Ning (http://www.ning.com/) is a platform in which people and businesses can create their own social network.  It allows for custom design and adding of photos, movies, members and other important information that help a social network to thrive.  Creating a Ning community can be especially helpful for those companies or people who cannot find groups that are relevant to their business on Facebook, MySpace or other popular social networks.  They can recruit friends, customers and others that are interested in a topic.

Building a Ning community can be incredibly rewarding and have some SEO benefit for the main site, if created in the right way.  To do this, you need to have a topic or topics that can be taken and written about outside of ning.  By this I mean that your users will have to find the information within your community so interesting that they take it to their personal blogs and write about your ning forum and ultimately your site.  Links coming from your ning forum pointing to your site will only go so far.  Just the first few links from your ning forum pointing to your site will count, so if the idea behind ning is a quick link building campaign, it will not work that way.

Ning can be used to publish content that might not fit on your website.  To that extent you will need to have lots of different ideas and subjects relating to this to keep your community interested.  Also, you will need to monitor it everyday, because sites like ning have the tendency to attract spammers.  Since the links are not “no follow”, you can get people there only to send links to their site but who are not really interested in your forum.

If you create a ning community, you may also want to create a blog on your website where you can feature guest posts of those that you communicate with on ning.  Many people that use ning have their own personal blogs and may have something to say that you would want to feature right on your blog.  The blog is also another place for link building and publishing new and interesting content.

Like other networks and social media channels, ning allows you to customize the look and feel of the page to reflect your own website.  It is beneficial to do so, as it shows that your forum is associated with the main site.

Creating a community on ning about your business can be tremendously rewarding and beneficial to your website in more ways than just SEO.  It is something that will take hard work and constant moderation to ensure that the community is growing and that all comments and postings from members are appropriate and within the scope of what you are trying to achieve.  Make sure you set the guidelines of the forum up front, so it is easy to spot fraudulent posts, comments, pictures and other items you don’t want on your community.  Your community should be for your users and should be a place for you and your users to pass information about the topics that you provide. 

By this point, most of us have at least heard of Twitter and are somewhat familiar with this fast growing, micro-blogging website. Even though I am not as active on Twitter as many of those that I am following, I do enjoy listening to the conversations and am intrigued by the growth potential of this channel. Did you know that Twitter grew by 1,689% from February 2008 to February 2009, as reported by Nielsen Online?

One of the most interesting aspects of Twitter is how businesses can connect with people on a different level.  As many businesses moved to Facebook over the last few years, just as many businesses seem to be creating a presence on Twitter, and there is proof that it’s working.

A manager at a café in Houston, Texas began using Twitter and says that as a result, his clientele has nearly doubled. When they began using Twitter they were unsure of what to expect, but have been astounded by the results.  The café hosted a “Tweetup” where about 100 people came to socialize with other locals, and of course, those who attended purchased food and drinks from the café. 

The same café said that they’ve also placed orders on Twitter. Imagine working on a project or catching up on emails, and instead of stopping what you’re doing to wait in line for a cup of coffee, you could send a Direct Message to place your order. Think about the opportunities!

Social media has become a critical component for many businesses, and it’s fascinating to see that social media marketing is now moving offline where individuals can meet each other and build personal relationships.

With that said, there are a few things that anyone managing a Twitter account for their business should take into consideration.  First, as well all know, social media is about making personal connections.  It’s not a place for you to blatantly promote yourself or your brand.  While everyone is aware that Twitter and other social media channels are part of many marketing strategies, in order to be successful, you must add value.  The way for businesses to succeed in any social network is through giving advice, providing resources and generating discussions with others. Also, don’t be afraid to share non-business information. Zappos is great at this.  And, most importantly, listen. Twitter is an ideal place to learn what others are saying about you and your brand. You may be surprised what you hear.