Social Networking and Blogging

It would seem that almost everyone that is web savvy has a MySpace, Facebook or some other social networking page about themselves or business. We live in a society where there is no longer any privacy and the fascination with spying into the lives of others is very popular. Some of the top TV programs are reality shows that open up peoples lives to the public. Social Networking sites have become an essential item when it comes to marketing yourself because it is a voyeur camera into your life or companies life.

Blogging is also a great way to add visibility to yourself as well. Blogging has become increasingly more popular over the last few years and has found its way into the web marketing arena as an essential ingredient for promoting a company. The use of a blog has been found to be of significant benefit to improving search engine optimization. The more open doors that lead to your website the better. Most search engines, like Google, rank sites according to link popularity and secondly by how relevant those links are to your website. Since the likelihood of your company blog being 100% relevant to your website, it stands to reason that a link to your site from your blog is essential.

Both Social Networking and Blogging are time consuming, which is, of course, the down side of its use. That being said, though, having someone that is dedicated to maintaining them on a daily or weekly basis is far more advantageous than not having any at all. The most important aspect of using blogs and networking sites is you get to control the content and manage the image of your company instead of letting your competition do so.

I personally believe that every company should have some portal to let people know who they are and what their mission statement is. This prevents other from making false assumptions and statements that are less than flattering to your company. The visibility and SEO opportunities are great and help market your company for free.

Social Networking and Blogging are an important element of the Marketing 2.0 ® model.