How to get started with Social Networking Sites
(Part 2 of a Multi-Part Series on Social Networking)



In the last article I gave an overview on the benefits of using online Social Networking sites. This article will focus on the process of signing up for these sites.


Prior to getting your account stated there are a few housekeeping issues that need tending to. I personally recommend setting up another email address that is used specifically for your Social Networks. The reason I say this is that each time someone 'adds you as a friend', 'invites you', 'posts a comment', or 'messages you' (off of which I will explain in a few moments); an email is sent to your inbox. Depending on how many Social Networks you signup for, this can very quickly take over your normal inbox and you can sometimes miss other important emails as a result. Both Yahoo (http://mail.yahoo.com) and Google (http://mail.google.com) offer very good (and free) web based email services and I would recommend either one of them.


Once your email account has been setup you are ready to create your first Social Networking account. While there are literally hundreds of Social Networking sites, you will want to initially stick with the most popular ones, such as -

http://www.myspace.com
http://www.facebook.com
http://www.LinkedIn.com
http://www.bebo.com
http://www.hi5.com


Which ones you choose to sign up for is entirely up to you. Personally I have both a MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/realestate_pro) and LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenmcarlson) account and I highly recommend both.


When signing up for these sites, there are some very important things to keep in mind:

1) Choose your username wisely - Yes, you might be a very attractive lady, but 'sexymama42' is not a very professional username. Choose something more professional and conservative sounding such as 'Sellsflorida' or even 'JaneSmith'. Also, do not make your username long winded or hard to remember. People will have to type it in order to contact you. For example, if your myspace user name is 'Jane_sells_homes_for_a_great_price_in_florida' then your myspace web address would wind up being be - http://www.myspace.com/Jane_sells_homes_for_a_great_price_in_florida; doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, now does it?

2) Your page is NOT for YOU to look at! - Just like your username, keep your site clean and professional looking. When creating a homepage on any Social Networking site, this is a very important point to remember. The purpose of your homepage is for people to find out about you so you can do business with them. If they have to wait 2-3 minutes for all your animated butterfly pictures to load or have to sit through a slide show of your family vacation, you will loose them, plain and simple. Not only that but it makes you look amateurish and not someone worthy of doing business with.

3) Provide real substance - Create content on your page that is useful, informative, and well organized. For example, you could write an article about the property values in your local neighborhood. Some good examples of this can be found at http://www.myspace.com/miamijustlisted. The owner of these pages provides well written mini-articles about her local market and she uses this approach to keep traffic coming to her pages and at the same time it gives her an 'air of authority' on the subject of realestate.


I am going to wrap this installment up with some basic terminology commonly used on Social Networking sites. The following terms are used specifically by MySpace. Other sites will use different but similar language to describe the same thing.

Add to Friends - Before you can post comments or send a message to someone, you must first 'befriend' them. This is accomplished through the act of sending a request to be someone's friend. It is up to them whether they will add you as a friend so making a good impression on your own site really counts here.

Friend Request - This is the same as above, with the only difference that this is where someone requests to be *your* friend. Again, it is up to you whether you will accept them as a friend or not.

Send a Message - This simply is the act of sending a message to a friend. Of course you have to have been accepted as a friend before you can do this.

Block User - This is where you can keep another user from contacting you or posting messages to your site.

Rank User - This is where you can organize your 'friends' in whatever order you like so that your favorites are at the top.

Once you are someone's friend, you are able to post comments on their page or send them messages. This is a good way (without spamming) to introduce yourself to this new friend and the friends of this person, as they will be able to read your comments as well. When you do post comments on another person's site, there is a very important rule of internet etiquette that unfortunately very few people follow. DO NOT post large photographs or animations on someone else's page. This only makes their page take longer to load and can make the page look very poor and unprofessional. They will then remove you as a friend and also remove your posting which entirely defeats the reason you are doing this Social Networking thing in the first place.

This is a general overview on getting started with Social Networking Sites. Stay tuned for Part 3 where I explain how to make friends, join clubs, and post content to your page. Until then, take some time to explore each of the Social Networking Sites using the links below and check out what they have to offer.


http://www.realpro.info

Nice information Steven, this looks like it would definitely be useful for people just getting started with social networking.

Another thing you might want to keep in mind is to make sure to put your marketing message(s) above the fold. "Above the fold" simply means on a part of the webpage that people can see without having to scroll down or sideways.

Putting whatever marketing message or call to action above the fold will increase your chances of people actually following through with it, as more first-timers and passers-by will see it.

i enjoyed reading it as well. i have myspace but you have given me some pointers i hadn't thought about. look forward to your updates. it would be good if you kept your updates here.