7 Must-Use Social Networking Sites

What Social Networking Sites I Should Join?

Some say "all of them", some say "join the ones you like the most and find useful". Both great advice, but I like to say "join the best social networking sites and be active in them". And I''ll share with you those best social networking sites - which makes this kind of a top social networking sites list.

Social networking sites are great for interaction and socializing with others and build your personal brand at the same time. And for most effective online social networking, you should be where others are as well. You own private 1-person network isn't very social, is it?

First and foremost, to make the most out of online social networking, both personally and financially, you have to be active and get involved. Social networking is about participation and sharing, if you just lurk around, no-one will notice you. If you're into marketing and want to make money, Do *not* only promote yourself and your stuff, but promote others and things you like as well, and build your presence AND trust through being an active, valuable member of the network.

Like said, you don't have to use and be in every possible social network out there (as there are hundreds of them), but choose the ones you like the most to use and be active in them. Look for a niche specific social networks if there is one for you, but usually it's better to be where everyone else is, so consider focusing on the biggest social networks and social bookmarking services..

Top 7 Social Networking Sites

Twitter

  • Join Twitter
  • Set up your Twitter profile,
  • Use your real photo in the profile and
  • Create/Get and use a custom Twitter background.
  • (or use an graphical/cartoon version which looks like you, but it's been proven that real photo works the best)
  • Get a Twitter desktop client to make twitter usage easy and fun
    • Install Tweetdeck and use it.
    • Or install Seesmic
    • Or choose one of the many other clients (these two are the best imho)
  • Tweet about things you do, ask questions and answer the questions of others.
  • Tweet your blog posts, automate this via service like SocialOomph.
    • SocialOomph has a load of other functionality, some paid ones, but
    • Setting up the automatic post of your blog posts from your RSS feed is super easy and useful
  • Follow @akokkonen
  • Tweet this post! (yes, do it now)

Facebook

  • Join and create a profile at Facebook
  • Link your blog posts to Facebook.
  • Connect Twitter to your profile.
  • If you chose Tweetdeck or Seesmic for Twitter client, you can use Facebook with those as well.
  • Personally I use Facebook to keep contact with people I have personally met, and thus Facebook is more "private" social network to me than the others, but your mileage may wary.

StumbleUpon

  • Join StumbleUpon
  • Get the StumbleUpon Toolbar
  • Use StumbleUpon to find content you like, train the system to know what you like.
  • "Thumb Up" your best work (not every post!).
  • Get friends, like Zemalf :)

Delicious

  • Join Delicious (del.icio.us)
  • Install the Delicious add-on to your browser
  • Store all your bookmarks at Delicious.
  • Bookmark, tag and describe your own posts, articles, videos.
  • Share your bookmarks with your friends.

Digg

  • Digg the content of other bloggers and websites you like
  • Get friends from people digging the same posts you like
  • You can start your friend building with this nice fellow: Zemalf
  • Submit your best content in Digg (not everything!).
  • Or get your friend to submit your content occasionally
  • Digg this post.

Youtube

  • Use your Google Account and join Youtube
  • Subscribe to the channels / video providers you like
  • Friend with people whose videos you like
  • Start creating videos and create your own channel
  • Link to your blog from the profile and channel

FriendFeed

  • Link all the other services you use to FriendFeed
    • Add your Tweets and
    • Your blog(s) RSS Feed(s) for your profile.
  • Follow Zemalf on FriendFeed

Bonus Social Networking for Bloggers

MyBlogLog

Add Social Bookmarking Links to the Blog

  • Add the ones you like to your blog/template/theme manually, or
  • Use a service/plugins to enable easy social bookmarking for your readers
  • Encourage your readers to share your posts
  • If needed and applicable on your blog, educate your readers on using social networking tools
    • what social marketing is
    • how to bookmark/share the posts on social networks
    • the benefits of social networking

Social networking is very important and powerful tool to drive traffic to a blog and creating a brand for yourself (and thus indirectly promoting yourself), as long as you remember that the best results will come from being a valuable member in the community and keeping the self-promoting in moderation. Always create and updated your profile for the social network you choose to join, add your photo, blog URL and the basic information you want to share. If you go the distance with social networking, it pays of to make a document of the data you like to share on social networks, so you can copy and paste the information to a new site.

Join the Discussion!

  • Speak Your Mind on the Comments!
    • Which of the social networks you use?
    • Have you found some networks working better than the others?
    • Or is there a social network not in this list, that you've enjoyed a lot or had particular success with?

I hope you enjoyed this article and I'll see in the social networks, OK?

Here's more posts like to this:
  1. Are You Using Social Media Like You Should or Are You Social Notworking?
  2. How To Connect Your Social Media Profiles
  3. LinkedIn is not Twitter is not LinkedIn
Posted by
Published on Jul 19, 2009 (Last updated on Nov 01, 2010)
Topic: Social Networking
Tags: , , , ,

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