What social networking communities should businesses be part of?

Individuals should be on LinkedIn, listing their business connections. Once there, you can let your friends connect to your Facebook profile. People used to struggle to keep their business and personal lives separate on Facebook, but that's too hard. Just don't let people tag you in photos where you're acting stupid.

Your company should have a Web site, a blog, a Twitter account, and maybe a Facebook entry. Use all these to keep your customers up to date on new ways to better use your company products or services. Once you establish a reputation for helpful information, then you can add some "by the way, we're introducing a new line" type of comments without driving people away by advertising too much.

I'm liking Focus, I'm on FB, Linked-in, Marketing Masterminds, twitter, sokule, etc. etc. I've just discovered Focus and find it to be filled with a vast array of professionals in all areas of expertise. From a business stand point, I would love a push button approach through one medium that reaches out to all; however, that is a fantasy. The reality is target marketing and being able to obtain, qualify and follow up. So all avenues, including traditional forms of marketing ( Newspaper, Radio and Television) are good.

It depends on what you're trying to accomplish, what your industry is, and how much time you have to devote to social media efforts.

Sample questions to ask yourself when trying to decide:

- Am I trying to generate leads?
- Am I trying to increase direct sales?
- Am I looking to build a community?
- Am I trying to build my expertise / brand?
- Am I trying to find people to hire?

I'd say the networks making most noise from a Business perspective right now are:

LinkedIn
Twitter

They have different angles and result in a different audience but Business and Individuals within business's should be active at some level in both of these as a minimum.

Beyond that Facebook is a close runner although it is still primarily seen as a trendy teens site with photos of parties etc.

Increasingly businesses are going to need a foot in all camps and a watch out for the next one over the hill.

Definitely echo Leslie. Your market will answer a lot of questions about which specific platform you should use.

Business wise: I agree with Justin and Leslie. You can waste a lot of time just running around tweeting, blogging, updating if you don't have set goals in mind. There are so many networks out there.

Personal/Professional wise: Keep in mind that sending valuable, helpful and interesting content into the digital world is almost never a bad thing, and networking is probably your ticket to all future opportunities. For this reason I'd say that a linked-in profile and good blog (or twitter following) are necessary.

It really depends on who your ideal client is and where they "hang out"

I also go with Justin. But one thing is very clear social media needs time and excellency. It depend on us how we communicate with others. What strategy we follow for making brand awareness, generating leads, professional/business networking...etc

Leslie really hits the nail on the head when talking about the importance of utilizing the larger social communities (Facebook, Twitter, etc), while also creating a strong presence on highly targeted niche communities (i.e. CafeMom).

Justin also points out the importance of analyzing your business goals first, which I agree is equally important.

Another set of questions to ask before creating a strong social presence is "Who is my audience?" Think about who they are (general niche and psychological characteristics), what they are most interested in, where they spend their time online, and how you can better influence them with quality content. It is so tempting to hop on the FB, MySpace, Twitter mobiles before analyzing your target(s) market.

Hope this helps. The previous answers provide some really great insight too!

My personal favorites are:
LinkedIn for business networking
FaceBook for maintaining friend and family connections
Twitter for reasons currently unknown (just a gut that there's something there..)

Frankly we desperately need a social networking "aggregation service" that seamlessly let's you post once and deploy everywhere. Some tools kinda do that (like TweetDeck) but definitely not seamless yet. It feels like we have a social networking quilt out there while what we need one comfy fleece blanket to cover it all and save us doing double and triple work..

Having said that, this is a good problem to have! Social networking tools are growing and improving by the minute, and more people... are more connected ...to more people, which is good for all of us....both personally and professionally.

@Nick - Have you tried ping.fm? It's pretty useful. I've used that in the past, but my concern has always been about messaging with the different platforms, e.g. not all messages right for all audiences.

Thanks Tim. I'll check it out. You make a good point by the way about the limitations of write-once, post everywhere. As long as you have the option to "deselect" some SNs on a case by case, depending on the message type then I guess that would work. The problem now is that most SN site (including Focus by the way) allow you to re-purpose your comments on other SN site....and when they all do that it becomes a bit of an unmanageable mess as you start losing track of the messages flying around...

Take a look at this article and download. It is a real world guide to what social media platforms are good for specific purposes.

http://www.cmo.com/social-media/cmos-guide-social-media-landscape

With all the BS and buzz about Social Networking flying around, one must understand that when you are building your brand, social networking is a small piece of the picture. There are many "experts" selling social networking snake oil.

Social Networking is not free and can actually be more expensive, depending on your target market.

Before jumping into SN with both feet, it is better to have a business development or brand management company develop a holistic marketing strategy with you based upon your resources.

Carl Hartman | www.brandgineering.biz | Denver & Los Angeles

Build your presence where your audience is. The hottest spots for professional and business to business folks are LinkedIn and Twitter. Facebook works for B2C, but I've seen limited cases where it makes a lot of sense for B2B, maybe with us marketing types. Since there are some tools to link it all up, choose your main networks to dig into and aggregate updates to the less important ones to cover your bases, but focus efforts where the people are. Don't underestimate a blog to feed content.

It really depends entirely on who your target market is and where they hang out. There are specific demographics and socioeconomic profiles for each network. It also depends on your goal, visibility + credibility leads to profitability. But if you need the first two, then it is wise to layer your networks so your exposure is maximized.

My top three are Twitter, LinkedIN, and Facebook. Success depends on being consistent and persistent as well as congruent on all three networks.
Twitter is like a virtual cocktail party, FB is more of a virtual backyard bbq, and LinkedIN is a virtual business networking event.