04 Oct 09 Two Social Networking sites you OUGHT to be on but I bet you aren’t (And Why you should join another 2 networking sites)

I’m personally expecting a bad summer movie coming soon to a theater near you called “Not another Damm Social Networking Site!”  And yes, like many really bad spoof comedies that there are way too many of, there are far too many social networking sites, and it is indeed full time jobs for folks just to keep them all up to date.  What sometimes gets lost is the reason that you want to be involved with multiple social networking sites.  The goal is to get someone to find you wherever THEY choose to find you and to get them to go to your own site, from the social bookmarking sites.  You do that by linking relevant and interesting information onto the social media sites so that they find out about YOU.

So the first obvious question is: How do you possibly find time for all of the social networking sites?  The answer brings up cheating, and why I highly encourage you to do so, and a great way to “Cheat” I’ve found is:

1)      Ping.FM- (www.Ping.FM)  is a brilliant (and FREE) site to use that will update your status on most of your social networks at once, saving you the time, effort and energy of posting the same link/photo/video/whatever at once.  I spent about 20 minutes setting it up (helping it login to Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and a few others) and from now on, when I have something to share with any one, any way they care to follow me I just need to go to one site and put it down in 120* characters or less (If I’m tweeting) and a minute or so later, ALL of my social networks have been updated.

One of the biggest frustrations I have is with Linked-In.  It SHOULD be a good professional networking site, and it SHOULD be a great tool for anyone to spend lots of time updating and maintaining.  But, let’s be honest.

It’s NOT.

Why?

Linked-in is designed by and primarily for corporate headhunters to have discreet conversations with higher level staff to see how they can ‘bag’ them for another corporation.  If you understand this, it suddenly makes sense why it is harder than it should be to post an event, show off your expertise and connect usefully with others; but it’s quite easy to post a virtual resume online.

So you’ve heard read my rant about Linked-In.  So what do I suggest as an alternative?

2)       www.Biznik.com – Biznik.com is designed from the bottom up by and for people looking to grow their business through networking.  While it isn’t highly used in the Hudson Valley yet, I think that will change once more people realize this site might be going somewhere soon. This site is highly search engine optimized (meaning that time you spend here will go a long way in sending people to your web site, which is a VERY good thing).

Looking for an invite? E-mail Randy@AimOneMarketing.com and in the subject line put in: Biznik.

Only (partial) down side- they don’t allow any pitching of MLM.

Tags: Biznik, Cheating with social media, Ping.FM, SEO with Social Media, Social Media