First a bit about social networking sites and what you can actually use social networking sites for. People use social networking sites to connect with friends and companies, share interests, share content, find more people, rekindle old friendships and to connect with their favourite brands and companies. Many businesses and entrepreneurs use it to connect and engage with their customers
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| When it comes to marketing your website on the Internet, Social networking is a must |
You might be thinking to yourself, what's the difference between social media and social network and how does it concern me? A social media site has only one way communication. The business communicates to the customer but the customer does not engage with the company. You can compare this to newspapers slightly. Newspapers only have a one way communication with their audience as well.
However a social network site has two ways of communication. Customers can engage with their favourite brand or company and the business can inform it's customers of any changes, offer its fans or followers discounts and many more things. The first sign of social networking sites were back in 1994 but social networking sites rose to prominence in the 2000s with Facebook and Twitter.
1. Facebook - This isn't a surprise, it is one of the most popular sites on the Internet and one of the most visited. It reportedly has over 1 billion active users. If you want to promote your website, it is a MUST for you to have a Facebook account and open a fan page for your business. This way people will be able to follow your business and be in constant contact. In 2010 a film starring Jesse Eisenberg was released called The Social Network, this film was all about how the founder Mark Zukerberg had created Facebook and the rise of Facebook.
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2. Twitter - A website in which users and send and read messages of up to 140 characters which are more commonly known as tweets. Twitter is one of the most visited sites on the Internet and has over 500 million registered users. Many businesses implement Twitter into their business and using it as a platform to engage with their customers. Hashtags help visibility when it comes to writing a tweet. Be sure to include #'s into your tweets.
Many celebrities continually use Twitter as a source to voice their opinions. Celebrities and Famous people who currently use Twitter include Tom Cruise, Russel Brand, Mariah Carey and Stephen Fry among many others.
3. Google Plus - Google+ is a social networking site created by search engine giant Google. Initially Google Plus had a slow increase to users but then Google integrated Google Plus accounts with Gmail and other Google services and they saw a massive increase in users. Currently Google+ has over 200 million active users.
Google Plus offers services like hangouts, feature that offers group video chat from anywhere in the world and Circles which allows users to put their friends in certain groups. Business owners can advertise their business and website on Google Plus and create a fan page devote enitrely to their brand, company or website.
4. MySpace - In the past this was at the top and was in the most visited sites list, but with Facebook and Twitter's incline to popularity, MySpace followed with decline. However MySpace is still slightly popular in America and has 50 million users worldwide registered. MySpace has an emphasis towards music and would be useful for businesses specialising in music.
5. LinkedIn - LinkedIn is more of a professional social network in which people use professionally and to network with people with professional occupations. It is used for professional networking and reportedly has more than 200 million users worldwide. Users can use LinkedIn to find jobs and connect with other people in their profession.
6. Pinterest - Pinterest is a social networking site and a photo sharing website which incorporates a pinboard style. The website allows users to create and edit image and videos based on the users interests, hobbies and events that have happened, it also allows users to save or 'repin' images on their own pinboard and even like photos, similar to Facebook.
Users can also follow other users who they has good images or similar tastes. Business owners can use Pinterest to further traffic to their website and to make a their website grow. Business owners can use Pinterest to sell their product and use it as their virtual storefront.
7. Instagram - This is another photo-sharing, video-sharing and social networking website that enables users to apply digital filters to their photos, upload photos and video while also sharing them to a variety of different social networking sites. Instagram is very popular on mobile platforms and is downloadable on Android phones and iOS for free.
Instagram is owned by Facebook and has gain major popularity in a short space of time and has over 100 million active users.
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| Different amount of filters you can use to add effects to the photo on Instagram |
8. Bebo - Bebo is a social networking website, that at the height of its popularity saw it rivalling many social networking sites and retaining its top position among many sites. But over the years Bebo has suffered in traffic and like MySpace has been overtaken by Facebook.
In 2013, Bebo was declared bankrupt and was bought back by its original owners for $1 million dollars, while in 2008 they had sold it for $850 million.
Bebo can be used to advertise and promote your business and to find and maintain new followers and fans for your website.
9. Flickr - Flickr is a photo-sharing/hosting and video sharing website. Flickr was bought by Yahoo and has over 80 million registered users. Flickr can be used by your website to get access to images. You can also use Flickr to host your own images and to advertise your business via Flickr and get traffic.
10. deviantART - deviantART is an online community completely committed to art. Users can browse over 200 million pieces of art while also selling their own artwork and make money from it. According to the website, deviantART has over 28 million members.
That is it from the top ten list. We hope this article helped you and we would appreciate it if you could share this page. We would also appreciate it if you could follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook. If you have any more questions or queries or would just like to add to the conversation, then please get involved in the comment section below.
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