Social Media That Matters

So you had a MySpace account and now you have a Facebook account. You also have a Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn account with a number of other social media sites under your belt stretching your capacity to keep up with every detail of information passing through these sites thin. For many, it might seem next to impossible to work all day and keep up with all the different social media sites an average person belongs to. With so many social media sites out there producing so much daily information, you might find yourself asking which sites really matter when it comes down to getting your name out there.

While there are many social media sites out there, I think it is safe to say that there are three key media platforms that anyone looking to "get the word out" needs to be a part of. Those three sites are (no particular order):

Facebook:
A site that used to have a heavy focus on college students has expanded to include men, women, and children of all ages. Not only does Facebook provide a huge exposure pool of people for your information, but it also allows you to maintain a heavy traffic page for you, your business, or your blog with little actual updating required to keep people coming back. Facebook is the Google of online communities , which is why you need to be on Facebook.

LinkedIn:
This has become the one-stop place to be whether you work for a business or you're self employed. It continues to prove itself as a valuable tool in managing your career from networking to finding your next job opportunity. LinkedIn provides you with the ability to list your resume and a whole bunch of additional information. What makes LinkedIn a must for me is the "groups" or community the site has created. The ability to network and collaborate on work and jobs openings across industries and the world in one place is priceless in today's market. Plus it is a great way to advertise your business, work, and more importantly your brand (more to come on this in a future article).

Twitter:
One of the newest social media tools to pop up has quickly become one of the most important (and useful!). Twitter is currently the easiest and probably the most popular way of communicating with a whole bunch of people on an infinite topic of discussions. I personally use Twitter to keep readers up to date with my current blog postings (as many of us do) and to keep up to date on all the interesting conversations going on out there. What makes this tool so valuable is it allows you to reach a very large number of people quickly at anytime and with ease.

Finally, if time restraints are your issue; remember the beauty of these sites is that you don't have to read everything and make updates constantly. Browsing over to each of these sites 2-3 times a day for 5 minutes or so is more then enough time to read (or skim) what's going on and to make some quick 1-2 sentence comments/updates. That's all it really takes. So for those of you looking to get the word out on you or your business, make sure you've got the top three covered.

TechLifeMashup.com is a technology driven lifestyle blog written for anyone who has a interest in social networking, and self employment. I started this blog as a way to motivate people (myself included) through the use of technology (i.e the internet) to pursue their true passions and interests in life. For more articles like this one, click here to view my site and see all the great quality content it has to offer.