Social networking sites - what works for you?

We asked, here’s what you told us –

• LinkedIn is my preferred professional networking site, followed by xing.com and then by Twitter and Plaxo. Facebook is only used for private networking to stay in touch with family and friends. Oliver Schmid
• I don't like Twitter at all! LinkedIn works for me - just have to sift through the spam which can be frustrating and time consuming. Laura Beken
• I use Facebook, Linkedin, Plaxo and Twitter. I use ping.fm to post to all of them at the same time. I find Linkedin and Twitter very useful for biz and Facebook so far has been a great social network for me. Diane Helbig
• Obviously, I use LinkedIn given we're all here and I think it works well for business and I'm starting to use Facebook for business too as there's often related groups that I can contact regarding campaigns we're working on.
  
  
  
  The last show I produced for SmallBusinessAdvice.tv just before Christmas was on this exact topic - have a look at http://www.smallbusinessadvice.tv/chat/using_social_networking_for_small_businesses
  
  
  Be good to get your comments on the show too - Russell Goldsmith

Ten Common Website Mistakes

1. Not enough inbound links - it is the the #1 way to build page ranking and increase visibility in organic search. Develop an link strategy to increase your rankings.
   
2. Every title is just the name of your company - search engines read the title tag to get a sense of what the page is about.
3. Pictures are not named - use Alt Tags to identify picture content, so searchers will find them in Google image search.
4. All visual no text - the images are nice, but search engines want to read text. Try this tip - hit Cntl-A and what ever is not shaded is what the search engines see.
5. Keywords don't match text - this is known as keyword density. If your keywords and title say this about dogs but the content is about surfing - the search engines will note the disparity and move on.
6. Get rich quick schemes - avoid unrealistic promises to get your site top listings - they are likely using "black hat" techniques that will get you banned.
7. Hard to navigate - the home button should always be top left and every page should have clear navigation.
8. Boring or unattractive - you do all the work to get people there - make it interesting so they stay. Watch your bounce rate - where visitors leave after seeing only one page - to see if the content is holding their interest.
9. Broken links - nothing is more illustrating than clicking a link only to find a dead end.
10. Takes forever to load the page - limit the bells and whistles (FLASH?) to ensure the page loads quickly. Also - look at your site in more than one browser. It make look fine on Firefox, and be totally askew in IE.
    

How often should I update my blog?

This probably the question we get the most. We recommend that you update your blog at least once a week. That ensures there is fresh content for both your readers, as well as the search engines. We write our business blogs because we want potential customers to do something – hire us, buy from us, etc. Make sure there is a call to action in everything you post – such a “Contact Us to Learn More” and make it easy to do o by adding a link to your email address or to your website.

Creating fresh content tip –

When you write an article – break it up into sound bites (say 250-300 words) and then post it as installments on your blog – a 1,200 word article can yield 4 blog entries.

Another time saving tip is to write 2 or 3 entries at a time. When the ideas are flowing go with it. You can then schedule the posts for various times during the week ensuring fresh content for the next week or two.

How do you come up with fresh content for your blog?

We asked, here’s what you told us –

• I would suggest having guest bloggers and interviewing people for you blog. Doing so will give you exposure to their following and they benefit from the exposure to yours. Paul Castain Consolidated Graphics
• Keep looking at related websites and news for ideas. Do not write long posts or don't try to write everything under one heading. You can make more than one post out of one big post by dividing the content in parts/headings. Babar Hussain B2B Trade International
• Constantly think about how you can add value to someone, something, somebody in your target audience. If you are seen as adding value, then your creative juices will start flowing. Ian Piddock Lansa