Social Networking for Professionals
About Yelp:
Once you've located the business page, it's simple: click or tap Write a Review and you'll be led through the remaining steps to finish. Please note that if you're unable to locate the business, you may need to add it to Yelp.
I currently use Google tools, Yelp, and Zoom.
I currently also have a meetip group for my car club members.
Lastly I also use Google maps daily.
then write a blog post telling us what you found, and if you would use these tools or not.
Social Networking for Professionals
MEET UP Groups
Meet Up is another place to reach
out to others in the same field as you, to join groups that are related
to hobbies you are interested in, and so many other things. Connecting
with others that have similar interests is generally a good way to also
build business connections. They have an excellent group for women
entrepreneurs that helps you build your business by connecting you to
other businesses that are interested in supported women owned companies.
They say it best: "Join a group to meet people, make friends, find
support, grow a business, and explore your interests. Thousands of
events are happening every day, both online and in person!"
http://www.meetup.com
Google My Business plus other Google Tools
http://google.com/business/
We
already touched on using Google for Business, if you have a real
business that you own or are working with you may already have a
business profile on Google. Google My Business allows you to add
accurate business information, create a free website, post photos and
other information about your business and much more. Customers can use
it to post reviews. If you have a physical location, your business might
already be listed on Google Maps or you can add in the location
yourself. Google also provides many free online tools that are handy for
businesses to be able to have access to - such as the blogging site we
are using for class, other office tools that are great for sharing
information with others, documents, spreadsheets, and so much more.
By using Google Maps, you can locate your business address on a map and then embed the link in your website. Google writes the code, you (or your web developer) can easily add the html to your website. https://maps.google.com/
Create your own Google Map with multiple locations already posted on
in. You name it and can offer it as a public map that anyone can access.
Google will create the embed code for this map as well.
http://support.google.com/maps/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=62843
RATING SITES
Google is a great places to leave
reviews on businesses. There are many places to leave online reviews and
recommendations about restaurants, shopping, nightlife and much more.
Yelp is one of the best known.
http://yelp.com
We have discussed how our users can interact on
FaceBook and add comments that give us insights on how they feel about
our product or service. Yelp, however, is built on the ratings that
anyone can give a business or service. With a possible score of 1-5
stars, how does your business rate? This service can be a great place to
see how your business is perceived by customers. It can make or break a
business. The conversation is primarily one sided — from the consumers
point of view. Although as a business owner you can contact the writer
of a post, whether it be a good or more likely a bad rating. Most often
people do not.
If the post is obviously not based on facts or goes beyond a certain level of decorum, you can ask for it to be removed. A series of great ratings can take a small business and give it a boost. Temptation is to have our friends add ratings, but those posts show a record of how many ratings a person has posted in the past. If their list only contains just one rating, other readers and Yelp itself might hesitate to give it as much value.
Visitors to the Yelp site are offered options to connect to the businesses listed on their site through phone or by giving directions and a map, and a link to the business website. There is some concern with Yelp’s credibility in that positive ratings that remain on a page are closely related to the business buying advertising through Yelp. Whether the reviewer is new or an “elite” member of the review field also blurs the line of credibility. Beware - because their name is appropriate, you may Yelp when you see which reviews remain on your page.
In addition to reviews, Yelp users can also add images to your Yelp page.
- Business owners are encouraged to manage their Yelp Review site.
- There is also the option of using Yelp advertising.
As mentioned above, you can leave ratings or reviews on Google for Business, but also places like Square, an online sales tool; FaceBook, Trip Advisor, Amazon, Better Business Bureau and so many more places.
Music Sites, Live Streaming, Twitch, TikTok and beyond
Specific
areas of interest can require more specific platforms, or the platforms
can stretch to fit many needs. A few musics sites for uploading your
tunes include SoundCloud, Reverb Nation, BandCamp and Spotify.
Live streaming takes you beyond posted YouTube videos. Some are saved for future reference such as podcast on any number of topics. Others such as Twitch provide an online service for watching or streaming live video broadcasts. TikTok use was controversial in America for a while, but has made some people go viral through their short video. It can be used to create short music, lip-sync, dance, comedy and talent videos of 3 to 15 seconds, and short looping videos of 3 to 60 seconds. It has become more acceptable for use by a broader spectrum of people for personal videos and short business videos.
There are so many options, so little time and things are always changing in the world of social media.
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