Social Networking by Internet
Unless you are in college, it is unlikely you have met the social networking website Facebook yet. According to a recent Time® magazine article, it is only just less popular than Google for the amount traffic it receives.
Social networking sites have the most explosive growth of any Internet sites. Driven by young people who use the services to maintain contact with their friends, they can have thousands of visitors an hour using mostly free services.
Facebook requires you to register an email address connected with a college, university or some high schools. Some Oklahoma institutions including Carl Albert State College are now included in their network. Facebook requires the institutions to register in an attempt to create a safer environment for members. Other online networking sites have had many warnings issued about them for their open approach to membership.
Members can upload a lot of information about themselves at all the websites. Interest groups and location finders are common along with the chat rooms and message boards. The whole purpose is to have members connecting easily with people from down the road and around the world. Once you are in the network, it is also easy to add your current information when you move to a new area. CASC students who were already Facebook members from other places could quickly add their existing member information to the CASC network.
What may not be as obvious is the opportunity to reach these groups as an advertiser. All the websites accept advertising. If your product is youth oriented this can be a lucrative area for you to spend some advertising dollars. Not all companies compete in the same places and there may be hidden opportunities for yours.
In the same way, Google is not the only search engine. There are millions of searchers using specialty search services where your pay per click costs can still be in the five to ten cent range. That can mean true advertising values when compared with dollars per click in the crowded pages of Google. This becomes particularly important when you compare the demographics of users. If you sell to twenty year olds, why advertise where the forty-five year olds congregate?
Internet marketing is about finding your edge in an increasingly complex medium. There are many ways to use it to your advantage and to find customers your competition does not serve.
Mike Myklin is an author, lecturer, and e-business owner who specializes in Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimization. This article is archived at www.myklin.com.
Social networking sites have the most explosive growth of any Internet sites. Driven by young people who use the services to maintain contact with their friends, they can have thousands of visitors an hour using mostly free services.
Facebook requires you to register an email address connected with a college, university or some high schools. Some Oklahoma institutions including Carl Albert State College are now included in their network. Facebook requires the institutions to register in an attempt to create a safer environment for members. Other online networking sites have had many warnings issued about them for their open approach to membership.
Members can upload a lot of information about themselves at all the websites. Interest groups and location finders are common along with the chat rooms and message boards. The whole purpose is to have members connecting easily with people from down the road and around the world. Once you are in the network, it is also easy to add your current information when you move to a new area. CASC students who were already Facebook members from other places could quickly add their existing member information to the CASC network.
What may not be as obvious is the opportunity to reach these groups as an advertiser. All the websites accept advertising. If your product is youth oriented this can be a lucrative area for you to spend some advertising dollars. Not all companies compete in the same places and there may be hidden opportunities for yours.
In the same way, Google is not the only search engine. There are millions of searchers using specialty search services where your pay per click costs can still be in the five to ten cent range. That can mean true advertising values when compared with dollars per click in the crowded pages of Google. This becomes particularly important when you compare the demographics of users. If you sell to twenty year olds, why advertise where the forty-five year olds congregate?
Internet marketing is about finding your edge in an increasingly complex medium. There are many ways to use it to your advantage and to find customers your competition does not serve.
Mike Myklin is an author, lecturer, and e-business owner who specializes in Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimization. This article is archived at www.myklin.com.
posted by Mike Myklin at 5:14 AM
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