Is your website ‘shy’? Would you like to extend it’s reach? There are ample social and sharing avenues to help you get the word out. Here are basic descriptions of the top methods.

1.) Social Bookmarking – Users save links to web pages that they want to remember and/or share. To get your site into the pool, add simple 3rd party widgets to your site like Add This. It’s FREE and you get analytics so you can learn more about your users.

2.) Blogs – You’re reading ours. A blog is an extension on your main site – a place for relevant and timely content, events, video and images. People subscribe to your “feed” because they like what you have to say. Again, it’s FREE and doesn’t require much technology knowledge to update.

3.) Twitter.com – A micro-blogging service that allows users to send “updates” (or “tweets” – simple 140-character entries) to the people who subscribe to their feed. If you have valuable daily information you could extend your reach with people who find value in your information.

4.) Facebook, MySpace and Bebo – Most social networks have built-in calendars for you to post events, bulletin boards, blogs, photo and video sharing and comment sections for people to share their love for you. But don’t think your page will run itself. You’ll need to share the love and give thanks.

5.) Email newsletter lists – It’s not new, but the systems are now more accessible. Services like Constant Contact, Campaign Monitor and Emma offer an easy-to-use interface for entry fields, database controls, message composition and data transfer to Excel.

Traditional advertising still has value. But the most successful companies are the ones that integrate social media into their marketing strategies.

For more information on how these services (and others) can improve your site, drop us a line. We love talking strategy.