Top Five Social Media Sites for Businesses

So I've been eating, living, breathing and experimenting with social media websites for the last several months and have come up with my list of the Top Five Social Media Sites for Businesses. For each of the social media websites listed below, I provide a short summary of what the site is and the reason it's included on this list.

#5: Linked In
(www.linkedin.com) A few years ago Linked In was all of the rage for professional adults; like how MySpace was the hip place to hang out for teenagers. In my opinion both sites are on their last wheeze. However, Linked In is still a valuable resource for certain business needs, such as job postings, inter-company communications and referrals. The site allows a person and/or a business to have a page of content and photos, to keep that page updated with posts, and to interact with other people and businesses by following their posts. As a marketer, my issue with the website is that frankly it's boring and not an attractive place to promote one's wares. But I have included it in this list because it has over 100 million members and because it's "share" button is so prevalent through-out the web.

#4: Twitter
(www.twitter.com) I call Twitter the "Fast and Furious" of the social media world. It really is all about posting quick messages with short life spans. You as a person or business don't have the ability to create your own custom website within Twitter, so you have to rely on the quality and consistency of your "tweets". And that can be rather hard in the beginning, especially since you'll be forced to learn the language of Twitter. You see,it's all about "@"s and "#"s and shortened URLs. Here is a link to nice tutorial on how best to use Twitter. I include Twitter on this list because if you follow the right people, and are in turn followed by the right people, you have an incredibly strong and cheap forum for communicating your messages and promoting your brand. And just like I mention about Linked In above, the "tweet" button is on a huge number of websites, so your website should be included as well.

#3: Groupon/Living Social
(www.groupon.com and www.livingsocial.com) Yes, I know these are actually two websites, but honestly they could be twins. Groupon and Living Social are all about the deals. These sites best serve B2C type businesses, like massage therapists, coffee shops and clothing stores. But if a B2B business were creative enough, I think it could benefit just as well. How about a CPA firm offering a 50% discount on setting up a business's QuickBooks software? So these sites allow users to sign-up to receive "daily deals" and "getaway packages". Then enough people have to purchase that deal or coupon to then make it active. As the business who chooses to offer a deal, be warned, you probably won't make any money from the deal itself, not after the discount you have to offer to be accepted onto the website and then the commission the website will take. Think of it as an advertising cost that gives the potential to convert these first time customers into repeat business.

#2: Facebook
(www.facebook.com) Ah... Facebook, they made a movie about this didn't they? I was too busy hanging out on Facebook to catch the movie, but I'm sure it was great. Well, if you want to have a presence on a website with over 700 million members, Facebook be it. As a professional or a business, you have many options with Facebook, from customizing your own page (and with enough followers, you even get your own custom Facebook domain name), to posting news and links, to running targeted ads; heck Facebook even provides you with detailed stats about your followers. And just like Linked In and Twitter, when is the last time you visited a website and didn't see the "Like" button next to an article? So why didn't I rank Facebook #1 on this list? Because it's not Google.

#1: Google Plus
(plus.google.com) The 1000 lb gorilla just decided to play in the social media sand box. Google Plus is still in beta testing, but will be released to the public soon. Google took it's time and learned what works and what doesn't work about other social media sites. What it learned is the power of social media is actually in the "social" and the "media". Google Plus will have new generation tools making it incredibly easy for you as a professional or a business to connect to your audience and provide them with content they are most interested in receiving; that's the social part. The media part is that Google has already begun to embed this into their search results in the form of a "+1" button. What bigger or more important media can you work with than Google.com? Therefore, even though at this writing, Google Plus is just a newborn waiting to greet the world, I truly believe it will and needs to be a business's #1 social media site.

If you agree, disagree, or have any questions, please comment on this blog or contact me at Ken@WebptOh.com or use my handy contact form located on my website at www.WebptOh.com.