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09.26.08 Business Promotion's Next Big Thing: Micro Sites  By Danny Brown Social media and social networking is the future of business promotion. There's no getting away from it - while the naysayer traditionalists may decry the rise of technology and its tools for taking away their print playground, everyone else is busy building their brand online. hether it's using Twitter for instant updates, Yammer for a more business-friendly Twitter-alike, Stumbleupon for driving traffic to your website or any of the myriad of other social media sites, the phenomenon is here to stay. Yet as anyone who uses these outlets to try and promote their business usually finds out, it can be a tricky affair. Unless you're a Power Digger, your submissions to Digg will more than likely be smothered and disappear with no more than a few Diggs to show for your trouble. Additionally, the sites that used to be everybody's promotional darlings - Facebook and MySpace, for example - are falling victim to the "too much advertising" syndrome that sees users of these sites loathe to look at anything they relate to promotion or advertising. So what's the answer? My own belief is that it lies with micro sites - both your own and those offered by newcomers to the social media application party. Yes, the trick will still be to use them effectively, but this should be a lot easier than trying to manoeuvre your way around many of the current social media and network sites. For example, one of the big stories recently in the public relations field has been the decline of the traditional press release. In its place has come search engine optimized press releases and social media news releases instead, tailored to take full advantage of Web 2.0 and social media promotion. Yet these can be fairly expensive to distribute - distribution costs for media-enhanced press releases can cost anywhere between $300 to $1500.
An alternative to this is to create a micro site where you can upload the press release and then add the type of social media tools that would otherwise be so costly - embedded video, multimedia feeds, RSS links and more. Used properly with relevant keywords and then promoted via your online contacts can offer a far greater return than a costly distribution package. A perfect example of a micro site working - or at least having the potential to work - is MeeID. Less than a month old and with just under 1,200 users at the time of writing, perhaps it's too early to say whether MeeID will succeed or not. As an example of using a micro site to promote your business, however, it's an excellent starting point. The potential of MeeID is obvious - with just 10 simple lines of hyperlinked text, you can offer a full online portfolio, a professional resume, your social media identity and much more. Positive reviews from ReadWriteWeb and Mashable show that MeeID must be doing something right. Another notable use of micro sites is the Micromagnate.com network which I've touched on before. I've since looked more into this site and founder Jason Eke is making all the right noises when it comes to showcasing the site's potential for micro business promotion. Of course, the worry is that it goes the way of other similar sites and becomes a magnet for ego-maniacal self-promoters, but so far the signs are good. While the growth of social media goes on unabated, and the business promotion use of it continues to grow, there is still understandable confusion as to which ones are best for your business. This is where micro sites will show their true value - instead of making the wrong choice, micro sites will allow adopters to have full power over their business's brand. And surely that's what really counts? Comments About the Author: Danny Brown is the owner of Press Release PR, a boutique PR agency specializing in search engine optimized press releases and promotional campaigns for the Web 2.0 world. He is also a guest author on Web Analytics World. You can read more of Danny's articles and opinions at his PR agency blog. |
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