Social Blogging

Individuals, of all different ages, enjoy meeting and communicating with other internet users. Despite the fact that individuals of all ages use the internet to socialize, there are certain groups of individuals that do more than others. Those groups of individuals include students, both high school students and college students. For that reason, it is only fitting that there should be a social networking website that has a focus on these particular individuals. That networking website is known as Facebook.

Facebook may not be as well known as other popular social networking websites, such as Yahoo! 360 or MySpace, but it is still popular. That popularity is mostly among high school students and college students, mostly because Facebook focuses on these individuals in particular. With Facebook, you are required to register for a specific network. That network can either include the high school or college which you attended or are currently attending. Once you have joined the website, you should easily be able to make contact with others who are in the same network.

The network in which you join can be considered an advantage of Facebook, as well as a disadvantage. See, Facebook does not work like most other social networking websites. Instead of being able to communicate with all site members, you are limited to contact with those that are in your particular network, the high school or college you that selected. The creators of Facebook state that this is for your own safety. Although it is safer for your profile and personal information to be viewed by a small number of individuals, you may not necessity want it to be that way.

Although a large amount of focus is placed on high school students and college students, Facebook has added another popular feature to their website. That feature is workplace networks. By joining a specific workplace network, you will be granted access to other community members who work for the same company as you. This feature is nice, especially since many companies have become large corporations or expanded across the country. You may be able to make contact and become friends with a long-distance coworker that you never knew you had.

Another aspect of Facebook that you may find inconvenient is their lack of available information, before you decide to become a community member. When viewing their online website, which can be found at www.facebook.com, it is hard to tell whether or not the site is free to use. Most online social networking sites will make this known right upfront, but Facebook does not. Aside from the price, you should easily be able to obtain additional information on Facebook, before making the decision to become a member. This additional information may include how Facebook works, why you should become a member, how the invite process works, and general rules and restrictions that are in place.

If you are interested in joining the Facebook community, you should do what you should do with all other social networking websites, research. By taking the time to research and examine everything that Facebook has to offer, you should be able to decide whether or not this popular networking community is what you were looking for. There is a good chance that it will be, but if not, do not worry. There are literally an unlimited number of other social networking websites that you can join.

Technorati Tags: facebook, social networking, online community, college friends, find friends, create facebook profile

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Technorati Tags: social bookmarking, social networking, Web 2.0, Web 2.0 secrets, Web 2.0 marketing, social bookmarking guide

MAKING SURE YOU DON’T SPAM

Social bookmarking offers you a lot of freedom, and can help you drive traffic to your website overnight. Still, abusing this freedom can lower the credibility of your business, your brand, and your company name. Moving beyond the potential for spamming will help you to build a strong and regular community, instead of being kicked off a social bookmarking network.

It’s important to review your submissions to make sure you’re not overusing keywords. Keyword overuse is a turnoff for readers anyway, and you should aim for a keyword density between 6-8% at the maximum level. Most readers will easily pick up on articles that simply do not make sense, and this will limit your ability to promote quality work. Instead of focusing exclusively on SEO, create something unique with an attractive headline instead.

Google and Yahoo! are also becoming vigilant about catching spam-type articles and you will lower your chances of indexing as a result. The most important factors for indexing by Google include:

1. Publishing content that is relevant to the heading or topic
2. Quality formatting
3. Appropriate links and references
4. Appropriate amount of keywords

Reading all terms of use and guidelines will ensure that you can make the most of your participation, and grow with your community so you are developing a strong presence.

Avoiding Becoming A Spammer If You’re Using Duplicate Content.

Duplicate content makes it easier for you to write about your topic of choice, giving you a pre-researched format and guideline. Still, it’s important to make many changes to the article, and obtain permission rights from the author when necessary. A single sentence or paragraph that is copied word for word can be detrimental to your search engine placement, and may even lead to copyright infringement.

THE SOFTWARE QUESTION: TO BUY, OR NOT TO BUY

You’ll find a variety of submission directory software packages and applications available on the web today, but it’s important to review the risks involved with using an automated service. Since many of these can be blocked by spam filters, the efforts may not be worth your time. These software packages are designed to submit your content and information on multiple sites in one simple step.

