Connecting socially, a lot like Facebook

skyrock.com (also available in Spanish and Dutch)
Home Page: 6
Alexa Traffic Rank 10/07: 26

xiaonei.com (Chinese)
Home Page: 5
Alexa Traffic Rank 10/07: 362

studivz.net (German)
Home Page: 6
Alexa Traffic Rank 10/07: 215

Tag, Bookmark, Vote and Comment (like Digg)

scoopeo.com (French)
Home Page: 6
Alexa Traffic Rank 10/07: 11,348

Or linkk.com.br (Brazilian)
Home Page: 5
Alexa Traffic Rank 10/07: 22,717

enchilame.com (Mexico)
Home PR: 5
Alexa Traffic Rank 10/07: 32,006

news2.ru (Russian)
Home Page: 6
Alexa Traffic Rank 10/07: 18,573

Business Networking

For a business networking interface similar to LinkedIn, you’ll find:

viadeo.com (French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese)
Home Page: 6
Alexa Traffic Rank 10/07: 4,136

wealink.com (Chinese)
Home Page: 5
Alexa Traffic Rank 10/07: 22,718

xing.com (multiple languages)
Home Page: 7
Alexa Traffic Rank 10/07: 1,916

infojobs.com.mx (Mexico)
Home Page: 5
Alexa Traffic Rank 10/07: 2,820

moikrug.ru (Russian)
Home Page: 6
Alexa Traffic Rank 10/07: 4,025

Since the start of the year I have been focusing on Web 2.0 properties that (a) have a finely focused niche audience, (b) provide some sort of search engine juice as a result of my efforts, and (c) allow me to partially automate the content creation aspect.

Caring Less and Less About Search Engine Love…(b)

These days I’ve been caring less about the extra search engine ‘points’ by having off-site content. (If you don’t know why I’m caring less, check yesterday’s post.) As a result of reader comments and a few discussions in Facebook I woke up and realized that other marketers, entrepreneurs and website owners are seeing the same anomolies about site traffic as I am.

For example, Allan Cockerill (one of my Facebook friends and fellow bloggers – www.AllanCockerill.com among others) openly shared through a discussion that began: “Will Social Media Become More Important Than SEO…?”

Allan shared: “…1600+ visitors to my blog during September, using nothing but Facebook, Stumbleupon, Twitter and Digg…has me pondering the future.”

Laura said: “…the wake up call came when I noticed clickthroughs from Google down – even though I held #1 spots and even though the # of searches per month, per keyword, was constant…”

It is important to note that we aren’t putting all our eggs into the ’social media is more important than SEO’ basket, but it is definitely holding a candle to search engine marketing this year!

Partial Automation of Content…(c)

I love finding ways to effectively automate my marketing – to larger and larger audiences – by using a blog’s, website’s, or off site account’s (i.e., del.icio.us, google reader, etc.) feed. But it took a fellow author, marketer, and traffic specialist quite a few attempts to get me really rolling with my Facebook account.

Tinu is one of my Facebook friends but she’s also a woman I have brainstormed with intermittently over the last 3 years. She’s in my top 10 favorite marketers – largely due to her dedication and caring for her customers. With her guide in hand and by watching how she ’soft-markets’ within Facebook I began the alterations necessary to my own account.

Tinu says: “If there’s nothing else you understand about Facebook, it’s this – a web platform with a user base of 30 million active, repeat visitors is offering you a free invitation to interact with its users. Not only doesn’t it care if you lead them elsewhere, it will help facilitate the connection.” (Facebook Un-Hyped Networking for Traffic, Tinu Abayomi-Paul)

If you’re not on my mailing list, and you missed the affiliate-free link to a discounted copy of Tinu’s Facebook marketing ebook, leave me a comment below and I’ll see if I can get her to open the page back up for loyal blog readers. (I’m not making any promises here, but I will ask on your behalf – or you can visit her directly at Increase Website Traffic with Free Traffic Tip).

Using RSS feeds, sage advice, and tips on ‘working the room’ (through groups) are just a few more topics Tinu shares about her success with Facebook.

Niche Market Focus…(a)

Does Facebook fit my niche market specialty from (the a of a, b, c) above?

Absolutely not, at least not on the surface. But with 30 million users and the potential to self-organize through groups or regions you can bet you’ll find your target market already represented. And, if you don’t, all the better. Start your own group and call in some new ‘friends’.

That’s all I’m sharing about Facebook today! If you’re new to Facebook and need a friend (even if you’re established and ready to branch out) you’ll see my badge in the sidebar – click it, send a friend request to me personally with a short message and I’ll see you in the “#7th for traffic” web site today!

