In todays social media times there are so many options to get your ideas out. I have been a part of Facebook from the beginning but never imagined it could be what it is today. With the introduction of WordPress creating and maintaining your own web site and blog are super easy. Even Google has a great channel to get your word out. In this article I will try to dissect what I think is the best of each.
I will start with my first exposure to getting my word out. Facebook. Like many of us, Facebook was our first vehicle we used to express and share our thoughts. It is the easiest to get people to use and share. Facebook makes it easy to separate your personal life with personal pages and business life with fan pages. Both pages are easily managed with one logon. Facebook is a social engine and is good to remember that if you plan to conduct business there. With a well defined personal/business posting process you will be sure not to annoy your family and friends with unwanted business chatter. Facebook also has an awesome Pay-Per-Click advertising program. With a minimal daily budget you can create great exposure for your business. Again, keep in mind that this vehicle is a Social Machine. Advertising here should be used to create excitement about an item and not directly trying to sell the item.
The Google Suite has come a long way. I have been working with Google+ and Blogger over the past two months and found some quick results. The big plus with this vehicle is that Google is well, Google. When it comes to SEO, I have spent little time working on it. Almost every post I create on my Blogger account shows up in Google searches within a 24 hour time frame. To add value to the blog, you can share your post to your followers on their Social Media vehicle called Google+. Now just like your friend base on Facebook, your friends on Google+ can share your ideas with their friends.
Blogging alone has come a long way, thanks to WordPress. I am an old school web designer and spent many hours teaching myself HTML to design my first web site and customer sites. Today, all you need to do is search for plugins to load in WP to do what you want. What use to take hours of coding, now takes minutes of searching, familiarizing yourself with the plug in and then executing. It took me about 6 hours to get our energy website up and running with a blog, customer gathering script and SEO. Running your own blog is very rewarding and knowing that I have the final say on content is a great feeling. Getting a blog up and running with fowlers is the biggest consumption of time. Once your foundation is set this vehicle can be setup to do whatever you so desire.
In conclusion each of these vehicles are awesome ways to get your ideas out. Just make sure your ideas and content are well written and give the reader value.
