Gx9MdcjIz6wZJMYDzoNs2lmKZ3hc3fkCH: December 2012

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Why Social Media Privacy Is Important for a Business Owner

A business owner should always aim to have privacy. Especially if their business does a fair amount of business, this is because a business that does well is going to find enemies. These enemies could be other businesses or it could be former clients. Whatever the case may be, the owner needs to protect themselves from the attacks from other people or businesses.

A business is not necessarily in the business of making enemies. However, the acquisition of such a thing is inevitable. There are people who will feel slighted with the amount of service they received from the business. Many of these people are vindictive and a business owner can find themselves in a bad situation if they are caught in the same area with these people. Therefore, social media privacy is a must for an owner who has had any kind of success.

Let us not forget that a business owner can have enemies in the industry. While not as likely to physically attack a person, a business owner is likely to experience character attacks by a business competitor. Some business competitors feel as if they should discredit and attack the business owner themselves. This means that a business competitor may be one of the most dangerous attackers that a person can have against them.

A person or business can easily be attacked on the social media systems. It happens all the time too. However, a person may take this further and attack the character of a business owner on the social media systems. All a person has to do is release some assets (videos, web pages, or sometimes pdf's) that can reach the first page of a search engine to attack someone's character. It is just that easy.

The truth is that online reputation management has become a big business and a business that is necessary. This is because there are a lot of these attacks on the internet and a person may or may not know about them before they acquire some age. An asset that acquires age on the internet is a difficult thing to knock off the search engine results. Therefore, a person should always monitor their own name and business name to make sure they can protect their identity and reputation especially, if they are a business owner that has a reputation at stake on the internet.

In conclusion, a business owner must be wary of their privacy on the internet; this is because one slip up could cost them everything on the internet. A business owner can easily cause themselves more pain and suffering than they should have if they are not careful with what information they release on the social media systems. An owner must be very careful because they will generate enemies. These enemies will attack them personally and sometimes physically. Therefore, it is smart for a business owner to never let their location be disclosed on social media systems and to make sure that their social profiles do not contain anything that could be used against them in the future.

How Are You Leveraging Your LinkedIn Groups to Build Your Empire? How Online Social Networks Help Build Businesses 3 Drawbacks of Online Social Networking For Business What Is Instagram? Why A Business Should Have Access To Social Media At All Times

Why Use LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is now one of the highest used social networking platforms for professionals. LinkedIn is a powerful online business tool to use for social networking and allows people to connect and communicate with like-minded driven and ambitious business individuals.

It seems unbelievable for those of us who remember walking around with our CVs under our arms, just how much easier making these connections are by building a complete professional profile on LinkedIn. This is because if you build a complete professional profile those viewing you online can very easily see exactly what you offer, so make sure your profile is perfect and is kept updated. Don't be lazy - when you use LinkedIn make sure you do it properly!

Why Use LinkedIn profile as a tool to get that next big connection?

Your LinkedIn profile is like a quality landing page on a website. When someone visits your profile they want to find out key information about you quickly. They want to see where you have worked, your experience, your achievements and most of all how you can benefit them. Remember, people want to see how you might solve their problems so give them solutions! This works for people who are employed or are running their own business.

Your aim, whether in business or as an individual, is to make your social networking community grow, so you have as many connections as possible working for you. Plan to promote yourself positively.

Why Use LinkedIn groups?

LinkedIn groups can be used as a huge resource library. Your groups are all talking about the same interests and topics that you are. If you want to continuously learn from others, join the right groups. It is important to give back though, as you also want to show your expertise to others. This is because you could be referred to as an expert in your particular niche or just helping a fellow professional achieve their goals.

The answer to why use LinkedIn has many different parts due to the fact that there are many ways to connect and network within this ever-increasing social networking platform. Ever thought about finding answers to questions you needed clarification on or showing how you are the specialist in your area? It is like brainstorming online with people from all over the world.

What is LinkedIn Answers?

LinkedIn Answers is a category that gives people an opportunity to give and receive feedback, to participate within a transparent online community. You can share your knowledge and expertise and link to information that supports your expertise. When you think about why use LinkedIn and LinkedIn Answers you can easily find out what your potential marketplace is asking and then give them the best answer you can.

The business use of social networking sites like LinkedIn is you can show and express key messages and information that speed up the selection process dramatically.

Why Is Fitness Marketing In Social Networking Sites Advantageous

A lot of people today are suffering and dying from chronic illnesses brought about by stress and unhealthy way of living. That is why there are a lot of men and women nowadays who are also trying their best to achieve a fit and healthy lifestyle in order to stay away from these unwanted ailments. And because of these, people who are into businesses have innovated their systems so as to meet the new and growing demands of people. Right now, green and organic menus as well as natural fruit shakes are available in a lot of fast foods and restaurants.

