How do you market a Social Networking site?

[Alex L]

Press release is a must, please any more suggestions?

[Reenie]

You could try buying website traffic, for example, here's a company that handles that...http://www.acceleratedtraffic.com/

[Ron A]

What goes in the press release and sets you apart is much more critical than the press release in and of itself. I know of some social networking sites that went from obscurity to within the top 50,000 Alexa rank in a week, mostly due to the content in the press release. Most entities fail to use press releases properly, and then wonder why it didn't work, or so few places picked up on it.

Without knowing your target market, or budget, it is difficult to go into much depth. Please do know that low cost, fast, and seemingly too good to be true approaches are often met with less than a decent outcome and can be counterproductive. Getting 10000 people to visit your site is fine, but if they don't sign up, it might well be a wasted effort.

If you have your demographic data solid, and are in a location where you can legally have a contest, doing so can be quite helpful if your budget is small. But the contest prize has to be something unique and of enough value that its not just another me too type of thing.

Yet another option is buying customers, although this can be tricky, especially if you don't have solid numbers as to what the real cost of new customer acquisition is.

Now, if you plan to be big, and have a short and recognizable url, you could do something way out there, and get some pr buzz in and of itself just for the uniqueness of advertising which again is dependent on your target market.

Lastly, be prepared for everyone and their brother to try to sell you on a marketing solution that is the greatest thing ever, be especially wary if they have not taken the time to truly analyze your business and market.