A Guide to Social Networking

Taking advantage of today’s hottest online marketing and branding strategies is what is on every marketer’s agenda. In this Guide to Social Networking, we give you a quick introduction to the benefits of these new media.

Social networking . . . should I really care or is this just another buzz word that will quickly fade away?   

Buzz word though it may be, social networking is around to stay.  The Web is a free, open frontier where individuals can make their opinions heard.  The major success of the Web has been driven by listening to individuals and learning from their feedback!  Social networking techniques include, but are not limited to:

• Online communities
• Blogs & message boards
• Audio and video podcasts
• Mobile-ready content
• Interactive games
• Video and photo sharing
• RSS Feeds
• Recommendations and commenting tools
• Online chat & instant messaging

How long has social networking been around?

In 1997, Aristotle created a custom application for the Baptist Health System of Arkansas to provide physicians a means for live online communication with concerned citizens about their heart-related health questions.  Baptist Health required several custom applications such as moderated chat, term filtering, a topic-based queue system and more.

Since those early years, Aristotle has developed hundreds of dynamic online tools and features that help our clients promote and market their businesses using the interactive power of the Web. A full-service agency, Aristotle has the technological, design and programming expertise needed to take advantage of online social networking opportunities. 

What about user-generated content?  How can this impact my Web presence?

"Content is king" and right now, user-generated content is the hot item on the Internet. User-generated content comes in a variety of formats including but not limited to video, audio, photography, tags and comments.  MySpace and YouTube, which currently lead the pack of user-generated content sites, allow individuals to post fun, interesting, stupid or informative content for all to see. Interestingly enough, traditional media organizations are now integrating user-generated sections into their media outlets.  

In a twist on their annual “Person of the Year,” Time magazine designated “YOU” as their 2006 Person of the Year.  Here’s an excerpt from the article in their December 25^th, 2006 edition: 

User-generated content only becomes more important as the Web continues to grow.  

More on Social Networking Tools:

Virtual Community Websites

Social networking includes websites that become a virtual community and share information with each other about themselves, their interests, their goals and their needs.  Social networking sites include popular sites such as MySpace.com and FaceBook.com which act as online journals and seek to generate online friendships between individuals with similar interests.  Social networking sites also include recommendation-based sites, such as the popular Craigslist.org or tripadvisor.com.  These sites allow individuals to post brief comments, free online personals and classifieds that are open to all individuals.  

Social Bookmarking

Coming into higher popularity this past year are websites which allow users to bookmark their favorite Web pages and articles and actually “rate the Web.”  This rating service is a step away from search engines where a mathematical algorithm determines what fits your needs.  Some popular sites relative to this would be digg.com, listible.com and del.icio.us.  These sites use various components of social networking - bookmarking, RSS, voting, tagging and commenting - to deliver the information that the user desires. 

RSS Feeds

RSS, which stands for “Really Simple Syndication,” is a popular technology you can use to distribute website content to your website visitors, other sites and services.  These feeds help your visitors stay abreast of what’s happening with your business.  Another benefit of RSS feeds is the fact that they do not go through a mail client so they bypass the spam filters.  In addition, other websites can choose to feature your feeds on their websites which helps increase the number of website visitors you receive.

Mobile-Ready Content

Delivering your website content to people on the go, while they are on the go – in a car, on the subway or on an airplane - is becoming more and more popular.  We live in a mobile society and today, one of the easiest ways to reach decision makers is via their Blackberrys, PDAs or cell phones.  Developing and designing interactive mobile-ready content that delivers your marketing message straight into the hands of busy executives and other buyers will help you to reach this growing market. 

Podcasts

Broadcast your expert opinions, commercials, music, speeches and more to your target “listening” audience with cost-effective podcasts.  Similar in theory to recorded television shows or a radio series, podcasts are viewed or listened to on a computer or portable media player.  Users subscribe to a podcast feed to receive new files automatically on their computers for downloading to iPod and MP3 players. 

Interactive Games

A very effective medium for viral marketing, interactive games enable you to deliver your message or educate your audience in an entertaining way.  Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water by thinking that this demographic doesn’t matter to you.  Surprisingly, the average age of an online gamer is 41 years old with an average annual income of $55,000.  Another startling statistic is the fact that 52% of this audience is female. 

Message Boards

Create a great sense of community, educate your client base and promote the credibility of your brand with online message boards.  These Internet forums provide your customers with the ability support each other and personally promote your product, destination or services. 

Video and Photo Sharing

On the Web, a photo or video is worth much more than a thousand words.  Currently almost 60% of Internet users watch online video regularly and that should increase to over 80% by the end of 2010.  Video and photo-sharing websites give users the ability to publish photos online.  Typically, users will also have the ability to categorize, organize, tag, share and comment on the images as well. YouTube and Google Video are video-sharing websites, while Flickr is a common photo-sharing website. 

Blogs

Blogs are a growing medium with which to communicate details about new projects, expert opinions, daily personalized news stories, industry advice, recent success stories, etc.  There are strong statistics to support the importance of Blogs.  According to an April 2006 article on ClickZ.com, the blogosphere has experienced a doubling in size about every six months to reach a currently tracked 35.3 million blogs.

We hope you have found our guide helpful.  Are you ready to take advantage of the latest in social networking tools and techniques?  Aristotle is one of the few integrated marketing firms with the technical expertise to help you utilize new media marketing.  Target new audiences, open new sales channels and develop dynamic interactive content that effectively promotes your message and your brand. Contact Aristotle at 1-800-814-2747.