In addition to this, gyms and other health clubs have started showing in different locations since more and more people are eager to eliminate their stored fats and tone out their flabby muscles. Now there is nothing wrong in starting a gym business; however, with the multitude of them already existing, the competition between one gym to another is getting tougher. Thus, in order to stay afloat in this competitive world of business, gym owners and managers should come up with an effective fitness marketing plan to keep their fitness centres on the run.

Advertising a business is not as simple as it sounds. In fact, it needs a lot of logical thinking and intricate planning in order for it to be highly effective. And what better way there is to have a successful fitness marketing tactic than to have your very own list of ideas? Here are some important things to consider when you are planning to improve the sales of your business. It was mentioned before that having a plan is rather important since this is going to guide you in reaching your ultimate goal, which is to make your growing business big. Keep in mind that your scheme should be realistic and applicable to your location. And by this, it means that you should carefully analyse which particular group of audience you are going to target and how are you going to catch their attention.

One effective way of roping a crowd is to host an open house wherein potential clients can look around your place and be aware of the equipment and facilities you have. Other than that, you can also make use of the internet and post an advertisement. Facebook and other social networking sites are popular places to put an ad since you can practically reach out to anyone. What makes this even more amazing is that creating a Facebook page for your business is not going to cost you even a single cent.

These are only a few gym marketing ideas but all of these are very much effective. If you want to know more advertising tips, you can always do additional readings from different journals and internet sites.

How Do You Build Your Twitter Follower Base

Next to Facebook, Twitter is another one of the most popular social networking websites anywhere. This popularity is evident in that it is almost mandatory for celebrities to have their own official Twitter account. In business, Twitter has also proven its fame again and again when it has helped catapult a small local business from being in the shadows and into the limelight.

A Brief Overview of Twitter

Twitter is a microblogging website in which you share thoughts and communicate with other people in 140 characters or less. It's like an online version of a cellular phone. Posts in Twitter are called "tweets." Yes, like the sound of a bird... if you log in to Twitter, you'll notice that the company uses a dove (or a pigeon?) as its logo.

Its ease of use is the main reason behind the popularity of the website. If you like a post, you can just simply "retweet" it with the use of a button instead of copying the post and pasting it on your input box just to reshare to your followers. Plus, it's also easy to build up a timeline and community in Twitter: most of the times, you can automatically "follow" a user without much hassle although some users would want to manually approve follow requests. You could see your follower base grow instantly as you sleep... provided that you're popular enough to warrant that.

So the question is: how do you make your Twitter account popular enough to warrant followers?

Follow People With Shared Interests

This is something that's called targeted Twitter marketing. You can use Twitter for marketing a blog, for instance. Who are the people that you would want to follow your blogs? Well, anybody, generally, but it's easier to market a blog to people who are interested in the same topic. It's not about getting the blog in the forefront, it's more about getting people to come back again and again to your blog... Twitter can help you out with that by giving you means to find people who share the same interests as you.

Let's take Cityville for example. If you want to build a Twitter account that focuses on Cityville, you should first follow the Cityville Twitter account. Once you've followed Cityville in Twitter, check out the account's followers. Follow 10 of Twitter's followers on the first day, then another 10 on the next day... don't overdo it as you might be flagged as spam.

Interact With Your Followers and the People You're Following

If you're a user of Twitter or any social networking site, would you trust someone who is not even active in his or her own account? I wouldn't. In order to gain followers, you must also interact with the people that you are following. Retweet their posts, for instance. If they are talking about their life in their status or if you find a tweet that you can relate to, reply! Some Twitter users will actually watch for your first post before they add you up, and will not hesitate to unfollow you if you are deemed inactive for some time.

Post Something Interesting

When you're posting, don't just post something that people can literally bypass. Posts like "It's a good day today" is not likely to get as much attention as a tweet that says "Hey, I just had a great breakfast today!" and other outrageous tweets. Talk about the latest news, talk about anything that's related to your mutual interests, things like that.

Log In To Your Twitter Regularly

It doesn't mean you'd have to religiously log in to your Twitter account everyday, but logging in for at least 2-3 times a week is already good enough. Don't leave your Twitter account inactive for a week, because some users will actually unfollow your account if you do that.

In a nutshell, the more active your Twitter account is, the more chances that you can grow your follower base.

How Are You Leveraging Your LinkedIn Groups to Build Your Empire? How Online Social Networks Help Build Businesses 3 Drawbacks of Online Social Networking For Business What Is Instagram?

Why a Business Owner Should Evaluate Two Collaboration Tools At Once

Evaluating a collaboration system and figuring out what a business needs is not an easy thing to do. It is recommended that a business test two services out at the same time to find out the bugs in each system and learn what the business really needs in a collaboration system. This practice will reveal everything a business owner needs to know when trying to choose the right provider. Here are more reasons that a business should test two services at once and more about how evaluating two services exposes weaknesses and strengths in a business.

