By that,I mean, who here talks to people on social networks, interacting with them? When you're knee deep in internet marketing it takes a slap in the face to realize it's real people you're dealing with and not numbers! Which networks do you prefer to use for socializing (and not advertising)?
Well, as I am an internet marketing guy, my main objective is always to promote my services or products over social networks to gain the maximum exposure, but it doesn't mean I only promote my services over social networks. You need to be socialize first, you need to have friends over there, you need to have discussion with them, you need to help them and then they can help you in your services advertising.
I use the Pareto rule of 80:20. I try to socialise with my friends 80% of the time I am on SN and only use it to advertise for 20% of the time. I find that achieves the best results as if you do any more then people just ignore it.
I consider myself a social marketer. My efforts are much more effective when I commit to conversations across multiple sites and networks opposed to campaigning for clicks. I don't think you have to choose between socializing and marketing. The most effective marketers do both.
Very well said. I think people doesn't get the point of 'social networking'. I see people going to twitter and bombard their followers with links to their sites and other spam links. For me, facebook is the most effective social site. You get to know people better by what they put on their status, photos, links, etc. And you can also interact by leaving comments to what they're saying.
I do! Use social networks to actually socialize, I mean. I'm on my facebook profile a lot and I keep track of my friends' activities there as well as publish updates that I want them to know about. Of course, I post affiliate links there, too, but only for those products that I think will be useful to my friends. For actual marketing, I have facebook pages.
I think most of people do, especially on facebook which has more intimacy. I have my personal facebook account with the real name and last name, which I have created about 3 years ago (that time I had no clue about marketing) and I track all my close friends and people I know well. If I get any spammy request - I just reject it with no questions asked. No business or affiliate links involved. For business, like Affilorama said, I do use facebook fan pages too.
I use social bookmarking sites for getting traffic and back link. I use twitter, facebook sites. I got great result to work both sites. Really my sites traffic increased.
I interact with new people every day what's the point of having a social network profile if you're not using it correctly