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I thought Angela made a great point in yesterday's post "Debunking Social Networking Myths – Myspace" in which she stated that in order to have a successful social networking campaign "it must be an ongoing effort, updated often, and maintained to get the response that will pay off."

I was in a meeting with a client last week who builds and manages luxury apartment communities in Indiana and Ohio. He had just returned from the Apartment Internet Marketing (AIM) conference in Scottsdale, AZ where many of the people he encountered were skeptical of the practical applications of social networking and social media marketing.

"Most had dabbled with it, saw no results and gave up, but they don't have a full-time 'Chad' taking care of that for them," he laughed.

I use a 3 phase approach to social networking - decorate, populate, conversate. I'll expand on those in a later post. We're currently in the "populate" phase. Once the pages were designed and branded, we were provided with the names and email addresses of every resident from every apartment community and have been spending hours upon hours finding and adding them on both Myspace and Facebook.

This particular client has been a joy to work with as he is one that really "gets it." We've extended all of his brick and mortar communities online via Myspace and Facebook and he's been both pleased and surprised with the results thus far.

But those results have taken time. Results will improve further as we spend even more time in the "conversate" phase – that one never really ends. It is true – a little dab(ble) won't do ya. Creating a presence on social networking sites is free, but creating a lasting impression takes time – and that, as we all know, is never really free.

- Chad Richards

I wanted to know how much the Internet plays a role in being our source on information on the political campaign.

According to a December 19-30, 2007 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, nearly 25% of the population said they "regularly" learned something new about the presidential candidates via Internet – versus only 12% in 2004.

Traditional evening news television broadcasts and newspapers are still the primary source where people obtain information regarding the presidential hopefuls. The Internet has, however, beaten NPR, C-Span, morning and late night news, in addition to political programming on the numerous cable channels.

The numbers do change when you take age into consideration. Those, between ages 18-29, 42%, had used the Internet as their primary source for obtaining information about the candidates. However, of those between ages 30-49, only 26% had used the Internet to gain information on the hopefuls.

I use the Internet to find not only the political parties' opinions, but to find the diverse opinions of others as well. I enjoy watching the candidates at work and learning about their positions through online video – something all of the candidates have embraced and incorporated into their Internet marketing strategies this year. It's nice knowing that if I miss something on TV I can always catch it on YouTube.

- Lain Ewing

So you own or run a business and you are thinking about a new and innovative way to get your name out there, right? Social media, and specifically social networking, is the future of marketing.

1. For me, the first thing I think of when I think of Myspace or Facebook is that it's just for kids. This is not true - 85% of users are 18 or older and more than half of the total people using Myspace are 35 or older. Can you afford to miss this audience?

2. Not enough people go to Myspace
Untrue. Myspace was ranked 10th out of the most visited websites in 2006.

3. Another myth about Myspace is that someone will post bad or untrue comments about your business.
Mostly untrue. There are many ways to prevent such things from happening. However 9 times out of 10 this does not happen. The bad comments can also give you feedback and so you can work on different aspects of your business, and make a negative into a positive. Mostly your community will self regulate bad postings. And you have always have the choice to administer it out!

4. A quick Myspace effort can give you quick and lasting results.
Untrue, These social media campaigns are not built for one or two month's spurts at a time. It needs to be an ongoing effort, updated often and maintained to get the response that will pay off.

The question I have for you: Can you afford to not reach all these people?

-Angela