1. Why a business owner should evaluate two services at once

A smart business owner uses two services to find out what they can about an industry and what business solution they should use. In fact, selecting one provider right out of the gate is probably the wrong approach to selecting a provider. The right approach is testing as many solutions as allowed (it depends on if the business offers a free trial) and finding out what is missing from all of them and what is absolutely essential for a business to have to be able to do its work. In the end, this will give a business a better idea of what they need and what is absolutely essential for business success.

2. The evaluation should always be two trials. A business owner should never spend money on two services at the same time. (If this is true, then find a better service)

A business owner should never have to buy two collaboration tools, if this is true, then the business needs to find a better solution than the two they have. A good collaboration tool should allow the business owner to file share, communicate with employees and other businesses they work with, and keep contacts from seeing each other if it is not beneficial for the meeting (a business should keep their vendors private from their customers).

On the same token, a business should not have to make totally separate accounts to have different businesses represented on the tool. The tool should allow one profile but have other sub profiles that do not have to be related to the master profile. This is similar to how domains are hosted by the same hosting account, but they are all different websites. A well-made collaboration tool would have this feature automatically included instead of having to remake a new profile every time a business owner opened a new business.

3. Get a better price on one if you have a sales person selling it

Lastly, it is good for a business to have as many negotiation pieces as they can when they get a collaboration tool. It is similar to buying a car; a business person should not seem too interested in a system even though they are interested in that system. This allows the business owner to get the best price on the tool without too much fuss. This savings should be reinvested into the business for growth. However, testing two collaboration tools is extremely useful when it comes down to paying for one of the systems over the other.

In closing, using two collaboration tools is only smart when a business owner is in the testing phase. If a business owner is using two services that they paid for, then that business owner needs to cancel both of those services and find a better service to use. The best collaboration tools allow a business to do work without having problems with file sharing, contacts seeing each other that should not see each other, or communication problems. Lastly, a business that tests two services can use those services to get the best price on one of them. A business owner needs to be shrewd enough to negotiate on the price of the systems.

How Are You Leveraging Your LinkedIn Groups to Build Your Empire? How Online Social Networks Help Build Businesses 3 Drawbacks of Online Social Networking For Business What Is Instagram?

Why Social Networks Influenced Collaboration Tools for Business

The history of collaboration tools for business is often mistakenly associated with social networks. The truth is that these tools existed before the first social networking site appeared. Collaboration tools have more in common with early chat programs than anything else does. It is these early chat programs that allowed collaboration tools to become as functional and popular as they are now.

1. Social networks - individual needs

Collaboration tools were influenced by social networks, most notably chat programs. These programs were generated to allow people to talk to each other and not necessarily for business purposes. However, smart business owners started to use the systems to communicate to their business partners because it was much easier than communicating by phone. The interruptions were also far less because the phone was not ringing. The chat systems only made noises when messages came in, then they stayed silent until the business owner was ready to answer them. The only way that they made an obnoxious noise is when someone "buzzed" another person (which meant that it was an important message that should not be ignored).

2. Sharing needed to happen on networks

What business owners found by using these systems is that they needed to share files. The old way of sharing files was to send them via e-mail. However, this did not always work because some files were too big to send via the e-mail. Business owners then turned to their own websites to upload the information. This did not help in the long run because the bandwidth of a server would be used up quickly and the amount of steps it took to upload the project to the website was far too much. This caused businesses to develop file sharing through the chat programs. This helped, but there were still problems (and sometimes persist until today) because the files would overwrite (accidently at times) the work that the business owner had done on the file when the other partner sent their version over. There was also the problem of both sides doing the same work at the same time. The newer systems have fail-safes to make sure that these problems no longer happen.

3. Further tweaks by users

Nowadays, there is persistent chat with file sharing. These systems have also learned from the social networking platforms. They have also implemented some of those systems in their offerings as well. The truth about the systems is that they are getting better and better over time because they are learning what business owners need to have when they work. They are still not optimized for the business experience (because these programs are developed by people who do not do business) but they are much better than the older forms of collaboration tools.

Collaboration tools were heavily influenced by the early chat programs. These programs allowed two people (or entities) to communicate and discuss how to work together. The businesses making the chat programs learned what the business owners needed and started to develop more custom build programs that would eventually become the collaboration tools we have today.

Social Networking Sites 101 - Part 2 "Unexplored Avenue for Businesses"

Especially if you are in business, it is important that you have your own Company/Business "Fan page" in at the very least, Facebook. Facebook even suggests that business owners spend a minimum of 10 minutes a day just posting new content, updates, answering questions, and placing promos and new discounts for all of their existing fans. For Twitter, the principle is also the same, business owners need to set aside time either in the morning or before end of business day to engage followers. It is important to send updates regularly, if you have any news that is noteworthy, and reply if there are any inquiries sent.

