Becoming a greater part of the social web isn’t about starting an account or even clicking buttons to the tone of “friend me” or “follow me”. Utilizing less mainstream social media takes time learning, researching and investigating. Before jumping into an online community, you should educate yourself on the clients or target-audience you wish to be interacting with. Starting a conversation on the internet is easy, but finding the right people to talk to can be frustrating and meticulously time-consuming.

Start out by using online tools such as alexa.com to find out how important the online community you are researching is. Compare the results to similar websites and choose the best of the bunch. You should only invest your time in communities that are going to last. If a forum or blog doesn’t have a collection of active members or a large base of followers, it might not be worth becoming a part of. However, finding an upcoming social media website and becoming an active user can be very powerful (imagine having one of the first Twitter accounts).

So you found a great community and have signed up for an account. First things first go straight to your profile and customize your appearance (don’t forget to add a link to your website). You will be using this account in the future constantly, so make a home for yourself. After you have completed filling out your profile, it’s best to find some friends in the community that are like-minded. Start applying your basic life skills, be respectful of every user, respond to questions, and most of all treat others like you wish to be treated. As they always say, try to simply be yourself and have fun.

This is the basis of utilizing less mainstream social media avenues, notice how I didn’t talk about advertising to the masses or creating links within signatures to divert traffic to your website. Social media is about becoming part of an online community and gaining the respect of your fellow peers. It’s about who you know and who knows you. It’s constant communication on the web, within the boundaries of normal human relationships. Teach others, let others teach you.