Your Web Presence Is More Than Your Website

You'll spend $5,000 - $10,000 on a radio or newspaper ad, but you're not using FREE web promotion?

A few years ago, having a website was enough. You advertised your site's URL and swapped links with other sites, and in time you could be reasonably sure your customer base would find you.

In 2009 your website is still a great start, but if you're serious about drawing people to your website (and, by extension, your event), you have to go further. You need to get your event/brand in front of people more aggressively. One of the best ways to do this is through Social Networking & Media sites.

Millions of people are logging into MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and other similar sites daily (even hourly), looking for the things that interest them, things to do, and (most importantly) things to share with their friends. One of the driving forces behind these sites is the fact that people are able to share and discuss the things they find fun or interesting; with some strategic setup, you can make it very easy for people to find, save and share information about your business, event or attraction.

While most of these sites are free to use, expect to invest heavily in terms of time. You must provide relevant and timely information and content to them, build Contact/Friends Lists, and stay on top of messages, requests and approvals. If you are unwilling or unable to do this, there is no point in reading further.

Sinister Visions can help you set up a solid presence on key Social Network & Media sites, help you cross-wire them to each other and your website, and help kick-start your presence on the web *beyond* your website. Specifically:

1. http://www.myspace.com : SVi can help you create and format a MySpace page to match the look and feel of your website
2. http://www.facebook.com : SVi can help you set up a Facebook account and Facebook Group or Fan Page for your attraction
3. http://www.twitter.com : SVi can help you set up a Twitter account that feeds information and updates to your website, Facebook & MySpace
4. http://www.blogger.com : SVi can help you set up a Blogger.com account that feeds posts to your website, Facebook & MySpace
5. http://www.youtube.com : IF YOU HAVE VIDEOS TO POST, SVi can help you create and configure a YouTube page, which will allow you to post your videos to your website, Facebook & MySpace page
6. http://www.flickr.com : IF YOU HAVE PHOTOS TO POST, SVi can help you create and configure a Flickr photostream to feed photo content to your website, Facebook & MySpace page

These sites represent the most popular and widely-used Social Network/Media sites available, and provide a set of online publishing tools that can significantly expand your presence on the internet. All 6 of the above options have the added benefit of being able to lead people back to your website, directly and indirectly.

All of the services listed above are free to use; Flickr.com has a maximum image cap that can be removed for $25/year.

Contact Chad Savage at Sinister Visions inc. to discuss how you can put the power of Social Network & Media sites to work for you! Additional services available include setting your site up with Google Analytics, Google Friend Connect and making your site mobile phone friendly!

DISCLAIMERS: Sinister Visions inc. WILL NOT run these accounts for you. SVi will help you in account creation, configuration & customization; once they're set up, it is up to you to (a) populate them with information/video/images, and (b) expand your contact list on each service. You MUST be willing to invest the time required to build your network and content on these sites; otherwise, there's simply no point.

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MySpace.com is a social networking website with an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music, and videos for teenagers and adults internationally.

Facebook is a free-access social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc.[1] Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people. People can also add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves.

Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service. It enables its users to send and read other users' updates (known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. Users can send and receive updates via the Twitter website, SMS, RSS (receive only), or through a number of 3rd party applications.

Blogger.com is a web log (blog) publishing system owned by Google.com.

YouTube is a video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips.

Flickr is an image and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community platform. In addition to being a popular Web site for users to share personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers as a photo repository.