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As social networks have become the darling of web advertisers, many myths have grown about them. Because they’re not quite mainstream, businesses are leary of their effect, and with good reason; depending on who you ask, sites like Myspace and Facebook are are worth either $1 billion or $20 billion. That being said, those dollar amounts are still in the billions, meaning they are still incredibly valuable.

So we’re offering some tips on our favorite ways to use social networks to advertise.

1) Paid banner advertising - One of the most powerful aspects of social networks is that network members are already separated by demographic - that’s almost the entire point of most social networks. Users enter their own information, including location, likes, dislikes, even income level. So when you purchase an ad on Myspace or Facebook, you can choose the type of user you want to see your ad. Technically, that can save you money, but just like the strange associations that occur with Google Adsense contextual ads, you’re going to find your ads popping up for people that have no interest in your products or services, and possibly not appearing for people who WOULD use your services. It’s not exactly a crap shoot, but with the way users utilize social networks - as a tool with ads on the far periphery - it’s not always the most cost effective strategy.

2) Create your own business profile, and make friends - The entire point of social networks is the put yourself out there, so do it - create a Linkedin Profile for yourself. Got employees on Facebook or Myspace? Have them post their job information on their profile - and “friend” your business. The average Facebook and Myspace user has about 50-60 “friends”, so even a small company of 10 employees can get exposure to people orders of magnitude larger than their workforce. Those “friends” are also potentially more likely conversions - as any business owner knows, a personal connection makes choosing a business that much more likely.

3) Form a group or a cause - This applies more to Facebook than any other network. “Groups” and “Causes” are organizational, well, groups that users can “join” within Facebook. Groups can be as serious or fun as the creators want - I’ve joined groups as varied as the “Buffalo Bills Fan Club” and the “I <3 the Spectrum EIC” (an inside joke if there ever was one) to the “Free Darfur” and “Fans of Wegmans” groups. These groups all have their own message boards, provide an easy-to-contact (and legal) distribution list for e-mail campaigns, and provides you with a base of interested customers right off the bat.

4) Post articles about or featuring you (or stuff you’ve written) - Almost every social network gives you the ability to post and share news articles that pique interest - blog posts, newspaper articles, videos, etc. It’s a venue to distribute that type of media, to share information about your company, your services, to highlight your accomplishments, whatever. It’s a great way to build name recognition, and if you already have social network “friends”, they’ll want to read it.

Those are just a few strategies - post comments with more suggestions.

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For me, Facebook was an integral part of my college experience - it was a natural extension to my real-life social networking. Just meet someone? Look them up and find out a little (or, in the case of over-sharers, a lot) about that person.

Need to contact a classmate? Look them up and send them a message - don’t know someone’s e-mail address? If they - and you - are on Facebook, all you need is their name. It’s an easy way of contact and maintaining casual connections without giving away specific contact information.

To start, these social networks were all about networking people for fun and social reasons. Other networks such as LinkedIn sprung up to target business networking, but the lines between fun-networks and business-networks are becoming blurred.

Employers oftentimes keep track of Myspace or Facebook pages of their employees - it’s not uncommon that employees have been fired for inappropriate “friending” or inappropriate pictures made public through these networks. But social networks are not just for tracking people - the reason Facebook and Myspace are worth so much money is because of their advertising potential. They’re ready-made repositories for sorted, organized and classified demographics. Simply put, social networks are full of potential customers.

There are many ways to dig into this type of marketing, though no one is the best - traditional banner-style ads can work, but are costly. Organic, viral marketing can explode your product or business to a large audience, but is often like trying to capture lightning in a bottle.

The real trick is to understand how these networks put people in touch with one another, and how people use them. CNN has a really good list of the social networks they use in their own research, and in their own personal experience - what makes them work, what makes them valuable. When you understand how these systems are used, it’s much easier to apply it to business.

Check back next week when we see the top ten ways to advertise on social networks.

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This design has been around for a while, but one of our favorite local news blogs Buffalo Pundit has a clean, functional design we here at 360 PSG love. It’s open without being unprofessional, professional without being inaccessible. It’s easy to read, works across many platforms, and simply looks sharp.

The neat thing about the design for Buffalo Pundit is that the design (and logo) doesn’t overshadow the content - the (admittedly great) content of the site stands on its own. That’s an idea that works well for news sites, but is an underrated design approach for business sites. Communicating information clearly is imperative to driving web business, and a clear design is at least one step to achieving that goal.

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