Facebook

Facebook has become the 4th most popular website in terms of traffic behind Google, Yahoo!, and YouTube. Facebook is a perfect content syndicator. It’s a social utility that connects people, to keep up with friends, upload photos, share links and videos. It also is now a tool that Social Media marketers are using to increase their presence on the internet. It’s growth has been stellar and its demographics in the 35-54 year olds have shown a 276% growth in the last 6 months of 2008 alone. The 55+ demographic is not far behind at 176%. These demographics represent a market that have much fatter wallets than the 20+ demographic and this reason alone is why if you do any marketing of any kind, you need to start using Facebook.

Social Media

Social Media consists of exciting, revolutionary and whether we realize it or not, far-reaching effects on all of our lives. It is propagated by people using online publication technologies that are highly accessible and scalable. With it people are easily able to share news, information, and content in the forms of video, text, and images. It is revolutionary in that it is highly interactive, forever changing, and extremely dynamic in providing relevant content. It is not at all like its predecessors that used the internet as an electronic brochure. Social Media’s growth is attributed to its ease of use and is reflected in its tremendous growth.

Social Buzz

One of the dynamics of Facebook is that it is permission based. It means that a person is only subjected to the content of people they choose to be their friend. The term ‘Friend’, the way Facebook uses it, is what they call the people that you allow to be a part of your network. They are your friends. Why is this important? It’s important because typically the people you allow to be in your network have a common thread or commonality. It of course typically is a group of family or friends but eventually came to include those with common interests. Examples would be Real Estate, Nascar, Baseball, Sewing, and the such. Another is Marketing. One of the dynamics of people who market businesses, products, and ideas is networking. Facebook is the perfect medium for that. So when someone finds something that they think is of high value to them, they can share it with their network. The propagation of highly interesting and viral content is where the term ‘Social Buzz’ comes from. Because your ‘Friends’ are going to have similar interests as you, they may also syndicate the content as well.

Summary

Facebook is the optimum platform for social buzz because people can propagate the four media types; text, video, images, and sound very easily. The syndication of content via Facebook, the most flexible, most used, social media plays well for social buzz. If you haven’t joined yet, now is the time to get some friends.

Technorati Tags: Content, facebook, Friends, Images, Social Buzz, social media, Video, Viral

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Internet marketing is completely dominated by Facebook and Twitter. These sites are famous social networking communities but they also mean business, nowadays used by all and sundry, from teenagers to office goers, from celebrities to famous business people too!! It will be a surprise to know that these sites, other than been an entertaining portal, also enhances the earning abilities of the users. Here’s your chance to know all about Facebook and Twitter and you will know what we are talking about!Facebook and Twitter have people like Ellen DeGeneres, Ashton Kutcher, Daniel Steel, Barrack Obama and many such celebrities raving about them and even using them to connect to their fans. Twitter to be very specific, is a social networking site that allows you to type brief updates of 140 characters only. It could range from any to every topic. The striking feature of this site is its quick way of staying in touch with your beloveds and friends by means of tweets, especially with the fast paced life of yours.Again, Facebook is another social networking site and is the world’s 5th site that has visitors in large numbers. One of the best aspects of Facebook, or FB as it is popularly known, is for you to locate your near and dear friends, with whom you lost contact some years ago. You also get access to world-class universities that are security conscious, and offer excellent educational courses. It’s also used as a dating service system and can be used to expand your businesses. Many users use FB, for networking and also for recruiting employees for their firms. And that is why these sites are becoming common among entrepreneurs wanting to reach the influential people in the quickest and easiest way.The best way to use all about Facebook and Twitter applications is by adding friends in terms of the high-class and influential people form the relevant industry. You can even search for the interest groups and communities that could be beneficial for your business venture. Another way of striking a conversation with users or the sites is by continuously updating the content on your page on these sites. These sites are affable to the content and that’s where you adding relevant information could keep your page lively and most visited. You can even fill in virtual inputs to make it optimum and garner greater business prospects. If you use these tactics, using Facebook to make additions to your client list for your business is a point taken.Moreover, these sites are best for increasing the business via Web 2.0 more commonly known as the social network marketing sites. Getting yourself hooked to these sites is very easy and trouble free. Just sign up and start expanding your business.Facebook has been earning accolades all over the world and is the 5th largest visited website in the world. Facebook’s fan list is increasing with the days. To know all about Facebook and Twitter, professional courses have been developed, so as to get you to the core of these sites for effective usability.Now that you know all about Facebook and Twitter, why don’t you get started with this web 2.0 sites and see yourself higher in the internet marketing arena?

