Building a presence at various social sites beyond just trying to get people to your site can pay dividends over the long haul (if these web 2.0 site last that long). And unique, valuable content made just for certain sites are the best way to go. Most everybody will either syndicate their existing content or have promotional messages masquerading as content… and you can really make a name for yourself by going one step further.

And really if you are niche on your main site there is plenty of article ideas, bookmarks, videos, pictures, whatever… that don’t work perfectly there but would be much better on some social site: you build an audience there (where the people are already) and some of them will trickle over to your main site.

Just because you want to build an asset doesn’t mean everyone wants to go along without getting to know your first, if ever. So you might as well keep in touch with the people that will never leave those sites rather than spurn them since they won’t come to your web site.

I think a big pitfall is those people who don’t really grasp the idea that this form of new media is about connecting with people and sharing experiences, they think because they use twitter there using “social media”

I agree with you about Branding, if your “brand” is consistent you will gain authority and attract an audience, its all about standing out from the crowd.

Thanks for the great tips Yaro!

What are the fundamentals of social media – the vehicles for it change according to innovations and popularity but how do you personally engage with people in such a way that they think, “Wow, interesting, my kind of thinking, my kind of person”?

There must be a simple formulaic approach with an 80/20 bias in it somewhere. If anyone has figured it out then I’m dying to know.

Till then,

Jean

Michael

Really we all are talking and using twitter and Facebook for our marketing business, but this is not sure for how long, something much better than twitter will come tomorrow and we all have to make a change then.

Being with the basics is the best practice because, you don’t know when the trend will change. The basics that you have mentioned are now in my list.

Thanks for introducing these wonderful social media basics.

I was actually in the process of writing a post similar to this one. It is very true to have a solid foundation first before thinking of using everything else. You have to build a good base like your blog and email list. If you don’t own the resource you are building, such as a social networking profile, it could be gone tomorrow and you would be starting all over.

Social networking is wonderful and I love it. I love Twitter, Facebook and all the others but one day there maybe something shiner that comes along and everyone will flock to it. Since I don’t own them, they are tools to help me connect and build relationships along with traffic; they are not the base that I build my business off of.

It’s crucial to decide what we want to follow or interface with – I believe that Twitter is the fastest way to interact and converse.

I always enjoy reading the articles and it’s very exciting to learn something new everyday.

All the best,
Dan Gabriel
http://www.twitter.com/gdan

The fundamentals of building relationships are same at both places: In WWW or in Real Life.

It is always the intention behind your interaction that is important. If we start with an intention to make profit, that is reflected on others without our awareness. While, on the other hand, if the intention is to provide value to others, people recognize even that and the bonding develops easilly and lasts longer.

Learned a lot and resonated fully with this post.

Kind regards.

I 100% agree with your thoughts about “who owns the content?”. Companies are obsessed in sky rocketing the FB followers lists, but what is FB all of a sudden start charging for every status update you post on your FB page?

The technology that connects you may change over the years. Facebook, Myspace, Twitter are all tools and distribution methods. They will come and go. The true marketer learns to manage them and use them just as a plumber learns to use a new device to clear a toilet.

Google may one day disappear as a competitor does a better job than they do at providing what people want. Or if the government hits them with anti trust suits for becoming too large.

I think Google will be around for a while but they aren’t unbeatable. Just overwhelming at the moment.

In order to work two hours a day we are encouraged to outsource as much as we can, so many people outsource their social marketing. That’s not very sociable is it?

And if you want to do it yourself, who has the time to keep up with Twitter, FB, Myspace, Stumbleupon, Blogcatalog, Digg, plus another 50 or so media sites AND be active in forums AND comment on blogs AND get your work done on top of that!

I think all of these social media sites have made it harder to succeed online and had the effect of increasing our working hours to around 15 a day. So I am trying to build my list without social marketing. So I am building a small list.

There. I feel better! You can’t beat a good whinge can you?

It really is an amazing tool. I’ve just started IM and have made so many JV connections very quickly bc of Twitter.

Diane.