In the recent months I have had many small businesses inquire about the new concept of “skinning”. What does it mean? How does it work? Should I use it in my business. Let’s first discover the nuances to skinning…

Skinning is the process of overlaying a branded image, logo or advertisement over a social sphere or website. The majority of social spheres: Facebook, Twitter & YouTube allow you to skin their spheres. Posterous, WordPress Websites & the majority of template websites also allow for you to skin the home pages. When you skin a social sphere or website you now create a “landing page” or “portal page”.

A landing page is meant to be a modern day billboard. Rather than sending all the traffic to the free site like twitpic and advertising their website you show off your connection points and have these new consumers land on your other profiles and/or website. A landing page is limited in that it is a billboard style so that the consumer can not go directly to your other pages or spheres without opening a new window.

A portal page however, gives you that advantage. The portal page is simply defined as a skin that sends consumers to the different links and pages you want them to go- with one-click they land on a company’s product page, purchase page or even ancillary products and information. We are starting to see the BIG companies invest 6-7 figures into their social media marketing and skinning approach. Facebook business pages are a great example of skinning the sphere with a portal page. Below is a screen shot of Harley Davidson’s portal page. It can also be found at Harley-Davidson:

Harley Davidson Portal Skin

Each of these icons direct you to a new website or page on Harley Davidson’s site or an affiliate. Imagine the amount of traffic you can begin attracting to your site through a social sphere skin. Your skin must engage the consumer and one of the best ways is through icons/images that are on a portal page. Not all social spheres allow for skinning nor a portal page. GetSkinned is a company that can help you with branding your image online and creating your own landing & portal pages so that you do not lose the necessary web traffic when consumers find you online.

If you watch any TV- especially commercials 2 out of 5 will reference their Facebook Business page which is of course already skinned. I was watching TV the other day and saw a Honda Ad- at the end they referenced NOT Honda.com rather www.Facebook.com/Honda – They get it – they understand where the consumers are already communicating, shopping and dreaming. They along with hundreds of other companies are starting to embrace the modern era of advertising… Don’t be left behind. GetSkinned today…

Honda Facebook Skin