Technorati Tags: facebook, Small Business, social marketing, social media, Twitter, Web 2.0

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With Facebook recently overtaking MySpace as the number one social networking site, it is definitely worth taking a look at if you are in business.

According to a study done recently by the Aberdeen Group companies are using sites like Facebook to improve the interactions they have with their customers. The study showed that companies that use social networking sites are 17 times more likely to improve customer satisfaction than companies that don’t use them.

If you already have a profile on the site but aren’t sure how to leverage it for networking, brand visibility and gaining feedback–check out these top tips for boosting your reach through this hot social tool.

1) Take special care in filling out your profile: You will want to take the time to thoroughly fill out your profile, especially making sure to include your website address and your interests and activities. People appreciate this type of insight into the person behind the business.

2) Join and contribute to groups: Joining groups relevant to your niche is a good way to reach your target market and share your knowledge. Be sure to comment in the discussions and post helpful tips and links.

3) Start your own group: Taking the group idea up a notch, why not create your own group? Be seen as an authority while forming relationships with other members you have invited. Encourage conversation and participation and include a way for others to find out more about your business when you fill in your info as the administrator for the group.

4) Update often: This doesn’t mean you need to spend hours on the site, but for the time you do carve out, update your status and add relevant, helpful links, photos or information to your profile. Because these types of updates show up through the News Feed function for others, you are creating a viral spread of information that helps build your brand and create familiarity.

5) Suggest, recommend and introduce: If you know people you think should be introduced, then facilitate that. Recommend and suggest resources to others. All of these activities create community and contribute to the awareness of both you and what you have to offer.

6) Import your blog posts: You can use the Notes application to pull your blog posts into your profile. NetworkedBlogs is another application that is great for giving your blog exposure.  The posts you import with this app appear in others’ news feeds, adding to your expert status and credibility in your particular niche.

7) Create a Page for your business: Facebook Pages are a nice option because it allows you to have a whole separate profile for your business. You can invite others to join the page, post relevant items, hold discussions and “naturally” promote your services or products. The best thing about it? Facebook is ranked so highly in the search engines that by giving your business a page, it helps your business rank highly as well!

Personalize your friend requests: It is a good idea to add a friendly message when you are making a friend request. People are more likely to remember you and it’s just a good relationship-building practice.

9) Promote your events: If you are holding sales, teleseminars, courses, live events or anything of the like, you can create invites for your friends to receive with all the relevant information included. This is great for increasing participation and driving traffic.

10) Place targeted ads: “Social Ads” as they are called on Facebook are another option. This can be a powerful way to increase brand awareness. With these ads you are able to select targeted demographics for your campaigns.

Remember, it is about relationship building, not “push” marketing. A few cautions: make sure you never do anything that could be seen as spam. Take time to explore the privacy options on your profile and keep in mind how all of your Facebook activities may be perceived by your potential clients and customers.

Once you really jump in and get involved I think you will find Facebook to be a fabulous tool for both networking and visibility. If it is overwhelming, take it one step at a time–but don’t stand on the sidelines any longer. After all, it’s not just for college kids anymore!

