Becoming More Social

Basically, there are two aspects of social media.

The first aspect encompasses things like blogs, pod casts and video casts

The other, more social aspect includes applications like Gather, MySpace, YouTube and Second Life.

Using the social side of social media to market business can be tricky. Why because, sometimes the site on which you are marketing might get unwanted attention from media because of the adultery content, even in case of Youtube you can never be sure as to what kind of video the service will show after yours plays.

Here are some bits to keep in mind before getting into social media

Examine your target market. Are you marketing to finance types? Then more social aspects of social media may not be the best place to find and communicate with your audience.

Yet if you're marketing to a more casual customer, social media may be just the carpet ride your business needs.

Take time to find out about type users of a social networking site. Few social networking sites have teenagers more, compared to adults.

Focus on the return and the investment. Figure out well in advance what you're willing to invest to get the return you want.

Set and measure your digital yardsticks. As the saying goes, "If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there." Always set a goal for how many friends you want to have within a certain period of time.

Contribute to the social network--don't just market to it. The Text 100, a global public relations firm who won an award for the launch of presence in Second Life say “Don’t just try to push your goods but try to contribute to the good of the overall community”

Protect your brand. The sad truth about the more social aspects of social media is that there are some not-so-savory characters that'll be using the same medium to get their message across. Examine where you'll be placing your brand and what types of companies are going to be sharing that space with you.

Finally, social media can have a positive impact on your business, if done right.

Source

If you have Myspace account, you can check out profile of “Kathy Cano-Murillo” who promotes craft things on her site. She has 6,500 friends on MySpace and that her website gets 1.8 million hits per month.