In September Voloper released Phase 1 of its Social Media strategy: the Social Media ToolKit. The Social Media ToolKit gives you a centralized control panel for configuring which social media widgets you're pulling into your own web site. In Phase 2, Vol...

Because Wikipedia has become both the default first stop for casual researchers (and many times their only stop) and a form of gateway into more detailed third party knowledge, many people have tried to "game" Wikipedia for their own ends: public relations, advertising, inserting links to drive traffic, etc. This is a strategy that largely backfires as almost every article has dozens or hundreds of people who watch it with hawk-like intensity. Such overt attempts rarely last long and frequent

Voloper is now in the process of adding Social Media Push technology to its suite of modules. The concept is simple: as you add content to your own web site, a lot of the content can be re-used within the context of your social media venues such as Twitter, Flickr, and Facebook. Wouldn't it be nice when you clicked a Post or Upload button that content was not only updated to your site but sent out into your social media stream?

The Social Media Play

The biggest mistake you can make regarding social media is considering it the ultimate spam distribution system. As the term "social media" implies, people using systems like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube are leveraging text, sound, and video to engage others on the social front.

Social media is not about the hard sell. It's about expanding and impacting networks. With social media you should have a three stage goal in mind:

Get access to networks

First, you should work at gaining access to networks. Social media participants frequently joined networks based on interests, their career, and their aspirations. Lurk for a time on social media venues and discover the networks most related to your core competencies.

Expand your network

Some might remember that old commercial for a shampoo where one customer tells two friends and she tells two friends and so on. Gaining access to one network many times makes gaining access to other networks possible, geometrically increasing your reach. LinkedIn's first, second, and third tier networks is the most obvious example.

Raise your profile within the networks

The final goal for social media is raising your profile, with the goal of becoming a key "node", an opinion leader, or someone with a reputation for being an early adopter. Consider your area of expertise, you niche, and showcase that. For example, if you're great with the one liner quips and plugged into emerging technology, you might start a Twitter account offering a "headline clipping" service showcasing the latest technology.

As users in your network go to you or pass through you, some will stop, investigate the person generating the content, check out your profile, and eventually investigate your web site.