Tom Gray's Social Network

Social Media and Networking Sites can represent an overwhelming number of choices for any business trying to establish a corporate or personal presence in the social media sphere.

To try to sort out which social sites have the best impact for business online, I took the opportunity, a couple of months ago, to ask the following question through my LinkedIn profile. I was recently reviewing the answers and felt they deserved a broader distribution. If you have your own take on the best social media and social networking sites for business, please weigh in on the discussion in the comments…

My Social Media Question

There are literally thousands of social media and social networking sites available to the business community. I’m wondering what you feel are the 3-5 most valuable for developing business opportunities?

I received a number of great answers starting with…

Carson Poppenger wrote:

I believe facebook is rapidly emerging as the leader. They have so much traffic, incredibly sticky for users. I’ve heard some people refer to it as online crack… With all the applications that you can use to promote your business, connect with friends and customers there are so many advantages. I also believe, unlike linkedin, users (customers) are more likely to use Facebook all day (before, during, after hours) for many social activities, rather than just for work related social circles.

However, there are ways to drive lots of traffic using a variety of all available social sites, digg, twitter, delicious. I believe that all the available tools can be used together to generate traffic, keep people top of mind. It’ll be interesting to see if all of them can survive. Facebook will be here for the long haul, unless someone can develop something even more interactive.
————-

Carson Poppenger added the following clarification:
Tom, great post by the way. This is an incredible topic that just got me thinking. I did a quick check to see traffic comparisons between FaceBook and Linkedin. It’s not even close. Checkout the post I just put on my blog.

http://www.marketingcrackerjack.com/2009/01/social-media-traffic.html

David Avrin wrote:

LinkedIn - facilitates introductions

Chad Bordeaux wrote:

Facebook
LinkedIn
Twitter (although I am still figuring this one out – especially at the local level)

Hazel M Walker wrote:

I think that Twitter, Linkedin, and NING Communities are excellent for business.

I also use Facebook but not as impressed as many others.

Alison Fraser wrote:

Depends on what you mean by business opportunities and exactly who the market is. Facebook does seem to have a good handle on very targeted advertising. For example, I put into my profile that one of my hobbies is sewing and now I get ads for fabric. I think that’s very clever because those ads actually interest me! It’s not based on my broad-based demographics like my age or income- although I get that too. For example, the other day there were anti wrinkle cream ads (based on my age I guess) and and ad for the Killers (based on my ‘alternative music” profile I think) . But there are limits to how businesses can use this information. Not many people will tell you their hobby is CRM mgt. Certainly LinkedIn is a great business networking site.

Twitter is interesting. There are people who follow me and I don’t know why. I follow people/groups that interest me. But it’s not a destination like Facebook and LinkedIn. I use Facebook for personal use, LinkedIn for business and Twitter cause I’m trying to figure out what it can really do. Myspace seems to be the music destination and YouTube the video one. Sites like Classmates and Reunion (now MyLife.com) seem to have focused on selling premium memberships rather than building value in the site on its own merits. LinkedIn provides a lot of value even without a premium.

Andi Enns wrote:

It is a tough choice! And the answer depends on the amount of work and content creation you want to do.

First off, kudos for being on LinkedIn. It’s definitely on my list.

Facebook is clearly defining itself as the place to be. Create a profile for you, a Page for your business, events listings for your events, and list your services in the Marketplace. You can also post videos and pictures (which, if you have them, can be very useful), as well as write “notes” (a blog). For the more technical people, you could create an app about your industry for your new friends to put on their profiles.

Twitter (@andienns) is all about the conversation. In my brief time on Twitter (less than two months), I’ve already closed business deals.

YouTube is a great site to get attention, as well. You do have to actively create content, though.

Mark O’Toole wrote:

Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook - all are very different and do require a level of effort to create and maintain. None of them are about the raw numbers, but rather the relevancy of your friends, followers and fans.

Dr. Sally Witt wrote:

Hi Tom!

Great question. I believe that the basic 4 are LinkedIn.com, Naymz.com, Ecademy.com, and Facebook.com. That is where everyone needs to start. Then the blogging and micro-blogging sites like twitter.com and plurk.com are wonderful to building relationships and credibility.

I believe that each person has to find their favorite or most comfortable site to dig in and network and do their business the most good. Realtors have activerain.com, for example. Professional speakers do well with speakersite.com. There are so many.

Because I use social media every day, youtube.com and blogtalkradio.com are critical to my success, and the networking aspect is wonderful on both of them.

Using feeds from your twitter, your blog, and youtube for example, can update your profiles on many sites even if you do not visit that often.

Naymz.com can further a relationship by offering a testimonial and a connection, but does not usually foster conversation unless you are connected on other sites. Naymz is important to get your name and reputation built up online.

My philosophy is multi-dimensional connecting with your contacts. By the time you are connected on 3 or 4 sites. you have the opportunity to be noticed by them and to feel distantly related! Just the conversation about why you are on the other sites may bring about a new way of relating to that person.

Networking is all about relationships, and relationships breed business opportunities.

People need to take advantage of clubs and groups on the sites to really get in there, share information and opinions. Linked In is so much better now with the discussions, and of course the Q & A’s.

The groups that have grown up around the networking sites are very important, such as My Linking Power Forum by Vincent Wright. Everyone needs to know the people in these forums, learn from them, and be mentored by wise professionals like Vincent.

