Social Media

Social media will soon become much easier with the development of new technologies specially made to enhance the social media experience and make things operate easier. Here are some of the latest technologies that are newly developed and that are predicted to be a good help in the growth and improvement of social media:

• Natural Language Processing – this is similar to Optical Pattern Recognition where the goal is to have computers automatically categorize and understand the requests and needs of their human users. This can cause developments in the future such as applications that can analyze your comments or tweets and give you suggestions on which people or brand for you to follow.

• Open ID – this is an open authentication protocol that allows its users to use one username and password for every site that they visit. Once you are authenticated, there will be a second application called OAuth that would allow you to share information about yourself with the other sites that you use. This also collects data for you so you do not have to fill in redundant information in your profile at each site that you use. This technology would help eliminate the need to fill out registration forms for sites. Aside from that you do not have to remember a lot of passwords for multiple accounts.

• Optical pattern recognition – there is now biometric face recognition technology that is being used by most police and security services to help identify criminals. Google has Neven Vision and is using their technology for its Picasa site. This helped Picasa when it comes to photo organizing. You do not have to tag each photo manually anymore – Picasa can tag the pictures automatically by recognizing the faces in your photos. These technologies are still not at their best since they are newly discovered and there is still room for improvements. But these tools can have a significant effect on how people would use social media and the internet in the future.

Using social media is the best way to promote your business brands. And with the explosive growth of social media, it is no wonder that a lot of companies are using social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

A lot of marketers are now using social media and the numbers keep on growing. But these companies must understand how to employ effective methods and tactics in order to make the most of using a social media platform.

Remember that setting up an account is not enough. What is important is that there is participation and interaction among you and your audience. If none of this is happening then you are wasting your time. If you commit to making an account on a social networking site then you must be able to stay visible and active to your audience by doing regular updates. Keep them interested by constantly giving them useful information that is at the same time relevant to your brand.

Be humane. When people go to your account do not slap your company’s logo everywhere. Post a face to your profile, have a person’s name and have a good description. Make it more personal. Without doing so, people might think that you are becoming too self promotional. This could instantly make them lose interest because they will be thinking that you will just be pushing your products on them. It is ok to promote something but it should not be the main focus of your account.

You must be able to engage with your audience. Try to start conversations by posting articles, videos and links that is relevant to your business. You should also comment on other people’s sites or pages so that they can check your own site as well. Having a social networking account is also a great way to listen to your customers and potential clients. By interacting with them, you get to harness trust and loyalty from them as well.

Aside from making use of social networking sites, you can also set up a blog. It is actually a great place to start employing social marketing strategies and you can set up links going to your blog from your profiles. Your blog can be your home base wherein you can directly promote your products to entertain those audiences who are interested and want to know more about your business and the services you have to offer

A lot of people blog simply as a hobby to them or as a form of self expression. What most people do not know is that they can earn a lot of money through their blogs. There are a lot of bloggers nowadays that uses their blog as their primary or secondary source of income.

Of course making this possible will not be easy unless you really have a good blog. This means that you need to have good blog content and attract a good number of regular traffic in order to generate some cash. If you think that you have both elements then you can start advertising in order to make money online. It is important that you concentrate on having both good content and traffic first before you look for advertisers.

You need advertisers since they are a great way that you can generate money from your blog. There are a lot of advertising programs available online like Google Adsense or Yahoo Publishers. You can get cash through the number of clicks that they get in your blog.

You can also use text link advertisement wherein links are embedded in your content (Like this!). When the reader clicks on your content they can be lead to the site of your client. This is one way of getting more clicks for advertising.

There are a lot of advertisers and companies who realize the potential of blogs to be a good marketing platform. In fact, some are contacting bloggers that write on their industry offering them payments in order to have some advertising space in their blog. Being funded by an advertiser is the ultimate goal that a blogger can aim for when making money online because you are able to make more money this way compared to participating in advertising programs.

If you want to learn more about blogging and how to make money doing so Click Here!

