Marketing for Social Networking Sites

I am thinking of starting a social networking site and can't think of any marketing methods other than the massive one "word of mouth".
Any ideas?

 

Run a contest and reward members who invite the most friends (that register of course)

 

contest is a good idea IF you already have a lot of members.. there is about a 0.2% response rate on contest so instead, go to existing communities like forums like this one or other relevant related forums and become a valuable member. if you help out the masses... masses will support you.

Try netscape.com digg.com and reddit.com

these will get you to google's page ONE as well.

 

znitch-search wrote the post a secon ahead of me
Can only say that I agree. Contest is a great idea but how will people know about it if you do not have a lot of visitors?

 

Hi TOE!!! Sorry!

 

Is it really works if everyone starts networking sites?.i think it would cost more and not simple as blogging.

 

never mind

 

My new site is just entering the testing phase and I use a phpfox script. Although I have had other networks that have done well. I suggest you get yourself used to the social sceene by using some of the free tools already available to you. I'd leave you a link but I can't just yet. visit jimcohomecenter.com/news for a list of 2.0 resources and traffic tips

1. Start a whisper campaign, invite you friends and family and have them do the same
2. Write useful articles about your niche (if you have one, if you don't consider getting one. Myspace has alreay been done)
3. Select some easy markets to target and whom you think will make up the core of your target membership and advertise on google,yahoo and some second tier engines like 7search and miva, and looksmart.
4. Run contests and figure out how you will reward participants. money works but there is always an alternative
5. Participate yourself. Even when you don't have any members your content still gets spidered , so don't overlook the value of your own profile
6. Submit to the engines and submit and ping your rss. Most social networking scripts come with rss capabilities now, so this should be easy. Remember , good blogs and articles are the new word-of-mouth.
7. Like the znitch-search said become a resource and a valuble contributor. Social software is fairly new getting members won't be hard if you give them a reason to like you and to visit your sit

 

I agree, but promoting your contest can turn your visitors into members. Give them a reason to join.

 

I think first of all get the visitors. Once again - if you have no visitors they cannot become members. So first get targeted traffic and then make it interested in becoming a member (as it was said before, contests, private forums, special newsletters or any other advantages for members-only are a good idea)

 

Word of Mouth. Go to an influencer in College/University. Offer him/her a drink and tell him/her to invite his/her friends to your social network.

Then everything will be viral.

 

Thanks for all the great advice

 

Not sure about contests, a friend entered one (he won) with first prize being $300, second prize $100. It was a submit the best avator contest, something you would think lots of people would do but there were only 5 entrants over the month the contest ran. About 20 people voted.

It was promoted in various ways including posts on a number of forums.
I don't know how many visitors the contest bought to the site but from the number of entrys and voters it wasn't many, Certainly not enough to recoup the cost of the prizes.

 

try arranging big prizes for contest winners, tie up with good companies.
also ask your friends to do promotions for you.

 

lots of great ideas thanks for the share

 

Who is this new site aimed at? Put another way, what does the target market look like?

If you have a well defined audience in mind, it makes it much easier to...

• Find them online
• Persuade them to give you a try (you can write specifically for them)
• Understand what's likely to motivate and/or tempt your targeted individuals to visit and/or join

If you don't have a clearly defined audience in mind, I suggest you do that first. Your original question will then be much easier to answer. This blog entry explains target marketing in detail.

 

Do an email blast to a mailing list who are from other social networks, if you need help or direction pm me, but you can also try adwords...

 

Contact renowned bloggers, blogs, news writer or websites such as TechCrunch and John Chow. Tell them about your social networking website and maybe they'll help you promote the website if it deserves a free promotion.