Technorati Tags: facebook, Small Business, social media, Visibility

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Every waking moment, thoughts about our lives, our experiences, and our identities linger on an infinite thread. Do we ever look to reflect on the ways we look at ourselves? The Daili Lama once wrote, “The way to examine how thoughts and emotions arise in us is through introspection. It is quite natural for many different thoughts and emotions to arise. When we leave them unexamined and untamed this leads to untold problems, crises, suffering and misery. When they are reflected on, it promotes a deep understanding of who we are.” The mind is as difficult to control as the wind some might say, but I on the other hand see that we can control our thoughts. I mean aren’t we harnessing wind energy nowadays? Greening anyone???

Either way, leaving our thoughts and feelings unchecked and untamed can lead to untold problems, crises, suffering and misery. Don’t believe it? Here’s how.

My friends’ girlfriends’ mother has a Facebook page and my friend decided to friend request her. So they are now ‘Facebook Friends.’ My friend goes to a party one night and hooks up with another girl. My friend told the girl he hooked up with that it was a mistake for them to hook up and he had a girlfriend so she agreed not to tell anyone. Everything seemed cool until his girlfriend called him the next day and dumped him because she said she saw him making out with another girl. My friend was unaware that someone had taken a photo of him making out with the other girl and he was ‘tagged,’ allowing his girlfriends mother to see the photo of his promiscuous antics. Because he mentioned how “fucked up” he got during the party in his status update, this served as the invitation his girlfriends mother used to view his page and the photos he was ‘tagged’ in consequently telling his girlfriend about him cheating which lead to the break up. Problems, crisis, suffering, misery? I would tag this under ‘homerun’ because he definitely cleared all the bases on this one.

Here’s another example of how leaving our thoughts and feelings unchecked can lead to untold problems:

Before I left my full time job to pursue writing professionally, I noticed there were a lot of my colleagues who had Facebook profiles of their own – some even in management. There was this one colleague of mine who was faithful with changing her status updates every 20 minutes or so. She would update ‘us’ (us meaning her Facebook friends which I am one of them) about her child’s first words, her second husbands nasty coffee breathe and how much looking at her credit card balance every month just made her buy more Starbucks. The time came for end of the year evaluations and unfortunately she was let go from her position, presumably because of the missed hours of productivity used to tell her Facebook friends about Jim’s coffee teeth and little Julie’s first steps. Problems, crisis, suffering, misery? No job? That’s problems, crisis, suffering and misery wrapped all in one.

Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are the threading that connects us to the sphere of the human matrix we are linked to through today’s technology. Part of the ‘quo’ to belonging to these virtual techno-communities is that we must fully participate and integrate ourselves within its platform. The way we do this is by populating our Facebook and MySpace profiles with the 100’s of books that we like, the 1000’s of songs we love, the 10,000’s of pictures we’ve been tagged in and the 100,000’s of thoughts and feelings we think about ourselves.

Thoughts about who we are, inside and out, do linger on an infinite thread. This is natural. And with Facebook, MySpace and Twitter as the transistors on this thread, boy do they help in quantifying its infinance. Granted, it’s cool to know about a party that was “off the hook” or if “it’s complicated” with your high school sweetheart, now that we’re adults. But is this normal, is this right, is this healthy? My answers, “No, I don’t know” and “you decide,” respectively. In our age of techno-diversity, adaptation and change is our health indicator. But leaving these thoughts and emotions unchecked leaves us emotionally, morally, physically and spiritually malnourished.

“What are you doing right now?” I ask myself. “I’m peace” the other voice in my head whispers back. I guess that’s all you need to know.

