Why You Need Social Networking and How to Use It

Why Social Network

If you have an online business or if you are a blogger (like me) your biggest problem is probably getting more views and followers. You can have the greatest website in the world, but it means nothing if nobody can find it. You can't rely on Google landing you thousands of views in your first week. Social networking is by far the best way to get traffic, and here's why.

• It's free
• Yes you can buy traffic, but in my opinion, that's counter intuitive. If making money is your goal, you'll spend more on traffic than you make.
• If providing quality content is your purpose (and it should be), paying people will not bringing any good traffic. When you have to pay someone to do something, you can almost guarantee that they didn't originally want to do it.
• Paid traffic is penalized by most search engines
• If you have no money to spend (like me!), this is the only way you'll get traffic.
• There's no skills involved
• All you need to know is how to be a decently friendly person.
• the most costly part is the time
• most people think it's fun

How to Social Network
Now that you know why social networking is important, here's some easy ways to start.

• You don't have to join Facebook.
• Facebook is time consuming and maybe even a little intimidating for some. You'd be better off on a smaller site anyway
• Join a site that is related to your niche.
• If you're trying to get people to come to your basketball blog it's a good idea to sign up for a social networking site dedicated to basketball. Not only will people be more likely to care about what your blog is talking about, but you will also learn more about the people in your niche.
• You can get paid to social network
• Some sites will even pay you to participate. I would recommend Mylot, but they have apparently stopped doing that. I've recently signed up for Bubblews, and I’ll tell you how I like it once I receive my first check ;).
• Introduce Yourself
• Be friendly and make positive, meaningful comments. Don't try to sell yourself at every turn. You can put a link to your blog in your signature and that's enough to bring in some traffic.
• Give advice and then link to your blog/website. Yahoo Answers is a good place for this kind of stuff. If, for example, you had a website that has tutorials to help students with their math, you could answer some kid’s math problem then leave a link to your website that has information related to the problem. This is a more active strategy to get more people to your website.
• Get noticed by interacting with some of the most popular people on the site. By doing this, you will be seen by more people, earning you more potential visitors.
• Post quality regularly
• If you can post once a week that's just fine. Just make sure you stick to the schedule
• You don't necessarily have to post fresh content. You could put the same message on several social networking sites.