Microsoft Launches So.Cl Social Media Network

If you are familiar with Pinterest, and Tumblr, then you know how much fun it can be to create a topical board filled with pictures, articles, and videos to share with family and friends. Each new picture that you find can be a source of amusement, and introspection.

Plus, its a great way to discover other wonderful things on the internet. Combine the above with the ability to link those pictures to a website, and you have a marketers dream come true. Being able to easily create business related social media content that goes viral is a great way to put money in your pocket, and your brand on the lips of every consumer that you reach. What would be even better is to have a web 2.0 platform that brings together some of the best features of Pinterest and Tumblr together in one place which is what So.Cl does.

So.Cl (pronounced “social”) is a social sharing network currently in beta that was launched December 4, 2012 as an experiment by Microsoft FUSE Labs to provide a social media platform for students to share content with others. One of the key ingredients about this site that would be of great interest to internet marketers is that the pictures on each post can be linked directly to another website instead of another page on So.Cl. This helps to make it much easier to drive traffic to a website, and also helps to make it easier to track whether or not a website has attractive content or not. You can create several different posts with each post pulling content from the same place making it rather simple to check which pieces of content on your website are most popular.

Getting setup on So.Cl is pretty simple. You can either sign up with your Facebook ID, or a present Microsoft Windows ID. Once you click on the sign up link, you will be asked if you wish to give either app access to your information. After accepting the terms and conditions in the new pop up window, you are then taken to the main page that displays layouts for the other newly created accounts. From here you click on the box at the top of the page to type in a topic that you would like to create posts under. You are then transported to a page where you can formulate the collage that will be your post. At this point, you can choose to use the name of your topic as your post, or you can pick something else – it is entirely up to you. This is where you can let your creative side shine!

Once you have the title of the post set up, you can add in pictures to decorate the post. The pictures can be pulled from almost any source (except Facebook), and will be linked to the website that you pull the pictures from. The same holds true for websites, and videos. This is one of the most attractive features of this social network that makes it perfect for internet marketing. Here is an example of a post that you can create on this website: I Love My Little Baby – http://www.so.cl/#/posts?i=1o3a.ktrfNRfFxlEf

So.Cl has great potential for being an incredible marketing tool for businesses both large and small. Here are some key points to keep in mind:

• The pictures that you use for your post will be linked to whatever source they are taken from. It is best to load up several pictures on your website before pulling pictures for a post – minimum of five. Catalog websites are perfect for this sort of thing since they tend to be overloaded with pictures of products.
• Be sure to choose pictures, and videos that represent your brand in a positive light. It would be wise to avoid media that could easily be deemed as controversial (unless generating controversy is your goal).
• This product is still being beta tested, so if there is a feature that you think the website should have, be sure to send a message to the webmaster of the site.
• Combining this site with Pinterest would make for a strong marketing combination.
• Making comments on other posts will help to drive traffic to your posts on So.Cl.

With some imagination, So.Cl can be a great way to drive traffic to your website, or videos. The key is combining social media platforms together with this website in order to get the most reach to your potential audience. Using this site for spam would be a waste of time since, like Pinterest and Tumblr, people are only going to look at your pictures, and videos if they find them interesting, or attractive. Choosing pictures, and videos that people would find appealing, and would be willing to share with family and friends is one of the easiest ways to get your posts to go viral. Long story short, even as a beta experiment So.Cl has great potential to help Microsoft become a major player in the game of social media.