Blogging is the latest trend in the media today. A lot of people are now putting up blogs to share their rants, their views on social issues and even their business. Blogging is definitely considered as one way to reach a large  audience.

Having a blog can give your business that one boost that it needs. There are a lot of reasons why business owners would want to set up their own blogs as well. Blogging can promote your brand significantly. When it comes to having a business blog you can reach the level of business success that you are hoping to achieve.

Having a well managed business blog gives people something to remember and would keep them coming back to your blog for more. Having a blog also provides your readers something to get excited about. Once readers find your blog content interesting then they would surely talk about your blog to someone else thus the start of a word of mouth marketing business. Some would even write about it in their own blog and would link back to yours sending more traffic to your site than usual.

Having a blog also gives interactivity between you and your clients. Your blog can be a venue where you can create a community of fans and with the regular traffic, you can make your own subscriber base by aggregating your blog feed. But once you make this move, it is important that you blog constantly which means you have to make updates from time to time. Make sure that everything you put online is consistent with who you are and what your business is.

Blogs are communication tools. They can help establish your credibility and your expertise. It can significantly help you be found online when it comes to search engines making you accessible to prospective clients and business partners.

Many people don’t think blogs are part of the Social Media Landscape, but they are mistaken. It is the blog which first became a popular way to communicate online. That communication capability by leaving comments, and responding to such made it social.

If you would like to learn more about blogging and how to make some serious money from it, I recommend you Click Here!

On Monday, August 31, 2009 TweetLater.com will be known as SocialOomph.com. TweetLater.com has decided to change their name in order to be able accommodate future expansion and to make sure that their brand won’t be in conflict of any legal rights of Twitter. “We are focusing more on providing productivity solutions to our users” according to TweetLater.com and the change of name is “an unsolicited, proactive and preemptive action on our side”. For TweetLater Users it is recommended that you do the following;

TweetLater is now SocialOomph

• White-list the email address emailservice@socialoomph.com , by doing so you will still continue to received your keyword alerts and other communication from TweetLater.com.
• For your convenience make sure to bookmark http://www.socialoomph.com.
• After the transition all traffic to tweetlater.com will be redirected to socialoomph.com.
• Change tweetlater” to “socialoomph” in the URL after August 31^st if you are using a Status feed.
• You don’t need to change your log in information
• Exciting additions of the services of socialoomph.com is something that you would look forward to.

I think this is a great move and while TweetLater has become a household name with many users you must always think big.  SocialOomph leaves a lot of room to grow in size and service.  I don’t particularly like the name, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it.

Following last year’s first version of my Social Media Landscape, I am induced to publish a new version to sync with the market’s latest evolutions. And I a not the only one: The Conversation Prism v2.0.

This new landscape is now spitted into four main usages (expressing, sharing, networking, playing) and is structured around social platforms which ambition is to cover each user’s needs.

The large size version is here : Social Media Landscape (redux).

Four Main Usages

The various tools and services displayed on this landscape are listed bellow.

1. Expressing tools allow users to express themselves, discuss and aggregate their social life:

• Publicatin tools like blogs (Blogger, Typepad, Wordpress), wikis (Wikipedia, Wetpaint, Wikia), microblogs (Twitter, Tumblr, Identica), citizen news (Digg, Newsvine, AgoraVox) and livecast (JustinTV, Ustream, BlogTV) ;
• Discussion tools like forums (phpBB, Phorum) and video forum (Seesmic), instant messengers (Y! Messenger, Live Messenger, Meebo, eBuddy), comments services (IntenseDebate, Cocomment, Disqus, BackType) and 3D chats (IMVU, Habbo, WeeWorld, vSide) ;
• Aggregation tools (FriendFeed, SocialThing, LifeSteam, Profilactic, Plurk…).

