Does social networking work on the broad scope for marketing? I haven't used it before. Just really new to the forums on the whole.

Something you should think about doing is joining other social networking sites to promote your own as this is the type of audience you are after. Give StumbleUpon.com a shot.

I keep noticing StumbleUpon as a referer to our blog entries but hadn't heard of it before then. What is it exactly? Like a mini-Digg?

Kind of. The reason I joined is because i had an incoming link to my site from them so I wanted to check it out. There are two parts to stumble upon as I see it. The first part is people basically where people give a thumbs up or thumbs down to websites they view. They have a toolbar for FF and IE that makes it really easy to do. Also in this toolbar is a button called stumble. When you click this button it takes you to a random web page that people have voted for within categories that you specify. It is a great way to find sites you never would have found. i think this is the allure to it.

The next part is more social networking, kind of mySpace-esque. You get friends and fans (people who like the sites you recommend) and you can send and receive PMs. You get more "fans" by voting for more sites.

I only joined about a week ago and yesterday, for example, it sent almost 50 hits to my personal blog all coming from my StumbleUpon Profile.

Wow, I guess I'm not the only night owl Thank you for the info ... perhaps in the morning I'll create a profile.

Hi

When it comes to marketing you need to ask yourself the following questions and be VERY CLEAR about it.

1. Who am I (in terms of your product / service identity)
2. What am I saying (offering) to people? (Benifits to THEM)
3. Who is my audience?
4. Where are my audience?

If you know all of this clearly, you will be well on track.
The 'methods' you employ will be based 100% on the answers of these questions. Otherwise it is stumbling in the dark.

I have a lot of creative people, designers, marketing people etc. who work with me, but hardly any 'techie' people. Both are needed for real success.

Clarity.
Excellent Copy.
Excellent Design.
1st class marketing strategy.
Ability to use all the appropriate internet tools to promote the above.

I can offer advice on many things, and would also be happy to work with those who have the skills my team lacks.

All the best

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