40 Social Sites That Every Business Needs a Presence on

[saxon68]

Web sites to help your company network, advertise recruit and more.

I appreciate similar lists or links may of been posted before but not everyone has been in this great forum for long periods:

Social-Media/Social-Bookmarking Sites Share your favorite sites on the Web with potential clients and business partners by commenting on, uploading and ranking different newsworthy articles. You can also create a member profile that directs traffic back to your company's Web site.

1. Reddit: Upload stories and articles on reddit to drive traffic to your site or blog. Submit items often so that you'll gain a more loyal following and increase your presence on the site.
2. Digg: Digg has a huge following online because of its optimum usability. Visitors can submit and browse articles in categories like technology, business, entertainment, sports and more.
3. Del.icio.us: Social bookmark your way to better business with sites like del.icio.us, which invite users to organize and publicize interesting items through tagging and networking.
4. StumbleUpon: You'll open your online presence up to a whole new audience just by adding the StumbleUpon toolbar to your browser and "channel surf[ing] the Web.
5. Technorati: If you want to increase your blog's readership, consider registering it with Technorati, a network of blogs and writers that lists top stories in categories like Business, Entertainment and Technology.
6. Ning: After hanging around the same social networks for a while, you may feel inspired to create your own.
7. Squidoo: According to Squidoo, "everyone's an expert on something. Share your knowledge!" Share your industry's secrets by answering questions and designing a profile page to help other members.
8. Furl: Make Furl "your personal Web file" by bookmarking great sites and sharing them with other users by recommending links, commenting on articles and utilizing other fantastic features.
9. Tubearoo: This video network works like other social-bookmarking sites, except that it focuses on uploaded videos.
10. WikiHow: Create a how-to guide or tutorial on wikiHow to share your company's services with the public for free.
11. YouTube: From the fashion industry to Capitol Hill, everyone has a video floating around on YouTube. Shoot a behind-the-scenes video from your company's latest commercial or event to give customers and clients an idea of what you do each day.
12. Ma.gnolia: Share your favorite sites with friends, colleagues and clients by organizing your bookmarks with Ma.gnolia.

Professional-Networking Sites Sign up with these online networking communities as a company or as an individual to take advantage of recruiting opportunities, cross-promotional events and more.

1. LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a popular networking site where alumni, business associates, recent graduates and other professionals connect online.
2. Ecademy: Ecademy prides itself on "connecting business people" through its online network, blog and message-board chats, as well as its premier BlackStar membership program, which awards exclusive benefits.
3. Ryze: Ryze lets members organize contacts and friends; upcoming events; and even job, real-estate and roommate classifieds.
4. YorZ: This networking site doubles as a job site. Members can post openings for free to attract quality candidates.
5. Xing: An account with networking site Xing can "open doors to thousands of companies." Use the professional contact manager to organize your new friends and colleagues
6. Facebook: Facebook is no longer just for college kids who want to post their party pics. Businesses vie for advertising opportunities, event promotion and more on this social-networking site.
7. Care2: Care2 isn't just a networking community for professionals: It's touted as "the global network for organizations and people who Care2 make a difference." If your business is making efforts to go green, let others know by becoming a presence on this site.
8. Gather: This networking community is made up of members who think. Browse categories concerning books, health, money, news and more to ignite discussions on politics, business and entertainment.
9. MEETin.org: Once you've acquired a group of contacts in your city by networking on MEETin.org, organize an event so that you can meet face-to-face.
10. Tribe: Cities like Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, New York and Chicago have unique online communities on tribe. Users can search for favorite restaurants, events, clubs and more.
11. Ziggs: Ziggs is "organizing and connecting people in a professional way."
12. Plaxo: Join Plaxo to organize your contacts and stay updated with feeds from Digg, Amazon.com, del.icio.us and more.
13. NetParty: If you want to attract young professionals in cities like Boston, Dallas, Phoenix, Las Vegas and Orlando Fla., create an account with the networking site NetParty.
14. Networking For Professionals: Networking For Professionals is another online community that combines the Internet with special events in the real world.