2. Sharing tools allow users to publish and share content:

• Content sharing for videos (YouTube, DailyMotion, Vimeo), pictures (FlickR, SmugMug, Picasa, Fotolog), music and playlists (Last.fm, iLike, Deezer), links (Delicious, Magnolia, Reddit) and documents (Slideshare, Scrib, Slideo) ;
• Product sharing with recommendations platforms (Crowdstorm, ThisNext, StyleHive), collaborative feedback platforms (FeedBack 2.0, UserVoice, GetSatisfaction) or swaping platforms (LibraryThing, Shelfari, SwapTree) ;
• Place sharing with tools based on local adresses (BrighKite, Loopt, Whrrl, Moximity), on events (Upcoming, Zvents, EventFul, Socializr) and on trips (TripWolf, TripSay, Driftr, Dopplr).

3. Networking tools allow users to search, connect and interact with each other’s:

• Search networks allowing users to find ex-classmates (Classmates, MyYearBook, Alumni) or persons (MyLife) ;
• Niche networks (Boompa, Dogster, PatientsLikeMe, Footbo) ;
• BtoB networks (LinkedIn, Plaxo, Xing, Viadeo) ;
• Mobile networks (Groovr, MocoSpace, ItsMy, Zannel) ;
• Tools to build an online network (Ning, KickApps, CrowdVine, CollectiveX).

4. Playing services that now integrate strong social features:

• Casual games portals (Pogo, Cafe, Doof, Kongregate, PlayFirst, PopCap, BigFish, Prizee) ;
• Social games portals (Zynga, SGN, ThreeRings, PlayFish, CasualCafe, ChallengeGames) ;
• MMORPGs (World of Warcraft, EverQuest, Lord of the Rings Online, EVE Online, Lineage, Dofus, Runescape) ;
• MMOs (Drift City, Kart Rider, Maple Story, Audition, Combat Arms, Quake Live) ;
• Casual MMOs (Puzzle Pirates, Club Penguin, Neopets, Gaia Online, SmallWorlds, OurWorld).

From Social Networks to social Platform

At the center of this landscape we will find former social networks, which have evolved to progressively integrate more and more functionalities and morphed themselves into social platforms. The notion of ‘platform‘ is particularly relevant since those network have the ability to host applications (mostly the one you find on the four main usages).

We can split social platforms into two groups: The First Generation which have been existing since more then 5 years and gather between 50 and 200 millions of users (Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Bebo, Orkut, Skyrock, Hi5, Windows Live…) and The New Wave of social players which have a similar offering and a fast growing audience (between 20 and 50 millions users – Netlog, Imeem, Piczo, Lexode, Hyves, Buzznet, Xanga, Zorpia…).

I won’t enter in the debate to foresight which platform will grow faster or which will appeal the most to youth audience but I anticipate a rough competition for Facebook which is stile experiencing cash flow problem by sticking to the advertising model while those new social players have integrated micro-transactions and premium membership in their business model.

Google and Yahoo! are still absent from the social scene (wait, maybe not…)

You will also notice in this landscape the discretion of Google and Yahoo! which are ‘only’ represented by services that did not managed to break through the social scene (while being strong references, Blogger, YouTube, FlickR cannot be considered has dominant social platforms). Let’s be honest: MySpace and Facebook decently steal the spotlight from Google and Yahoo!.

Wait… maybe not if you consider Google as a being in a much more favorable situation with lower-level services like Gmail (one needs an email to register Facebook, right?) or Google Maps (can you count the number of social services relying on Google mapping tool?). Add to this there current cash situation and it leaves them plenty of time to sharpen their social strategy (Maybe by buying Twitter or FriendFeed, or booth!).

The same is true for Yahoo! which can rely on a massive user base (still outnumbering Facebook’s one) and essential social bricks like Delicious, Yahoo! Pipes, MyBlogLog and the promising Fire Eagle.

Did I mention Microsoft? Yes, Microsoft, those guys behind Hotmail, MSN and Windows Live. Ignoring them would be a big mistake and Mark Z. was more than happy to welcome them in FB’s capital.

From this pint of view, I expect a very thought battle around authentication services (Facebook Connect, Google Accounts…) allowing social platforms to exist outside of their boundaries and to export their members’ social graph. Big players like Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft have to emphasis their legitimacy as historical web players to keep control over their users.

I strongly recommend you to pay attention to those different services (yes, there is a life outside Facebook) and I shall meet you next year for a third version!

