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Saturday
Mar132010
What URL Should You Emphasize? For Me, It's All About Relationships
Young Urban ProfessionalFor the last four years I had two URLs on my business card - my employer's web site and my blog. But recently, when I went to order a refill, I changed the plan.
I of course kept the link to EdelmanDigital.com. However, with space limited, rather than directing people to yet another web site (this one) I indicated where they can find me on the sites where I know they are already spending time, Twitter and Facebook. So far, I am glad that I did.
Blogs aren't dying anytime soon. In fact, the New York Times today has an article today about how they are great personal branding vehicles for moms. However, I have started to put a greater emphasis in growing my community where you already are. The reason is, it's easier to build and manage relationships and measure them. I mentioned that some companies are already going this route, but it's worth considering as a strategy for individuals as well.
For the last two weeks I have been really putting my focus on building deeper relationships through Twitter and my Facebook page. I particularly like the latter because I get all kinds of data about the people who subscribe to the page. And I expect this will only improve. For example, I can see that my demographic split is not where I would like it to be, so I am making an effort to try to bring more women into the conversation. I continue to do it all (which, ironically, is why I am posting this here), but I am finding the conversations in my "spokes" deeper, more rapid and more rewarding at times than here on "the hub." But the data helps me get smarter.
I believe that this year we're going to see a lot of bloggers come to the same realization that Facebook is an awesome tool for building relationships - something that many bloggers crave. Most traffic to blogs, I suspect, comes in through Google. This is great traffic of course, but in many ways it's devalued since bounce rates are high. Now I see many bloggers continuing to do it all - Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and their blog. However, some may start to slowly favor Facebook for the same reasons I am if the social network continues its growth track. In some ways, this is already starting.
One of my favorite blogs is MakeUseOf. I subscribe to their email newsletter and every now and again they send out a reminder to readers to fan them on Facebook. That's smart. They're up to 13,000 fans. Here are the reasons they play up: likes, comments and social sharing. However, I also believe that relationships and data play a role here as well. This isn't just about Facebook. If they can give us similar stats, Twitter too will be a larger focus for many. Subconsciously, I suspect it is for many. I am seeing that people are blogging less than before.
What primary URLs do you give out these days? Do you send people to your blog, Twitter, Facebook or your company site? How has this changed in recent years? You may have them all on your card but I bet there's one or two that you prioritize. For me, it's my company's web site and now my Facebook page. However, I will continue to do it all. In many ways, I think you have to since not everyone likes or is even on Facebook.
Reader Comments (30)
What do you make of those "business card" websites? I can see why people would want to link to one of those from a business card.
Again. It' another URL and no way to build relationships. I like staying connected and seeing who I am connected to.
I actually read the NYT article about Mom bloggers prior to seeing your Tweet to your post.As an attorney, I have 2 sets of business cards. One that I give to judges, opposing counsel that provide name, address (my office is a few blocks from yours) and website. The other, for networking, directs them to my blog (homebase)and twitter (the social networking site that I am most active) accounts as well.After meeting someone at a professional networking event, I invite them to LinkedIn. In terms of traffic from social networking sites that has converted into new business, posting to LinkedIn groups has been best.Postings to groups on Linkedin drive more traffic to my posts than Twitter, even though I am much more active on Twitter.I believe it is much easier to build followers on Twitter than Facebook because there are directories where you can find people in your target audience who you have not met in person. Due to its relatively closed system,it is more difficult to build a following on Facebook. Is there a Facebook directory?I enjoy Twitter, but I think it is an inefficient use of time for engagememt and networking. Even though I do engage on it, it is more useful to me as a news feed. The numbers suggest that Facebook fan pages is the way to go, especially if you are big brand.
Fred, there are two directories....People - http://www.facebook.com/directory/people/Pages - http://www.facebook.com/directory/pages/
If I had to reprint my business card I would definitively suggest to my "readers" to perform an internet search on my name (using a beautiful small search icon). Who knows which will be your channel of choice in, let's be pessimist, a couple of years?Just a quick test with yours :-)http://www.twitpic.com/18asiv
Depends on the request, but usually (1) Company Site (2) My Personal Blog (3) Twitter Page. Trying to get some traction on Facebook and it's going ok with some of my twitter friends there.Point still is to expand your network with likeminded people, so thanks for the Directory stuff. Looks useful!