Niche Social-Media Sites

1. Pixel Groovy: Web workers will love Pixel Groovy, an open-source site that lets members submit and rate tutorials for Web 2.0, email and online-marketing issues.
2. Mixx: Mixx prides itself on being "your link to the Web content that really matters." Submit and rate stories, photos and news to drive traffic to your own site. You'll also meet others with similar interests.
3. Tweako: Gadget-minded computer geeks can network with each other on Tweako, a site that promotes information sharing for the technologically savvy.
4. Small Business Brief: When members post entrepreneur-related articles, a photo and a link to their profile appear, gaining you valuable exposure and legitimacy online.
5. Sphinn: Sphinn is an online forum and networking site for the Internet marketing crowd. Upload articles and guides from your blog to create interest in your own company or connect with other professionals for form new contacts.
6. BuzzFlash.net: This one-stop news resource is great for businesses that want to contribute articles on a variety of subjects, from the environment to politics to health.
7. HubSpot: HubSpot is another news site aimed at connecting business professionals.
8. SEO TAGG: Stay on top of news from the Web marketing and SEO (search-engine optimization) industries by becoming an active member of this online community.

General Social-Media Sites

1. Wikipedia: Besides creating your own business reference page on Wikipedia, you can connect with other users on Wikipedia's Community Portal and at the village pump, where you'll find conscientious professionals enthusiastic about news, business, research and more.
2. Newsvine: Feature top employees by uploading their articles, studies or other news-related items to this site. A free account will also get you your own column and access to the Newsvine community.
3. 43 Things: This site bills itself as "the world's most popular online goal setting community." By publicizing your company's goals and ambitions, you'll gain a following of customers, investors and promoters who cheer you on as you achieve success.
4. Wetpaint: If you're tired of blogs and generic Web sites, create your own wiki with Wetpaint to reach your audience and increase your company's presence online.
5. Frappr: Embed a Frappr map and guestbook into your company's Web page so that you can pinpoint exactly how users find your site, discover in real-time what they have to say about your company profile and services, and create an "interactive, fun and engaging" spot for visitors.
6. Yahoo! Answers: Start fielding Yahoo! users' questions with this social-media Q&A service. Search for questions in your particular areas of expertise by clicking categories like Business & Finance, Health, News & Events and more.

 

[cjd]

I've come over all tired.

Decided to click on Gather - "This networking community is made up of members who think". Yeh, right:

http://www.gather.com/viewImage.jsp?fileId=3096224745340234


Probably a better idea to think a little more about your product.

 

[An Oasis]

I wonder how many of them will be left in 2 years time? 10-20%? I know I've chosen 4 and the rest, it's a why bother from a business POV!

 

[directmarketingadvice]

I wonder how many of them will be left in 2 years time? 10-20%? I know I've chosen 4 and the rest, it's a why bother from a business POV!

I agree.

IMO, if you want to use free information marketing, you'd usually get a far better return on your time writing and sending press releases about your market/industry/expertise than spending hours and hours on most of these social networking sites.

(with the exception of targeted forums like this one)

Steve

 

[jack2000]

Once you've acquired a group of contacts in your city by networking on MEETin.org, organize an event so that you can meet face-to-face.

 

[SocialMediaUncovered]

Great list Saxon68 -

I've written loads and loads of blogs on my site, and on our wordpress blog site about the ever changing technology available for businesses, its something that people, and businesses struggle to keep up with, and for people involved in the market place, such as me a challenge to keep on top of everything and be there to recommend the right social media platform for the right business.

I guess if you go back 15 years, it was knowing all the publications and the newspapers/magazines etc that were specialist to your industry, now times have changed and social media has more benefits than some people realise.

IMO, if you want to use free information marketing, you'd usually get a far better return on your time writing and sending press releases about your market/industry/expertise than spending hours and hours on most of these social networking sites.

