One of the key concepts to creating an authority site on the internet is to build credibility for search engines as well as readers. Generating links from other web sites is like creating votes for your cause. In addition to writing great, relevant content, attracting references to pages and the home page indicates popularity.

Popular content surfaces to the top of search engines for particular keywords. Sites and pages are ranked based on providing the best response to readers. 

ProSPOTLIGHT is one resource for professionals to drive traffic to their existing websites. Consider using tools to drive traffic by generating great content and links.

Seth Godin is an entrepreneur and author who has inspired many with his ventures. Some, like Squidoo, have significant followings.

In a recent interview he claims: Big world-changing ideas have had three cycles. Check out the excerpt:

"...The first cycle was that you could change the world by building a factory the way Henry Ford did. If you could put productive people to work and make money producing something that made change, then people like Henry Ford and Andy Grove could cause world-changing things to occur.

"The second cycle had to do with advertising and TV and media and promotion. The idea that if you talked about an idea enough and pushed it on people enough, it could change the world.

"The third idea, the one that I think is really available to a large number of people now without a lot of resources, is this idea of finding and connecting like-minded people and leading them to a place they want to go. You can use Barack Obama as an example, but you can also use Blake Mycoskie of Tom's Shoes. The internet means geography isn't so important, so if you can find the 1,000 or 5,000 or 50,000 people out there who want to make a certain kind of change and can connect them and show them a path, they want to follow you. And you can use that tribe, that group of people, to make change that matters..."

The internet is a significant tool to promote youself and your cause. If you want to make change you can create a cause and attract others who will help you drive it.

An article on Internetnews indicated that in a tough economy CRM activities will be integrated into social networking. Business/customer relations will be focused on high-value activities.

"It is not enough to ensure business value in new projects; enterprises will begin focusing on customer retention instead of customer acquisition to stay afloat, Forrester predicts. 'During an economic recession, sustaining revenue growth - or forestalling revenue erosion - becomes even more critical,' the company wrote."

Companies will focus on a great customer experience which will benefit all involved.

Not all social networking tools are created equal. Each has a purpose and few are multipurpose. Web sites like Facebook, MySpace and other of the same genre are tailored to connecting friends, family, and acquaintences. However, their structure and functionality is not conducive to professional promotion.

Networks like ProSPOTLIGHT, LinkedIn, among others, are designed specifically to help pros get connected with other pros, leads, potential partners, etc. Using these tools correctly can greatly enhance the visibility of your offerings for other web users. The key is to use the correct tools correctly to achieve your objective.

3 tips for starters:

• Determine what you want to accomplish - If you are a professional trying to get connected with others you ought to lay out a few goals to figure out what you want to achieve.
• Search out networks that will help you achieve your goals - Invest your time in the tools that will help you get where you want. It may sound obvious, but don't spend time in activities that won't help you significantly. We can get caught up in working on tools that are fun but don't get us anywhere.
• Be consistently active on the communities you choose - Search engines and other readers are interested in current, relevant content. Keep your user accounts active by frequently making updates.

We have tested the professional applications of several social networks. We'll get into those reviews in later posts. We'd be interested in your comments as well as you make posts on your ProSPOTLIGHT.