promoting my company in social networks?

[Rizwan M]

I want to promote my company on myspace, youtube,facebook,friendster,etc.. Any good ideas to get started?

[Scott Clark]

Well, I'm going to assume that you're not talking about paid ads and go straight into the typical promotional methods with any social networks.

First, spamming the social networks is the worst possible kind of activity - not that you're planning to. Just sayin' that you must avoid, at all cost, even the appearance of overt promotion. Everything - and I mean EVERYTHING in social media happens indirectly and through authority, trust, and great content.

To use social networks you must first become familiar with the culture - unique to each - of how people interact. Think of each different one like visiting a foreign country. People do things differently and have different expectations. Watching and participating in a non-commercial capacity is important, especially at first.

Influencers of business niches are participants in social networks and you can get noticed. You will be in front of people who can change your whole business life - and who are ultra-sensitive to being sold to. You are representing your brand, your expertise, and your personality all at the same time. It pays to do it well.

Social network-sourced traffic only comes after you have build trust and authority. Same for social bookmarking tools. This only comes through helpful and generous participation. You must take part in the conversations long before you can expect any effects. The ability to do this varies a lot between the networks and social bookmarking sites like Digg, Reddit, and Stumbleupon, too.

After you've reached a level of authority and your profiles are healthy (takes 6 months or more) you can begin to create targeted, helpful and valuable content that gets people closer to your commercial goals. At the same time you must continue to be genuinely participatory and generous. You can never spam a social network - even if you're king of the hill in your industry.

You can ask members of your network to submit your content to Digg or Stumbleupon (always say "if you feel it's worth it.") I say this takes 6-8 months or more to accomplish. These submissions improve the rank of the content in search engines and make influencers take notice.

The link below has some coverage of SMX 2008, which I attended. This social media conference was all about participation in social media generally for commercial purposes. I recommend you check it out (also see links at the bottom)

Scott Clark
Web Business Strategist

[Jakes]

Take a look below. This is my best suggestion to you. You have the option to target your niche market, and you can use text ads, banner ads, and even full page ads.
You can control your budget, and see how your ads are performing, almost like adwords. I think the minimum spend a day is $5.00, that equals to 5000 impressions a day.

Hope it helps.

[gotwhatchawant]

My friends and I came across http://www.MeJab.com if you need a place to vent online.