Technorati Tags: facebook, Identity, Internet, Myspace, social marketing, social media, Twitter, Websites

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10 Steps to Get Started with this Social Media Superstar
So the high school and college kids I know have been talking about Facebook for several years now. And like most mature, responsible adults, I pigeonholed it as being a place where kids put incriminating pictures out for the whole world to see and is just a more modern version of the chatrooms they talked on in middle school.
Call me officially wrong! About a month ago, I joined the Facebook community (that’s me joining the over 150 million other people worldwide – seriously!) I thought it could serve some good business purposes and that I would “dink around” with it.
Wow, was I surprised. 6 hours later, I had already connected with 48 friends. (I didn’t think that many people liked me!!!) Two days later, a high school friend of mine sent me an email through Facebook asking me about my consulting business. We met a few days later and identified several projects I could do for her. Probably the easiest client I have ever found! (Not to mention I connected – and get to work – with an old friend!)
So should you be on Facebook? If you target people under age 30, I think the answer is easy (its yes!). If you target people 30 – 40, you will start seeing more and more people in this age group on this site, and the 50 year olds are not far behind. (People are talking about Facebook!) If you are a local business, it is a great chance to stand out in the vastness of the web. I think the fit for retail is huge. And if you market to a group where there is a likelihood that they will get together in discussion forums, then you will find a place here.
Sure, there may be a few types of business that don’t fit, but for most, the answer is probably, “yes.” The cost is right (free) – so you will just be investing your time. (Warning, it can be addictive. My 8th grade girlfriend – yes, you really will connect with people you have not seen in 30 years – told me her husband calls it FaceCrack!)
OK, so you are curious. Here are 10 very simple steps to get started:
1. Set up a personal account – just go to www.facebook.com and enter your name and email. It will quiz you about your background data. The more you give, the more it will help you find friends and speed start your networking.
2. Connect with personal friends and family to learn the lay of the land. Get accustomed to sending a “friend request” and replying to friend requests. Write a few “wall” posts, and do a few status updates, and comment on others. Build a group of people you are genuinely interested in connecting with. I would suggest starting with friends, then you can move into business contacts.
3. Get active with it – there is a flow to Facebook. It has its own tone (a little more sarcastic and fun than traditional communications) and lingo. It is not complex to get the hang of it, but it worth giving yourself a little time to explore and understand the overall vibe.
4. Join a few groups – search for groups related to your business and sign up for some. See how groups and related discussion boards work. If your prospective clients will be on a group discussing, then join. Focus first on having real conversations and creating value, not just on selling. (That’s true overall!) Within the first week, I made friend in Singapore (of all places) from a group discussion, which could lead to some interesting things down the road.
5. View some of the business / brand pages. Do you like the rock group Coldplay? Are you a diet coke addict? Do you have a favorite local business who has a business FB page? (Or become a “fan” of The FAMEE Foundation.) Just go to that page and become a fan. It’s fun!
6. Set up a business page for yourself – so once you get comfortable with viewing a few other business pages, set up one for yourself. A note here, I found it VERY weird how to set these up. Go to a business page (like Coke, ColdPlay, of FAMEE), and at the bottom, there is a “set up your own brand” page. It is kind of buried, but set one up. And don’t stress if you don’t have 4,000 fans overnight, let it build.
7. Start a group related to your business – Think this one through and set up a group to discuss things related to your business. Look for ways you can create value.
8. Promote it – start to let your customers know that you have a Facebook page. Put it on your website. Put it on your business card. Weave it into articles and blogs (ie: this article!!!)
9. Seek out people who would make great customers or partners – then send them a friend request.
10. Then work it. Like any marketing tool, it does not grow itself. Put a little energy into this over the course of time. Likely you will find it fun. Log on and spend a few minutes each day.
Social marketing is a key trend. Facebook is one of many tools, but certainly has a lot of momentum right now and represents a significant opportunity for those companies who see a good fit and are willing to put a little energy into the process. Lots of people find it easier and more comfortable to network online than they do in person.
Probably the best advice is have fun. If you can enjoy how you market your business, then you will do it a lot more and you will get a lot better at it. See you online!

Technorati Tags: Business, Entrepreneuer, facebook, Marketing, Networking, Small Business, social media

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