How to Create Niche Business Social Networking Sites

July 3rd, 2009
Jonathan Mac asked:


Social networking is the buzz word in today’s Internet space. With lots and lots of people getting into Social networking everyday, many wise online marketers are creating their own Social networking websites. However, with many online marketers getting into Social networking, it is necessary to highlight your social networking website to avoid getting lost in the crowd. For this you have to offer your users with something unique and useful.

Provide the users with interactive Social networking Softwares

Do you know the reason behind the huge popularity of the social networking websites like myspace and face book? One of the reason is that they provide some interactive, useful social networking softwares. Unlike other softwares that needs to be downloaded to the users computer (which most of them do not prefer), these social networking softwares doesn’t need to be downloaded. These web based social networking softwares are gaining popularity these days because of the ease of use. As there are no compatibility problems associated with these social networking softwares, anyone can use it.

Creating Social networking software for your own Business Social Networking Website

When it comes to creating a social networking software, you will come up with a question “Should I Build my Own Social Networks Software?” Just keep reading on to find the answer. You can create the social networking software for your website by yourself if:

1. You are a skilled programmer.

2. Have lots of time to spare to spend on researching the trends in the Social media.

3. Are able to identify the user needs and satisfy them

The users of any websites will become unpleasant if the site takes long time to load. Moreover, the error messages are the ones that make the users of your social networking website more irate. Once the error message shows up to any user of your social networking website, they will never return back to your website. If you are a no vice programmer, trying to add or build social networking softwares, then your social networking softwares will be more error prone. All of these factors will be rather overwhelming to you if you are not a skilled programmer. Yet creating your own social networking software for your social networking website is not impossible.

Getting professional help for building Social Networking softwares

There is nothing to worry even if you don’t have the above said requirements for building social networking software. The professional social networking web designers are capable of building unique social networking softwares too. There are so many ready made social networking softwares also. All you have to do is to pick the right one that best fulfils your customer requirements. Getting social networking softwares built through programmers has many advantages. It saves much of your time and money along with enabling you to offer the users of your social networking website with some great interactive social networking software.



Social Connections

June 8th, 2009
NARA asked:


“Relationships constitute the single most important factor responsible for the survival of homo sapiens.” said one of the social psychologists.

 

Living alone has lot of limitations; unhappiness is one among them.

 

As human beings we live in a society comprising family, neighborhood, friends and colleagues.

 

Social relationship is an important bond to keep the survival of all in this world.

 

Such relationships bring a better social connection.

 

The basic of all is the family structure where the bonds of the connection are really very strong.

 

Kindness, generosity and giving are the morality, we find in the social connections.

 

The act of kindness is not only good for the recipient but also good for the doer.

 

People re happy if they are generous and wiling to share.

 

Helping the needy is one of the important activities in social connection.

 

The reward we get out of it would be happiness.

 

Donating blood, visiting an elderly relative or writing a thank you letter are some of the acts of kindness we can perform to build up a good social connection.

 

In fact, all of us do minor helpful things every day to others irrespective of their relationships.

 

We feel sad for others who are sick and suffering and we do visit them and

establish social connection.

 

Interdependence and cooperation in the society make people’s responsibility of living together in a neighborhood.

 

Helping others not only brings social connection but also make us feel advantaged by comparison.

 

We identify ourselves as compassionate person, which promote a sense of confidence, optimism and usefulness.

In addition social service promotes a sense of meaningfulness and value in one’s life.

 

Friendship and even close family relationship can develop due to social connections created by kindness and comparison.

 

There are people out there always for immediate and urgent need.

 

Only thing we need to do is to create social connection without which life will be miserable.

 

Man is a social animal; but modern independent life makes him unsocial and depends mostly on self.

 

The kindness, generosity or charity need not be in terms of a particular talent, measure of time or amount of money.

 

Regular contact with people is essential for social connection.

 

Sometimes other people may not always welcome our kindness.

 

They may think that they are the needy and disadvantaged.

 

Such things can happen with people who are not very familiar.

 

So making social connection through friendship is the primary activity one has to follow.

 

Once the connection is made, we become familiar with people and then  our help will be accepted with full mind.

 

In fact, happy people are exceptionally good at their friendships, families and intimate relationships.

 

A large circle of friends with ample social support keeps us generally happy.

 

Satisfaction with social connection certainly nurtures social relationships.

 

Historically social groups hunted together, shared food and fought common enemies.

