Another way to grab attention and get backlinks is to join social networking sites. These various sites can instantly create an audience for you if your link goes viral, as it will sweep you onto the front page of Google for sure. It's not hard to join these sites, and you are going to do it to promote your website links, but it's important to do so in a manner that is respectful and that is not too commercial. Social networks are a special breed of site with special rules. Spamming gets you the cold shoulder and sometimes banned from the site outright. Read the terms of agreement for the site if you are unsure on whether a link you place there is going to violate the terms of service.
THE BIG THREE
As far as social networks go for publicity and SEO, there are three that stand out: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. MySpace is still relevant, but the future of MySpace is spottier than the others. It also tends to market to a demographic that is much younger than the other three. If you are a business that needs to contact a younger demographic, switch from LinkedIn to MySpace, but do include Facebook and Twitter too.
1. Facebook
This social network allows you to connect with others by befriending them. When you post a news status update on your profile page, it shows that update to all of your friends. If they like your status update, they might comment on it, and then that update is shown to their friends. Thus, even if you only have 20 friends, if one of those friends has 100s of contacts, you can reach a large network. This increases your chances of your link posting going viral.
2. Twitter
This is called a microblogging site because your status updates are limited to 140 characters. It's amazing what you can fit into that small of a news message. Using link shorteners, you can post links to all of your promotions, and they won't get you banned. Twitter doesn't care about self-promotion as much as Facebook. It's also easier to gain a large following and it has real-time connections versus static connections, making your update quick and effective.
3. LinkedIn
This is for professional networking. You can post a profile here; this is where you want to add some keywords and your business links. Remember to use anchor text that is keyword-rich and effective to give your backlink more weight. It will also help to get you noticed by people searching for your skills, products, or services online, as this is basically a business-to-business platform.
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