What is your favorite social media site?

I love Twitter because it has the greatest number of Eyeballs and as someone said earlier, in the end it's about getting traffic over to your site. Twitter has been the 2nd greatest source of leads for me and the model is simple. Build a following by offering valuable information 7/12 tweets should be about someone other than you! There is one exception and if you look at my Twitter account you will see what I mean. If you are offering "value added" tweets like "how to" tips, then post your own stuff all day and people come running. Someone above suggested it has no business model. i look at it differently. I think it has an amazing business model. I have a blog with posts that offer people free tutorials on how to do things in QuickBooks, Excel, Social Media, and technology at large. I post tweets with links to these free tutorials. People love "Free". Of course you have to be prepared to create a TON of content because to retain interest you have to keep it new and fresh. As a result of my interaction with people on Twitter I have received literally thousands in referral business and I have people coming from twitter weekly to download from my online video tutorial and template download store.

I also love Facebook and LinkedIn essentially for the reasons everybody gave above.

BUT...

My favorite, and the most effective one for me is one I am not sure I even saw mentioned. I'm not surprised because most people are shocked when I tell them which of the "social" sites I get most of my new business from these days. You might not even think of it as a "Social" site but it most definitely is. It has the interactive abilities that facebook has in terms of posting comments etc.. but it has one thing that none of the other sites have. Actually 2. The site I am talking about is YouTube and the 2 major advantages are the fact that it is all based on video, and it is owned by Google. In fact some say that YouTube is becoming the "new" google because when I am searching for information on something it is much easier to watch than to read and we're dealing with a population in a forum that is conducive to the attention span of a gnat!

I post new videos almost every week, sometimes 2-3. Mine are video tutorials on QuickBooks and Excel, but if you have a retail site then I would be doing videos showing your latest products etc.. and then of course posting the links your products in the video's description. Any service based business should be offering videos with useful information about their area of expertise. This is my model and by the time someone calls me the selling work is already done. They are calling me because they can see firsthand that I know my stuff. Now it is only a question of cost so I close them a bit on the value - after all you are getting trained by the guy who's video you were just watching and you were enamored enough to call the '866' number which I make sure you can't forget as it appears at the end of every video along with my call to action "Call now for additional training on this topic or anything else I cover..."

Everything I post to YouTube of course pushes to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIN. Then I can go into sites like LinkedIN and when there is a discussion on a topic I have covered in a video it is a perfect opportunity to link people to my videos. People are always thanking me because they actually do find my videos helpful. I don't just "bait" people into having to call me - I actually do give away a ton of useful, free information on YouTube. I even have a blog on Toolbox for Finance called the "Accounting Video Blog" and I can also be found blogging on Chris Pirillo's Lockergnome.

Feel free to visit my YouTube channel and contact me with questions. I am happy to speak to any of you to help you come up with ideas for videos!
http://www.youtube.com/nerdenterprises

LinkedIn and Facebook are my favorites. LinkedIn has helped me connect with professionals around the world to support me in my work, give me insights and ideas and information necessary in my work. It helps me make connections I'll use on an ongoing basis and is a personal R & D platform where I can poll people and ask questions. It's also where I can keep a finger on the pulse of various professional groups to see what people are living in their worlds.

Facebook is a combination of professional and personal where my network can see who I am, not only what I do. Both are about connection and relationship not just numbers. It's giving value as much as receiving value.

There are so many social media sites for business & while many seem to be similar, each one has it's strong points & it's weak ones. I think alot of it depends on your business & what you're looking for.

Personally, I like Facebook's fan page. It's easy to interact with my customers & I like the feedback I get directly on my wall. I can also showcase specials or new items that I think might be of interest. It's a fast & easy way to communicate & to build relationships. A big plus for my business on the fan page are the photo albums--this makes it easy to show items & describe them. My customers take advantage of this & like it because it's simple to find what they're looking for. One last point, by going on your homepage, you might stumble upon a link that could be helpful, so it's a convenient place to gather information.

Linkedin is the grand daddy of them all & I was told from the beginning to build a network on that site. I have but that's about all I've done. I find you have to be active in groups or take part in discussions to get to know people & I just don't have time for that.

I hope this helps you. Good luck!

If I had to choose a place to start it would be LinkedIN. For me, it serves two powerful functions:

1- It's a huge source of online professional histories (note, I didn't say resumes) and professional associations. I use it to research potential employees, partners, and clients.
2- It's a source of *passive* referrals from YOUR network. We all know that referrals are a powerful form of marketing. By entering a lead in LinkedIN, it gives me the ability to see if there's someone I know *who knows them*. It can take a cold lead and quickly turn it into a warm lead. For this, it's important to link to those in your Rolodex. My rule of thumb is if we would trade business cards, I'll link to you on LinkedIN.

And we haven't even started on LinkedIN Groups and LinkedIN Answers, each with it's own value proposition.

I am by no means a LinkedIN expert, but there is plenty of advice out there on how to get the most out of it. Good luck!

The usual triumvirate is Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Each provide value for what you might be looking for, and each reach a difference audience.

Personally, I like Yelp. I might not write as much as I used to there, but the Yelper community is extremely active and close, and the company itself has special events and parties for them in various cities. Plus, it's a good place to get reviews on a wide variety of businesses (take them for what they are, of course).

I agree - LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook do it for me.

For business purposes, I've always appreciated LinkedIn - certainly the best site for finding & meeting business contacts. However, it's not a site I spend much time on - beyond that purpose there's not much there of interest - Groups have gotten very spammy and some of their newer features (LinkedIn Today, Graphs, etc...) don't have much use.

Facebook is fun but strictly fun - I use it to keep in touch with friends but don't really use it for business.

While it's not a 'site' so much as a 'communications platform', I am finding increasing business value from Twitter - there is so much potential utility and flexibility there to create value. I use Lists extensively and am looking at 3rd-party analytics and other tools to tailor it for a number of purposes.

I swear by LinkedIn for developing professional relationships and for expertise in specific areas. I use Facebook to share content to a different base. I use MySpace to listen to music from an unknown band ;-)

LinkedIn is THE directory of business contacts.

Like Chris said, Facebook is just addictive fun.

Twitter is an interesting story. It's a great source for breaking news on a hot subject, but in general I find it kind of cacacophonic - just too much noise. I also really don't like the "language" of hashtags. Perhaps even more importantly, I don't think it has a business model. I sort of think it's almost a public service - and might be best owned by a company like CNN.

I forgot about Merchant's Circle! It's a great site. I'm glad Lynn thought to bring it up.

Like Lynn, I've made a lot of connections on it also, but unlike the other social sites they have a feature the others don't have. You can make coupons & promotions that will be sent out to your entire network which means you can actively sell your products or services.

I have also used this site to find what I've needed by looking up promotions & coupons--it's where I found the source for new shutters & another for upgrading the lighting on my patio.

Don't overlook this site--it has real value.

I have found a couple that, depending on the purpose, seem to fit well. LinkedIn is a strictly business web site to keep one's resume current and have accaurate info for potenetial clients to "check you out" before meeting with you. Plaxo seems to combine LinkedIn and many of the social aspects of facebook. I have used both to locate executives from client companies than have "moved on". On the other hand, groupon and livingsocial are great for things and events that are more relevant to perosnal life.

What appeals to me depends on my needs. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are very useful to me. Other people may have different needs, so they may connect to many other sites.
Thanks.

Linkedin & Twitter for work related and Facebook for your personal life. I never mix them!

I use Linkein for busness and facebook for privet family and friends. im not a manager or any thing big but a typica worker but find that you meet people that can help you advaace in the busness world on linked in