October 7th, 2009 by Bruce

The proliferation of social media sites around the Internet can be little short of mind-numbing from an online business perspective. As entrepreneurs, we are told that we should be involved in these sites and that to ignore their existence could have negative consequences for our businesses down the road. The crux of the matter is that we barely have enough time to designate to our other obligations as it is, let alone the incredible volume of time which would be required to become active members in these social media networks.

For entrepreneurs who are always on the go and looking for some inside information, we can highly recommend these five “must see” social media sites:

1. LinkedIn.

This is definitely one of the most valuable professional networking sites around. Their current slogan is “relationship matters”, and this site certainly has what it takes to really last, being one of the original social media enterprises. Whether you’re looking for a job, trying to link up with peers or building your company, there are a host of resources available. If you’ve got the time, it’s certainly best to interact on a daily basis, and to check out the group feature of LinkedIn as well. You must specify your keywords appropriately and establish your brand position so that you are exposed to and aware of the right kind of potential partners, business opportunities or service providers.

If you can invest the time, and you’re able to really interact, you’ll get a lot more out of your membership, and you’ll be able to establish yourself as an expert in your field – for instance, by providing detailed responses to questions in LinkedIn Answers. The more you interact with others, the more your marketing message may be perceived as desirable and trusted, in qualitative terms.

2. Entrepreneur Connect.

Most of you will be familiar with the excellent magazine Entrepreneur. This is an extension of their talent and is a fairly new social media network designed for the entrepreneur. The idea here is simply to share ideas. The magazine’s format celebrates interaction and percolation, and the network itself follows suit.

Once you’ve set up your profile and started to engage with the community, you can move on to interacting with professional groups according to your area of expertise, or even make a new group if you’d like. Establish yourself as an expert and be a provider of good content rather than self promotion. The scope of the benefits you’ll derive will come from the degree of your attentive participation.

3. Biznik.

Some entrepreneurs believe that a network that charges for membership will usually be made up of individuals who are quite a bit more serious, and much more likely to be active members too. Biznik is surprisingly serious about its position, and it has gone so far as to brand itself as the network that “actually cares about the entrepreneur.”

There are three levels of membership available here; two of which are paid, up to $24 a month for the “pro” level. Their approach – go it alone, together, and it requires you to use real data in a system which utilises a human review procedure to ensure that everyone is keeping it real. This site can be a shoulder to cry on, or a source of inspiration, but once again its benefits will come from an active involvement on your part.

4. StartupNation.

This option is rather different. It is a site created by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, but it is chock full of content and advice. You’ll find innumerable articles on almost every business idea that you could envisage as well as active forums. In some respects it is also like a giant “super blog” where you can pick up so much information in one place without the feeling that you are being drawn to so many different sites during your research.

The instigators of the site, Rich and Jeff Sloan, are nationally acclaimed entrepreneurs, publishers, celebrities and award winners, and the composition of this site reflects this in its details.

5. Ecademy.

Ecademy is one of the leading social networking sites in the UK. You can create your own profile and have a certain degree of flexibility in design. This allows some individuality, the lack of which is a criticism often leveled at other networking sites. A variety of membership levels are available – up to $100 a month, although certain elements of the site are available free.

Ecademy has a more open environment than structured sites such as LinkedIn, and you will need to be proactively involved in the search for potential partners, connections or other associations. As such, the site has an active classified section and good forum potential. It seems that Ecademy is becoming more involved with Business Networking International, which could further extend the reach of the website development and the networking potential for the ongoing members.

Michelle Dale is The Managing Director of Virtual Miss Friday, a cutting edge Executive Virtual Assistant Service which assists organisations and enterprising individuals with every detail of their entrepreneurial aspirations. Do you want to peruse some further information on these incredible online business building success strategies? Contact VMF Now!

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