Social Networks, some people hate them, some people love them, and some people just don’t care. I in fact I use a bunch of different social networks and I noted in a previous post. Now I do use these social networks for personal use (keeping up with friends, meeting new people, etc), but I also use them to promote my websites and other things. Even if you hate social networks you can use them to your advantage.

Groups
This is one of the easier ways to promote your business with social networks and almost all of them have groups. You can create a group (check out ThinkComputers FaceBook group) easily on any social network and that gives you another outlet to gain readers. On most group pages you are able to add links, pictures, etc. You are also able to send out a message to all the members of the group. So if you need to promote something it is that simple.

Bulletins
I know that Myspace has this feature, I am not sure what other social networks have it, but basically it is a message that is sent out to all of your friends. So if you have a lot of friends this can become very powerful. Ashley has around 60,000 friends on Myspace, that is something that she can really take to her advantage to promote her sites. People even have offered to pay her to send bulletins for them. You have to watch out with bulletins though, some people see them as spam.

Comments
A lot of people may not have thought of this but you can take comments to your advantage too, especially picture comments. One great way without people seeing it as spam is that make a graphic saying “Have a Great Weekend” with your website logo in it somewhere. Then post it as a comment linking back to your website. You can also make a graphic that links back to something that you are trying to promote.

Twitter, Pownce, etc
Many people do not consider these social networks, but they can be very powerful. I have both a Twitter and a Pownce account. If you do not know what these are they are a service that basically is an update service, you have to check them out to see what I mean. I use both services to promote ThinkComputers, this blog, and just let people know what I’m up to. People like Jason Calacanis and Robert Scoble use these services to promote things that they are doing.

Digg, Del.icio.us, etc
If you don’t know these types of social networks can be VERY powerful. Just look at the difference in revenue when ThinkComputers got dugg. Anyone knows if you make it to the front page of Digg you will be sending a ton of traffic to your website, just make sure it does not crash and you have good ad placement so you can capitalize on all of the traffic.

As I always say any traffic is good and social networks are a great way to bring extra traffic to your website. Even if you hate them you should take advantage of what they can do for your business.