(with the exception of targeted forums like this one)

Steve

I am able to target my ideal customer base for myself and for clients - let me give you an example -

if a client comes to me wanting to target 24-28 yr old males, earning 60k+ a year, based in sw London and interested in asian movies - I can target that perfect demographic. A press release could never do this job.

It's really about what you willing to put in to a project, and the rewards reflect the work you put in.

Being on something like linkedin for example, with no photo, nothing about your business and no contact information is pointless. But some people think "Thats being on a business network".

Speaking of free niche networks, londonbusinessnetwork.co.uk is a great free network i'd like to recommend to anyone trading in London.

 

[saxon68]

I agree Jason-

I am have a very active account on Linked-in with the renewable energy business and have my own group. On Xing also I have a 1,400 strong group of marketing exect's and C.E.O's but its worthless unless you keep the groups engaged and active.

Many of these social or business networks I simply create a profile with backlinks to my various sites depending on the demographic of that network. Simple Login surely!

I am even considering starting my own social media network that will be focus on a very precise market but some of the software i can get is a little limiting unless you have a custom code made-which i am considering.

In the end anaysis you can use article posting, networks, blogs and debate till the cows come home which is best or what impact if any they have on rankings but its better to try something and fail rather than simply hope a site becomes popular.
I suspect like many others that dedicated social sites rather than the mass sites will one day rule the waves but all businesses can not afford to ignore there potential and there popularity.
The value of backlines from such sites like facebook may be minimal but who can afford to ignore them?

Grant

 

[ThePrintBarn]

Nice posts from Jason and Grant, i guess it's a case of, you get out what you put in, social networking def has it's place in stimulating both fresh interest and wider marketing bases. It's easy to waste countless hours in what seem like trivial persuits, but with the rite attitude social networking can be a relative treasure trove of goodies! least that's what im telling myself

 

[SocialMediaUncovered]

Nice posts from Jason and Grant, i guess it's a case of, you get out what you put in, social networking def has it's place in stimulating both fresh interest and wider marketing bases. It's easy to waste countless hours in what seem like trivial persuits, but with the rite attitude social networking can be a relative treasure trove of goodies! least that's what im telling myself

Thats right - its about getting out what you put in - plus understanding exactly what you want to get out of it. Enquiries, engagement, telephone calls, sales, clicks, interaction, brand awareness - these all need different types of social media marketing and different methods and approaches.

Just make sure you keep focused on your own personal goals, and that your work remains dedicated to achieving the results you're after. Businesses can get distracted.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

I am able to target my ideal customer base for myself and for clients - let me give you an example -

if a client comes to me wanting to target 24-28 yr old males, earning 60k+ a year, based in sw London and interested in asian movies - I can target that perfect demographic. A press release could never do this job.

Yes, you can do that with facebook ads.

i.e. with paid advertising.

(I explicitly talked about "free information marketing")

The topic of this thread is:

"40 Social Sites That Every Business Needs a Presence on"

I'm suggesting that building up a presence on all 40 of those sites is a poor use of a business owner's time.

(but, as An Oasis said, there might be 3 or 4 that are big enough to bother with)

Steve

 

[SocialMediaUncovered]

Yes, you can do that with facebook ads.

i.e. with paid advertising.

(I explicitly talked about "free information marketing")

I was'nt talking about facebook paid advertising.

 

[Mark Nagurski]

I write a regular blog, am reasonably active on this and other forums, use Twitter, Stumble, Digg and occasionally LinkedIn.

They all help create a virtuous circle - helping me make new contacts, keep up to date with what's happening and helping people find the content I create.

However, those activities take up an awful lot of time and I doubt if I could reasonably add another 1 or 2 social media sites to what I do - never mind another 30+ or the hundreds of others out there.

While I think the original list is useful I also think the premise is flawed - businesses don't need a presence on all of them.

What they need is an understanding of how social media works, a set of defined goals they want to achieve from their use of social media and then a core set of social media tools that suit them.

