Here’s a list of popular site which allow you to interact online with friends and customers. Most of these will allow you to install a widget on your site to allow users to subscribe to your services or interact together. This could let you include recent news on your homepage or simply allow users to listen to your music library.
Depending on your service or product you can create a group on Facebook and have your clients subscribe to your group. From here you can send mail-outs to people on this list. This sort of viral marketing can really work wonders if done properly.
Razer (a supplier of enthusiast hardware) formed a group on Facebook and ran a competition. They reached their target subscriber count in a few days and due to the viral marketing nature of the competition gained more visibility. They did this by making users set their profile picture to that of the Razer logo & web address for the duration of the competition.
Some sites for you to look into…
Micro Blogging
Keep your visitors up-to-date with your thoughts/activities using short one-liners.
Social Networks
Use the power of these sites to increase your visibility.
Business Networking Site
Find new and old business contacts.
Video/Photo Sharing
Use the power of youtube to publish videos of your products or upload high quality photos of your products/events to flickr.
Bookmarks
Share your favourite websites with your customers.
Internet Radio
Create your own station for the office and publish it on your website. A quirky but fun feature.
News
I’m not saying you should join all of the above, but you should at least take a look at them. Find out which ones interest you and which ones can work for your company. There are many more to choose from and then there are also countless forums and web groups that specialise in particular industries. For instance, if you sell hifi equipment you could join avforums and interact with like-minded enthusiasts gaining respect and a good reputation amongst those who would be your most likely customers
Remember you cannot simply join these networks and expect things to happen. You need to build up contacts to allow people to subscribe to your activities or else you’re all alone out there.
