Social networking is one of the best tools to expand your business contacts, meet people who are interested in the same things you are, and be up to date on the latest news in your industry. But they key to success is to know what you want to get out of social media sites before you start. If you don’t know what the social media sites do and what they are about, you can’t make the most of them. Here’s a short list of the main ones and how you can use them in your business.
- Mashable
Mashable is a resource for anyone who wants to better understand the Web and the latest trends in social media. Twitter and Facebook can be a little confusing, but Mashable’s articles and easy to navigate site will help you learn how to use them for a variety of business, networking, marketing and PR purposes.
- LinkedIn
LinkedIn billed itself as a Facebook for professionals – it isn’t. It is, however, a great way to post your work history, recommendations from your boss (or your recommendations for your employees), and find out about other people’s professional pasts and interests. It’s also an easy way to keep track of business contacts in a more formal way than Facebook allows. There is no “status update” bar in which to share what you had for breakfast, which is a good thing.
- Facebook
Facebook isn’t just for reconnecting with long-lost friends or even web-stalking job applicants and employees. You can use Facebook to extend your professional connections by adding applications like “My LinkedIn Profile” which links a badge on your Facebook page to your LinkedIn page. You can also put up a Fan Page for your business to let your customers know what you’re doing. Facebook a terrific marketing tool because everyone is on it all day – yes, even your employees.
- Twitter
Twitter is not about informing your nearest and dearest that you are drinking your 5th cup of tea, or to shout your political frustrations into the ether. Twitter is, by far, one of the best ways to keep up on news that affects your industry, find out what others in the industry are doing and saying, and learn from other professionals who are interested in the same issues you are. News travels faster on Twitter than the New York Times thanks to citizen journalism, and even politicians are on it (including the President).
- Spiceworks
If you are in charge of IT, you’ll look extra savvy if you suggest using Spiceworks in the IT department. Spiceworks is a social networking site specifically designed to help IT staff collaborate with each other, manage IT, take inventory, monitor, troubleshoot and run help desks for the IT network. It’s free and ad-supported, similar to Facebook, and works well in small to medium businesses.
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