In my experience you'll see much better results from focusing your efforts and adding something useful to a handful of communities than by simply being on every site going.

 

[fisicx]

Suppose I spend 10 minutes of each day on these 40 sites. That 5 hours a day social networking. Which means if my overheads are 5/hour I've got to earn £25 to just cover the costs of keeping up to date with these 40 sites.

On the other hand I could do a bit of direct maketing and earn £20/hour all day long.

Whilst I understand the attraction of social networking, how many of those in favour recouped their costs which doing all that networking?

 

[An Oasis]

....
While I think the original list is useful I also think the premise is flawed - businesses don't need a presence on all of them.

In my experience you'll see much better results from focusing your efforts and adding something useful to a handful of communities than by simply being on every site going.

Could not agree more, there are a number of examples where the STN is way to high to be productive, complete resource sappers, we settled on LinkedIn & Facebook from both a popularity POV and because they allow integration of WordPress...an effortless way to update from one source.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

While I think the original list is useful I also think the premise is flawed - businesses don't need a presence on all of them.

What they need is an understanding of how social media works, a set of defined goals they want to achieve from their use of social media and then a core set of social media tools that suit them.

In my experience you'll see much better results from focusing your efforts and adding something useful to a handful of communities than by simply being on every site going.

I'd agree with that.

Suppose I spend 10 minutes of each day on these 40 sites. That 5 hours a day social networking. Which means if my overheads are 5/hour I've got to earn £25 to just cover the costs of keeping up to date with these 40 sites.

On the other hand I could do a bit of direct maketing and earn £20/hour all day long.

And that.

Steve

 

[Delta-SI]

I don't think I'll bother with any of those, in fact I'm not having any web presence at all.

 

[nass]

Saxon68, did you copy this article directly from here and just take 10 off? Sure looks like it.

 

[An Oasis]

As the title. I particularly liked this quote from an interview, which I think sums up MySpace AND likens it to what happened to AOL, which may become a distinct possibility.

MW: I don’t think that’s true. I think it is--if you’re on MySpace now, you’re a [expletive] cretin. And you’re not only a [expletive] cretin, but you’re poor. Nobody who has beyond an 8th grade level of education is on MySpace. It is for backwards people.

 

[DotNetWebs]

Saxon68, did you copy this article directly from here and just take 10 off? Sure looks like it.

IF it's true I must say I think it's a bit underhand to post the list without crediting the original source.

Regards

Dotty

 

[templarmc]

Hey, never underestimate the power of Social Networking/Media!

In the Summer, when my beloved football club was looking for a new manager, Sam Allardyce was shortlisted. Cue 3,000 pimply geeks that probably would never even go to a game starting a group to say 'No to Allardyce'. Supposedly, our chairman became aware of this and chose to appoint a 'manager' with only 18 months experience several leagues below, who didn't even have coaching qualifications.

We've since moved from being in the top 7 consistently, often in Europe, to adrift in the relegation spots. Ironically, we now have to go cap in hand asking the previous candidate we ignored if he may be so nice to return IF we sack the present incumbent. Blinking Facebook........

The problem with the sites is which do you choose and (like Mark, Steve & Oasis have all pointed out) what you do on them that counts. IMO there's a tendency to either spend time diverted away to top-totty or quirky stuff or you have the misfortune to choose something like Pownce which announced yesterday it's shutting and you've 15 days to export your data.



I still think Twitter has a mis-spelled vowel somewhere in it BTW

 

[SocialMediaUncovered]

Hey, never underestimate the power of Social Networking/Media!

In the Summer, when my beloved football club was looking for a new manager, Sam Allardyce was shortlisted. Cue 3,000 pimply geeks that probably would never even go to a game starting a group to say 'No to Allardyce'. Supposedly, our chairman became aware of this and chose to appoint a 'manager' with only 18 months experience several leagues below, who didn't even have coaching qualifications.

