During the teleseminar today on “How to do Social Networking, Run a Business & Still Have a Life,” with BL Ochman, we offered two ideas on how Publicity Hounds can find social networking sites on niche topics:
1. Do a Google search for “social networking” + (your topic). That’s what I did this morning when searching for social networking sites for motorcyclists. The entire first page of Google was filled with them.
2. Pose the question to the LinkedIn community. Many LinkedIn users are very helpful, and I’ll bet you’ll find more niche sites than you could have dreamed existed.
Here are five more ideas I thought of after the call today:
3. Ask the question on Twitter.
4. Go to Facebook and search “Groups” to see if a Group is devoted to your topic. Then ask members of that group what sites they recommend.
5. Create a Google Alert for the topic, and check the results frequently.
6. If you’re posting comments at blogs that write about the topic, you can email the bloggers and ask them what sites they recommend. Or tell them you’d love to see a post on that topic.
7. If you’re posting comments at a blog, include your question within your comment.
8. Search at Ning, an online directly of social media sites. As of this writing, Ning has more than 1 million sites listed.
BL was great, by the way. You can follow her on Twitter. She even told us how she’s using social networking sites to promote the launch of her new website, Pawfun, that lets you design your own T-shirt with a photo of your favorite four-legged hound or other pet.
With Google Alerts, it now has a fantastic new feature: RSS feed – so the alert comes to you.
This has made a big difference to my tracking – I’d previously sent them to a Gmail address and didn’t check often enough. Now they just roll through the newsreader programme and I pick up relevant leads without delay.
Keep up the good work…
Ken, I didn’t know that Google offers an RSS feed for Alerts. I have created several Alerts and don’t always have time to read through the list. This is a wonderful way to keep these Alerts top of mine.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the great tips in the article and the comment tip about RSS feeding the Google alerts. I’m all for finding more efficient ways to do all the online marketing we’re told to do. Thanks again!
Writer’s First Aid blog
Well – here are my humble opinions on SN –
1. You will gain recognition – but very few customers.
2. You will get people who will want you to buy their services –
3. Very few groups are going to help you – it is more for the moderator to say “they have a group with so many members”
4. You need to do other things other than SN –
Now don’t me wrong – you should be on these SN – and Ecademy is one to be on for the global aspect. I don’t know why people are always forgetting that – write to me at jansimpson11@gmail.com, I can get you 3 free months as a PowerNetworker to try it out. People are nice and will help you more so than Linkedin or Facebook.
Good post – just need to understand what you will be getting for all the hours you will need to spend in order to get noticed. It is frustrating and I find it funny, when I need something, no one wants to help, but boy when they need a job or recommendation, they come running – so be careful of the stalkers, the flaggers, the vindictive people, but don’t be so afraid either –
Twitter is okay – but still haven’t had much out of it as yet –
Google Alerts are certainly a great way to find targeted social network sites. At Media Relations, Inc., a Minneapolis-based publicity firm, we have found them especially helpful when it comes to jumping on the social media bandwagon and more importantly, blogging.
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