 

Thus they felt the need to belong and build up social connections.

 

Social support in times of distress and difficulty is provided by social bond.

 

Social support can be emotional, informational and sympathy.

 

Those who have social support can lead a healthier and long life.

 

In order to keep the social connection alive, express appreciation, admiration and affection time and again.

 

Marriage is one he activity brings about social connections.

 

The family members of the spouses get together and build up the connections and expand the family circle.

 

Slowly and constantly these connections increase and establish a healthy social connection to participate in good and bad happenings.

 

Showing interest in other people and offering them encouragement forms friendship which essential for social connection.

 

Communication with friends such as self-disclosure, revealing intimate thoughts and feelings, help to strengthen the social connections and healthy intimacy.

 

Appreciating and participating in friends’ success and triumphs really encourage us to be happy.

 

Because of the above benefits, let us try to bring more social connections in our life.

 

Broadmindedness and free movement with people have to be practiced for achieving the goal of social connections.

  

 

 

 



Internet Marketing Using the Social Media Strategy

May 30th, 2009
William Potts asked:


Social media implies that you facilitate a two-way discussion, rather than a one-way bombardment of marketing messages. In short, this means that you stay engaged and in a discussion with visitors.

Social Media sites come and go like the wind. It seems like every 5 seconds some entrepreneur is just around the corner with another Digg or del.icio.us knockoff.

Hoping that whatever maneuver they can bring to the table will make them this week’s hot topic or at least clever enough to catch the eye of whomever might have some money and want to absorb some wicked bit of code or an entire social media community.

Social media (or new media) involves a LOT of things, a lot of tech, and could need a lot of resources (not necessarily money). When you say you do social media, and you want to launch a network of some sort, does that mean the entire process is done in-house?

Social media marketing can bring traffic and links to any website. Too often, marketers overlook the value of social media and tend to stick with traditional methods, while the younger generation of webpreneurs has employed social sites as an every-day strategy.

Social media is gowing at a such a rate that domains, websites and blogsites will increase in value due to the increased demand for webspace. The social aspect is driving the net into new territory and expands exponentially because of its viral nature.

Social media - as understood in a Web 2.0 context and has enabled us to play more effectively than was practical previously, on a global field.

Social Media has released us, freed us: and we won’t go back. Social media has been a great resource for both ideas and traffic for my blog. If you work and get noticed in social media and it gets passed around that’s a great way to promote your work.

Social media seek’s (in theory and in word, at least) a different kind of influence: peer review and approval. The medium and the form of discourse that it supports are wide open.

Social Media is a Branding Exercise - while social media sites can send you a lot of traffic very very quickly they can also be excellent places to do branding. Every time a reader or potential reader comes across you on a social media site the more you reinforce your brand.

Social media marketing is actually becoming necessary but it has to be done right. It is about the weight of numbers and it will bring some honesty, ethics and accountability back to doing business.

Social Media is conversational media in all its interactive forms including text, video and spoken words - whether face to face, over the Internet, over the airwaves or via mobile technologies such as iPods and cell phones.

A Social Media Club is intended to be a place where amateurs and professionals can come together to learn from one another, to understand each other and to work together on the things that make meaning in their lives - their personal passions, their professional endeavours and their noble pursuits.

Social Media, doesn’t even really exist as a subset of media. Everything is social now, we just expect it. Social media companies will race to provide metrics that show impressive results, but that’s not necessarily a good thing, especially given the ways measurement may shape investment and in turn shape the evolution of social mediums.

Social media campaign’s go far beyond the traditional agency model of media planning and buying. So do advertisers they actually get into the game and get their campaign’s out there.

Social media is changing the way online businesses advertise because control of the message is shifting to the consumer.

Social Media Optimization (SMO) is a new term that was recently coined by Rohit Bhargava and has since been taking on life of its own. SMO tactics can drive huge amounts of people to a website and can also determine whether a startup, website or idea will make it or not.

Social media will be the optimal place to market especially with a recession. Social networks are a rich source of HIGHLY niche audiences and therefore are highly target-able.



Top 3 Social Networking Web Design Tips

May 16th, 2009
Jonathan Mac asked:


We have seen many social networking sites to gain quick popularity while a very few didn’t make it up to the mark. With almost one year now, through which the social networking websites gained ultimate popularity, now is the ideal time to look into the successful social networks for some unique social networking web design tips. Here are 5 main points that has to be noted for a successful social networking website design.

