‘Social networking sites’ are websites that offer you the opportunity to join free of charge to build a network of friends or contacts by either accepting invitations from others to join their network or inviting other members to join yours.
‘Social networking sites’ can be used effectively as an ‘off-page element’ that supports your search engine optimization campaign efforts. Through consistent public relations initiatives such as announcements or invitations, you can drive targeted users to your web pages. Social networking sites are also a great way to engage your target audience groups in topical conversations that provide you with insight into their current needs or interests. You can then add to or adjust the existing content on your web pages to address these current issues and interests. This is one way to ensure the search engine ‘bots’ find fresh content at your site on a regular basis, which is a factor in the ranking algorithms of the top search engines.
Currently the top social networking sites include Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Buzz, YouTube and LinkedIn.
