Starting Out With Social Networking

Some years ago in 2003 I started a small business. The first thing I did after registering the company and opening a Bank Account was spend days on building a website.

I added content, built it graphically, made a very small business look like a very large one in weeks. I embraced the Internet. That was the thing to do back then.

Google was on the ascendency and I studied it hard, keywords, page length, link strategies and structure. I built a network of linked sites and got my website to the top of the pile in the search engines and sure enough the enquiries started to arrive, the phone rang.

Nowadays I believe, the Internet is being relegated into second place. The www is crowded and the noise is overwhelming. It's difficult enough to even find a domain name thats available and matches your business or aims wihout resorting to .biz or .me or .youllneverfindme.com.

Google continuess to dominate and moves it's algorithms every day. Businesses with bigger pockets get to the top of the pile quickly and focus huge internal resources on hitting the Search Engine Optimisation trail and fund click through marketing strategies. Small businesses can't afford to keep up without lots of time, deep pockets or an free IT wizard by your side.

Enter stage left Social Networking or Web 2.0 as we techno friendlies refer to it. As if V1.0 is out of date. V1.0 of course is the web as we know it, static websites. Ok with the odd bit of flashy graphics nowadays.

New mediums for communication have arrived, instant always on, in your face and multi-faceted.

Sprung from the ideals and wishes of the upcoming generation of Text and Instant Messaging children who don't do phone. Facebook now has 300 Million subscribers, Linkedin around 50 Million if the figures are to be believed. Twitter is everywhere, on the radio, TV, celebrities are sharing their feelings, people creating people power again with largely FREE technologies.

So how does the small business now look large and reach out?

By embracing it of course. The arguments are already mounting that if you don't you're dead in the water, up the river without a paddle and other such metaphors. "telling and selling is dead" according to social media experts.

What exactly does that mean. Well we've got no choice but to immerse ourselves in Social Networking and start building our network all over again adopting all these new tools at our disposal.

Here are the Top 5 things you need to do now.

1. Get onboard - Read more, follow people, find people, find groups, understand it and dive onto the social networking sites.

2. At a minimum - sign up for Twitter and create a profile, sign up for LinkedIn and do the Same. If you're a small business sign up for Biznik.com and get chatting. Then surf to Plato, Facebook and more.

3. Work at it -  and that means not just a paragraph and a photo but daily updates, populate your views and start reaching out.

4. Get a strategy - think about it, who are you trying to reach to, what are they searching for, how will you attract them.

5. Expose yourself - share your inner thoughts and feelings. Share the ups and the downs. People will like you for it.

So what are you waiting for. Tweet Tweet.