Social Networking Tools for Business

Our customers have been asking us what else we use, besides Salestrakr, to keep up with people we know.  There are many places to go, some good, some not.  But, a few of them are now even known by folks at church, friends in the book club even the coaches of the kids soccer teams.  So, here goes:

1. Twitter.  Twitter is basically a 140 character blog with a very simple "networking" method.  Those Twitter blog posts are called "tweets".  When you are logged on to Twitter, you are either following people or are being followed.  As such, each refresh of your page shows your posts and those of the people you are following.  And if you don't like using the Web to participate in Twitter, you can use one of many client applications out there available for participating on Twitter.  These include ones we use at Salestrakr: Twitterrific (Mac, iPhone and iPod Touch), Nambu (Mac, iPhone), Tweetdeck (Mac, PC and Linux) and Twitterberry (Blackberry.)  BTW, our twitter ID is Salestrakr.  Our URL is http://twitter.com/salestrakr.  My personal Twitter URL is http://twitter.com/newbrew.  My personal Twitter posts are "snarkier" and, well, personal.  However, I can still tweet about Salestrakr in that personal stream of information.
2. Facebook.  Salestrakr has it's own Facebook page.  It's still new.  But, it's another place for the company to have a "face".  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Salestrakr/91233944770.  Once you have a Facebook page for your business, you van invite "Fans" from your personal Facebook list of friends.
3. LinkedIn.  Ok, Linkedin is really about people.  You link with people.  And your profile is searchable.  My LinkedIn profile is http://www.linkedin.com/in/steveyoungblood.  So, as long as I keep that profile up to date, people will know about Salestrakr.
4. Our Typepad Blog.  You're looking at it!  You can also though use Wordpress (either on your own server or at theirs.)  Wordpress and Typepad will "ping" other blog aggregation sites when you post to a blog.  Further, Google and Yahoo crawl blogs hosted at Wordpress and Typepad and make those sites available in their search results.  Ok, this is not REALLY social networking.  But, blogging is publishing information for people to consume.  Further, Typepad and Facebook work together to show Typepad posts directly on a Facebook page.

You need a good CRM.  But, you also need to use those tools out there that help you keep up with the latest information of your contacts. And help those contacts to keep up with you.