But how exactly do you start doing this? It is so easy to put up your own social networking page but it may be a bit of a challenge to maintain it, especially if you have multiple accounts. Setting a social networking account is not hard; most of the social sites give users simple steps that literally make it possible for anybody set up an account. The challenge mainly lies in organizing, updating and improving these social sites to complement your business' goals and objectives. A business owner or user must make sure that: 1 | you have the capability of building a network and audience that would subscribe to your updates -there is no use posting anything if nobody is there to read and comment on these posts 2 |have actual content to use and post on your page - even if you have an audience, without any updates, it is useless to sustain your user's interest 3 | and lastly you must set aside that consistent time of day to spend on posting those updates and answering queries. These three ingredients go hand in hand and are easier said than done because very few people or businesses today have the resources or time to do all of them.

So why even consider having online social networking presence at all? Now more than ever, we have got to understand that Social Networking Sites are communities in itself filled with potential customers. They will give us access to more information, untapped clients, and with it more sales and profit. So not having any presence in any of these popular social sites would really be detrimental to any that are looking to increase their sales base and business worth.

Social media gives users and business owners, an avenue to get your message out there and invoke a call to action for any and all that may be interested in conversing with you or better yet reach people that would want to do business with you. Not only do you get potential traffic directed to your existing website (if you have a personal or a company website) but you also get a chance to engage your users and potential customers online and in real time. This reality is important in bringing more work or sales to your company.

It is important to regularly talk and give updates using these social sites within a specific schedule and in rhythm so that your online users and untapped client base would not lose their interest in you or your business. Determining the actual times when engagement and activity is highest for your social sites should be a priority. After which, you can use these times and concentrate on those schedules in particular, as prime choices for going online and posting those updates. Once you already have your audience engaged and conversing, it is just a matter of time till you see improvements in traffic to your website and increase in sales or business opportunities for your company.

Do not ignore or take for granted this new platform given to us in this day and age. It is important to participate and create your own social networking sites. It is not enough that you have a website; you need to have some other venue that will help augment your online presence. Social sites are already a necessity nowadays so don't be left behind. If you don't take the time to create and maintain your own Facebook or Twitter then you may be missing out on a lot of things. Now is the time to act. Survey the list of Social Networking Sites above, pick one or 2 and create your account.

Next time, lets deal with how you - the user/business owner - can start maintaining these social sites. How do you build an audience, continuously provide postings and content, and maybe the most tricky part of things, how and when do you set aside time to maintain these social sites? If done correctly you would be in for the ride of your online life.

Facebook Fan Page or Facebook Group? Save Time Deciding Which Is Right For You

Everybody is enjoying the Facebook craze and we have all figured out that it is here to stay. So what are you doing to make your presence on Facebook more known? After all anybody can set up a basic page and even post their day to day. But do you really know how to use Facebook to get the most response to your page?

Are you looking to spruce up your basic page that you share with friends and family or are you looking to create a page or maybe even a Fan Page or Facebook Group and you want as many people involved as possible. Do you even know the similarities and differences between Facebook Fan Pages and Facebook Groups? Did you know that you can use these to share ideas as well as products, opinions, and an unlimited list of other options on Facebook?

Most of us think we have a pretty good idea of what we can do with Facebook but the fact is there are no limits to what you can learn to do with your personal or business Facebook account. You only need access to the right information and later on we will get to some free video training that you will want to check out.

Do you know the differences between Fan Pages and Facebook Groups for example? Let's talk about a couple of the bigger ones here. With a Fan Page you want to understand that it will be visible to everyone on the internet unlike your Facebook Profile. However a Fan Page can only be created by an official representative of the organization or entity represented by the Fan Page. This is where a Facebook Group might be better for you.

The Facebook Group is also visible by everyone on Facebook but it can be created by anyone interested in the topic since it operates more like a forum. If however your topic is one that you are able to create a Fan Page with you will be happy to know that with your Fan Page everything you post will be mass distributed to everyone who has liked your page. This is not the case with a Facebook Group as your posts are not automatically updated to a News feed.

Another advantage of a Facebook Group is that you can mass mail up to 5000 people at one time in a Group and you do not have this ability with a Facebook Fan Page. But here is yet another difference. Facebook Fan Pages are indexed by Google buy Facebook Groups are not. So if you are looking to get your page and topic indexed that could be an important fact to consider.

So as you can see it is important to get a better understanding of both these parts of Facebook as well as topics like getting the most from Facebook Ads in order for you to get the most from your Facebook experience. As Facebook continues to evolve we all have to do our best to keep up with this cutting edge technology.