Some social bookmarking submission software packages are designed to be compatible with multiple websites, but you may find that some of your content simply becomes pushed onto spamming sites and bogs. This is why submitting to quality directories and sites is even more important today. Automation does not necessarily guarantee quality, and only you can make the decision on whether this is appropriate for your business, your blog, or your website.

Still, you may find some value in free sites such as Socializer 2.0. Socializer is free web service from eKstreme.com that allows you submit one link to several social bookmarking websites by adding some code to your site. The company has also developed customizable Wordpress and Movable Type plugins and you can find instructions on downloading this information directly from the website.

You can book mark your articles to one folder in your IE Favorites, export it to it’s own folder and import all book marks in that folder to Del.icou.us and them tag/label them. Many of the other Social Bookmarking Sites have features that will allow you to import those favorites directly into your account from Del.icio.us.

IMPORTANT: Remember to mark all your bookmarks in all Social Bookmarking Sites as public. When you import bookmarks, most sites will automatically or by default mark them as private. When they are marked as private, no one including search engines can find of view your bookmarks. If you leave them marked as private, it of course then defeats the purpose of Social Bookmarking from a marketing standpoint.

Technorati Tags: social bookmarking, tagging, bookmarking, seo, social bookmarking submission, bookmarking services

The Value of Social Networking from the Perspective of the University

It shouldn’t come as any surprise that the members of the graduating class of 2011 are more technologically savvy than most admissions and recruitment officers. After all, most freshman-age students in the US–young adults that were born around 1990–have been around computers all their lives.

Many college age students have been using social networking sites for some time now: Myspace with 130 million users, and Facebook with 12 million users. Towards the end of 2006, in an attempt to capitalize on the direct interaction with prospective students that these social networking portals offer, colleges and universities began launching marketing campaigns within these social networks. The results have been mixed.

In a cynical article entitled “Yada Yada Nada?” Robert Sevier makes a few interesting points that go against using social networking sites in order to market on behalf of higher education:

Observation # 1: It’s about quality, not quantity. Big numbers attract attention, but the reality is this: As a college or university, you are interested in only a very, very small percentage of that big number. The challenge, of course, is sifting out the small percentage of students and others that are interested in your message in a way that is effective and efficient. So far, no college has cracked the code. Observation #3: Members are very wary of the encroachment of business into what they define as personal, literally “my,” space.

Observation #4: You cannot control content. Colleges love to control the content of their messages. However, on social networking sites they cannot. In fact, many social networks are fueled by member-created content in which members opine, respond, and react to the world around them.

Mr. Sevier’s points are valid, but the fact remains–and Sevier admits as much–that the amount of people that use social networking sites make “cracking the code”, or coming up with an appealing way to market to prospective students within these social networks, extremely appealing.

The Value of Social Networking from a Student’s Perspective

Last week, the New York Times ran an article that described how a soon-to-be NYU freshman–Monique Yin–created the Facebook group “NYU 2011″ with a short description: “Join this group if you are attending NYU next fall.” As of last week, the group had over 650 members.

Monique isn’t alone in her endeavor, colleges and universities across the country have similar “2011″ groups–larger schools even have more than one. From a student’s perspective , the benefits of social networking are obvious: students have the opportunity to meet other freshman before the first day of class, making the transition from high school to college less painful.

A Middle Ground?

The difficult part for colleges, as Sevier points out, is the fact that schools don’t have the ability to control the content that is displayed on these sites. To address this, some colleges have come up with their own social networking sites that allow them to access and change content. On the one hand, this may seem like a win-win for colleges and universities, but on the other hand, students tend to stay away from controlled sites.

At this point it still isn’t possible to determine how and when colleges and universities will “crack the code” to using social networking sites in order to market to prospective students. The fact that so many students use these sites, however, makes it certain that schools will keep on trying.

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-Sources

Lombardi, Kate; “Make new Friends Online, and You Won’t Start College Friendless”; The New York Times; March 21, 2007

Sevier, Robert A, “Yada Yada Nada” University Business; March 2007

About the Author
Patrick Sutton is Marketing Director of Innovation Ads, Inc., a company that helps colleges and universities to increase applications and enrollments by leveraging proprietary and affiliate internet portals, and the second largest DRTV media buying capacities in the US.

