Marketing has evolved itself from being completely non-existent about a century back to today when it is the way of life for every company which wants to literally exist. Marketing orientation has come from the production orientation when the producer’s only aim was to produce the maximum. Companies are not selling mere products but services. There is a holistic approach to marketing communication today. It includes all promotional activities-advertising, personal selling, public relations, publicity etc. This is changed with the growth of social media. Social media marketing and online marketing are the trends of the future.
Social media is the media for social interaction. With the growth of internet this media too has broadened its horizons like twitter, Facebook etc. Their reach is increasing every minute. Social media supports democratization of knowledge. It has opened doors for anyone who has internet access and has given an opportunity to organizations to create brand awareness at relatively less cost. This is also called social media marketing which is a relatively inexpensive marketing tool to communicate with customers.
Companies improve on their social media optimization by creating awareness for a brand not by word of mouth but by networking. Social media optimization is an integral part of online reputation management. Various social media agencies have come up which help a company attract more customers. Social media agencies help in driving website traffic primarily from other sources than search engines as done by search engine optimization agencies. Social media optimization is not a one day’s job. It is time consuming and it takes a lot of effort to first build a fan base for a brand and then convert those into loyal customers.
Social Media Marketing is where businesses advertise their products to you through social networks. However as in any industry, there are rules about what advertisers can and cannot do when marketing products to consumers.
The first piece of advice is to ensure that there is full disclosure from anybody you endorse, or that you stay away from endorsing people in the first place. This means that you don’t pay somebody to write a positive review, or if you do make sure that they make it clear to the viewers.
Trust between the reviewer and the person who reads the review is important, and any bias towards or against the product should be avoided wherever possible. If I know that the person who wrote the article was paid by the developer of the product to give it a positive review, I would doubt that article.
Another piece of advice is to interact with your customers through social networks. People who are following your page may ask you questions about your products, and expect you to reply to problems they have. If you just hire a PR company to run your social networks instead of having customer support staff, then when somebody needs help and you ignore them that could lead to a PR disaster.
The social may soon be taken out of social media site Facebook as popularity on the site can now be sold to the highest bidder.
Social media marketing company uSocial.net recently began selling fans and friends on Facebook to businesses and organizations wanting to increase their exposure online and they've now announced they are selling up to 20 million fans at a time, meaning just about anyone with a fat wallet can be more popular than Lady Gaga, at least on Facebook.
The service is based on the principle that people use the site for marketing purposes and the more fans or friends one has on Facebook, the larger their potential client base. uSocial's service facilitates the delivery, or sale, of these connections to a Facebook profile.
The company sells packages of fans starting at $197 for 1000, which they say are all real people and can be targeted to whatever industry the customer's business is in.Some are questioning whether this will remove a lot of the user-driven social aspect from Facebook, however as more businesses turn to advertising their services on the social media site, the demand for services like uSocial's will likely rise in the future.
The vast majority (90 per cent) of technology companies has a social media presence, And with Facebook recently signing up its 500,000,000th member and Twitter celebrating the 20 billionth tweets, it is evident that the channel is only going to become more influential.
The recent Putting the Social Back in Social Media report from Wildfire studied the social media activity of the firms included in the 2009 Deloitte Fast Tech 50.It was found that Twitter was the most popular social network with businesses, with 74 per cent tweeting, compared to 72 per cent who use Linked-In and 20 per cent who have a company Facebook profile.
However, while many firms are using social networking sites, Wildfire found that they primarily used them as a distribution channel to push out marketing messages rather than using them to garner feedback from customers.
In fact, many companies were actually ignoring feedback from customers which was given via social networking sites, with 75 per cent of companies who received comments from other Facebook users failing to respond.
She added that to use social media to their advantage, firms must get themselves into a completely new mindset and ask themselves what the best way is to reach their target audience via such sites.
Having a social media strategy may be de rigueur for today's marketers, but getting old-fashioned email marketing right is likely to be more important for generating sales.
A survey by digital marketing association E-consultancy found that 36 per cent of shoppers had been influenced to buy a product online thanks to an email marketing message, while 27 per cent said they had bought an item offline for the same reason.
In contrast, a relatively small amount of shoppers turn to social media when gathering opinions on which products to buy: only six per cent of those shoppers quizzed by E-consultancy said they asked for product recommendations on social media sites.
Consumers also confessed they prefer getting promotional messages over email compared to other on or offline methods.
Some 61 per cent of consumers said they prefer getting notifications of sales or special offers through email, while 28 per cent said snail mail and five per cent said through social media sites.
However, email marketing is only well received when it's well targeted: half of consumers complained they thought emails containing irrelevant information devalued the communication.
Location based social network applications are a part of the fastest growing sectors of the digital world. Every day, millions of users broadcast their whereabouts to millions of complete strangers through services such as Foursquare, Gowalla, Brightkite and Loopt.
While new technology will always have its evangelists and naysayers, since their introduction, location based social networks have realized more than their share of critics. Recent surveys have shown that these design flaws may affect women more than men.