3 Ways Social Communities Help Expand Business

Social communities have become very popular with internet marketers for the purpose of developing business prospects online! The fact is online social networks offer more than simply traffic in terms of helping businesses grow!

Let's look at 3 sources of 'information' online social networks offer that can be used to accelerate the grow of businesses on the internet!

Business Networking

Connecting with others who have similar interest is a great way for internet marketers to expand their business! Further developing business ideas, whether they are your own or those of others, can really accelerate the rate of your growth! In addition, joint ventures allows you to 'leverage' the traffic of those you are networking with to bring you more sales and earn you some new customers as well! Online social networks are also a great place to locate a mentor if you are new to internet marketing or even exploring other niches!

Identifying Current Trends

Trending topics or concerns ALWAYS show up at these sites provided you're 'prepared' to recognize them! In fact online social networks are notorious for 'digging up' the most current news and creating forums in which these topics are discussed more fully! I dare to say the topics and trends you uncover at these communities may sometimes not even be found on syndicated news channels! What you can pick up in these type communities is some cutting edge stuff you can use to your advantage so pay attention!

Helpful Information

Facts, figures and other useful information can be easily uncovered if you are an 'active' listener! No matter what direction you may turn just about anybody you speak to can easily share information you'll find useful for your own developing business! Whether it's is personal perspectives or factually based, there's no telling what you can pick up at these online networks that you can use for your own purposes! These are great places to 'plug into' what's going on or why something is hot, or not! The fact of the matter is the best way to succeed in marketing is to keep a 'pulse' on what the general public is thinking or doing!

Social communities have more to offer internet marketers than simply being another source for developing business prospects! The fact is online social networks are actually a 'gold mine' of valuable information businesses can use to further their growth as the 3 examples above hopefully demonstrate! The lesson here is if you are willing to invest the time to work online social networks it only stands to reason to get all you can out of them!

How Are You Leveraging Your LinkedIn Groups to Build Your Empire? How Online Social Networks Help Build Businesses 3 Drawbacks of Online Social Networking For Business What Is Instagram?

How to Keep Your Information Private on Social Networks

The first thing to do when the business is looking for social media privacy is to look at what the particular platform asks the user to provide before using the platform. The truth about social media platforms is that each one. Asks for you and different information. This difference in information is what makes a social network. Privacy friendly or privacy unfriendly. The truth about most major social networks is that they are made without the user's privacy in mind. This means that the social networks are not well made because they rely on advertising to make their money. Therefore, they cannot change the structure of their website because they have run too long with their current monetization model for them to change their website would effectively close of business. Therefore, a person should not expect a social media business to make the changes necessary to provide the privacy that the user may and should want.

Not only does the user have to worry about the social network revealing information about the user itself. These are also has to worry about who they trust with their information. There are many applications on the social networks that grab information from a user's profile. This information could be used in a variety of ways, including target marketing. This target marketing is based off the interests and information that the application pulls from the profile. This means that the advertisements that are shown to the user are highly targeted for that person which increases their likelihood of buying that product or service. This means that a user they spend more money on the social media system. Therefore, privacy can save a person a lot of money as they will not be tempted into buying something that they would normally be predisposed to buying.

Finally, the user themselves must decide what information to share and what information should never be shared on social networking profiles. A good rule of thumb is to assume that everything that is said on the social media profile is common knowledge and will be shared with everyone. The truth is that there is a lot of litigation that is happening right at this moment about the privacy of social networks. There are many businesses that want to use the information from the social networks to hire and fire employees based on what is inside their social profiles. Whether or not the user likes it or not, this is a morally gray area in the courts eyes at this moment. Therefore, it makes a lot of sense for a user to be very careful what they say on the social networks because every word that a person says, even in their own private messages, may be used against them in the future.

If a person is smart about the social networks they can effectively safeguard their privacy. This privacy is very important because of financial reasons. Not only can hackers get control of this information and possibly steal someone's identity, but regular marketers will use the information to craft highly effective offers and sales that will be hard for the user to resist. The only way around this is to be very careful what is shared on the social networks.

Can We Blame Facebook? - Has Social Media Made Us All Online Jerks?

It's no surprise that the social networking world can be a mean and spiteful place, just like how any large gathering of people can turn out that way.

There are vain and shallow people. Also some very dumb people, who love to revel in their reckless ignorance. For every funny status update or tweet, there are just as many if not more condemnations. For every kind comment, there's at least one smart ass insult. For every wise kernel of wisdom, there's a braggart boasting about their day.

So are the various social networks to blame? Did they make us more shallow, vain, impatient, and judgmental?

