Having worked in the entertainment industry, they tend to be one step ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to using web technologies to promote their business, artist, talent, whatever. How can lessons learned from that apply to your business in the realm of social networking?

Many companies are still trying to figure out how social networking can help their business. The way it should work is to have all the social networks generating traffic or awareness about your site, product, company, not the reverse. Don't bleed of traffic from your main site to the social network sites, use them to build traffic for you. Here are a few tips on using these networks.

Linking back to your site - All these networks should drive traffic to your company site. For example, when I post a blog, it gets posted to G+, Twitter, and Facebook. Also look to provide links to your site from YouTube if you're using video.

Establish your expertise - Social networking like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook can allow you to set yourself up as an expert on a specific topic. Sites like Klout have sprung to gauge how many people you reach, how many retweet, or Facebook like your post. You build clout in your industry, and your company, service, or consultancy will increase visibility on these networks. More clout, potentially more customers looking to you for that value add.

Social networks should promote other social networks - So you have all these social hubs that are driving traffic to your site, they should also drive traffic to each other. For example, tweet new videos that were posted to YouTube. Link to videos on Facebook. Anything to keep some kind of tight relationship to the outlets. There are several tools available that allow you to post to Twitter when you post to LinkedIn, Facebook, or YouTube, use those tools. Some people prefer to use one network or the other to spend their time, this way you're hitting the widest audience possible.

All social outlets are not equal - While the goal is to build a name for yourself, and drive traffic to your site, all these outlets shouldn't be clones of each other. Use some unique content for Facebook, maybe "like" something that's related to your industry. For Twitter, folks may use that as a channel to directly communicate with you, or retweet interesting items you find. With distinct content for each social channel, you're likely to get folks to follow all your social outlets.

Some content may not fit for your company site - Maybe you want to add a little fun to your potential customers or clients, you could use the social networks to be whimsical, hold contests, or other pieces of content that may not fit the professional image your displaying on your company site. Using social outlets you still can maintain that company brand, but relax your image a bit, and provide some insight into your company that a website that isn't updated regularly can provide. Use these networks to provide an outreach to your customers, but be sure to not go outside those professional boundaries. No one wants to see pictures of your dog, or hear some kind of rant you have against a company, and you don't want to get into a liable situation either.

Those are some quick tips I can think of, do you have any of your own? Why do you see the need to use social networking in your business, why not?

-P