The Advantages of Location Based Apps
These applications have become incredibly popular for the same reasons that social networking sites like FaceBook add millions of users each week Social networks, and especially LBS apps, prove that people want and even need to be connected to other people, even if they are complete strangers!
There are many benefits to these LBS apps. Users can take advantage of partnerships with businesses that offer coupons and discounts for merchandise. They can contact their friends and share best entrees at a hot, new restaurant. Foursquare users can meet old friends and find new friends and if they are bored, they can play games.
Americans spent more time on social networks than email sites. Just in the past year, social networking's popularity has surged. In June 2009, internet users spent 15.8 percent of their online time on social-media sites; two months ago, that figure had risen to 22.7 percent.
Not only did social networking best email - which garnered 8.5 percent of users' online time in June - gaming did, too. Driven by the popularity of games accessed through social-media sites, gaming took up 10.5 percent of Americans' internet time.
Social networking, gaming and email, account for 40 percent of people's time on the web.
Among social-networking properties, Facebook was far and away the most popular. Eighty-five percent of social networking occurs on Facebook, which recently added its 500 millionth member. The site is so popular that it has - at various times - surpassed Google as the most-visited site on the internet. Facebook has yet to irrevocably seize the lead from Google, but that day may be nearing; shows, social networking is a phenomenon with staying power.
Social media marketing works. There is no doubt about that. Social sites are a prime way for an enterprising entrepreneur to promote their online business and build their brand. Facebook, for instance, has an estimated 500 million members and continues to grow at a phenomenal rate. So, using Facebook as part of your social media marketing strategy is good business sense.
What can you do to help safeguard your privacy on Facebook?
Here are a few timely tips:
• Understand how the “Like” button works. If you click on the universal Like button from anywhere on the World Wide Web, you should be aware that you are authorizing Facebook to post your internet activity directly into your Facebook profile as well as your friends’ news feeds. In other words, everyone will be able to see where you have been on the internet. This could prove to be mighty embarrassing, especially for an online merchant, depending on the websites you might visit in your spare time.
• Use Facebook’s Applications and Websites privacy settings. When you visit that page on Facebook, you will see an option called “Instant Personalization.” You should UN-check the Allow button. This will opt you out of instant sharing such as the Like button and will delete your info from Facebook’s partner sites.
• Decide how much information you want your Facebook friends to be able to share about you. To tweak your privacy settings in this area, go to the Applications privacy setting page and uncheck the appropriate boxes, depending on how much you are willing to share.
You will need to keep an eye on things regarding your Facebook privacy, as more changes and new applications will probably come along in the future.
Facebook is an awesome platform for social media marketing, but you should be proactive in protecting your privacy!
Lot of discussion about social media and social media planning, Before launching a social media marketing campaign, it is important to define some essential points like the campaigns purpose and target audience then pin point the social marketing mediums that could possibly work for your business. Many marketers today skip this essential step and waste time trying all the mediums to find effective solutions.
Social media tells us that it is all about meeting people, making them friends, talking about their interests, telling them about your interests and in short creating a relationship. Here when we talk about social media marketing we are essentially making business relationships. These types of relationships are very fragile.Customers can get switched off with the smallest mistake a marketer makes, thus a customers and a business relationship is lost. In other cases if the word about your business, products and services does not get maximum exposure then your efforts are futile and you would not be productive with your social media marketing.
With social media being at the center stage of all the internet marketing activities, it is necessary that we choose a social network that has the ability of taking your products and services to many web users in shortest possible time.
Google is establishing connection in gaming companies in order to create a broad social networking website to compete with current giant Facebook
The stage seems to be at a development level, with several industries being contacted to see who will gain the final contract. So far, EA, Playfish, Playdom and Zynga Game Network have all been in talks with Google, which shows that the company is serious.
The platform would mainly be for gaming, it is reported. But the social aspect would take center stage, giving those using the service the chance to connect more fully with those they are playing against.
Anyone who has been following Google’s projects will be unsurprised by this development. If there are three things Google seems to love, they are creating more sociability for users, reducing anonymity on the web, and making money. These three would be easily utilized with a social networking game site.
Adobe's Online Marketing Suite has announced a host of new social media features designed to offer marketers better tracking and higher performance campaigns.
Features include analytic for Facebook advertising allowing marketers to identify high performing customer segments, Real-time personalization of content for Blackberry and Android apps and video tracking.
In a bid to help marketers determine which channels should receive more funding, the Online Marketing Suite is now able to compare all their marketing channels and tell what impact they are having on the business.
Josh James, senior vice president and general manager, Omniture Business Unit, Adobe Systems Incorporated said, "Our customers are becoming increasingly sophisticated marketers and many of them are adopting multiple solutions within the Online Marketing Suite that help them unlock the power of their data to drive conversion and optimize ad spend."
Hackers are winning the enterprise security fight according to a Cisco’s 2010 mid-year security report.
The industry is now so highly advanced that malware writers are copy-protecting their own malware and are both better funded and more better than the forces of IT security.
Social media is also a new threat vector. The report found half of all staff ignored company policy and accessed social networking sites on company systems and 27 per cent manually change their security settings to allow them to do so.
Social networking sites are particularly vulnerable to click-through attacks using malware-laden web pages. However, over the last year the effectiveness of these attacks has only risen by a negligible amount, showing users are becoming more security aware.
Industry leading SEO copywriting firm SEO Content Solutions has unveiled its new multimedia / social media content marketing package. The robust content marketing package offers content development and publishing on multiple authority sites and promotion through social media channels.
"This content marketing package is not only designed to build backlinks, but also to secure additional search engine rankings and establish dominance as an industry leader through the publication of authority content," said Christine O'Kelly, founder of SEO Content Solutions
The association representing the fast-growing number of short term vacation homes is trying to get out the word that this is another option for people coming to this region's theme parks for a summer vacation. But their new method of advertising is decidely high tech: social media sites like Facebook and Myspace.
Flamand operates USA Vacation Homes, a vacation home property management firm at Polo Park in Davenport. Like many other vacation home managers, Flamand has turned to social networking sites as a way to reach a potentially umlimited audience worlwide -- particularly considering that Facebook just hit 500 million users.
Not only can sites like Facebook allow property managers to advertise to potential customers, Flamand noted, but it also allows local property managers to instantly communicate with one another as issues impacting the industry come up.
"I want to urge the importance of us working together as a networking group," Flamand said. "It's a perfect way for all of us to communicate with one another."
In the marketing field, Reading blogs and articles that are industry related is one way to do this. Below are some great blogs to keep bookmarked that offer valuable information to the B2B marketer.
1. B2B Bloggers: Their goal is to, “engage, educate, and make it easier for B2B marketers to find the information they care about to do their jobs successfully.” You will find a wealth of information on how to incorporate social media into your B2B strategy along with tactics such as mobile marketing.
2. BtoB Magazine: Although this is a magazine and not a blog, they do offer sage advice in the field, as well as a roundup of the best B2B posts of the week.
3. B2B Marketing Blog: Written by the team at Marketo, this blog showcases the ideas of B2B marketing through Marketo’s eyes. The cover topics such as, “B2B marketing best practices, in demand generation, lead nurturing, accountability and marketing & sales alignment.”
4. MarketingProfs B2B marketing blog: With how-to, daily posts and case studies on B2B marketing, this section of the MarketingProfs website is invaluable to a B2B marketer.
5. B2B Lead Generation Blog: Run by Brian Carroll, his blog has won numerous awards and is an Adage Power150 member. He reports on a wide range of B2B topics.
Facebook users have still growing it touches over 500 million at an extremely fast rate as people all over the world become members of this popular social site, There are several great ways to leverage the power of Facebook to build your brand and promote your home drop shipping business.
Facebook effectively to grow your marketing business:
Have a Facebook Fan Page: This is one of the easiest and most effective means of using Facebook for social media marketing! You can get really creative with your Fan page, and be sure to use good SEO because this will help your Fan page get picked up by the search engines.
Use Payment to sell your products on Facebook: Payment is a fantastic FREE way to increase your online sales! It couldn’t be any easier to set up and run, and with 500 million potential customers, the traffic is certainly there for you.
Be sure to include links: Take advantage of your Facebook presence to link to your website and blog, and vice versa. This will help tremendously in creating a flow of fresh traffic for you.
Have a contest or promotion: This is a great way to put your Facebook Fan Page to good use! There are very few people who don’t like a freebie or contest, and you can generate a lot of good PR plus boost traffic to your online store.
Recently Facebook accounts are more than 40% of the total social media traffic.
Facebook is focusing more and more on ecommerce and the integration of ecommerce and social media is basically a good deal.
Software Company Adobe Systems Incorporated revealed today that it has added new features and functionality to the Adobe Online Marketing Suite, powered by Omniture. Among the new features are the latest release of Adobe Search Center +, which is designed to make it easier for marketers to optimize Facebook ads and also includes support for the Google Display Network.
Other enhancements include real-time personalization of content for native Blackberry and Android mobile apps and reporting and dash boarding enhancements.
Adobe also announced that in future all Omniture products will feature Adobe branding and Omniture will transition to an "ingredient brand" with the phrase "powered by Omniture".
Social media has evolved to play a role in business travel programs. While half (50%) of respondents said that they use social media to some extent to support travel management today, mid-size companies ($3M to $10M USD in air volume) were the largest adopters (59%) of social media to support business travel management to date.
Many respondents indicated that the primary benefit of social media in supporting managed travel is educating themselves or their organization about the market. In fact, 44 percent indicated that staying on top of the latest travel information was the most important social media benefit. This response was followed closely by the interest in using social networking to learn and communicate best practices and reduce business travel costs (43%).
Other findings include:
• 42% use social networking to look for preferred vendors and services from travelers
• 34% seek to uncover travel patterns that could lend to better vendor rates and services
• 27% look to gain visibility into traditionally siloed business functions/departments
• 26% use social media tools to encourage travelers to network with each other
• 18% network with other travel manager/procurement officer peers
Smart business owners realize that good customer service is more than simply a drain on resources but is a great marketing strategy to differentiate from competition and build brand loyalty. Companies like Zappos have proven that excellent, pro-active customer service is a cost-effective way to acquire and retain customers to quickly grow a business. But in the age of Twitter and Facebook, it is not enough to simply respond to customers when they have a problem - businesses these days need to be proactively engaging with their customers BEFORE they reach the point of calling a 1-800 number.
Some forward thinking businesses (including our much-loved webhosting provider Liquid web) have taken this idea to heart and developed robust social media outreach strategies. Here are a couple great examples of how to build your business using proactive social media outreach.
In business who have tried what little they know with the likes of Twitter and Facebook to make an impression on social media marketing. A number of failed attempts to get their brand out there, they believe that it is all a waste of time, but Mike Melanson believes that it is not all about trying to offer coupons on Twitter.
Melanson has learned from a recent Forrester report that those who are failing their social marketing campaign are not looking at the larger picture – instead just thinking of those dollar signs. They advice that do not give up and face facts that they have been doing it wrong.
Creating a social media marketing campaign that produces a great return on investment know how easy it is, but there are those who just seem to struggle. Trying to get your name out there by trying to increase your Facebook fans or by getting a load of rewets will not help pay the bills at the end of the month, but do not count them out altogether.
Social media tends to be soloed in companies and/or fragmented across many agencies, leaving marketers wondering how it impacts their marketing mix and business outcomes. We view social media as the central nervous system, coordinating and connecting important functions of an organization.
Experts feel the days of smaller agencies dominating the digital space is over, as large ad holding companies and PR firms will expand their efforts – gobbling up smaller fish in their wake. According to eMarketer, the aggregate ad spend this year will be $2.5 million – with social media a $55 billion slice of that pie and growing the fastest.
Recent deals in the social media space include New Media Strategies, a unit of publisher Meredith Corp., by Chrysler Group LLC; and 360i by Kraft Foods – part of Japan’s Dentsu Inc. The Facebook page for Oreo cookies is overseen by 360i, which created the "World's Fan of the Week" promotion.
Berkery Noyes Investment Bankers reports that Internet media was the highest-volume segment of the media industry in terms of mergers and acquisitions in the first half of the year, with 104 transactions, led by Warburg Pincus and Silver Lake Partners' pending $3.25 billion purchase of Interactive Data Corp. from Pearson PLC.
Total transaction volume was up 21 percent in H1 compared to the second half of 2009, to 309 deals from 255, but total transaction value was down by 64 percent over the same period, in large part due to the Comcast-NBC merger and the purchase of IMS Health by TPG Capital, both announced in the fourth quarter of '09.
Berkery Noyes' media coverage includes broadcast radio and television; consumer publishing; entertainment content including movies, music, and television; trade shows, conferences, and seminars; Internet media, covering Web portals, social networks, user-generated content, blogs, and forums; and professional publishing.
Booming E-mail marketers should get better ways to measure how e-mails can control long-term customer loyalty and embrace the use of testimonials, images and videos.
The New E-mail Marketing Review provides criteria interactive marketers can use to measure the strength of their e-mail campaigns. The report, which is an update of methodology offered in a 2007 report, reflects the rapidly evolving nature of e-mail marketing campaigns and suggests best practices for capturing consumer interest.
The report offers quantitative scales to gauge its e-mail marketing strategy. For instance, having a defined e-mail marketing strategy with specific responsibilities for various employees earns the highest possible score, while having an informal strategy that lacks documentation or is not enforced is at the low end of the scale.
Social media also has assumed more importance for e-mail marketing.
The scorecard takes into account whether an e-mail message contains user-generated content and how easily consumers can share the messages with others. The maximum score offers multiple ways to share the message, The scorecard also encourages e-mail marketers to go beyond tracking bounce, open, click-through and delivery rates. Marketers should also measure how well e-mail campaigns engage customers, and find ways to measure the loyalty and profitability of long-time e-mail subscribers.
Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and other social networking sites are doubtless leaders in the social media. They gave the platform for people to keep in touch with friends, post comments and make new friends. And they have tools that enable advertisers to market their products and services 24/7 for free or at some cost.Thanks to the internet boom, most businesses now have diverse means of advertising their products and services to potential customers, anywhere, anytime. Gone are the days when the big three of marketing (tv, radio and print media) dominated the advertising world.
Now, the internet has gradually become a less costly and more effective means of advertising for most businesses, both small and big. And this trend is a result of the increase in social networking.If you own a business, the internet is now a great place to advertise. Instead of only advertising in the print and press media, where you have to constantly hope that newspaper-buyers spot your advert, hear it on radio, or come across it while watching tv; you can now advertise in a medium which is used by almost everybody, most of the time.
Apart from the marketing opportunities available, the social media also brings together businesses and customers. Most businesses can now put out twitter posts about their products and services. Others also keep customers updated via Facebook and benefit from friend to friend recommendations and general visibility that’s having more merits compared to print and press (tv, radio, newspapers, magazines etc.) advertising.
Interactive Intelligence’s routing and reporting technology with Buzzient’s social media analysis tools to track content on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Users are able to search for defined keywords, which will be picked up by the Buzzient software and then routed as an email message to an appropriate individual or department by the Interactive Intelligence technology. “Most organisations today understand the benefits of social media applications, from improved customer service and retention, to better products and services.
Without integration to a company’s communications routing and reporting systems, however, there is a far greater chance for wrong, inappropriate or inefficient responses, which can turn minor customer annoyances into major public crises.”
Neworking platforms such as Twitter, Blogging, Facebook, Video Channels doing Online marketing business provide website owners with new ways to both increase visibility to their sites without relying strictly on the search engines and engage people in an online networking environment that they may not have engaged with before.
Social media is a powerful tool for building brand recognition and increasing visibility but don't mistake Social Media Optimisation for a substitute to Search Engine Optimization. Social media optimization simply gives site owners another set of tools to add to their marketing toolbox but it needs to be built on a strong Search Engine Optimisation foundation and aligned with a clearly defined Marketing Strategy.
YouTube and Twitter can be hard for companies to keep up. Banyan Branch, a 3-year-old company founded by Alex Garcia and Dave Hanley, is trying to help the likes of MTV, Disney and Parallels manage, track and participate in online conversations in new ways.Marketers should forget the standard advice when it comes to using social media marketing, claims one industry expert.
All the conversation is on Facebook nowadays, (Among its creations was the fabulously funny "I'm on a Mac" rap video). We chatted with Garcia -- who leads the 53-person Seattle company -- for our latest installment of Startup of the Week. We help our clients to influence the conversation about their brands or initiatives on the social web. We listen to the online conversation, create sharable content, enlist influential brand champions, and address customer concerns. Basically we make our clients rock stars online.
As the integration of social media and television continues to take an increasing role in the worldwide market, Facebook and Twitter are battle for multi-billion dollar segments of the TV landscape, according to a new report by research company Futurescape.
In its latest report—entitled Social TV: How Facebook, Twitter and connected television transform global TV advertising, pay TV, EPGs and broadcasting—Futurescapes discusses how the battle between Facebook and Twitter over social TV is shaping 21st-century television and challenging the industry. Internet-connected television is already arriving in homes across the world, as Google TV, Yahoo Connected TV, CE manufacturers and pay-TV operators are all making a significant push. And this rise in social television means big benefits for the main social networking services. Whichever social media company comes out on top, according to Futurescapes, is poised to take a dominant strategic role in socially-targeted TV advertising, pay-TV content recommendation, TV-show marketing, next-generation EPGs and interactive viewing.
Facebook aims to tap into the $180 billion worldwide TV ad market, as Google TV and other connected TV systems will put targeted ads for social media services on TV screens. Global pay TV, estimated at $250 billion in 2014, needs social recommendation and discovery services—which both Facebook and Twitter provide—because these encourage viewers to subscribe to more expensive packages and buy more VOD.
Middleware and EPG providers similarly need social network data for recommendation and discovery, and the European EPG market alone will be worth $555 million by 2014. There's also the issue that buzz generated on Facebook and Twitter affects TV ratings and broadcasters that use the social networks for viewer engagement are effectively sharing their audiences with them. Another benefit is that the social networks know, in real time, how people react to TV programming, which may prove to be an essential supplement to Nielsen-type viewing data.
On July 7 in Hyderabad (IANS) SocialTwist, which develops tools that turn social media into social marketing, They announced that its Tell-a-Friend suite of products support 70,000 brands and has crossed three billion impressions.Vijay Pullur, founder and CEO of SocialTwist, told a news conference that adoption of Tell-a-Friend suite of products was growing rapidly and SocialTwist was strengthening its position in the $54-billion online advertising and digital marketing space.
The company also launched a promotional offer of Rs.10 per click for the Indian market while the average per click cost in the market is Rs.20. Brands can sign up for this service for Rs.20,000 and get a guaranteed 2,000 clicks. SocialTwist also introduced a rewards programme. Vendors can reward customers with discount coupons for making a certain number of referrals.
Pramati Technologies, the Hyderabad-based product development company, recently spun off SocialTwist as an independent company to get a slice of the $54-billion online advertising market.
As in the summer trade show things pick up soon enough. And shows aren't cheap. In addition to an admission ticket that can run into the thousands of dollars, there are often associated costs. Not just obvious ones such as travel, hotel and meals, but time spent away from work and clients.
1. Is it pay to play? Speakers are very often the event's sponsors, advertisers, media partners, or the vendors who are exhibiting at the conference. This isn't necessarily terrible - lots of these people are, indeed, truely experts in their field. But if speeches and sessions tend more toward the sales-y rather than the illuminating or educational, you're going to be disappointed if you're there to learn and to grow.
2. Are their marketing techniques above board? Every digital marketing conference will tell you they live and breathe to impart industry best practices. One way to assess if they do is to evaluate if the conference itself is walking the walk. If it's a social media conference, do they employ social media marketing. One very well-known multi-city U.S. event has illegally robocalled my home number (on the do-not-call list) three times in the past 30 days. Hardly a promising segue into "best practices," and certainly not in the consideration set for a "certificate in digital marketing."
3. Ask previous attendees Speaking is more than work for marketing and it works for you, too. What was the value they got out of it? You can put the word out to friends and coworkers, or throw up a query on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. straightforward opinions will soon be rolling in, promise.
4. Why are you going? why you're leaning to attend a specific event. Are you after networking? Learning tactics and techniques? Keeping up with trends and technology? Shopping for vendors? Make a list. It will help ascertain if you want an event featuring a trade show (vendors); workshops (tactics); or a generous helping of social events for you networkers.
5. What kind of infrastructure will you need? What are your must-have creature comforts, and are they going to be available at the event you're considering. Adequate power plugs for phones and laptops? Lunch? On the surface, this stuff sounds picayune. But just wait until you've hit Day 3 of a five day conference with a dead phone, an angry client, and no charger in sight. Have you been to the event with a half hour lunch break in a hotel far removed from reasonably priced services, only to learn the cost of admission doesn't include a sandwich or even a measly power bar?
6. Specialty event, or broad? Events come in all shapes and sizes, and all levels of specialization. B2B, B2C, search, affiliate, email or social media specific, or as wide and broad as the web itself. Things are specific enough for women bloggers to have an event all to themselves (BlogHer) and entire conferences dedicated to Twitter or custom content creation. Huge events center around email, or affiliate, or search. Gargantuan shows like Ad:Tech focus on everything. Determine your own focus before signing up.
8. What's the ROI? As you would for a campaign or other marketing endeavor, establish ROI benchmarks for attending industry events. Learning you can put into action when you're back at your desk? Expanding the lead pool? Landing a deal? Finding a vendor or candidates for an open position at your company? There are myriad reasons to attend conferences and trade shows. Establish goals for wringing value out of the event before you sign up and pack your bag.
Google and China continue to fight over Internet freedom in the communist nation. Google is trying to stay as clear of government control as possible; China wants to control information flow with a heavy hand.
The standoff began earlier this year Google when gave up its deal with China to filter Internet searches after what it called a “cyberattack” by the Chinese, and, instead, “automatically redirected Chinese users to google.com.hk, which is maintained on the company’s servers in Hong Kong,” reported the New York Times. Chinese officials responded to the redirect by threatening to cancel Google’s Internet operating license.
China devotes “enormous manpower to censorship, filtering out material based on keywords,” says Eddan Katz, international affairs director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Other countries do so as well, he said, such as Thailand, Turkey, Malaysia and Afghanistan. They also advance censorship by “pressuring third parties, Internet service providers (ISPs) and search engines, to do the work.”
Google is in a “tit for tat” game with China’s government, he said. “It remains to be seen if China relents.”
The immediate effect could bear on an upcoming visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao to the Obama White House. Because Google has close ties to Mr. Obama, the visit could be difficult if the censorship issue isn’t yet resolved.
In the meantime, America needs to watch its own leaders regarding Internet freedom: Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., told a news program on June 20: “Right now, China, the government, can disconnect parts of its Internet in a case of war. We need to have that here, too.” No, we don’t. The Internet is so integral to our lives today that shutting it down would be like blocking every road in the country.
Many executives may remain doubtful use of social media in the workplace is anything other than a diversion from the work . But companies that stop or severely restrict the modern communications technologies may miss out on assorted opportunities.
To assess the business value reasonable through such forums as blogs, wikis, discussion boards, and innovation platforms, the CIO practice at Forrester Research recently surveyed 303 information-technology staffers who use social media in the course of servicing their organizations. Seventy-two percent of the respondents said social media has a positive impact on productivity in the front office, 70% said it makes IT operations more productive, and 61% said it makes the back office more productive. Only 46%, however, saw a positive influence on marketing.
In Forrester's survey, 72% of respondents said social media helps them get answers to questions, 68% said it helps them find information they need to be successful, and 62% said it lets people know what kind of help is available.
And large majorities of respondents said social media has a positive impact on brand reputation (86%), innovation (80%), and customer service (78%). The finding on brand reputation is particularly notable, considering some striking instances in which social media has helped damage companies' images.
For example, after United Airlines rejected a damage claim by Canadian musician Dave Carroll, who says he saw baggage handlers throwing his guitar around on the tarmac, he posted a video on YouTube of himself singing a song called "United Breaks Guitars." The video has racked up more than 8 million views since it was posted in July 2009. Also, Greenpeace supporters this year barraged Nestle's Facebook page with complaints that the company's sourcing practices contributed to rain forest destruction in Indonesia.
In addition to supplementing help desks with social media platforms, Forrester advises CIOs and CFOs to develop collaborative learning around social media by asking savvy IT employees to run lunch-and-learn sessions. And even companies that opt to continue restricting the use of social media should consider different policies for IT staff in order to stimulate experimentation, Forrester says.
What to find a great photo or perfect celebrity picture? This list of best image search engines will help you find interesting photos in the easiest way possible. You will learn about hidden preferences, unique features that will make you searches images like a professional and actually find the best images possible.
Imagery
Imagery is my favorite image search engine due to the intuitive interface. This has a cool tabbed search interface to browse your searched images. Just keep searching new image terms, which keep compiling in new tabs, click to load full size image at the bottom or in new window. Loads 20-100 images at a time in Ajax-y fashion. Best for research and keep collecting all your search images easily. You can tweak preferences to select JPG, GIF or PNG, sort by size, sort by black and white, grayscale or color and of course get safe for work images too.
Google Image Search
Google Image Search is probably the most common image search engine you might have used. Gives you thousands of image results very fast. But a limitation is you need to click to the image source page to see the full size image (Power it up with Google Image Ripper to get no more thumbnails and load full size images directly). You can sort images by JPG, GIF, BMP or PNG, sort by b&W or color, with an option for extra large images. You can also search news content and faces too! Improve Google Image Search results using the Google Image Labeler. Use more filters to stop that NSFW image with moderate filtering or strict filtering.
Ask Images
Ask images will search your desired images and suggest ways to expand or narrow your search for better results. A unique preference is finding buddy icons. It will suggest related information from Wikipedia, videos from Youtube, news, profiles and more.
MSN Live Image Search
MSN Live Image Search searches through all images of your choice. One cool option is to search “Showing only images of your desktop size” to find that ideal wallpaper even if you do not know your display settings. Another cool feature is you can drag images from the search results to a scratchpad and create a photo collection. Find related results. You can adjust a slider to see smaller thumbnails and fit in more photos.
Alta Vista Image Search
Alta Vista Image Search has similar search results, with an option to select graphics and buttons / banners too. You can also quickly sort by a huge range of prefixed desktop sizes and very useful to find wallpapers for your desktop. Clicking on “more info” below those images will take you a list of all webpages that host that same image.
PicSearch
PicSearch claims to index 2 billion images on the web. All images are output-ed as thumbnails and click through to a framed page with the original source. Selecting the preferences you can select only animations only. You can also sort images by various image sizes based by pixels. And they are family friendly images by default, which cannot be changed. It also powers Ditto.
Netvue
Netvue is another cool image search tool. The images are organized as a slideshow, you can regulate the slide show speed and even turn it off. Browse thumbnail images to a central window, with links to original full size image source.
Flickr Images
Flickr Images - Its the top image sharing community on the web sharing their best photos with you. Many unique photos can be found, many personally photographed and with copyrights reserved. You can browse in detailed or thumbnail view. Another option is to sort by View: Most relevant or Most recent or Most interesting as judged by the community. Many Flickr users have chosen to offer their work under a Creative Commons license, which means you can use their content with some rights reserved.
Webshots
Webshots is another huge photo sharing community where people upload their choicest photos and share them. Lookout for copyright issues in these photo album collections. They have a desktop software to have fun with your wallpapers and screensavers.
What is Yahoo! Answers? Claimed to be the World’s biggest think tank, Yahoo! Answers is a question-and-answer (Q&A) site created by Yahoo! in 2005. More than two million people regularly visit the site. Now you can see the potential of this web property in driving targeted traffic to your web site for free. Since its inception, it has become popular among internet marketers to drive traffic to their websites. Other entrepreneurial online marketers have cashed on the popularity of the site by publishing e-books that guide you how to use the service for website traffic.
You don’t need to buy any e-books to use the Yahoo! Answers and leverage it for your web site traffic and link building. It is free and simple to use. And as with any other traffic techniques, you should not focus all your efforts on this one site alone. You can also use the site for getting answers to any questions you may have in more than 20 Yahoo! Answers categories. By sharing your answers to others questions regularly, you can also establish yourself as an expert and build your brand.
If you already have a Yahoo! account, you can sign in to Yahoo! Answers using your Yahoo! user name and password. I don’t know anybody who does not have a Yahoo! account. If you’re one of those few people who have ignored all the Yahoo! services and have never created a Yahoo! account, sign up now.
1. Start with a top level Yahoo! Answer category that you’re passionate about and interested in. If you’re are interested in gardening and have a gardening blog, you should start with home and gardening category. Don’t limit yourself to the top category alone, select all the subcategories also.
2. You don’t have to be an expert. If you are interested in a topic, you can do a Google search and get the the right answers to almost all the questions posted in Yahoo! Answers. Try to be the first person to answer a question and answer it correctly.
3. Don’t post vague and false answers. It is always better to verify your answers before posting it. Check even the spelling and grammatical errors before posting your answers otherwise people will doubt your answer even if it is the correct one.
4. If you have verified your answers using some authoritative sites like Wikipedia, CNN, MSNBC, Yahoo!, university websites, respected journals, etc., post the link to the source of your answer.
5. The beauty of the Yahoo! Answers service is that you can post links in your answers. But don’t post links to your websites always. Link to your contents posted in other sites like your articles published in article directories, Squidoo lenses, hubpages, blogs, digg, stumbleupon, YouTube videos etc and direct the user to your contents for more information.
6. Try to avoid opinionated political questions but if you have the fact from an authoritative source, post the link without posting your own opinion.
7. Yahoo! Answer is also a gold mine for keyword and market research on any topic. By scanning the questions in one topic, you will be able to know what information people are looking for. You can make a blog post detailing your research on that question and then link it in your answers.
8. Keep your answer succint and to the point. Just don’t provide a link to the answer. Provide as much information as possible to resolve the question and links for more information and validation only.
9. Even if the answer is simple, don’t call names and mention how stupid the question is or how simple the answer is.
10. Yahoo! Answers is a community sharing site. Participate by answering and voting on others answers.
11. Use keywords in your answers.
12. Avoid answering lots of questions in one day. Answer no more than five questions a day and do it for no more than three times a week.
13. Never, ever try to sell any thing in your answer.
Social media marketing is a lot more complicated than any other form of online promotion and few companies have recognised this. Partly because it deals with multi-facet areas, such as vertical search (based on algorithms), viral and conversational marketing, content generation and sharing, as well as brand association and reputation management. There is a need to engage, interact, blend in, create rapport and then sell the targeted idea, the feeling, the thought. Participation marketing. Community interaction requires several professional skills:
Marketing
Sociology
Public relations
IT
Business development
1. Marketing skills are of essence and the reason is self explanatory
2. Sociology skills required for understanding the role of individuals within communities and the community dynamics. The unwritten laws of what is acceptable and what not. What adds value and why.
3. Public relations skills for reputation management and brand building. Making the right choices through a crisis and the best choices when you build a strong name.
4. IT skills and knowledge of the platforms to keep up with technological advances and new opportunities. The time to react is of essence. You need to be there before competition becomes unmanageable. Early adopters always win points.
5. Let’s not forget that we are selling something. Unless you are doing social media marketing for brand building purposes only, you need to still drive revenue to justify the investment. So promoting the product or service is the priority and it is easy to lose focus and over-promote. Equally, not thinking about sales can lead to lost business hours and no additional funds.
So when thinking about an individual or an agency to drive your participation marketing campaigns, think about experience, knowledge and ability.
Do they have the skills required?
After all, all that is at stake, is your company’s reputation.
Social media have been subjected to an authentic boom with growing users in the last monthe. They are becoming a part of the daily lives of people, companies and organizations in the same way that other media have done in the past (radio, TV, mobiles, etc). Here are some suggestions to help you enjoy your experience with these tools.
Be unique, different, extraordinary. Only in this manner will you be able to stand out among millions of other options.
Be yourself don´t make the mistake of trying to be someone else, sooner or later you will get bored and stop functioning
Be a resource for others. Become useful to the community you live in.
Produce and share original content which can interest your audience.
Ask Questions
Respond to doubts or questions about others.
Be controversial. Create debate which is fundamental to capture interest in any spectacle and this applies to social media.
Avoid being one in a crowd.
Avoid offending other users.
Do not waste time in absurd discussion or paying to much attention who only seek to create problems for their own entertainment.
Listen and follow significant users in the community.
Create new connections everyday, at least one.
The aim is to make relations before attempting to sell a product.
Be generous, share and try to give more than you receive.
Take care of your images and photographs. Offer an attractive and relaxed image. Avoid forced smiles and unnatural poses.
Think always about the community were you wish to direct a message and do it only if you are sure you are supplying something of value.
Always reply to comments and show those who have bothered to send you a message that they have captured your interest and their message hasn´t fallen on dead ears.
use the adequate tools for each type of message.
Don´t pay to much attention to casual comments. Be yourself, investigate, if you make mistakes learn and enjoy yourself.
Both major and minor companies are moving towards social media marketing for business purpose. Some of the famous social media websites are Facebook, Twitter and web 2.0 tools. Some of the major developments that you can expect in social media in 2010 are:
Plays a major role in politics:
Social media will play a new marketing strategy for political campaign. One major example was President Barrack Obama’s campaign. One major reason for politicians to choose social media for political campaign is it can increase supporters, donations and build strong political network.
People can make money through social media:
In 2009 many people used social media for interacting with others but this year you will see a change as many people can make money with SMM (social media marketing). In 2010, you will notice that social media may become location specific, revenue sharing plans and targeted ads that can lead to job opportunities.
Twitter can serve billions of tweets each hour:
According to co-founder of twitter, Stone, there will be nearly billions of tweets every hour in 2010. Twitter will become important in 2010 for local news and more.
Social media would be accessible in Mobile phones:
Due to increase in sale of mobile phones, social networking would be an added feature. People would use mobile phones for watching videos, reading content, search purpose or locate a particular location.
More corporation houses would use social media tools:
Some giant corporations like Sun Microsystems, IBM, Ford, Dell etc use social media. This year you may hear more such corporations using social media tools for their business. Using social media tools are not only important but also make life easier.
Women would outnumber men in Social Media:
More Women use social media sites like Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, Myspace and Bebo compared to men. Business week revealed in a post that “According to a Rapleaf study, while both sexes still use social networking sites in huge numbers, women are the ones holding down the fort “. Moreover more than 42 Million U.S. women use social media.
Location specific networking sites could be seen this year:
Location based network will experience severe growth in 2010 for several reasons. This feature will not only help companies locate right seeker but also help end user in hitting the right bar. Foursquare and Gowalla will monetize their network to a lucrative position faster if other network do not react fast in 2010.
Social media jobs to rise:
There will be increase in social media jobs in 2010. Social media will lead the way in redefining customer relationship with new technology. There will be more job seekers and providers in 2010.