Technorati Tags: social networks, social networking, college groups, college students, social networks, college networks, educational networks

A review of ways marketers can align with these consumer hot spots.

Online social networks are hot. Those who participate in them belong to two, three, four, maybe even more than 10 or 20 different ones. They enjoy their features, upload photos, request business contacts and talk with friends.

For now, consumers get to do this for free. For now.

Although social networking in the offline world may be well-established — monetized through conferences, venues, referral fees and headhunters — the online world seems to just be examining the methods of monetization. The general principle still stands: if you have a large database of active users, you can make money — right?

Here is how it is being done today:

Advertising — A quick review of ad dollar expenditures in the U.S. reveals that only a small portion of the total is spent online — but that is going to change fast. Online advertising is once again booming — and just as public television and print media often can be sustained from pure advertising models, online is no different. The leading social networking sites (MySpace, Friendster and LinkedIN, along with many others) are primarily supported by advertising. Although their aggressive growth strategies mean that some may still be losing money, advertising represents a substantial amount of revenue.

Revenue Share/Per Transaction Fees — Someone clicks on her friend’s profile on Friendster and sees that he loves HBO’s hit series “Deadwood.” Clicking on the term ‘Deadwood” brings up all the other members who have the same interest — and an easy-to-purchase link for the “Deadwood” Season One DVD through Amazon. It’s essentially a focused advertising arrangement — marketers now have precision targeting through social networking profiles, tapping into user interests — and offering purchase options within very specific filters.

Events — Although revenue numbers generated from MySpace-style events are difficult to come by, these events are known to be well attended and a driving force behind MySpace’s impressive growth. In general, while it’s unlikely that offline events account for more than 10 percent of any social network’s revenue, events do make for great content and word-of-mouth advertising.

Moving forward, compelling new ways to monetize social networks will continue to emerge. The downside, however, is that some of these methods may not be in the user’s best interest — and they might end up taking the “cool” edge off these communities.

The Buying Club/Affiliate Revenue Models — With Buy.com’s purchase of Metails, a major offline and online retailer has recognized the power of social networking and made a commitment to the space. Yub.com enables users to develop their own social network focused around products, product ratings and, more importantly, a point-based rewards system that lets members benefit from a friend’s purchases. While Yub.com feels like heavy retail — with a full online mall that has grown rapidly in the last few months — the site is building a large user base and enticing members to recommend products to friends. Although the buying club mentality might work only within certain types of social networks, the notion of a point system that rewards users for certain activities should be embraced more broadly. By developing a currency system, a social networking site can create very real incentives (promotions, giveaways, contests, fundraisers) for specific actions, from which everyone can benefit.

Corporate Sponsorship — Does being a fan of a brand mean that you want the owner of that brand to have all of your personal profile information? Practically speaking, the answer has to do with the type of brand and the reward the user receives for sharing that information. Corporations will take notice of these social networks and begin offering competitive services with products and (if they are smart) experience-based rewards. Just as Icelounge (described as a “MySpace for skaters”) was launched, larger brands will begin to do the same. Increased brand loyalty and sales opportunities will lead directly to monetization.

Country Clubs/Membership Fees — The SNS world can be a field of dreams — albeit for a price. As social networking site ASmallWorld.com has recently demonstrated, if you build a great social network — making it “invite-only,” with restrictions on activities — well, everyone wants to join. Naseeb likewise has proven that a focused social network, aimed at a specific niche, can justify an admission charge. From where I sit, I’d much rather be part of a social network with fewer members, no advertising, and no corporate sponsorship but that charges for entry.

Overall, social networking sites are experiencing hockey stick growth and, in the process, influencing new types of two-way brand experiences and community building on the web. Although the approaches to monetization outlined here just scratch the surface, revenue models abound. Any repository of personal data and contact information on a large group of users (perhaps better to call them “consumers”) inevitably translates to profit opportunities.

Let’s just hope that all our email accounts and personal profiles don’t end up in a spam database though a dot-com SNS auction.

About the Author
Michael Jones, founder and president of Userplane, oversees the company’s application and business strategy, focusing on the future of live communications through the development of web applications. During the past four years, Userplane has gained recognition as a leading web-based application provider, in large part due to the success of its Flash-based Audio/Video Webmessenger™ and Webchat™. Jones is one of the primary team members.

