Last week we looked into the statistics of Facebook and how it can help you find more business. This week we’re going to look into three other fantastic social networking sites. The three of which I’ll introduce you to today are StumbleUpon, Google Places and Twitter.
Twitter is an online social networking and “microblogging” perfect for quickly updating your users, clients, and/or customers to links, news, and information. Additionally it’s a great way to connect to users and interact with them in a brief and concise way perfect for our “want everything right now” world. Understanding and using things like trending topics and hash tags on Twitter is also a great way to discover and connect to new users, readers or customers as well.
Links coming from most social networking sites now have influence in Google’s search results so taking advantage free promotional avenues like these, in addition to always having great content is that best thing you can do right now for your website or business!
Google Places
If your business or website does not have a physical presence, open to customers and the curious, these are not the droids you’re looking for. If it does, Google Places is just what you need for increased visibility and exposure.
Google Places Logo Google Places, in connection with Google Maps, is a free listing service for businesses with a physical location. Your address, website, and phone number are available to view by those searching for something in your area and it will undoubtedly one day replace phone books. Moreover, fully filling out your Google Places information will not only help local listing position but will also helps organic traffic results. On a business’s Google Places page are also reviews which you can interact with and respond to, giving you let another place to let your customers find you and be heard.
StumbleUpon
Did you know that more links are shared through StumbleUpon than on Facebook? It’s true! Currently StumbleUpon is adding over 1 billion (!) stumbles a month.
The essence of the company is that users define their tastes and preferences in websites, download a special tool bar with which they “stumble” across new websites, and finally rate that website which in turn determines said sites frequency in appearing to other StumbleUpon users. Having your website indexed on StumbleUpon, as well as using available tools and plug ins so your users have easy access to “stumbling” an article or page within your site, is an invaluable tool from which you are all but guaranteed favourable results.