Social Media – why and where

Lately I have gotten a lot of questions about social media, where to be and why.  So I thought I would hit the highlights here.  And off we go!

• LinkedIn – LinkedIn is a must in my opinion.  Being out there so you can be found and find others is critical no matter what your business.  I recommend getting your profile to at least 80% and joining a group or two that are relevant.  Some of the people I have met in the groups are truly facinating!
• Plaxo – I like Plaxo for the search engine optimization benefits but haven’t gotten as involved there as I do on LinkedIn. One extra feature I do like on Plaxo is they send you reminders of your connections birthdays.
• Naymz – This one is also good for SEO but I haven’t found it really useful on a day to day basis. Definitely not a replacement for LinkedIn.
• Ryze –  Have not been impressed AT ALL. I found the people there have been weird and the site very unresponsive.

There are other places you need to list your business / profile so that you can be found.

• Google business – Google offers businesses the ability to post a local business listing. These listings are guaranteed to show up on the first page of results for a Google search for your company so clients will always be able to find you.
• Google profiles – Google also offers profiles of individuals and those are guaranteed first page results as well.
• Wink – wink.com is a site that is trying to summarize people’s profiles on social media.  It is a good idea to own your profile.
• ZoomInfo – ZoomInfo currently allows you to claim your individual profile and say in the near future you will be able to claim a business profile as well. Be sure to set those up!

There are many other services out there under the social media header, but these are the primary places I recommend all businesses list under.  While I personally like Twitter and use it to stay on top of trends, I still do not recommend it as a business-generating tool.

I hope this helps and if there are other sources you like, let me know and I’ll update the post!