Technorati Tags: social networks, social networking, online advertising, membership fees, social blogging, social network advertising

Taking Social Bookmarking To The Next Level with the Auto Social Poster!

This solution allows you to post to bookmarking sites on a mass level like black hat pros, while at the same time not appearing to be anything remotely resembling SPAM!

If you can write a blog post, then you have all the skills needed to automatically increase traffic to your blog, improve your website popularity and generate buzz — “hands-free”!

Visit Generate Traffic by Sharing!

technorati: social bookmarking, blog marketing, website promotion, social bookmarks.

Avoiding the Game

Search engines serve one primary function. They exist to bring users and information together. They rely upon a complicated set of algorithms and formulae to try to produce results that are meaningful to end users. When they fail to do a good job at their primary function, people begin to look for an alternative means of finding the information they need.

Online economics have compromised the effectiveness of search engines. The internet isn’t just a library; it’s also an open market where entrepreneurs can make their fortunes. In order to post those earnings, sellers need customers. One of the best ways to get those customers is by convincing the search engines to send them along.

So, mastering the search engines has become a priority for those in online business. They dissect the search engine algorithms, play with different strategies, and devise methods to push their profit-generating sites up toward the top of search results. The search engine optimization game has been great for business in the short term, but it is putting a great deal of pressure on the engines, which are often unable to stay ahead of the clever gamers.

For many users, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find the information they want. The search engines are feeding them pages of results leading to dead-ends. That wouldn’t be very important to many of us, except for the fact that they are not just staying there, disgruntled. They are moving on to different methods of finding the things they want.

Millions are flocking to social bookmarking and trying to avoid the search engine games. Those potential customers are “off the radar” of most marketers. The smartest entrepreneurs, however, are finding ways to reach them.

For more information check out the source of all this information at:
Free Report on Social Bookmarking For Driving Traffic to Your Sites!

technorati tags: site promotion, social bookmarks, get traffic, free report, network marketing, bookmarks, social bookmarking.

Bringing tons of free traffic to your website through internet marketing online is one of those difficult tasks that need planning more than implying anything practically. When search engine optimizing your website, just try to get more than you’ve spent on internet marketers charges. It’s not easy to generate good revenues through ppc advertising. But there are social book marking sites and the option of email advertising also exists, which you can use quite free of charge.

Latest news on social blogging and social networks:

Social Networking Won’t Lift Netscape from Web Limbo - eWeek - Mar 17, 2006

Six Apart wins $12m to make blogging corporate - ZDNet UK - Mar 17, 2006

Tips for Parents on Teen Blogging (Social-Networking Web Sites Can Have Hidden Dangers for Some Kids) - ABC News - Mar 15, 2006

I found a few more interesting sites you should check out…

Ning is the new free and easy way for you to create your own Social Web Apps - so let the fun begin!

43things allows you to discover what’s important, make it happen, and share your progress. Find your 43 things.

Squidoo is an online platform that makes it easy for anyone to build lenses on topics they are passionate about. These lenses help you find a unique, human perspective on things that interest you… fast. Not only can Lensmasters spread their ideas, get recognized for their expertise, and send more traffic to their Web sites and blogs—they could also earn royalties. Here’s a lens I just started: Social Blogging.

ReturnOnAffiliate is a social community site following the trend of general social sites like MySpace.com, but was created solely for people in the Affiliate Marketing Industry (that includes me).

What is Tag Explosion?

TagExplosion uses social bookmarking as an advertising tool. Social bookmarking is done over tagging networks that allow millions of users to share, post, save and categorize bookmarks under certain keywords or search terms. This can include your own affiliate programs and websites! It is a personal collection of bookmarks and people share them with others. Users may also take bookmarks saved by others and add them to their own collection, as well as to subscribe to the lists of others such as listed. Is it possible to get traffic and earn money using social bookmarking sites? I’ll let you know.

technorati tags:
social networks
tagging
social bookmarking
social network
blogging
social networking
social marketing

1. MySpace (8) - View profiles, connect with others, blog, rank, upload pictures, grow your socail network and more!

2. Blogger (16) - Start your blog, an easy-to-use web site, where you can quickly post thoughts, interact with people, and more. All for FREE.

