Are Social Networking Sites Taking Over? Should You Join the Bandwagon?
Social media platforms are in their height of popularity right now and Facebook seems to be the dominating program for most people young, middle aged and old while MySpace tends to be much more acceptable with the younger generations.
Why are social networks so popular and should you be concerned if you're not jumping on the bandwagon? My perspective as an internet marketer is that it is essential for me to utilize these types of platforms for business purposes but generally, for Facebook in particular, I have a personal account and a business account and do not cross the two.
For my personal account, I only befriend friends and family and people I honestly know are my friends.
The professional account is more for business acquaintances and people that generally have something of value to offer me.
I don't necessarily mean that they are continuously plugging a product.
That's a deal breaker for me.
But, if they have something of value that they share with the rest of the "world" because it was something interest to them that they wanted to pay forward, then I usually befriend them.
Social marketing is all about building trust online.
People don't do business with people they can't trust.
It's hard enough to put your faith in someone you do trust.
Of course, building trust takes time and therefore you shouldn't expect overnight success using Facebook or any other means of social networking.
Social networking should be a byproduct of a person's overall marketing strategies.
You should have plenty of other methods for promoting your business besides the social media platform.
While it's good to keep daily communication online via your Facebook or Twitter accounts, it's not necessary to be on Facebook 24/7 with status updates describing what you're doing at any given moment.
It's silly and pointless plus nobody really cares what you're doing.
Facebook, Twitter and all of the other social media programs can be a huge timewaster in my opinion.
It can be distracting and addicting so just beware of how long you're actually on your account each day.
I usually set a time limit once in the morning and once in the evening and try diligently to follow the plan.
I use a timer and only spend 20 minutes for each session that I'm on and when I'm done updating and commenting on other people's walls or Twitter pages, I move on to something else that is going to propel my business to the next level.
It's extremely hard not to get caught up in these types of platforms but if you're trying to build a business, you must fight the urge to login every time you go online.
It could mean the difference between being successful and looking for another meaningless job.
Why are social networks so popular and should you be concerned if you're not jumping on the bandwagon? My perspective as an internet marketer is that it is essential for me to utilize these types of platforms for business purposes but generally, for Facebook in particular, I have a personal account and a business account and do not cross the two.
For my personal account, I only befriend friends and family and people I honestly know are my friends.
The professional account is more for business acquaintances and people that generally have something of value to offer me.
I don't necessarily mean that they are continuously plugging a product.
That's a deal breaker for me.
But, if they have something of value that they share with the rest of the "world" because it was something interest to them that they wanted to pay forward, then I usually befriend them.
Social marketing is all about building trust online.
People don't do business with people they can't trust.
It's hard enough to put your faith in someone you do trust.
Of course, building trust takes time and therefore you shouldn't expect overnight success using Facebook or any other means of social networking.
Social networking should be a byproduct of a person's overall marketing strategies.
You should have plenty of other methods for promoting your business besides the social media platform.
While it's good to keep daily communication online via your Facebook or Twitter accounts, it's not necessary to be on Facebook 24/7 with status updates describing what you're doing at any given moment.
It's silly and pointless plus nobody really cares what you're doing.
Facebook, Twitter and all of the other social media programs can be a huge timewaster in my opinion.
It can be distracting and addicting so just beware of how long you're actually on your account each day.
I usually set a time limit once in the morning and once in the evening and try diligently to follow the plan.
I use a timer and only spend 20 minutes for each session that I'm on and when I'm done updating and commenting on other people's walls or Twitter pages, I move on to something else that is going to propel my business to the next level.
It's extremely hard not to get caught up in these types of platforms but if you're trying to build a business, you must fight the urge to login every time you go online.
It could mean the difference between being successful and looking for another meaningless job.
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