We've since moved from being in the top 7 consistently, often in Europe, to adrift in the relegation spots. Ironically, we now have to go cap in hand asking the previous candidate we ignored if he may be so nice to return IF we sack the present incumbent. Blinking Facebook........

The problem with the sites is which do you choose and (like Mark, Steve & Oasis have all pointed out) what you do on them that counts. IMO there's a tendency to either spend time diverted away to top-totty or quirky stuff or you have the misfortune to choose something like Pownce which announced yesterday it's shutting and you've 15 days to export your data

Great post - it's important to remain focused on your target audience, are they going to interact with what you do? - are they going to see what you do? and are they going to react in a positive/negative way.

There are literally 1000's of niche social networking sites for business and for social that have been popping up over the past 12 months, and the list here on top of that make just keeping up with technology involved in social media a full time job.

Tell me about it!

But, for me, thats what makes it exciting & challenging at the same time, and as a markeeter - I embrace the medium, with all it has to offer.

 

[fisicx]

But, for me, thats what makes it exciting & challenging at the same time, and as a markeeter - I embrace the medium, with all it has to offer.

OK. But can you give an positive example of the social networking. Can you show someone using all these sites who has actually made a sustainable profit from their social network? By this I mean after X hours of social networking they made Y pounds using only the people in the network.

 

[SocialMediaUncovered]

OK. But can you give an positive example of the social networking. Can you show someone using all these sites who has actually made a sustainable profit from their social network? By this I mean after X hours of social networking they made Y pounds using only the people in the network.

Well, theres a lot more to it than that, but I can give you many testimonials from businesses that have used our services, and i'm sure you can find many other social media marketing businesses out there who have similar conversions for the work they provide.

Each case is different and really does depend on the type of result you are looking for, some are branding, awareness, sales, interactions, surveys, broadcasting, videos, etc etc.

I can give you results based on the above for b2b and b2c results, but they would differ based around demographic of audience, location, purchase price, interaction details, relevancy etc Each client is unique, and I work with businesses based in China, UK, Spain and the USA, so those factors have to be considered too.

 

[AdwordsPro]

There's no doubt these things can be used for business - they are just tools that in the right hands can be used effectively. Most people don't have the right hands! Good for those that do. You certainly need a social media strategy and avoid getting distracted from it ... oh bother!

 

[An Oasis]

...In the Summer, when my beloved football club was looking for a new manager, Sam Allardyce was shortlisted. Cue 3,000 pimply geeks that probably would never even go to a game starting a group to say 'No to Allardyce'. Supposedly, our chairman became aware of this and chose to appoint a 'manager' with only 18 months experience several leagues below, who didn't even have coaching qualifications....

Made me laugh Shaun. Was the decision as a direct result of the "say no" group?

 

[An Oasis]

OK. But can you give an positive example of the social networking. Can you show someone using all these sites who has actually made a sustainable profit from their social network? By this I mean after X hours of social networking they made Y pounds using only the people in the network.

From a business POV, that's exactly the point.

About 12-14 months ago I tried an experiment with Stumble Upon, which bought in (at the peak) 5,000 hits a day which is over 10 X the normal traffic but after we looked at all the stats, the negatives were big consumption of bandwidth (negative), no buyers (negative), 8 links on various blogs (positive) which because we used a humorous video for the experiment had no relevance.

Sorry to be so cynical but until I can see a real benefit on a generalised basis then businesses need to be very selective as to which SM sites they choose.

Where I can see SM sites working very well are for certain PR, marketing, viral campaigns…which need to generate high volumes and fast.

Also I think that history has a number of pointers in terms of life cycles that we could learn from, i.e. the cycles become faster as a medium develops. Applying that principle (whilst these are not all SM sites, you’ll get the picture) Cumpuserve, AOL… hit their peak and then became yesterdays news, the same will probably happen to MySpace, Facebook…

 

[An Oasis]

Yah you all know I don't get or like Twitter but...from Valley Wag

...With no real hope of making money on its own, Twitter's best hope is a buyout. But its executives have handled that poorly, too. Dorsey botched talks with Yahoo and then Facebook; he didn't even tell his own board of directors he was talking to Facebook about a proposed $500 million acquisition. After that, he was fired as CEO and replaced by Williams, but stayed on as chairman, a nominal job which doesn't require his presence at the Twitter office. One prominent Silicon Valley investor is fuming that Dorsey is still on the payroll at all...

