I love social networking – but I’m a social creature anyway. I love networking and meeting new people. Sure, it takes time, but so does going to business mixers and generally developing business relationships. To me, it’s a matter of managing my time appropriately.
Things that I consider when taking time out to ‘network socially’ on the Internet are:
- Is this place the right place for me and my business?
- Am I meeting people who I would be comfortable doing business with and recommending to others?
- Is this the best use of my time?
If I can answer these in the affirmative then it’s all good. Now, sometimes I need to invest some of my precious time in these environments to be able to determine if those 3 questions can be answered in the affirmative.
I have been trialling a couple of sites lately and I have found the following sites excellent for me, maybe you can see if they work for you. If you click on the links below, you will see my profile or invitation to join the networks and, if you do decide to join, you will automatically connected to me.
1. ECademy – even the free membership provides lots of benefits. A social network aimed at Business people. Add to that, I’m also seeing my results in the Search Engines, so it is worthwhile!
2. Ryze – specifically the Women Business Owners network. That was the main reason I joined Ryze. I only use the Free service and have great benefits.
3. Naymz – Excellent profiling site and when you get enough reputation points (which are easy enough to get), Naymz will provide a ‘top link’ on Google for your name. Great opportunity. Again, the free service is excellent.
4. FastPitch Online – The free service is o.k on FastPitch, but I upgraded to their premium service and have access to the Press Release Service. Since releasing my first Press Release last week, I have had several Google alerts for it. It works.
5. LinkedIn – LinkedIn is definitely a business network. I don’t use it overly much, but I do see Google alerts for my profile and the answers I provide to Questions. Easy to use and setup, the free service is worth considering.
There are a few more I use, but these five will provide great business networking at an affordable price and not take a lot of your precious time in keeping up to date.
Will I see you there?
Leave your profile links to your favorite networks in the comments below and I’ll visit and connect with you
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Hi Charly,
Nice Post.
I also recommend you try LookupPage, a very user friendly tool for creating a web presence on search engines.
This service in not a social network like the above, but designated for professional users who simply want to create a web page of their own, visible in all search engines. LookupPage is free, but there is also a possibility to upgrade and get your own domain (you don’t have to pay for that) with sponsored listing that make sure you are found whenever you name is being searched on Google.
For example, you can Google my name or search my name in Yahoo to see that my LookupPage is the first result 🙂
Cheers,
Udi Drezner