I hand out http://about.seanabrady.net, which redirects to my Google Profile. It has links to all of my main social networks, and with the inclusion of Buzz has one of my primary social connection tools included. I have routed a couple of my old "about" pages from blogs and such to the same profile page. If people ask me if I am on Facebook I tell them that I am seanabrady on Facebook (and pretty much everywhere else as well) and that they can find a link on my profile page.
Excellent Steve. Really got me thinking.
fred_dela - I've seen someone do that before but the problem with getting people to search is you then let google decide which of your locations are most important. In Steve's case, the top hit is micropersuasion, then steverubel.com, then typepad, wikipedia, twitter. His facebook page doesn't even make the first page (yet).
Things must be routinely reevaluated these days, including Business Cards. I need to rethink mine.A couple of things, in a recent blog post Chris Brogan shared (I'm paraphrasing my perspective of what he said) that exchanging business cards with someone, unless you were actually going to engage in potential business or create an on-purpose relationship, was to be avoided. It was an old practice. What do you think about that.I thought a url to a "business card" site would be a good idea for this reason. The site would list, if you belonged to them, more possible way to connect than you could list on a business card. This way, if someone wanted to connect or get to know you through the community they prefer.I'm with you about Facebook. To me, it provides the deepest insight into someones interests, activities and beliefs.Thanks.
Some interesting comments on the differentiation of social and business networks. I think what has been said about LinkedIn is spot on. Great for job hunting and being found and it has some very good features for information sharing. To find real business on line though, including from Twitter sources via the Twitter Sales Leads Tool please have a look at http://www.wecando.biz it has all the social functionality you could want plus a host of business tools and a true SocialCRM engine. - I would love to see more people with a link to there WeCanDo.BIZ profile on their business cards (we have widgets for web sites)Chris ButlerCOOWeCanDo.BIZ
Hi Steve,I was actually thinking about this this week. Facebook and Twitter are great tools to build relationships, but where do you stand on data ownership? Those networks own all the data on your fans and followers. How important is it to get them to sign up to a newsletter so as to keep a database alive? I know Chris Brogan is also big on keeping databases. Would you add a link to a newsletter sign up on a business card?I started thinking of this after to last week's Six Pixels of Separation Podcast (http://www.twistimage.com/podcast/archives/spos-193---media-hacks-26/) - Chris Penn (http://twitter.com/cspenn) was arguing that is one of the advantages of newsletters.What's your take?
Fabrice it's a trade off. Do you hold off on paritipating for this reason?
Steve,I agree that you need to 'live in' the same location of your key community. I personally have my URL, Twitter, LinkedIn, and a redirect to Facebook. The question I have is that as a entrepreneur I would like to set up a Fan page (allows individual blog and Twitter tabs) and keep the profile for family and friends. My concern is that a Fan page with only a handful (100 or so) friends would make a poor professional opinion. Any advice?
Actually I see it the other way. You can build a closer relationship with key stakeholders.
I'm interested in directing people to three places: 1.) My blog, 2.) My speaking page (because speaking is what I enjoy the most & I like to locate new opportunities), 3.) my Twitter account because that's where I connect with people the most. In my email signatures, I always link to my speaking page and my twitter account. As for Facebook, I love their new analytics feature and I love that you can have extended conversations through threaded comments. I just haven't given the community there enough of a chance (posting more often, etc.). But I will...
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Very interesting ideas here, I never thought of adding my blog to my business cards, at the moment I just have my business website simple 1300 numbers. When I run out, I'll have to add it!Thanks
Great blog, will definitely follow from now on! Your insights and ideas re: the online community are very helpful!
Great post Steve. We were having a discussion the other day about our agency site vs. company blog vs. FB page. Do we need all of them? How are their roles different? Which led us to this question: if we were starting from scratch today, would we even have a regular .com site? From a brand perspective it's also interesting to see companies like thisMoment creating a single "channel" around a brand. Publishing and managing content across FB, Twitter, mobile, etc. Interesting space to watch.In any event. Thanks again for posting. -Ben
Whoops, should have disclosed that thisMoment is a client of ours. And there - now I have.
The social media sites are playing a larger part in the business world more and more. Although initially only though of as for social chatter, businesses are utilising the power of these site more than ever.
Soon we will not even be called by our names and rather our twitter ids or our blog urls, I love social media, but it is making us non-human
Good points about the value of social media. Of course, the signal to noise ratio on Facebook is dropping like a rock.
Right now it the main website we're using but in time we will be more diverse in the url's. great diagram of the MakeUseOf...this will surely be useful