The Most Important Thing About Social Media Tools

As 2009 is quickly approaching, what’s the number one thing you should be doing for your business? Yep, its all about social networking.

How long have you been in business? When you first started out, did you decide on your business name in part based on the URL address that was still available? I know that’s top on my list anymore before I come up with a new business idea. If the URL isn’t available, I change the name.

If you name your company ABC Photography, and ABCPhotograph.com isn’t available, how will anyone find you? Or worse, what if ABCPhotography.com is used by one of your competitors? Any promotion you do will be completely for the benefit of your competitor (especially if you are using a more obscure URL like ABCPhotography.net, or ABCPhotoStudio.com). Yes, dot com’s still rule.

But now the social scene is also gearing up. And many sites allow you to capture URL’s on a first come first serve basis. Let me give you some examples.

On Twitter, I’m Twitter.com/LoriOsterberg. It’s taken – and no other Lori Osterberg will have access to it. That’s especially important with the more common names, both personal and business.

And when I capture my unique URL on these social sites, I also have the ability to establish a profile. Whether I use the account or not, I can put my information up and direct people back to my content. It’s mine. And I can choose to use it now, or at any point in the future.

If you’re one of the many who has ever said, “I don’t have time to work with all of these social sites”, don’t fret. Just capture your name, build a simple profile, and park it for later use. When the site becomes big and you do decide to use it, it’ll be there for you.

[And if you really want to get ahead in 2009 and learn how to use social networking to help you build your business, join me now … ]

Comments

3 Responses to “The Most Important Thing About Social Media Tools”

Mike Molloy on April 14th, 2009 11:54 pm

Lori,

Whether you knew it or not this article really hit close to home. What your saying makes since, but really how can I get started?
admin on April 23rd, 2009 4:48 pm

A lot of it comes down to making the time to do it. You have to squeeze in the time to make it work. Dedicate 30 minutes twice per week to trying out something new. (Put it into your calendar so you’ll do it.)

Let’s say you want to start in on Twitter. The first 30 minutes you may find a class that teaches you about Twitter (I have a great one.) The second 30 minutes you set up your account and find a few people to follow. The third 30 minutes is spent Tweeting, and finding a few more people to follow.

Keep it up from there. The more you do it, the more you learn. And the more it will help you with your business.
Deb on May 4th, 2009 9:19 pm

I really appreciate the tip about changing the name if the URL isn’t available…also, be CAREFUL about the NAME…
My blog is SOHOTricks (Small Office Home Office Tricks), but I didn’t use the UPPER CASE/lower case form. A friend (who saw the URL on my business card)looked confused and asked “What’s up, SO HOT TRICKS?” I am an unattached female, so I am trying to find a NEW NAME for the blog! You may see me in class if it hasn’t already started!!