3. Xanga (20) - A social community of online diaries and journals. You can easily start your own free journal, share thoughts with your friends and meet new friends, too!

4. Hi5 (31) - Online environment for meeting new people, connecting with friends, and sharing ideas. People are social beings and don’t like being forced into separate buckets for different things. So hi5 has understood that need and taken a more broad approach.

5. Orkut (33) - Committed to providing an online meeting place where people can socialize, make new acquaintances and find others who share their interests.

6. Facebook (41) - Facebook is an online directory that connects people through social networks at schools.

7. Friendster (46) - With more than 24 million members, Friendster is the best way to stay in touch with your friends and it’s the fastest way to discover the people and things that matter to you most.

8. Flickr (51) - Flickr is almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world.

9. LiveJournal (NA) - LiveJournal is a simple-to-use communication tool that enables you to express yourself and connect with friends online. You can use LiveJournal in many different ways: as a private journal, a blog, a social network and much more.

10. Photobucket (77) - Provides image hosting for MySpace, eBay, blogs, message boards, and online photo albums. Photobucket is reliable, fast and very simple to use.

technorati tags:
social networks
myspace
social network
blogging
social networking
social marketing

Using MySpace effectively

Social networking is a phenomenon that seems recent on the internet with sites likie ecademy, linkedin, ryze, openbc, orkut, craigslist, friendster, and of course myspace. But the nature of networking with others has been around for thousands of years as individuals gathered in communities and expanded their base of friends. It’s through the technology advancements, though, that worldwide networking with people you choose is being made easier every day.

The website MySpace is a community that has arisen in the last few years as a result of a need in the marketplace for an easy to use, customizable, fluid, multimedia rich, and fun place to hang out. Preteens, teens, and college age students have flocked to MySpace in droves, with the intent of creating a space for themselves on the web, expanding their network for social purposes, and being entertained along the way.

The MySpace platform is now used by tens of thousands of young adults daily, has a high ranking in sites like Alexa, and has retained a very loyalty effect, meaning that users frequently come back to the platform to add to their sites and connect or reconnect with those who also gather there.

One of the most useful features of MySpace is the ability to add in skins and overlays to add flavor to your site. There are many individuals and websites out there that enable easy customization of this online community. Along with visual customization of your site, it’s also useful to include audio. This audio can be in the form of a message you leave for visitors or by adding in clips from your favorite music. Another great way to add flavor to your site is through the addition of content that reflects your personality, interests, thoughts, and basic views on the world. And by searching for users with similar interests and developing a connection with them, you can expand your networking.

In order to develop a connection with those you network with, it’s best to keep in mind how to add value to the relationship you have with them. In other words, how can you benefit them or their site? Perhaps you know of someone they should meet and you want to make an introuction, or you know of other music similar to what they’ve posted on their site, or you have a perspective on some content they’ve included. It’s through these sharings that you could not only increase the quantity of networking, but also the quality of networking that you’re doing.

The skills in networking that young adults gain by using a site like MySpace are ones that will stay with them their whole life, enabling them eventually to maybe meet a mate, develop a fulfilling career, or establish lifelong friends.

By keeping in mind the principles of customizing content and developing a unique persona, focusing on adding value to relationships established online through speaking to what benefits them, and networking with a long-term view in mind for creating connecxtioins both with those you have a lot in common with and those you may not at first glance, the investment of time and effort you put into MySpace can pay off for the future as well.

About the Author:
Dave Lloyd has created an online guide to MySpace and social networking at http://www.socialnetworkingsecrets.com

technorati tags:
social networks
myspace
social network
blogging
social networking
social marketing

Here is a comprehensive list of social networking sites broken down into nine loosely built categories. These social networking categories are: business; common interest; dating; face-to-face facilitation; friends; MoSoSo (Mobile Social Software); pets; photos; and ’edge’ cases or social networking ‘plus’ sites. Check it out at the Social Networking List.

technorati tags:
social networks
rss
social network
blogging
social networking
social marketing

Here’s an interesting article by Stephen Downes on social networks and blogging. More specifically how content syndication and social networking will merge to create a new type of internet, a network within a network, and in so doing reshape the internet as we know it. Read the full article here: The Semantic Social Network

technorati tags:
social networks
rss
social network
blogging
social networking
marketing