Stone Age Jerks

Social networking is like the new elementary school recess, and because of that I think of cyber-bullying. It can ruin reputations, divide social groups, and even lead to depression or worse. Because it can be done anonymously and asynchronously, it can be done by anyone at anytime. It's a terrible thing.

But it's not new. Bullying has existed in "real life" long before computers were ever in households. Having access to a victim on Facebook though has admittedly made the act of bullying far easier.

Gossip has existed as long as there's been scandalous rumor to spread. What took hours by word of mouth to spread now only takes minutes, even seconds, by reading someone's status update and sharing it.

Vanity has always been with us, but before we took photos of ourselves and posted them for everyone to see we just admired ourselves in the mirror.

Our bad sides have always been there. The development of online social networking hasn't changed any of that behavior at their core, because before we had online technologies we "social networked" amongst ourselves in person, and to all the same detriments. All Facebook and Twitter did were make things easier and faster to spread. And because anything online can gain exposure so much faster than in person, anything for good or bad gets that same rapid limelight.

Don't Feed The Trolls

But what about trolling? The anonymity of the Web is purported to have encouraged more of this obnoxious and annoying behavior and heckling. So has it?

Well, being able to troll with impunity definitely gives an incentive, because who likes to get caught? But considering that trolling has not abated with the advent of social networking, which sought to de-anonymize the Web by having us use our real identities, perhaps such is not the case. People troll because they can, jerks will act like jerks because they are jerks. And since trolling has continued even after the protective shade of secrecy has been removed, impunity cannot be the sole cause of this malicious behavior.

Political enemies and pundits used to insult each other all the time through published pamphlets and treatises, usually written under pseudonyms. Sound familiar? At least back then it took a few weeks for the papers to go to press and then get distributed. Online, it takes but an instant click.

So has the Web made us, as a people, worse off? I beg to differ; all it has done is give our worst aspects a quicker venue with an even bigger audience. It's like adding fuel to the flames. But inside they were always there, that fire was always burning inside.

Social networking, like all technology from cars to guns to hammers, is inherently neutral. It is a tool. What determines the "ethics" of the tool are the ethics, or lack thereof, in the wielder.

What's your opinion? Do you think social networks, or even the Web itself, have fanned our flames for the worst?

How Are You Leveraging Your LinkedIn Groups to Build Your Empire? How Online Social Networks Help Build Businesses 3 Drawbacks of Online Social Networking For Business What Is Instagram?

Leveraging LinkedIn for Your Business Success

Small business-to-business (B2B) businesses that focus on LinkedIn as one of their main social media channels have been and are continuing to be successful at getting more leads that eventually lead to increased business. It is a worthwhile tool.

Many business people seem to be having a difficult time using social media channels for business. If you are one of those people who is not so well acquainted with LinkedIn, the following information should help you to understand why it is so important for your business. Leveraging LinkedIn will help you to achieve positive results for your business and before long, you will not understand how you managed to leave it out of your online marketing strategy.

Generating leads for your business

Undeniably, LinkedIn is widely used among professionals. The reason that it is so popular is that it is an extremely effective social media channel that is easy to use and extremely user-friendly. When it comes to lead generation, you need to identify what works for you and your business and what doesn't work. If you find that something is working for you, use it as much as you can. Of course, if you have tried something that doesn't seem to be working, don't waste your time and effort on that because your time will be much better spent on things that cause positive results. In order to successfully generate business leads, the first thing that you must do is to complete your LinkedIn profile. Completing your profile doesn't mean simply putting your name and a few details about who you are and what you represent professionally. You need to fill in as many details as you can so that you allow other people the opportunity to get to know you. After all, you need to build relationships with people so that they will eventually buy whatever you are selling. Building a relationship means that you are going to build trust and credibility as well as your positioning yourself as a subject matter expert. Your goal in that regard is for the other person to think of you first when they have needs that you can fulfill.

Realizing the fullest potential from you social network

LinkedIn is a much more powerful tool than a great deal of people realize and it can help you to achieve your business goals in an extremely effective manner. It won't cost you much money, if any. the only things that you will have to invest are time and effort. Those are investments that you would make for your business no matter what tools you used to achieve success.

Handling customer service properly

It is very important for you to examine precisely how your business is handling customer service and how it is tending to the needs of your clients. You can tie in LinkedIn with this as well. The discussions through LinkedIn are critical to your success and all sorts of interesting and stimulating pieces of information can be discovered through that particular form of communication. If you want to achieve greater success with your business, you need to pay a great deal of attention to the timing. You must always respond in a very timely manner and your clients must always feel that they are your first priority.

Engage with people on a very regular basis

You should regard LinkedIn just as you would any other social media channel except for the fact that it is one of the top social media channels for business and should be respected for that. Engaging frequently can take on many different forms. You should synchronize your blog posts to LinkedIn as well as other social media channels with which you engage so that you increase your reputation and exposure.