 

[templarmc]

Made me laugh Shaun. Was the decision as a direct result of the "say no" group?

It was certainly referenced by the chairman that it was a factor, though I think it was also the case several other factors went against him, namely a certain BBC documentary, his 'style' of football and slagging off the club repeatedly previously (which probably led to the creation of the FB group)....

Still, was worth seeing Allardyce's face on Sky when they told him about it (like he'd just been caught in flagrante with the neighbours tortoise)

 

[templarmc]

Back to this SM stuff (calm down Mr Mosley), it's difficult to decide which to use though isn't it? There's either too much choice, or (especially now) too much of the venture capital is running out and they're selling out, or going bump? Ultimately, it's not too bad if you've got a ready-made group/network to 'port across', but seems too much noise and disparity on the whole - unless you've got something which brings some degree of integrity between links/contacts, like LI tried to do. I know some of the newby ones are trying to bring aggregation and suggestion/deep analysis (like Peoplebrowsr, Mr Tweet etc.). At least with the latter it measures the 'influencers' on Twitter and suggests who's worth following? (anything for an easy life, under the pretence of improving personal productivity!!)

Another problem is once you're on Facebook or Twitter, you don't half pick up some loons along the way. I know we've had this discussion previously, but it's hard to cut through the 'noise' sometimes and the 'six degrees of separation' turns into 'forty degrees of fools' very quickly. For instance, I followed someone on Twitter yesterday, and today he'd posted an average of 13 'tweets' per page, took me 20 pages to read back an 8 hour timeline to get through the other more sedate/sensible twitteroos I follow. Eejits like that should get a jolly good cyber-choke, never mind 'poke'...

 

[AdwordsPro]

... but it's hard to cut through the 'noise' sometimes and the 'six degrees of separation' turns into 'forty degrees of fools' very quickly. For instance, I followed someone on Twitter yesterday, and today he'd posted an average of 13 'tweets' per page, took me 20 pages to read back an 8 hour timeline to get through the other more sedate/sensible twitteroos I follow. Eejits like that should get a jolly good cyber-choke, never mind 'poke'...

If you're on a PC then Tweetdeck sorts this problem out very nicely - it effectively allows you to sort out who to follow closely (colleagues, customers, opportunity providers, competitors) from other groups that you set up. Very easy. Very good.
All the 'noise' is left in the 'All Tweets' column, which you browse occasionally - promoting good stuff into your 'closer' groups which you monitor more regularly.
Twitter without Tweetdeck is pretty unthinkable for me - it would be as useless as all the people that 'don't get it' say it is ...

 

[cricket]

Can't help thinking that we're spending so much time chasing internet options, that we risk losing the main focus. Those 'real' people out there. I send out flyers then let my customers spread the word. This way I get to have a life outside of work while someone else makes thos connections for me.

 

[templarmc]

Twitter without Tweetdeck is pretty unthinkable for me - it would be as useless as all the people that 'don't get it' say it is ...

Yeah dabbling with TD as we speak - thing is I hate OS-specific stuff, always prefer 'cloud'/web-based as use MacBook, PC & lappy

 

[templarmc]

DOH - was under impression TD was windows only, not air/x-platform! Have you tried Twhirl, and how do they compare?

 

[Gillie]

Tweet deck every day Shaun!! I have it and just love the little tweet I get each time someone updates!

 

[GreenLaser]

Good list but Newsvine is often down. Plus it loads like forever.

 

[chrisor]

Good resource - thanks

 

[DVWooly]

cheers thanks for the list