Firefox. What the F**k Is Social Media? Here’s an Answer. If you're a regular reader of Mashable, you're likely a firm believer in the power of social media. We've highlighted how the social web can improve your career, aid charitable causes, transform businesses and even change the world. In short, we're convinced. Dan Blank: Publishing, Innovation & the Web » Blog Archive » You Don’t Sell To A Community. You Support A Community. Companies now realize that there is business value in social media. That it is worth an investment of their time and resources, that it can bring them closer to those in their market, and can be a powerful marketing platform.
But there is one term that us being thrown around a bit too casually: community. Suddenly, every company is “developing” a community online, or engaging an existing community, at least in their marketing plans. But a crowd isn’t a community. A market is not a community. A brand should be careful about approaching social media as a sales funnel: to establish connections, build ‘trust,’ encourage a ‘community,’ and then market products and services to them. That’s not a community strategy, that is a marketing plan.
A community puts everyone on an equal playing field. Too many companies have organized themselves into “communities,” only to abandon those communities at the exact moment there is economic question about a slowing growth rate in that specific market. -Dan. Who, Why, How We Serve: The Evolution of Collaborative Librarianship through Social Media. HOW TO: Simplify Your Social Media Routine. These days participating in social media such as Twitter, Facebook, blogging and more is almost required for any entrepreneur or business, small or large. But there's so much info and chatter coming in through social media that it can overwhelm you, eat up your time, and ruin your productivity.
Simplifying will help you stay in touch, and continue to participate in the conversation, without losing sight of your mission and the important work you need to get done. Step 1. Use simple tools to make the most of social media The simpler the tools, the better. But tools that combine two or more social media into one are best, because that means you need fewer tools. An example is TweetDeck - not only does it incorporate Twitter, but you can see your Facebook friends' updates at the same time. Another good example is Digsby, which combines email, IM, and social networks such as , , , and . My setup uses Gmail, as it's the communication tool that I use most often. Step 2. Step 3. So be selective.
100 Tips and Tools to Research the Social Web | Social Networking Blog - SociableBlog.com. Pixelpipe - Free your content, post, upload and share anywhere. The Fastest Growing Social Sites. Each month (and often more frequently than that) we take a look at trends in social networking, by the numbers. Recently, we’ve focused on Twitter’s astronomical growth - now up better than 2,500 percent in one year - and Facebook’s climb to become top social network over MySpace. However, this month there are a few other trends within the numbers – provided by Nielsen Online – that highlight some other storylines within the social media space, as well as continue to put meat behind the trends we’ve been covering over the past few months. Here are some notable developments from March: Ning, which recently announced that more than one million social networks have been created using its service, is currently the 2nd fastest growing social networking property.
As for “the big three,” the story remains much the same: Twitter is now growing at a mind-boggling 2,565 percent. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, alexsl. 10 Amazing Visualizations of Social Networks | Social Media Trader. Social networks are dynamic and constantly evolving. While we can easily identify our friends and acquaintances within a network, it’s much harder for us to comprehend how members in a social network are connected and how those connections influence a particular network. Fortunately, there are now a number of people that have taken the time to create stunning visualizations of various social networks that give us a better understanding of how networks function. We take a look at our ten favourite visualizations of social networks. Fidg’t’ : Visualize The Fidg’t Visualizer allows you to play around with your network. ICCARUS: scouta.com Click here to watch the video. A 3D visualization of real-time data from scouta.com.
Looks del.icio.us The looks del.icio.us project is my first attempt to combine graphics design with programming. Myspace attitudes Two big (200cm x 90cm, 80 x 36 inch) posters show the variety and attitudes of members from an internet community like MySpace. IRC arcs flowerGarden. PeopleBrowsr. How to Get the Most Out of LinkedIn. In a time of stock market crisis, bailouts and a weak dollar, LinkedIn still raises $22.7 million in funding. How? It's a relevant site with a number of useful resources for professionals and businesses. Meanwhile, the launch of the site's application platform last week puts the spotlight back on this phenomenally useful social network.
Many folks involved in social media are so ADD driven to the latest social network, they fail to fully explore and make use of the networks that they are already part of. Enter LinkedIn, a haven for professional networking with an executive representation of all of the Fortune 500 companies. LinkedIn has a lot to offer regardless of where you are in your career, especially with the economy the way it is. What Exactly is LinkedIn? LinkedIn has been around all the way back since 2003, and many people use it differently, so I asked the Twitterati, "What exactly is LinkedIn? " Should Businesses Care About LinkedIn? Of course they should. What's Next? Your Social Compass | Loopt. Taking the Social Networking Plunge - Shifting Careers Blog - NYTimes.com. Report: Social Web Usage Tipped in 2008 - ReadWriteWeb. A new report by Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research states that usage of social technologies increased markedly in 2008: three in four US online adults now use social tools to connect with each, up from 56% in 2007.
According to the report, the largest growth came from ratings and reviews, "voting" on websites, and user-generated video. Blogging and tagging were also popular. Forrester predicts that if growth of ratings and reviews continues at its current pace, then "reading peer recommendations will fast become a permanent stage in the purchase decision process. " You could argue we're already at that stage, as e-commerce sites like Amazon and Netflix rely substantially on those technologies - and there are no shortage of imitators on other retail sites, such as Barnes & Noble. Likewise we're also seeing a lot of 'imitation is the best form of flattery' among voting and user-generated video sites, with digg and YouTube clones popping up seemingly every day, for every conceivable niche.