Your Online Presence: Five Rules for Social Networking

Posted by Jim Van on November 25, 2011 under Blog, entrepreneur, Internet, Online, SEO, small business, Social Networking, Web | 3 Comments to Read

As more and more of the world goes online, it makes sense to enhance your business’ online presence, and social media is a great way to do so. If you’re like most businesses these days, you already have a website, and therefore, largely depend on getting ‘found’ by search engines and links to your site from other websites, blogs, and social networking sites.

There are some rules to follow in order to truly establish your business’ social networking presence:

1. Update as much as possible. Visits to your site, followers on Twitter will drop precipitously if you don’t stay current with social networking.
2. Keep your content relevant and interesting for your targeted audience. There’s a lot of distraction out there. Give customers and prospects a reason to visit/follow you.
3. Keep it business-focused. Personal posts should be made through a personal account, not your business account…
4. Respond to comments. Interaction is critical in social networking. It’s possibly the next best thing to face to face contact with customers and prospects.
5. Don’t overkill. I have a friend who posts, on average, 11 times a day. I’ve ignored the posts for several months. I’m sure I’m not alone.

Fortunately for you, most companies, your competition included, most likely ignore at least some, if not all these rules, and their online social networking pages and accounts languish, resulting in the occasional visitor at best. By following these five rules consistently, you’ll attract visitors not only to your pages and blog, but also to your website, where your well-developed sales funnel will result in increased sales. What? You don’t have a sales funnel? Look for some ideas in a future post. On the interim: get working on your social networking strategy!