I’ve written before about social profiles, both the benefits they provide, and the problematic nature of relying on a third-party for your internet presence. Social networking can provide you with valuable market research. It can also become a series of unconnected, forgotten, and abandoned profiles generating no real value but cluttering up your online reputation. I always suggest that social networks be evaluated closely before you invest the time it takes to join a network, and that you should never rely on a singe social network for all of your online promotional efforts.
Social profiles need to be attached to a space, a central hub you can update from the back end. Not only does this mean you shouldn’t rely on Myspace to be the only place where you promote your band, it also means you shouldn’t rely only on Ebay or Etsy to be the online shopping cart that powers your small business.
Social media is at its best when it is an open, not a closed system that provides measurable and real-time results across a decentralized network. While it is game-changing, it can also be corrosive to traditional marketing strategies. Having a web site you can update completely, archive, and restore from a back-up is a guarantee your presence won’t be washed away by the changing relationships people have with internet technology.
Your central hub also needs to be built on a framework where you can at edit and modify the content as you see fit.
Social media is a real-time space, and your online presence benefits tremendously by real-time responses. We structure your site in such a way that you can easily adapt your schedule to a few light online touches that draw ongoing attention from social networking hooked into your own content management system. And if you’re in the ‘Tech Valley’ here in the capitol district around Albany, Latham, Colonie, Troy, or Amsterdam, you know your website hosting questions can be answered in person, and we can show you how to anchor your existing social network profiles to your promotional efforts.
These anchor points need to be on your own domain name, and you should have email addresses tied to that domain name. We can help you do this easily, and show you how updating your approach to social networking increases your efficiency and productivity over time. Feel free to email us today if you’d like to learn more:
