The Social Media landscape is a very interesting one. It comprises of 10 key elements and all of them can be used, and are being used, to help generate and maintain sales for small to medium sized businesses.  In this 7-part blog series, I am going to give an over view of the 7 elements you need to be using as a bare minimum.

1. Publish
2. Share
3. Discuss
4. Social Networks
5. Microblogging
6. Lifestream
7. Livecast 

The other three, virtual worlds, social games and MMO (or Massively Multiplayer Online game) can also be used, although not essential. 

So, let’s keep the focus on the big 7 and help you get your Social Media skills & understanding to a whole new level.

 “Livecast” The Social Media Landscape – Part 7 of 7

Qik , Justin.tv  and Ustream.tv  are the three most popular Livecast hosting systems. I want to make it clear that they are all free to use! Can you believe that? FREE! No complaints from me, onward…

What is Livecast?
Livecast is the internets answer to live TV. Viewers all over the globe can view your webcam broadcast live. Viewers can watch the screen and hear your content just as they would on television.

Qik is a mobile based Livecast system. Picture this for a moment… you’re at a seminar and you bump into the most interesting person you have ever met – you wish you could record an off-the-cuff interview with them quickly – so, what do you do? Whip out your internet enabled mobile phone and wham! Start streaming a quick Q&A session live for your prospects, customers and business partners to see.

Ustream.tv is my favourite Livecast system and I use it at least weekly to communicate with prospects, customers and business partners. A live video stream is the ultimate in personal contact when it just isn’t viable to be there in person.

I am going to be broadcasting the first Social Media Landscape discussion live using Ustream.tv in a few hours time.

Click here to register with Ustream and then rsvp to the Livecast.

How is Livecast good for business?
Livecast allows you to interact with distant customers in a way that has not been possible until now. Given the economic challenges businesses are facing at the moment, you can soon be the favourite supplier of breaking news in your indusrty by hosting livecast presentations.

The monthly team meeting, board meeting or product launch can now be done at little to no cost and I am sure your prospects, customers and business partners will be into that!

Livecast allows for easier interaction and lowering overheads - two goals that most businesses have. 

This is just a basic overview of the Lifestream element of the Social Media Landscape. As this element becomes more widely accepted in the business world, you will see new and exciting developments to make it a whole lot more useful.

So there you have it, some food for thought on the Lifestream element of the Social Media Landscape. 

I trust you have had fun learning the Social Media Landscape through my 7-part blog series. Going forward, over the next wee while, I will be demonstrating & tutoring you, in more depth, how to use Social Media to make your business more money.

Please subscribe to this blog and make sure you don’t miss exciting future blogs.

Adam Baird

Uncovering the Social Media Landscape

The Social Media landscape is a very interesting one. It comprises of 10 key elements and all of them can be used, and are being used, to help generate and maintain sales for small to medium sized businesses.  In this 7-part blog series, I am going to give an over view of the 7 elements you need to be using as a bare minimum.

1. Publish
2. Share
3. Discuss
4. Social Networks
5. Microblogging
6. Lifestream
7. Livecast 

The other three, virtual worlds, social games and MMO (or Massively Multiplayer Online game) can also be used, although not essential. 

So, let’s keep the focus on the big 7 and help you get your Social Media skills & understanding to a whole new level.

 “Lifestream” The Social Media Landscape – Part 6 of 7

FriendFeed and SocialThing are the two most popular Lifestream websites. Both achieve the same result, however, I would run with FriendFeed as it seems to have a whole lot more business focused users.

What on earth is Lifestream?
Lifestreaming is a procedure used to combine all of a Social Media user’s favourite information into one, easy to manage. Basically, controlling the stream of information that now controls your online life.

If you’ve been taking action on the information you have learned from the first 6 parts to the Social Media Landscape blog series, then you will, by now, have a number of different websites, accounts and systems that you are using – right?

Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, Digg, Flickr and a couple of others that you will learn about in part 7 are all able to be managed in one place.

How is Lifestream good for business?

It’s not going to create any more leads or generate any more sales; however, it will improve your efficiency online. Instead of having to check, scan through and read multiple different systems, you can take care of all your Social Media interaction in the one place.

Compared to the huge level of experience I have learning about, using and understanding the previous five elements of the Social Media Landscape, Lifestreaming is relatively new to me. The upshot of it is that it makes sense, saves time and allows you to spend more time on income producing activities.

This is just a basic overview of the Lifestream element of the Social Media Landscape. As this element becomes more widely accepted in the business world, you will see new and exciting developments to make it a whole lot more useful.

So there you have it, some food for thought on the Lifestream element of the Social Media Landscape. 

Come back for the final part of this 7-part blog series real soon or even better, subscribe to this blog and have the next post emailed to you when I hit “submit”!

Adam Baird

Uncovering the Social Media Landscape