Components of an Online Presence

There are numerous components to a social media online presence. The main ones, I think, are blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Plus Pinterest is growing rapidly, and therefore becoming more important. Another platform to review is Quora, but it’s not for everyone. In this post, I’m listing each and highlighting features specific to each platform. I believe that you need most of these components, the first five in particular. Each serves a different purpose, and each is important in its own right. Together, they provide a powerful, multi-faceted way in which to reach out to and interact with your customers. You can provide the information they need at the moment they need it, and in the format they prefer at that moment. It’s a real-time world, and you have to be ready.

Updated: December 26, 2012

Blogs

Hub of your online presence

• You own it, essentially; you’re not building on someone else’s platform over which you have no control
• Include blog posts of varying types
• Can provide comprehensive, detailed information
• No limit on number of words
• Include reference materials
• Long-term: information easily available indefinitely
• Posts archived and easily accessible
• Can plan content strategy and editorial calendar to support launches and such
• Can be indexed in Google
• People can leave long comments, which generates more discussion
• Can set up an email newsletter

Facebook

Build community

• Can share information that’s longer than tweets, shorter than blogs
• People can easily comment
• Comments are short, not lengthy like blogs
• People can “like” a post in Facebook, which their friends can then see (viral)
• Longer staying power than tweets
• Delivers information right to fans that like your page
• Can include Like links in blog posts
• Can set up an email newsletter
• Facebook pages rank high in search results
• Can use promoted posts option to get your message in front of target audience
• Can buy ads to increase number of page fans, with ability to drill down to a specific demographic

Twitter

Real-time sharing of information, engaging with followers

• Use to “push” information to followers, such as links to blog posts, reference materials, news items
• Send out news from your blog, get followers back to it
• Share expertise and establish yourself as an expert in a discipline
• Short length (<140 characters) make it easy to scan information
• Used as a news source
• Use to “engage” followers – to have conversations with people. A critical aspect. You cannot talk only about yourself or your products.
• Use to build a network: retweet (RT) what others are saying and share their news and information
• Short-term: tweets fly by and are gone. You can use hashtags to capture some, but tweets are gone within 24 hours, at best.
• There is a Twitter etiquette that must be followed; very important
• Can make Twitter newspapers that pull in information from hashtags, or from your followers
• Can attend Twitter chats for real-time discussions with multiple people
• Can place ads on Twitter

YouTube

Easily share information in visual format, which in increasing in use

• Can set up a YouTube channel
• People can subscribe to the channel and receive emails when new videos are uploaded
• YouTube is the second largest search engine, and ranks high in search results
• Video is definitely increasing in use and should not be ignored

Google+

Build community

• Similar to Facebook in content
• Networks can be more business-oriented than Facebook
• Supports AuthorRank and enables you to tie posts and items to your personal profile: becoming increasingly important
• Becoming more important, as businesses are scaling back participation on Facebook to some degree due to ad changes

LinkedIn

Professional network and B2B resource

• Build network with professionals
• Personal, one-on-one
• Share expertise in groups and establish yourself as an expert in a discipline
• Can place ads there
• Can build company pages which people can follow
• Can set up groups to help build your presence and obtain contacts
• Known for B2B interactions and source of leads

Pinterest

Share information; evolving and increasing in use

• Significantly increasing in use
• Has potential to increase revenue
• Visual medium, which is very important now
• While audience has been primarily women, it’s expanding for use by businesses
• Company pages now available
• The visual design is now being used by other sites and companies: it’s definitely now a trend
• Serious copyright issues, so be aware of that!

Quora

Crowdsourced Q&A

• Can answer questions to share expertise and establish yourself as an expert in a discipline
• Important to watch, and determine whether you want to spend time on it or not

Setting Up Your Online Presence

We can get you set up and help manage your online presence. For details, see Social Media Packages.

………………

What are your thoughts? How do you use these components?

Related posts:

Comments

1. www.tagesgeldvergleich.de says

   September 3, 2013 at 5:01 am

   Hello! I know this is somewhat off topic but I was wondering if you knew where I could get a
   captcha plugin for my comment form? I’m using the same blog platform as yours and
   I’m having problems finding one? Thanks a lot!

2. Julie Norris says

   September 10, 2013 at 5:06 pm

   I would suggest going to wordpress.org and searching in the Plugins for captcha. There will likely be a number of them listed. Good luck!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Name *

Email *

Website

five + = 8

Comment

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a class="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>