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.

Micro Blogging

“Microblogging” The Social Media Landscape – Part 5 of 7

Twitter is the only Microblogging site worth learning about, getting stuck into and maximizing. Twitter is experiencing unprecedented growth on a daily basis!

First of all, what exactly is “Microblogging”?
Microblogging is a type of social media that allows its users to write short, sharp messages to update their readers. Like a text-message on a cell phone, microblogging is usually limited to a small (less than 200) number of characters.

So, this “Twitter” thing that you’ve heard on the news, read about in the newspaper or had an email from someone suggesting you checkout what someone has posted…

Twitter is the number one microblogging platform available to the world today. As far as the Social Media Landscape is concerned, this is Mount Everest – large, powerful, unpredictable, challenging and intriguing.

First of all, a lesson in Twitter Language:
Tweet – a post on twitter made by a user
Follower – somebody who is monitoring another users tweets
RT – “Re-Tweet” is when you copy another users Tweet
@ – Placed before the username of the person you wish to reply to
# – Placed infront of a key word to make searching easier

language lessonYou can see a number of things in the above screenshot: JoshCalvetti Re-Tweeted IronmanAdam’s tweet. The tweet included a web link and it is important to use http://www. to ensure the link is “clickable”. IronmanAdam saw that #fail was a trending topic (on the side bar of your twitter home page).

My username is @adambaird and you can find me at http://www.Twitter.com/adambaird

It is incredibly simple to use and problem most people face isn’t how to log in, its “Why twitter?”

Instant information is what we are hungry for in the fast paced world we live in today. Until now, our lives have been shaped by what the large news corporations choose to share with us – as well as how and when! With Twitter, the voice of one person can be as powerful as an entire news network. This was proven when actor Ashton Kutcher recently challenged CNN to a race to get 1million followers.

Interestingly enough, even though CNN were broadcasting live arcoss the USA campaigning for more followers, Ashton beat them to it. Now, each time Ashton tweets, more than 1million people are receiving that message on their twitter page.

Here are some pretty neat tools that you can have a play around with on Twitter…

1/ Twittercounter
2/ Twittergrader
3/ Wefollow
4/ Twhirl
5/ Search.twitter
6/ Nearbytweets
7/ Tweetlater

How is Twitter good for business?
Unlike an eNewsletter, telemarketing or lumpy mail, your prospects and customers can choose to “Follow” you without having to share any information with you. They are in control of if, when and how much information they want from you and this means you will reach more people, more quickly!

As I wrote about in Part 2 regarding YouTube videos, trust is, without a doubt, the most important aspect of generating a sale. When your prospects and customers can learn more about your business without having to give you anything first, you are fast tracking the building trust process with them.

It is important to understand that your customers will also lose trust in you and your business when you make mistakes! Learn what your customer perceives as spam – this is the number one killer of sales! If you put a link to your latest and greatest product in every single tweet, you are going to piss some of your customers off – there’s on question about that.

All in all, Twitter is an incredibly powerful and unique form of communication and fits nicely into the Social Media Landscape.

Again, this is just the tip of the iceberg. I could write a month worth of blogs teaching you the ins & outs of Microblogging and Twitter. Keep an eye out for some video blogs and perhaps a tutorial or two on Twitter at the end of this 7-part blog series.

So there you have it, some food for thought on the Microblogging element of the Social Media Landscape. Twitter is definitely the key player here – ensure you use it!

Come back for Part 6 & 7 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

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.

“Share” The Social Media Landscape – Part 2 of 7

YouTube, Flickr & Blip.fm are three systems you can use as part of your Social Media presence. There are a lot of misconceptions about sharing online and the biggest one of the lot is the idea that you “must be TV quality” to bother sharing.

This is absurd and while it may have been true 10 years ago, times have changed and customers are looking for content, not presentation.

YouTube is an online video sharing website that allows it’s users to upload, view, share, comment on and embed videos on other websites or blogs.

