8 Business Social Sites to Help you Network
LinkedIn Twitter and Facebook aren’t the only social networking games in town. Not by a long shot.
Social Networking sites are being created for almost every conceivable need and they are showing no signs of slowing down any time soon. Facebook, Linked In and Twitter are simply the most well known.
There are hundreds of other social networking sites where you can specifically market your business to your audience – and to other businesses. What I love about these networks is they are geared to promoting and growing your business with a social, give, share, get approach. After all that’s what it’s all about. Instead of trying to fit your goals around Facebook or Twitter etc (and their sometimes mystifying business “rules” you can unknowingly break), why not try one or more networks specifically geared to your business promotion goals?
To help you get started, here are 8 sites well worth checking out:
1. Apsense.com: Tap into an affiliate marketing revenue stream by promoting products and sites on your business profile. You get paid for the friends you refer.
2. Biznik.com: Join your local business community to connect and collaborate with nearby entrepreneurs, and find out about local seminars and events. This is an excellent social networking site for business and it has a vibrant friendly membership and great original content in the form of articles, blogs and more.
3. Entrepreneur Connect : Share ideas, join groups, publish content and promote your business on Entrepreneur’s Magazine’s own social network.
4. FastpitchNetworking.com : Create a profile, product listings and blog. You can also take advantage of email marketing and virtual trade shows. Real social networking for business.
5. GoBigNetwork.com: This is a start up community if you’re interested in fast growth, and finding focused expert advice and funding.
6.Konnects.com: Social Network for local magazines newspapers. So if you’re in the Industry, what better place to start. Build a network with other start-up entrepreneurs and launch your own branded network when you’re ready.
7. Marzar.com: Here you can form business relationships, create interest-specific communities, find suppliers and stay informed about new developments and events. Businesses, entrepreneurs, and other professionals have a single, “one stop shop” to promote products, services and discover business opportunities
8. Xing.com – a global site for finding business partners, contacts and professional opportunities.
These are very interesting social networking sites for business that might even be better fits than the more popular ones. Check them out and and let me know what you think.
Thanks to: Entrepreneur Magazine March 09
{ 3 trackbacks }
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the reminder, Nicky. I like knowing about other social networking sites that are industry specific. While your post is pretty start-up and entrepreneur heavy, I was glad to read about Konnects.
BTW, I had a little trouble with the link for EntrepreneurConnect.
More interesting sites that I ought to follow up on. A very useful and interesting article, thanks for sharing.
Tony’s last blog post..The UK Versus USA Culture Shock
@Cheryl: I thought these were a great find. They are by no means the only ones either. What I liked most is that they are promotion/marketing specific so more business geared than Twitter and Facebook.
They reminded me a little of BNI, the offline marketing network. It’s important that social networking doesn’t leave out the need to give and receive leads and to promote. Though I do enjoy the popular “3″ they seem to frown on most types of business promotion and marketing… you have to be really careful – especially with Facebook which can ban you faster than you can say “invite”.
Also, I think newer entrepreneurs need more info on where to network… they don’t have the corporate support so it’s not something that’s necessarily obvious. Biznik is great by the way.
Where, oh, where is the time? I need 30 hours in a day to explore, participate and raise a child; oh, yes, and make enough money to put into “retirement.” Thanks for these, for sure. @Soulati
@Jayne – Believe me, I hear you. I thought about that when I wrote the post. You can’t possibly be in all of them – and still have time for luxuries – like sleeping and eating
Seriously though, choose one that you feel matches your business goals. Then it’s a case of trying it out.