Social Media Services

You’ve decided to take that leap into the world of “social media”… but what does that mean?  You’re hearing your friends, family and co-workers talk about Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yelp, MySpace and on and on.  Should your business be there?  What’s involved?  How much time does it take to run a social media platform?

Don’t worry… we’re here to help.

While its true that there are quite a few social media services out there, the reality of the situation is that currently you should probably focus on what we refer to as “The Big 3″.  That’s not to say that there aren’t other social networks out there worth looking at (and even spending a considerable time cultivating) but if you’re new to social media if you focus on these 3 you’ll be off to a great start:

Facebook Facebook

Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/) is a social networking site that was found in 2004 by the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes.  This history of the company (while intriguing enough to have a feature film made about it and several ongoing lawsuits) is not nearly as the present.  Facebook has over 800 million active users.  More than 50% of those users login to the site on a daily basis and the average user has over 130 “friends” on the site.  In addition to personal pages, Facebook offers businesses the ability have a “fan page” which can have a limitless reach.  Over 350 million users currently utilize a mobile device to access the network.

TwitterTwitter

Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/) is another social networking site that relies on the concept of “microblogging”.  Information is shared across this network in the form of “tweets” which are 140-character, text-based messages that are publicly available.  Twitter was launched in 2006 by Jack Dorsey and has over 200 million active users who generate over 200 million “tweets” per day.  Businesses and individuals alike can create a free Twitter account and begin using the service immediately to spread marketing messages, links to content or talk about whatever is on their mind.

LinkedInLinkedIn

Often referred to as “Facebook for adults”, LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/) is the world’s largest professional network on the web with over 135 million active users.  It was founded in 2003 by Reid Hoffman.  LinkedIn offers users the ability to reconnect with former colleagues, friends and classmates.  Additionally, it is an outstanding tool for businesses to research potential customers, competitors and employees.  LinkedIn also offers business pages which give organizations another opportunity to interact with their audiences.

Other Social Networks

As I said before, there are a variety of other social networks out there that depending on your business needs can be very important to your business:

  • YouTube – http://www.youtube.com
    A website which allows users to watch online movie clips with over 2 billions views per day.  It’s also the #2 search engine on the web.
  • Foursquare – http://www.foursquare.com
    A location-based app/website which allows users to explore their surroundings, meet people and share where they are.
  • Yelp – http://www.yelp.com
    Real people giving real reviews for shopping, restaurants, nightlife, etc.
  • Myspace – http://www.myspace.com
    The first big social network now focuses on the music industry.
  • Flickr – http://www.flickr.com
    A photo sharing site with a community component and sharing built in.

Whether you need help with one of these services or all of them FastWebUpdates can help.  We can provide direction when setting up your social network, instruction on how best to utilize these services and help with integrating them into your web presence.  Request a quote today!

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