It is very interesting to note that YouTube was created in February 2005 and just 21 months later, in November 2006, was bought by Google Inc. for US$1.65 billion – not a bad return on time invested by the three founders!

How is YouTube good for business?

As you will soon figure out, YouTube is an incredibly simple system to use, costs nothing and allows you to connect with your customers at a whole new level – no matter where in the world they (or you) are.

All you need to create a YouTube clip is a very basic webcam, which you can purchase online for about twenty bucks. From there, you login to YouTube.com and click the “upload” button and start recording your clip.

Videoing interviews with your staff, tours of your office and clips from live presentations are just three simple ways you can please your customers. Trust is the most important aspect of creating sales and by letting your clients see “behind the scenes” will build a lot of trust, very quickly.

Each video that is created has a short explanation with it. It is wise to put your website in this bio to encourage viewers to click on your website or blog to learn more and perhaps make a purchase.

Flickr is most commonly used for sharing personal photos. Bloggers are catching on to Flickr and using its slideshow features to create a “flashy” look on their site.

Flickr is not a system that you will use a lot, however, it is one that you need to use. Upload photos from events, tradeshows, team meetings, your staff and more. As with YouTube, use Flickr to build trust with your customers by opening the “behind the scenes” in a simple and well presented manner.

Music is a massive industry, perhaps one of the largest on the planet. Sharing your favourite songs using Blip.fm is a fun and easy way to meet like-minded people – you are looking for people with the same interests are you after all, aren’t you?

Create a free Blip.fm account and occasionally “Blip” a song that you really enjoy – post it to your twitter, facebook (more on these in Parts 4 & 5) blog, website as part of your Social Media presence.

So there you have it, some food for thought on the Share element of the Social Media Landscape. YouTube is definitely the key player here – ensure you use it!

Come back for Part 3 – 7 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

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.

“Publish” The Social Media Landscape – Part 1 of 7

Wikipedia, Blogger, WordPress and Digg are all online systems available for you to use. Each has different features and can be used to create different outcomes.

Publishing online is simply you adding your thoughts, lessons, information or data to a system that is easily assessable to other users, generally people who are interested in what you are publishing.

It is worth noting that 99% of everything you ever publish online is there forever. Well, maybe not quite forever but for a very very very long time and there is no way for you to delete it. So, word of caution, ensure you are happy for everything you publish to be seen by the world forever.

Wikipedia is a free, multilingual encyclopedia that is created by it’s users and almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone who can access the Wikipedia website.

How is this good for business?

It’s about consumer research, rather than generating direct sales.

1/ Ensure your business (or industry) has accurate information posted for the world to see. You would be surprised just how many people “check you out” on Wikipedia before making a decision to buy from you.

2/ Understand your competition. Wikipedia, like the entire social media landscape, is an environment that forces honesty. It’s too easy for customers and staff to share their view on things if your information isn’t up to scratch. You can learn some very interesting details about your competition.

Blogger & WordPress are fantastic blogging platforms. What is blogging and why is it so important?

Blog, short for “web-log” is a type of website, maintained by an individual (or business representative) with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order.

Blogging is possibly the most important social media avenue for your business. A blog allows your customers to read, view & listen to important information relating to your business. As a rule of thumb, write 5 informational/educational blogs for every “sales pitch” post.

This means you are adding a lot more value to your readers than they are adding to you. Creating this “safe” (non-salesy) environment means your readers will come back and read future blogs.

This post that you are reading right now is a blog. The platform I have chosen for this blog is wordpress, as you can see at the top of the page, this blog is called http://www.adambairdblog.wordpress.com. In the past I have used blogger as well and find both systems very easy to get started and update regularly.

There is no rule how long a blog should be, you can choose.

Digg, like wikipedia, is created by it’s users. It is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. Digg is great for business when you can have your website, article, blog, video or podcast voted for by enough of your fans that it appears in the Top 10 for it’s category.

Why? Because the Digg Top10’s consistently generate an incredible amount of new traffic to that link. Here’s how you can see Digg in action… simply click here and “Digg this” article. (Thanks!)

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

Come back for Part 2 – 7 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