A Bit of Social Networking
Wed, 5 September, 2007 – 3:26 pm
So we've all heard about Social Networking. Even the news is reporting about the likes of Facebook. However with the social networking becoming more and more saturated with new sites, which are the ones that are worth while to use? Everyone has their favourites, some for just being sociable, some for personal use and maybe one or two for marketing purposes.nnThe Social Networking sites I use arenn
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- MyBlogLog
- I quite like MyBlogLog. It's quite fun to go to a site you've never been on and see your own face or icon sitting on that site. Okay so the novelty does wear off after a while, but I always like seeing new faces on MyBlogLog widget in my sidebar. It makes me realise that I do have a few visitors from day to day! Plus it's a great way to spot new visitors and look at their site. Afterall you don't go to a new blog and sign the 'new reader' book (although a Readers page has crossed my mind, a bit like a guestbook). Definitely one for being sociable and for a little marketing, afterall, if I click on new visitor's faces and go look at their sites, who's to say the owner of the site you just visited won't do the same. A bit like a calling card.
- Del.icio.us
- A good bookmarking service, handy to allow you to keep your bookmarks online and share with others. However recently I've also discovered that tagging your own blog posts can bring in new visitors and perhaps convert them to regular readers.
- Flickr
- A free photo gallery site (free until you take too many photos!), but it's pretty sociable too. You can comment on other people's photos and will find people commenting on yours. I use Flickr for the exposure of my own photos, however I have had a handful of visitors to my site from Flickr. When you add a new photo it's immediately shown on the front page. Sure, it rolls off as new ones are added but if you can catch the visitors on the front page at that moment, grab their attention, and drop a few links into the photo description, you never know
- StumbleUpon
- Great for a quick burst of traffic. My Learn PHP category got 'stumbled' a couple of weeks back which I wrote about the Effects of StumbleUpon. In total I had around 1000 visitors, a few bookmarked the site and hopefully a few are returning (although I've not written any PHP posts since!). I've used it on other new sites in the past or got someone else to Stumble it for me. If you have the right subject then the effects can be pretty great, just don't count on it for continued traffic.
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nnI do have accounts on other sites such as Digg, but I'm not a fan of Digg really. I tend to find a lot of the comments made on articles submitted are pretty pathetic, made by people that don't know what they're talking about or clearly haven't read what they're commenting on. People like that frustrate and wind me up so I steer clear of it.nnIf you want to find me on any of the networks then here are my direct links:nn
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- MyBlogLog
- Del.icio.us
- Flickr
- StumbleUpon
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nnSo the question is, what social networking sites have you found useful, either for personal/business use or for marketing purposes?
4 Responses to “A Bit of Social Networking”
I find MyBlogLog an awesome social networking site for bloggers. StumbleUpon is more like watching TV for a few seconds then changing the chanel (repeat).nnBest of luck with your Holiday Fund. I have a little bit to catch up to you.nnBeachBum
By BeachBum on Sep 5, 2007
I think you can find a few little gems in StumbleUpon, but you do need time to sit and go through things. Plus joining groups and adding friends of similar interests means that you get more targetted sites shown to you. MyBlogLog is definitely a great creation though in my opinion.nnThanks for stopping by and good luck with your own money making venture
By Sarah on Sep 5, 2007
I'm a mybloblog fan too. Also, I post to delicious and digg once in a while. But facebook…hmmm…with them opening up profiles to Google (mentioned on my blog), it raises too much of a privacy concern for me, don't you think?
By mcrilf on Sep 11, 2007
I've never used or looked at facebook. Probably because they wouldn't accept my name and I can't be bothered to email them about it (long story). Plus there's very few people that I'm not in touch with already who'd I'd really want to speak to / contact anymore ;)nnHowever I do agree on the privacy front but then again I believe you can select not to have your profile listed? So you do have the control to prevent it. But by opening it up I'm guessing it just adds potential for spam. Although without knowing the system I could be completely wrong
By Sarah on Sep 11, 2007