Hey Guys and Gals, gurus and ninjas! Your trusted guide in the world of Marketing and SEO is here again. This time we will delve into the world of social networks and see which ones might be a great idea to add to our marketing efforts. I would like to take a slightly different approach here and focus on some popular types of businesses and the lesser known social channels they can incorporate to help their brand. But before I do that let’s spare a little time to discuss the big tycoons…
Facebook, Twitter and GooglePlus
I am putting these in one and the same group because too often I encounter people asking which one should they use for their startup business. I never understood this need for self-limitation. If you do decide to dive into the social networks, you better do it full-force and use all of them. Every business, regardless of its nature, will be able to find something useful. It can be the popularity and business opportunities of Facebook, the quick news updates of Twitter or the one-way following and business circles in GooglePlus. Whatever it is – use them! Don’t miss out on an opportunity for more exposure.
As promised, let me now break the shell of generality and observe the needs of some more specific industries and their representing companies.
Music
I presume all you music lovers are already knee-deep into Youtube, SoundCloud and Last.fm. The leading networks for audio and video sharing are already populated with millions of daily visitors and your presence there, along with a good amount of reminders to your followers about your work and passion, would surely bring some new fans to your cause. Those are not your only choices tho, not by a mile. Blip.fm is a similar place where you can create music or showcase your music talents and PureVolume is a neat site for emerging artists to share their songs or release them for free downloads. A big shout- out to all the Hip Hop fans out there with their very own corners of the web – DopeTracks and DatPiff.
Travel
Travelling is freedom, travelling is expanding our horizon and changing our perception of the world. This is why it’s no surprise that travelling is among the hottest topics people want to blog about or share experiences. Many have already tried the free blogging options of TravelPod or the huge amount of information in TripAdvisor and found a plethora of tips, reviews and suggestions for their journey. Some less known options for travelers out there are the communities of websites like Wolpy or Exploroo – both designed to let you track travels, share experiences and let others see which exotic place you’ve been lately.
Photography
Here is a tough one. In the last few years there is a large increase of the people interested in photography and as I am a little out of this trend I am sure many of you already know a lot of places where you can show, share or sell your photos. So bear with me and don’t judge me hard if I miss your favorite network here. Instagram, Flickr and PhotoBucket are no brainers here, right? A couple more I fancy very much are ShutterStock and ZenFolio, both of which present a wonderful opportunity for photographers to be seen and make a good sale. And from a marketing standpoint I simply adore using FotoBabble when photo or audio campaigns are concerned.
News
King Reddit still rules the news realms and it has been so for quite so many years now. But its by no means the sole ruler of this kingdom and various networks emerged with determination and ambitions, making this a real social Game of Thrones battle. HuffingtonPost and Technorati are already widely recognized and a coveted prize for any writer/publisher that wants to gain more exposure. One that is yet to grow so much in popularity but is a close challenger is NewsVine – since vines became a trend, so did many vine-related places. This open source community is a great place to contribute with your own news pieces and become a respected columnist.
Art and Design
This one is another field I have much love for but don’t really have the talent to participate. Still I regularly browse around such places and try to educate myself and keep my info up-to-date. DeviantArt and Behance are a couple of websites every designer seems to adore for a good reason. Aged, reputable sources of all types of art, templates, photography even poetry, these two seem to incorporate a large part of the art lovers around the web. And if you are looking to build a portfolio and score some jobs you can go ahead and accept Artician and Dribble as networks that are tailored exactly for this job.
I can go on and on and I am sure I still miss many hot industries, topics or places but I hope that this short article still introduced you to something new, something you did not consider checking so far. In the comments below you are absolutely welcome to add more to my list or suggest some industries you would be interested in covering. One can never learn enough 🙂
