Is Social Networking Effective?
I get that question more than any others, mostly from people who are reluctant to engage in social networking (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Gather…ad infinitum, ad nauseum). The answer is “sometimes, depending on what you are trying to do.”
Social Networking is basically a user-friendly “show-off zone.” Of course, you can’t show off if nobody knows you’re there, so you have to go out of your way to collect an audience by connecting with others. It’s one of those “endless tasks” that you do pretty much on a daily basis.
If you post or add content on a regular basis to any sort of content management system, or even to a static website, then you can take advantage of social networking by proliferating your content throughout using plug-ins or browser add-ons that make it easy to do. Don’t look for this to bring you oodles and kaboodles of traffic, but it will net you a small, steady stream of visitors’ eyes.
Four warnings:
1) Don’t make yourself a pest by emailing, private messaging, or posting continual advertisements for yourself, your website, your product. This will just get folks pointedly ignoring you, or, worse, reporting you as a spammer.
2) Don’t spend your days “tweeting” or posting “nonbits” worth of personal updates to your social networking pages.
3) Don’t “friend” or link to just everyone who requests a connection. Do check out their pages first before accepting. And, if someone starts spamming you, remove them, block them, report them, ban them…using the tools available to get them out of your circle.
4) Beware of viruses, scam artists, spammers, and phishers. You WILL get email supposedly from the various networking sites, and it won’t be good for you or your computer, and maybe not to your bank account, either, if you happen to have too much personal information available on your hard drive or in your social networking interfaces.
Social networking can be a time-killers. Once a day is enough. In fact, once a day, weekdays, is enough. The rest of the time, you ought to be focused on more productive activities. The only other times you should be posting or visiting your various social networking sites is when someone comments or requests a connection. Then, most DEFINITELY, DO RESPOND. It’s good netiquette and the most effective way of gaining respect in the social networking realms.
Remember: social networking is a tool; use it, don’t abuse it, and don’t get trapped by it.