Combining face to face networking with online networking is the best. Dr. Ivan Misner is the guru for networking and building business. His organization, BNI (bni.com), is the ultimate way to learn to move networking contacts into opportunity.

If I could only have one site (which I pray never happens!) I would choose Ecademy. Ecademy.com combines the business and relationship aspects of networking so well for me, plus the global neighborhood feeling that is very important to me. People that I have been connected to on Linked In for years become friends with me on Ecademy. Thomas Power and his wife and staff are amazing at offering training, tips, and opportunities to move your networking to higher levels all the time.

Thank you for the opportunity to answer such an important question in our word, Tom. Yes, you are a wise one!

Warmly,

Dr. Sally Witt
www.drsallywitt.com

Robert Ames wrote:

Great question Tom and I must say I’ve learned a great deal from reading the responses.

I certainly rate Linkedin for ‘finding decision makers and influencers’.

For delivery and supply-side contacts I certainly rate ecademy.com and agree with Sally about the founders Thomas and Penny Power. If you ever get the chance to hear the personal story about ecademy from either of them then grab the opportunity with both hands, its inspiring. The culture of ecademy is ‘how can I help you’ and believe me, it works! Pay-it-forward in action.

What’s Your Opinion?

Use the comments to share your opinion on what social media and social networking sites are the best for building effective business relationships and uncovering business opportunities.

A social media survey of 200 social media leaders by Abrams Research reports that Twitter was selected as the top spot for business dollars by a 40% to 15% margin over Facebook. However, asked which site they’d be most likely to pay to access and Facebook got the most votes. LinkedIn showed well in both categories.

Highlights of Social Media Questions:

A total of 7 questions were addressed, these I found to be the most interesting…

1. Which social media service would you be most likely to pay for?

• Facebook 32.2%
• Linkedin 29.7%
• Twitter 21.8%

2. What social media service would you advise a business pay for?

• Twitter 39.6%
• Linkedin 21.3%
• YouTube 18.8%
• …

The juxtaposition in Twitter in Question 1 & 2 is a head scratcher for me. The Social Media gurus would pay for Facebook over Twitter but recommend their clients to pay for Twitter with Facebook not even in the top 3. Curious. (Comments on this?)

4. Which corporation has done the best job of using social media? …

1. Zappos (online shopping site)
2. Obama (campaign and presidency)
3. CNN
4. Comcast (“Comcast Cares”)
5. Jetblue
…

5. What’s the best way to monetize social media?

• “Freemium” use, i.e. a free basic model followed by a fee for advanced options (i.e. storage, analytics) 45.5%
• Targeted ads (e.g. contextual ads) 20.3%
• Research (polling, surveys, trend-mining) 8.9%
• …

Click the link to for the 10 Page (PDF) report of Abrams Research Social Media Survey.

I recently posed the following question on LinkedIn:

There are literally thousands of social media and social networking sites available to the business community. I’m wondering what you feel are the 3-5 most valuable for developing business opportunities?

If you can respond with a link to the SM/N site and a very brief supporting reason, e.g., twitter.com – closed loop system that rewards the value you put out there with follows.

I’ve gotten a number of great responses and one, from Carson Poppenger, got me thinking about the popularity of Facebook vs. MySpace vs. LinkedIn vs. Twitter vs. ecademy (a site that Sally Witt turned me on to.).

The following charts shows the acceleration of Facebook’s growth vs. the apparent stagnation and decline of MySpace. The second chart, Average Stay, starkly highlights the more, in my view, alarming decline of MySpace over it’s other social networking neighbors. It’s lost over 59% in this key metric whereas everyone else has experienced growth from LinkedIn‘s 11% to ecademy‘s huge 121% increase in time on site.

And what about Twitter? Think it’s not for real with unique traffic growth approaching 753% and an increase in average stay of almost 43%.

Compete.com Social Network Unique Visitors Comparison

Compete.com Social Network Average Stay Comparison

Alexa Social Network Site Comparison

If a picture is better than a 1,000 words then this chart from Alexa tells quite the tale. King MySpace is dead (or, more accurately, deposed); Long Live King FaceBook!

These graphs certainly tell me where I need to concentrate my social network marketing efforts. FaceBook, which I’ve paid nominal attention to up until now, is going to see a bit more of me. You may wonder why I’ve ignored Facebook. It’s the perception, as the father of two active Facebooking children, that it’s more of a social site to discuss bands, boyfriends and other social minutiae. It’s the perception that if you want to do business then stick to the business focus of sites like LinkedIn, ecademy, Xing and the like. Truth is that Facebook’s 59,675,502 unique visitors in December, 2008 probably represent quite a few business opportunities. And, with traffic over 6 times the combined 9,620,409 (9,349,996 to LI) visitors to these 3 business sites, it just makes sense to get over my millenial bias and take the leap.

By the way, I’d mentioned Carson Poppenger’s inspiration earlier on. Here’s a link to his post on Social Media Traffic. Our posts are similar but he’s got a lot of great things to say on social media and marketing in general on his Marketing Crackerjack blog.

What’s in Your Social Networking/Media Toolkit?

I invite you to leave a comment listing your favorite social networking and media sites and, if you have specific success stories on business opportunities uncovered through your participation, we’d love to hear them!