Conclusion

LinkedIn is an amazing social media channel that will enable you to engage at the next level with your valuable professional online connections. More and more people are starting to understand what an important social media tool LinkedIn is and they are learning how to use it to its fullest potential so that they can achieve greater and greater business success.

We are pleased to provide you with the insightful comments contained herein. For a free assessment of your online presence, let's have coffee.

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Facebook and Procrastination: Your Friend or Enemy?

One of the most common things that almost all of us do is to have our accounts in any of the social networking websites that we know. Surely, it is an enjoyable thing, as we get to know other people and in a way, we also share our lives to others. There are different social networking websites that are available on the web and each of them has their own features. Thus, we may have an account in our chosen social networking website because of its ability to satisfy our needs in meeting other people.

There are also a lot of benefits in having an account and using a particular social networking website. Some of its benefits include meeting other people to the point that you may have your online job because of a particular social networking website. But if there is an advantage in having your account and using a particular social networking website, it has also its disadvantages and one of them is procrastination.

You should know a lot or even just a little about procrastination, especially if you have your account in Facebook or in any other social networking websites. Who might say you are doing a lot of procrastination, especially in your work and you do not even know that you are already committing the sin. Generally, procrastinating is bad particularly if you have your work to do. But for someone like you who have your account in Facebook, procrastinating may be an excusable thing and that should not always be the thing.

Procrastinating is the act of doing things that most of the time is irrelevant to your work. And admit it; you have the tendency to do a lot of procrastination if you have your account in Facebook. This happens when you rather logged in to your Facebook account and see what is on there than just finish the task that you have.

Yes, procrastination with your Facebook account can bring you certain benefits. This is true if you are much pressured in your work or if you are stressed out. Thus, your being on Facebook and doing your things on the said social networking website can be a good stress-reliever, but your performance at your work is always affected by procrastination. Worst, you might be fired out from your job because of your procrastination on your Facebook account.

There are a lot of things by which you can avoid procrastination with the social networking website Facebook particularly in your job. All it takes is for you to do some mental conditioning. You can do this by just thinking that your job is far more important than your being in Facebook and mingling with your friends on the said social networking website.

A lot of managers out there consider being on the Facebook of their employees as a kind of counter productivity. But there are a lot of things that they should do in order for their people not to commit procrastination, especially on Facebook. Among those things is for companies to offer incentives to anyone who can do more in their jobs.

Is Social Media Doomed - Why Profit, Not Culture, Is King

Okay, it's been a fun experiment. We said lots of things, shared tons more, but that's a wrap. Everybody out of the social media pool. C'mon, c'mon, we haven't got all day. It's time to go back to the regular old Web, you know, where you saw only what we let you.

Said no one. Ever.

What might be said, some time later?

Well not if people have anything to say about it, that's for sure. The denizens of the Web love their social sharing, their status updates, and their meaningless badges for things as trivial as checking in. If it were up to any of them, social media would stay forever and only continue to evolve.

But that's the kicker. It's not up to them, or even us.

Thus Spoke Gordon Gekko

Social media was started by people looking to get money. Okay, maybe they started out because they really had something to say, and it was that everyone had something to say, but in the end it's about the almighty dollar.

When Facebook went public it signaled, subtly, the sign of the times. That even the most maverick of hackers (hotshot coders, not intruders, mind you) who loved to "go against the Man" or the Machine or the Establishment or whatever, that even Zuckerberg really likes getting those profit margins.

Any successful startup that really begins to shine instantly garners the attention of a large company or other entity who promptly buys them out. If they're ambitious the founders of that startup will try their luck at another, and hope that somebody grabs at the bait all over again.

In short, money talks. The ability to connect people all over the world and disseminate information at rates unprecedented in human history across any and all barriers, that's a distant plus. Just look what happened to MySpace's many handlers. Only recently has it come into the hands of someone who actually "cared" about it, but that man is an actor, a fan of the concept. Justin Timberlake is no web developer or business visionary.

So what happens when something good that has benefited humanity stops making a profit?

What They Giveth, They Can Taketh Away

Social networking is a product, supplied by a provider. That provider seeks to generate income off their product, if nothing else to continue developing that product or to earn a profit. When they see that their product no longer generates a sufficient income, the wise business decision is to move onto more attractive products.

General Motors withdrew their ads from Facebook, and consequently the world's largest social network took a huge hit to their IPO that has continued to ripple forth into their stocks. Facebook didn't fall, and so far doesn't appear to be going under, because of that. But what if more companies had withdrawn? What if Facebook lost all its ad revenue, and couldn't afford to run its infrastructure? Or, now that the company has gone public, what if the shareholders simply deem it no longer profitable and decide to liquidate it?

