On checking out the popular social networking sites, I noticed that a number of the most successful internet marketers have a high presence. These sites, however, are not meant for promoting your own business or affiliates. The general idea, is to interact with others, getting to know them, exchanging ideas and knowledge and then when it seems appropriate, sharing information on opportunities that might help them. There are new social networking sites being added daily. Twitter, Facebook and MySpace are presently the most popular. The 'new kid on the block' is BetterNetworker. It is my prediction that its popularity will grow very quickly and by this time next year it will be receiving a large piece of the pie. TWITTER -- This is a free micro-blogging service. It allows it's users to send and read other users updates. A message is called a 'tweet' and is restricted to only 140 characters. You get to put your copywriting skills to the test here. You can only use text on Twitter. You can't upload pictures or videos. FACEBOOK -- Facebook is privately owned and operated by Facebook Inc. It is also free to join. With Facebook, you can join networks that are organized by city, workplace, school or region to enable you to connect and interact with others. You can add 'friends' and post messages on their 'wall'. You can also upload pictures and short video. Facebook actually attracted 132.1 million unique visitors in June, 2008. MY SPACE -- Once again, another free site with an interactive network of friends, blogs, groups, personal profiles, music, video and photos. My space is international, as are the other social networking sites mentioned here. Back in June of 2006 it was the most popular networking site in the U.S. However, in April, 2008 it was taken over in popularity by Facebook. However, it still attracts approximately 230,000 new users per day. BETTERNETWORKER -- The latest social networking site that appears to be headed for major success was created by Mike Dillard. His partner in this endeavour is Perry Belcher. These are two very successful internet marketing gurus. Their site is dedicated to providing great content amongst its users. To date, I have been very impressed with the quality of the posts on BetterNetworker. They also police their site to ensure that spammers are identified and thrown out. Just a word of caution....you can spend many useless hours navigating through these social media sites and getting sidetracked with trivia. It is definitely not a 'quick fix' to adding hundreds of people to your mailing list. However, if done right it can produce great results. A good friend of mine, who has developed quite an impressive following on Twitter, recently sent out a 'tweet' about a new opportunity. His followers went to the recommended site and a week later my friend had earned over $40,000.00 in affiliate commissions. This only happened because he had built a large group of followers, who liked, respected and trusted him. Social networking has become an integral part of doing business on the internet for a great percentage of the top producers involved in network marketing. They would not be spending the time to do this if it wasn't lucrative for them. Yes, if this is done properly it can certainly reap rich rewards.
With the ever increasing popularity of social networking websites, many people are rushing to get in on the action. Many companies have realized this and created software platforms especially designed to allow even novice web users to set up their own social networking website. If you want to set up a social networking website for your business, organization, or just for fun, there are many software platforms to choose from.
It is important that you look at as many social networking platforms as you can to compare pricing, features, and ease of use. No matter what your budget, skill level, or needs are, there is a social network software platform for you. Some are more advanced than others but they all have unique features that makes it important to compare them all.
There are many social networking software platforms that you can consider when looking for software to use to build your social network. Some are designed to resemble My Space and other popular social networking sites, so if you like the design and familiarly of My Space they might be for you. On the other hand, many people find the design of My Space to be too disorganized and hard to navigate and there are also many options that are designed much differently. It is important to decide what type of design is best for you.
Most platforms have many features that you would expect to see in a social networking website which is a plus if you need to provide users a way to communicate and share. Some platforms do have drawbacks, however, and lack many common features. Carefully consider which features are important to you and your social network when choosing a platform. It is best to go with a platform that has more features than you need in case you want to add functionality later.
One of the most popular but hard to find features is a chat application. This feature is usually not as well developed as other features or absent in many social networking software platforms so if having chat functionality that works well and is easy to use is a priority to you be sure to choose your platform carefully.
Most social networking software platforms offer both free ad supported packages as well as paid packages where webmasters can control their own advertisements, have a custom URL, and control design features. Budget is usually a big consideration when choosing a platform so be sure you understand the pricing plan before you commit.
Both Jan Shimano & Ron Subs are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Jan Shimano has sinced written about articles on various topics from Network Marketing, Video Games and Network Marketing. Jan Shimano was District Manager with Health & Welfare Canada for many years. She was also self-employed as a Nutritional Consultant and Master Herbalist. She currently works as a. Jan Shimano's top article generates over 1600 views. to your Favourites.