Social Media Sites Abound
Facebook! Twitter! LinkedIn! FourSquare! Almost every news article you see these days are talking about one or another of these social media sites. If you didn’t know any better, you would think these were the only social networking websites on the internet.
That’s just not true. At last count, there were over 200 social networking sites online that catered to a variety of industries, groups, and interests. I went through and picked out five social media sites that hardly ever get any press but which provide awesome opportunities to network with like minded folks and get your brand in front of eager eyes.
5 Social Media Sites that can Benefit You
BlogCatalog (http://www.blogcatalog.com) – This social media website started out as a simple blog directory. However, the owners wanted to do something different from what other directories and created a social blog network. In addition to adding your blog to their directory, you can find and favorite other blogs as well as network with members of the site on the forum. BlogCatalog host social blogging events to raise awareness of specific social issues such as world hunger and AIDS.
Yelp (http://www.yelp.com) – To be fair, you may have heard about Yelp lately because Google’s Place Pages is a direct competitor of this social media website. Yelp is a social business review site where members rate and review the businesses they frequent. The site is great for local businesses because you can offer discounts or other incentives to your customers for taking the time to review and rate you on the site. It is also a great way to find your most passionate users and enlist their help in promoting your business.
MeetUp (http://www.meetup.com) – With all of this virtual social networking going on, you may begin to wonder if people meet face to face anymore. You’ll be happy to know that they do and MeetUp is the online social media site which helps people get with likeminded souls in their local area. You can use the site to find offline groups according to interest or purpose. For example, if you are interested in meeting other entrepreneurs you can find a business group meeting in your area using their easy search function.
Spoke (http://www.spoke.com) – This is a social media business website designed specifically to help professionals find and network with other people in the business community. It’s sort of like LinkedIn except Spoke’s network is open. You can search and build a network of contacts from their entire database of members. If you are looking to ramp up your recruiting efforts, then Spoke is the social media site for you.
Ning (http://www.ning.com) – This is not a social networking site in and of itself. However, it does provide the software for creating a social site of your own without needing to know how to write code for the internet. There are a number of social networks online (like HomeBasedBusiness.com) which uses Ning software to connect their members. If you feel the need to start a social site of your own then Ning is definitely a viable option.
Where to Find Other Social Media Sites
Remember, there are over 200 social networking sites online (you can view a comprehensive list on Wikipedia). If you don’t see a social media site of interest to you here, check out what else is available online by entering keywords like “list of social networking website”, “social networking sites”, “social media website list” in a search engine.
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