For all of Facebook's millions of users, would that give the shareholders pause? If it's not making money, it's not making money. Millions of people can complain, but unless they're willing to pay up they have no right to decide the fate of the company.

Facebook, or any social network, is technically doomed the moment someone decides they're not worth the investment. And that someone is a businessman, or a group of shareholders, who are solely concerned with profit. They're like gods, hungry for the sacrifices of our wallets, and if left unappeased will wipe clear the world we live on.

Ignorance Is Doom

If radio or television had been deemed unprofitable it's doubtful they would have been demolished either. Fortunately they were such a widespread hit that they couldn't fail, and even the most miserly of investors had to admit that. The same with social networks, so far. With that many people in one place, how can an investor resist?

Until they drive it into the ground with bad ideas, and lose enough of an audience that they decide to scrap the whole thing. It happened to MySpace.

This is why businessmen should not look at social networking and judge its money-making merits in the same way as other mediums. Social networking and the social Web are a different medium, with different allures and reasons for that allure. Applying the old tactics to it won't work, and when they fail angry shareholders will take out their losses on the social websites by closing them down.

What if Twitter hadn't been there during the Arab Spring? What if it had been shut down because somebody didn't get enough of a good fiscal quarter?

Advertising works differently on social channels, and advertisers must understand that. They want to be successful, and for the sake of the Social Web we want their campaigns to be successful, because if not we stand to lose it all. I'm not saying we should throw money at corporate bigwigs, but we cannot afford their losses due to the marketing team's ignorance.

Understanding social media is crucial to social marketing success. Because nobody wants to lose.

What do you think? Is everything just profit-ridden, or are there other options?

Top Reasons to Engage on Twitter

Twitter seems to be coming out of everyone's mouth nowadays. More and more people are tweeting on a very regular basis. Although the 140-character maximum per tweet seems limiting, it can be a blessing at times also.

If you haven't jumped on the bandwagon yet, it is certainly time to do so. There are many reasons for you to start getting involved with Twitter for your business and you will start to see positive results for your business as you get more and more involved.

Being informed

Universally, people are sharing content on Twitter. There are people in every possible niche and Industry, culture, and country who are communicating through Twitter. They are discussing news that is related to their industry, trends, events and all sorts of interesting issues. Twitter is an excellent resource for professional articles in every conceivable field. If you engage on a daily basis, you will learn a huge amount.

Staying current

If you engage on Twitter, you will always know what is going on. Having valuable information at your fingertips on a consistent basis will give you an advantage that other people may not have. Many relationships that start out as casual tweets often turn into solid professional relationships. You have the potential to develop relationships with thought leaders in your field and other people of great influence.

Stay in touch

It is critical that you keep in touch with other people so that you know what they are thinking and saying about your offerings. If you acquire valuable feedback from your potential and existing clients, you will know how to improve your products and/or services and the better you serve your customers, the more successful your business will be. Twitter allows you to stay in touch with people easily. Your presence can be strong on Twitter and people will react positively to what you are offering, such as promotions, words of wisdom and solutions to their problems.

Stay social

Even if you are person who is not so comfortable in a social environment, you need to establish some level of comfort when it comes to communicating via social media channels. Being as social person in person and being a social person online is not exactly the same thing. Being social online is easier because nobody sees your facial expressions, etc. You will see that once you have become comfortable with online interactions, you will become more comfortable with interacting in person as well.

Stay curious

You will find that the more information you acquire, the more information you will want to acquire. One read article will lead to another and another and another. The greater the number of people in your niche or industry with whom you connect, the more information you will hunger for. You will be inspired for other people's stories and you will learn a great deal from them. You will be able to apply a lot of that information to your own business and you will find that the information will help you to achieve greater success for your own business.

Stay inspired

There are some incredible professional people who are doing incredible in every possible field. Many of those people are more than thrilled to share their experiences online. It is important that you follow the most appropriate people and you will be inspired to follow at least some of their practices, at least the ones that make sense for you and your business. Ideas can come from all over. You just need to recognize their worth and figure out how to make them work for you and your business.

Keep listening

It is critical that you get people to listen to what you want and what you are offering. However, it is even more important to listen to other people. If you don't listen well, you won't have any understanding of what people want and need and if you don't understand them, you will never be able to establish a relationship with them. Listening is one of the major building blocks when it comes to a relationship between you and your clients.

Conclusion

Twitter is an amazing social media channel that can substantially increase your business through your consistent and faithful interactions with followers. Your business will absolutely grow because of it and it is important for you to recognize Twitter's worth and how to leverage it to its fullest potential. Twitter will enable you to increase your client base and eventually, that will lead to greater revenue and greater success.

We are pleased to provide you with the insightful comments contained herein. For a free assessment of your online presence, let's have coffee.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

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