3. Learning from the mistakes that other social networks have made

As already said, while many social networking sites like myspace, Facebook etc have gained popularity, a few other social networking sites have disappeared in the Internet crowd. As the old saying goes, “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” Hence it’s necessary to learn from the mistakes that the other social networks made. One of the biggest mistakes that some of the social networking web designers make is overloading their web page with heavy graphics. They have a misconception that attracting visitors to social networking website depends all on eye candy. Loading a web page with heavy graphics will end up in longer load times. The visitors of your website won’t be patient enough to wait for the page to load. This will make the visitors quit from the page and they never return to your social networking website. Hence make the social networking web design simple and user friendly.  

2. Increase the interactivity of your Social Networking website

With the advancements in online marketing and SEO techniques, driving visitors to your social networking website is easy today. It’s upto the effective social networking web design to make the visitors spend some time in your site and also become returning users. For this, some interactive stuff must be added to the social networking website. Apart from the common social networking features like making friends and exchanging messages some other interactive fun stuff can be added to the social networking website. The social networking softwares come in handy here. There are many social networking software that can be used in your social networking website, which will be fun for the users. They will be pleased to return to your site to use the social networking applications and moreover, they will refer your site to their fiends too.

1. Be unique

Social networking websites are emerging like mushrooms today. At this point, just think in a social networking users point to view. With thousands of social networking websites out there, why should they choose your social networking website? The answer is simple “Make it unique”. Provide the visitors of your social networking website something that the similar networks haven’t offered. Be sure that the unique offerings at your social networks are useful too.

Bottom line

People consider privacy much more important than anything today. Hence it is essential for your social networking web design to ensure the privacy of the visitors of your site.



Cultural Voyeurism and Social Media

May 10th, 2009
Brian Solis asked:


Sociology - The study of human social behavior, especially the study of the origins, organization, institutions, and development of human society.

About a year ago, I wrote an article entitled Social Media is About Sociology and not Technology. The recognition of people versus the tools is now more critical than ever. Although, it still isn’t necessarily embodied in many of the words and work shared by fellow Social Media Marketers.

Less talk, more learning and action are required.

There’s no shortage of people who understand and present existing and emerging Social Tools for us to use as a mechanism for “engaging” in “conversations.”

Participation after all, is marketing right?

Let’s change that.

Informed, mutually beneficial, and genuine participation inspires relationship marketing.

However, many purported Social Media experts are merely engaging in cultural voyeurism at best. They look from afar and roam the perimeters of online societies without ever becoming a true member of any society. This means, they don’t truly understand what, where, or why they’re “participating,” only jumping in because they have something to say and have access to the tools that will carry it into play. This is unfortunately a representation of the greater landscape of Social Media Marketing and it’s time to take a step back and study the sociology of Social Media in order to keep communities intact and unaffected by outsiders.

The future of communications requires the consideration of sociological principles when integrating Social Media into the marketing chemistry. This is one of the most important points where we simply need to stop and think about things. As in all of marketing, the most effective campaigns start with listening, reading, watching, and observing. In the world of Social Media, this is not an option. It’s dependent on Sociology and the study of people and cultures online before we even think about engaging them in conversations.

Again, Social Media is about sociology and not technology. This is about people and the cultures that shape respective online communities.

Is Social Media, we’re reminded that “listening” is the key to engagement. In Sociology, this is referred to as observation. By observing, either directly or virtually, we become Social Scientists in order to feedback intelligence and insight into the marketing loop.

Two basic types of observations exist:



Unobtrusive. The observer is detached and does not take an active part in the situation.

- Observer as participant. Observer admits their role and just observes the situation, behavior and interactions.

- Complete observer. Observer hides their true identity.

 

Participant. The observer joins a group and studies as an inside member.

- Complete. The observer hides their identity. There are a number of problems with this type of observation: ethical, is it morally right to use such methods? By joining the group the observer may alter its behavior and culture; and going native and adopting the norms and values of the group.

- Participant as observer. Here the observer does not hide their identity and is truthful about their goals and objectives.



 

Most Social Media Marketing initiatives I have observed (whether I was asked to assess a company’s program specifically or simply watched a very public campaign as a student), have not observed much more than the “latest and greatest” tools that can get them in front of bubbling and active social networks and communities.

 

This is the equivalent of setting up camp next to a village because you have the tools to do so and expecting the village to integrate you into their society.

It just doesn’t work that way.