Laura Childs

p.s. re: Social replacing Search: “To be clear, the social graph will not replace search, in the same way that search did not replace browsing.” (TechCrunch)

Alexa rank 06/07: 85,846
Alexa rank 10/07: 51,587
Alexa Rank today: alexa

Home page: 6

Focus: www programming news database windows vista opensource programmer

Be sure to see your training manual on this (in the strategy step by step) before you begin bookmarking to get the best results. There is little sense bookmarking if your target market doesn’t bookmark or the bookmark sites have ‘nofollow’ tags employed. Each link goes to a seperate post with more information (time permitting).

This list is always updating so if you want to receive notification of updates, leave a comment and subscribe to comments below or sign up for the StampedeSecret newsletter at right.

1zone.net
ADveracious
APBnews
backflip
BARKS
Battelle
BestVoteXXX
betamarker
BlinkBits
BloggBuzz
BlogMemes
Bloodee
bluedot
BusinessPlanet
CCHITS
ContentPop
CRIMEne.ws
digg
DEVbump
DIGstock
dotNETkicks
dZone
FLURL
folkd
gameDIGGITY
huGG
humsurfer
IndianBytes
iUSEthis
iTALKnews
jossle
kaBLOGS
Kick
Lipstick
markTD
mobilitybeat
mootion
motorPULSE
MUTI
News2
PICLI
pixelgroovy
popCURRENT
plugIM
QoolSqool
SEpress
stumbleupon
techTAGG
ValueInvesting
WineLife

More coming so stay tuned! I know we will find the perfect social bookmarking site for your target market.

Laura Childs

p.s. Be sure to check out International Web 2.0 for social networks and bookmarking sites in other languages.

Alexa rank 03/07: 332
Alexa rank 10/07: 275
Alexa Rank today: alexa

Member base: 15,000,000

Strategy: FE, P
Create a music list your target person would listen to, write a few journal posts and have your site url in the sidebar ready for some traffic!

About: Music scene. Journal, profile and favorite music lists.

Alexa Rank 05/07: 102
Alexa Rank 10/07: 47
Alexa Rank today: alexa

Strategy: FE, P po

You’ll need to have videos to upload (read the video guide included with your purchase of Strategic Social Marketing).
Add links to profile and to every video description. Use tags.

Focus: Funny, new, rock star, tv, home, smackdown, wrestling, football, game, dog, and more.

Notes: Available in 17 countries and languages. Also a Facebook application (integrate your favorite videos into your FaceBook profile.)

Alexa Rank 03/07: 45,999
Alexa Rank 10/07: 74,866
Alexa Rank today: alexa

Member base: 21,000
Strategy: F, P po (be sure to check the tag page for most popular tags as outlined in Strategic Social Marketing)

About: General interest (dancing, writing, photography, art, guitar, wine, swimming, camping cartoons, etc.). Fun and self-consumed bunch. Profiling. People and interests are tagged.

Feel free to comment on or add to this list (on this page). More specific (site-related) social networking information should be left in comments at each link.

I am only including the top social networks in this list – for both broad and niche markets (and generally those that also pass page rank back to your website). In later posts I will cover secondary Web 2.0 enabled properties.

43things
BlackPlanet
BeBo
BlueDot
Broadcaster
Bolt
CarDomain
Care2
Classmates

Consumating
DailyMotion
DontStayIn
ecademy
FaceBox
Flickr
Fotki
fotolog
Friendster
Hi5
HoverSpot
iMEEM
last.FM
LinkedIn
MOG
MyBlogLog
Passado
Orkut
RateItAll
RYZE
slide
Squidoo
StumbleUpon
tagged
VampireFreaks
veoh
wayn
Xanga
YELP
ZAADZ

Social Networking in Other Languages

Be sure to check out International Web 2.0 for social networks and bookmarking sites in various languages.

home
cloud

Alexa rank 05/07: 127
Alexa rank 10/07: 70
Alexa Rank today: alexa

Member base: 14,000,000
Strategy: F

About: Photo and video share, teens (not particularly viable currently). The tags tell their own story: cool, crazy, cute, hot, funny, sexy, random.

Alexa Rank 05/07: 3,101
Alexa Rank 10/07: 4,816
Alexa Rank today: alexa

Member base: 100,000

Strategy: E, P

About: Online resume, with photos, contact info, friends, varying membership levels. If you target professionals get two free months of PowerNetworker status and blog on the site.