Changeworksblog.com

Web 2.0 encourages us to embrace the chaos.  It takes us outside of our social circles and opens us to experience relationships and connections that choose us. We gain credits through ‘wuffie’,  or social capital, a term used to describe that the more we give away the more we gain.  For this is what social marketing is all about  – collaboration.  From what I can see, the new rules of business are being driven by web 2.0.  Openess, transparency and trust are needed in huge doses but the rewards are inspiring.

Where do you start though? MySpace, Facebook, ecademy, LinkedIn …. the list goes on. Even David Hasslehoff has launched a social site.  Here is a funny YouTube MySpace vs Facebook video that explores the differences! 

Facebook has come into its own for businesses to use to reach consumers, with great applications that users can add.  Innocent drinks uses it to generate buzz for its brand: it has nearly 8,000 fans for its Village Fete!  Heartmath use Facebook to builds its global business – CEO Bruce Cryer is always updating his network. With over 350 ‘friends’ (the average Facebooker has 100), Bruce is an inspiring example of an open and transparent CEO. As a business on Facebook you can add a page for your business, advertise this and build community around your brand with forums, groups and multimedia.  Facebook can store photos (not as comprehensive as Flickr) and videos through YouTube (but try Vimeo and Viddler too).  I think MySpace has been left behind.

However, for boosting your search engine rankings, I have found that LinkedIn and ecademy are great.  LinkedIn feels a bit stodgy and serious sometimes - but perhaps that is part of its appeal.  And it is worth the effort for SEO. 

ecademy is buzzing with life.  I love its ’50 words’ facility which not only helps with your business’s SEO rankings but helps you find ‘people like me’.  And its google SEO keyworks and description, coupled with carefully placed hyperlinks, do wonders too.  It also allows you to combine all your RSS feeds in one place (again great for universal search and SEO). But far beyond that is its potential for engaging you with associates, new and old friends and colleagues and expanding your business horizons.  It is so full of life that it can be overwhelming.

Happy social networking!  But remember to get some work done!