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Social Networking with Training Wheels
By John Jantsch (c) 2008

Look, I don't really think that the mySpaces and Facebooks
of the world are that important for the typical small
business as they stand today. There may be very practical
business reasons for some to actually use these and other,
what are called social networks, for business gain, but
most people that have jumped on the social network
bandwagon have found themselves left with a "is this all
there is" kind of feeling.

To those, I say this, the value of the current public social
networks for business folks is not what you can get out of
them for gain today, but what you can learn by using them
for practical gain tomorrow. That's why SpacebookedIn makes
sense for you now.

The Facebooks of the world are busy teaching millions and
millions of business folks how social networks work, how
social networking works, how shared applications can be
viral and ever-present. The real payoff in my opinion is
that the wave to come after the Facebook bubble bursts is
the "personalized business network." Once everyone of your
customers and prospects knows how to use what are easily
replicatable social networking tools, like building
profiles, sharing video and connecting based on mutual
interests, your job of building your own social business
network around your own very specific community of niche
will get a whole lot easier.

2008 will be the year of the personalized social business
network. So, if you've decided to take a pass on the whole
social networking trend, I would suggest that you use this
handy list to start learning to ride this bike with the
training wheels on.

Ten ways to get started with Social Networking.

1) Read 10 blogs - sign-up for a Bloglines
(http://www.bloglines.com/) account and search for and
subscribe to 10 blogs about social networking - you can
return daily to your page on Bloglines to find and read
all the new content on your 10. Of course you can add blogs
about your industry and interests here too.

2) Comment on 10 blogs - posting relevant comments to blogs
you read is a very simple form of social networking. It's
also a good way to get some extra visitors your site or
blog.

3) Join Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/) - Join and
create a profile. Find and friend some of your existing
contacts using tools on Facebook. You'll be surprised how
many people you already know have Facebook accounts.
Facebook has some real value for you because of the rich
set of tools and large amount of active users. This is a
great place to experiment with how people interact in social
networks. Once you get your feet wet you may also find that
Facebook is a great way to connect with business contacts
you may never bump into otherwise.

4) Create a mySpace (http://www.myspace.com/) page - this
service is really embraced primarily by musicians and the
younger set. It also happens to have a large underbelly
contingent so be warned, but it is a great tool for learning
how to build a presence outside of your web site.

5) Join LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/) - this is a
service that's been called Facebook for business. It is
really about meeting and connecting with like-minded
business folks. It is a great service for people looking
for a job or to make connections with people who may be
out of reach without an introduction.

6) Visit Ning (http://www.ning.com/) - this is the largest
custom social networking service that allows you to create
your own community using a variety of tools that can be
branded to match your current site.

7) Create a Workbench profile
(http://workbench.ducttapemarketing.com/)- this one's a
little self-serving as this is my new social business
networking site but it's a good example of the personalized
business community that's the next wave for small business.

8) Create a Twitter (http://twitter.com/) account - this
tool is pretty silly on the surface, it allows you to type
in 160 characters or less what you are doing right now. It
feels like a giant waste of time but a very large and active
community has grown around this kind of micro-blogging and
you should understand how people are using it.

9) Create a StumbleUpon (http://www.stumbleupon.com/)
profile - This is a social network built around discovering
and recommending sites that you like. Active stumblers can
send a lot of traffic your way

10) Create a Digg (http://www.digg.com/) account - this
site allows you to keep up to the minute with what's
happening in the world of business. Users submit and vote
on what is believed to be the most important content.

You might also consider Mixx (http://www.mixx.com/),
Squidoo (http://www.squidoo.com/) and Flickr
(http://www.flickr.com/) as places to find and develop
niche related communities when you're ready to really get
out there.

Think of mySpace, LinkedIn and Facebook as your labs - get
in there and experiment for the future. then start planning
your own personalized social business network.
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John Jantsch is a veteran marketing coach, award winning
blogger and author of Duct Tape Marketing: The World's Most
Practical Small Business Marketing Guide. You can find more
information by visiting http://www.ducttapemarketing.com
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