Social Media 101: Tactics and Tips to DevelopYour Business Online

Chapter 58. Social Media Starter Moves for Entrepreneurs

I tend to talk from the perspective of a user of technology, but I am writing this one for people who might be seeking to build new tools, to join the social software scene. I love entrepreneurs, and I enjoy the notion of building new, amazing things. But I do want you to think about this space, too.

If you're not building a social network or platform, stick around. I want you to tell folks your thoughts, too.

THE PLATFORMS WE'RE USING

I'm definitely not going to list every social network and social media tool, but I do want you to understand a bit about how we're using these tools, so I'll mention a few.

• Facebook. Not just for kids anymore. The grown-ups I know use this service for roughly the same thing: connecting with people they already know and making some new connections.

• LinkedIn. Business social networking—the top of the heap. It's getting a little more interesting, because of its status stream and the redesign.

• Twitter. Not everyone's on there, but we're more on there than Pownce and Jaiku. Why? It's not because it's better. It's just because we're all still there, because it's simple, because it meets a lot of needs.

• Flickr. We're sharing photos on Flickr and SmugMug.

• YouTube. We're sharing video on YouTube and Blip.tv and a few dozen smaller places.

• Digg. We're getting news from Digg and Reddit and SlashDot, and there are lots of new upstarts for specific niches. We seem to like these sites because they let the crowd vote ...