Social Networking Site Building

Building and managing your own social networking site, also known as a "community" site, offers businesses an ideal way to cultivate and access a growing community of targeted prospects.

Social Networking isn't just the latest online fad. According to expert web analysts and observers, it is the future of the World Wide Web. 

Caterina Fake, the co-founder of Flickr, a social networking site bought by Yahoo! in 2005 for a reputed $35 million was quoted in a recent article on CNN that "social networking is still in its infancy, and the future promises to be very exciting, especially as the trend is now evolving to include more selective social networking groups."

You have probably already heard of, or are familiar with some of the more successful large social networking sites - myspace.com, facebook.com, flickr, twitter and others.

Well, the good news is that now you can set up your own community site, targeted for the specific industry or business sector your business operates in.

Provided someone else hasn't already established a community site in your industry that is already proven to be very popular with your target audience, and, if your particular business actually supports the concept of a dynamic community site, then pioneering a new social networking site in an untapped niche could prove to be extremely benficial and highly profitable for your business. 

So ... how would having my own Social Networking Site benefit my business?

A targeted social networking site allows businesses to go beyond the traditional online model of setting up a web store and then trying to attract people to what is often not much more than an e-commerce powered online catalog of items for sale.

Your business can participate in and contribute to the growth of the online community through activities like running workshops using online videos, chatting with yourr prospective customers via live chatrooms, answering questions and sharing tips in forums, and publishing articles through blogs just to name a few. This not only builds trust online with your existing and potential new customers, but it also allows you to cultivate and access a growing community of targeted prospects.

To better understand the benefits of owning your own targeted social networking site, please visit the following site that we have built for a crafts-related (beading) company:

BeadHuddle.com

(click above image to enlarge)

(click here to learn more about BeadHuddle.com - read the Press Release)

We can build, host and manage a professional social networking site for your business ...

If you believe that your business could benefit from having a community site, then please contact us to discuss setting up your own social networking site.

We offer the following "Social Networking Site Building" package:

• Fully Setup - We will set up the site on your own domain name, using an existing proven script-based template that we have customized for easy management and integration with your existing site. The site will be set up on a separate, dedicated domain that you own, and will display your business logo and color design.
• Fully Hosted - Some of the site features (e.g. video) require certain server components to be installed in order to function properly. We will host your site on our own secure, top of the line dedicated server in order to ensure that all components run without problems.
• Fully Managed - We offer a completely managed solution, which means that your community site can be run totally "hands-free" if you wish (all you need to provide is a site administrator & forum moderator and we'll take care of the rest). We'll handle new feature installations, perform regular site maintenance and look after all software upgrades.
• SEO Optimized - Your social networking site will be fully optimized for search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN and others. We have developed specific methods and procedures for getting new domain names indexed quickly and ranking well Google search results. If you are planning on setting up your site on a brand new domain name, we'll apply our methods and specialized knowledge of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to get your site indexed for organic search results very quickly.

Social Networking Site Building Package - Pricing & Site Development Details

Once you have made a decision to build a social networking site for your business with Sales-Are-Up, please contact us for an initial briefing.

We will send you a Needs Analysis Questionnaire asking you to provide us with certain details regarding the nature of your business, your business aim and main strategic objectives, color design, proposed domain name, the main features you would like to see integrated into your site (e.g. paid membership subscription plans, ability to display videos, whether you want to run e-bay type auctions on your site, etc ...)

Once we have received your completed Needs Analysis Questionnaire, a signed Agreement Form and your deposit payment has been successfully processed, we will then commence building the site for you. Estimated period of completion of your site is 6-8 weeks.

Additional Services:

As well as building a fully setup, fully hosted, fully managed and fully SEO optimized social networking site for your business, we offer the following services to help your community site grow successfully:

• Copywriting - We can write high converting sales copy for your site's "Welcome Page", promotional copy to announce the launch and benefits of your community site, or a Press Release for global online distribution.
• Site Promotion - We have several options for helping you promote your site online, including article marketing distribution to an exclusive network of high quality, Google indexed, industry-related blogs, and Press Release distributions.
• Pay Per Click Ad Management - If you would like to drive visitors quickly to your site using Google's Pay-Per-Click Advertising (AdWords), we can fully set up and fully manage a campaign for you. This includes professional keyword research, writing effective ads, actively managing your bids to help you get the most targeted number of clicks for your budget, and providing you with regular reports to help you monitor the effectiveness of your campaign.
• Banner Advertising Management - If you plan to offer advertising opportunities on your community site, we can manage the banner ads administration on your behalf (e.g. banner uploading to the site, placement, rotation, number of impressions, etc ...) and provide you with reports that you can forward to your advertising clients.

Please feel free to contact us if you wish to discuss any of the above services in more detail. 

Below you will find some more details on how we have integrated all of the above services to create a successful online community site for beading enthusiasts.

Case Study - BeadHuddle.com

Background

BeadHuddle.com is a new social networking site aimed especially at people who love beading. It was founded by an Australian home-based online publishing company that put out an e-book about beading, "The Complete Bead Guide" in 2005.

The ebook publishers ran a survey amongst its customers (which consist mostly of older, married women) and discovered that, despite the fact that most survey respondents were not experienced computer users, most expressed a great desire to participate in an online community where they could communicate with other beading enthusiasts and share their passion and knowledge of their craft.

The husband and wife publishing team then decided that, rather than invest in upgrading the information contained in their e-book, they would avail themselves of emerging Web 2.0 technology that allows users to create and share content online, and set up a modern and dynamic online community where people with a common interest in the art and craft of beading can meet and make new friends online, participate and contribute to the growth of the community in so many different ways.

BeadHuddle.com members can set up their own profile pages, post photos of their latest beading creations and designs, upload and share 'how to' beading videos, chat online, write articles and blogs about beading and beadworking, ask questions, share tips and participate in forum discussions and polls, post comments and rate other member's contributions, take part in quizzes, post events and announcements about beading fairs, markets and shows in their local area, and so much more. Members even have an opportunity to run classified ads and buy and sell items using e-bay style auctions that are displayed throughout the entire web site.

Site Development and Online Promotion

The BeadHuddle.com site took 6 weeks to build and was launched on September 30, 2008.

Over 120 new members joined in the first week and the site, built on a brand new domain, achieved quick indexing in Google's organic search results (less than 24 hours), including first page listings on Google for terms such as "beading community", which competes with over 1.2 million other search results. Site membership is currently growing at a steady and regular rate.

The above success was initially achieved using a combination of the following:

• email marketing to a small database of existing customers (i.e. people who had previously bought the electronic beading guide)
• article marketing to a number of selected high-quality crafts-related blogs
• a one-time, low budget Pay Per Click campaign using Google AdWords
• a Press Release
• a viral marketing strategy where free upgrades to paid membership status was offered in the first month, plus free auction listings, etc ...

Please feel free to contact us to further discuss how we can help set up your own social networking / dynamic community site.