emails. that’s a good point, you will have the best output if you will focus on it.
BTW Ben I would like to ask you about Lijit if you had encountered it.they have good figures showing the stats of my site but i could not figure out how to expand my network. maybe you can take a look if your not busy. thanks.
jigss last blog post..take time to think
I’d like to know what I must do to suck!
I must say it is a great post. I 100% agree with you that social networks helps in getting a traffic. So it is better to join the communities and well come the traffic. Great work Ben. Looking for more informative post from your side
@The Hawg: It’s a good strategy buddy, keep that.
@Dean: Sometimes it feels like you’re not receiving from these social networks, but you’re right, in the end it will pay off.
@jigs: I never used Ligit, I’m sorry. But i’ll have a look at their services for sure.
@tata: What SNs do you use?
@Jacy: Thanks a lot!
I’m only using Technorati, Mybloglog and Entrecard. Just enought work for me. =P
I now have social stuff on hold.
I made “social” page on my blog with links to bunch of profiles people can use and I get occasional friend-adds from that.
Don’t know if delicious counts as SN but I got wordpress plugin that submits my posts there with my tags. Gets me occasioanal visitors without any work required. Want to try setting up same for twitter.
Rarsts last blog post..If browsers were umbrellas
I like Entrecard. Can you tell me the best way to use Blog Catalog to get traffic?
Today is a huge marketing competition between many social networking websites. People mostly choose those sites which have a strong marketing campaign, which also promote their brand and services easily. In my opinion facebook and twitter both are considering as a fast growing networking websites