Sociology provides us with an understanding of how social forces shape individual attitudes and behavior. Sociologists study society and social action by examining the groups and social institutions people form. In Social Media, these communities take the form of social networks and the communal groups within them. People form associations, friendships, and allegiances around content, objects, products, services, and ideas. How they communicate is simply subject to the tools and networks that people adopt based on the influence of their social graph – and the culture within.

Sociologists also study the social interactions of people and groups, trace the origin and growth of social processes, and analyze the influence of group activities on individual members and vice versa.

The basic goal of sociological research is to understand the social world in its many forms. Social Media, and marketing in general, could only benefit from intelligence. And at the very least, it removes the risk of “marketing at” people and instead naturally shapes a more honest, intelligent, and informative approach.

Quantitative and qualitative methods represent two main types of sociological research. Quantitative methods, such as social statistics or network analysis, investigate the structure of a social process or describe patterns in social relationships. Qualitative methods, including focused interviews, group discussions and ethnographic methods, reveal social processes.

Social Media is much more than user-generated content. It’s driven by people in the communities where they communicate and congregate. They create, share, and discover new content without our help right now. They’re creating online cultures across online networks and using the Social Tools that we learn about each and every day to stay connected. And the societies that host and facilitate these conversations cultivate a tight, unswerving and mostly unforgiving community and culture. As Shel Israel describes it, people are populating Global Neighborhoods.

Technology is just that, technology. The tools will change. The networks will evolve. Mediums for distributing content will grow. The tools will change, but in most cases, people don’t.

It starts with intent and the realization that the communities you wish to reach are not “audiences.”

You simply can not get answers or run a meaningful Social Media program through cultural voyeurism.

Social Media Marketing requires observation, which will dictate your engagement strategies. It starts with combination of using Social and Traditional tools to discover, listen, learn, and engage directly with customers to help, not market, but indeed help them make decisions and also do things that they couldn’t, or didn’t know how to do, before. And, most importantly, the lessons learned in the field should in turn be fed into the marketing department to create and run more intelligent, experienced, and real world initiatives across all forms of marketing, PR, sales, and advertising.

Read, Transforming Customers into Evangelists: The Art of Listening and Engagement, to learn more about how to listen and observe.

Today Social Media Marketers state that conversations are markets and markets are conversations. This is the foundation for conversational marketing.

But what does that really mean?

Instead, let’s look at it this way.

Conversations are feeding communities and communities are markets for relationships. Relationships are the new currency in Social Media, and as we all know, relationships need cultivation and value from both sides in order to grow into something of value.

In this world, engagement is a privilege. Trust and loyalty are the rewards.



Social Bookmarking is Bait for the Search Engines

May 4th, 2009
Paul Rodgers asked:


Social bookmarking is the best way to boost traffic for a site. Social bookmarking is a powerful tool in promoting a website. The ideas that social bookmarking is built on are working their way into other applications; the practice of tagging information is being extended to other types of resources, such as multimedia files and e-mail. Social bookmarking is saving us a lot of time and energy that we’d usually spend scanning our RSS feeds or (the shock and horror of it all) actually visiting sites daily to find out what’s hot in the industry we work in along with our other interests. Not learning about social bookmarking is nothing short of surrendering to a changing online world.

Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet with the help of metadata. Bookmarking is good for two things: Building more inbound links to your blog and driving traffic to your blog. Social bookmarking has become so competitive that people are asking for votes for every single thing that they put up on the Internet, which entirely defeats the purpose of the entire social bookmarking industry.

Yes, put up all of the content that you want on your blog or your website, but don’t clog up the social bookmarking system by voting for everything that comes your way, or asking for votes on every single thing that you write. People who are trying to become popular on all of these different websites are just compounding the problem by once again “clogging up” the social bookmarking system, not to mention annoying their social bookmarking friends by asking for votes on so many different websites all the time. If you really want to try out more than just 3 or 4 social bookmarking sites, then simply build up your presence in one community, and then move on to other communities later. Get involved in social bookmarking groups where all members agree to give due diligence to each other’s vote requests, and then manage the entire process via email. Adding friends on social bookmarking sites is nothing more than a “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” arrangement, and often that leads to seriously one-sided efforts.

Social bookmarking is a free and easy way to get loads of traffic to your website. Millions of people are abandoning traditional search engines and directories in favor of social bookmarking services. Digg is the most heavily-trafficked social bookmarking site (at the moment), followed closely by Stumbeupon. With regard to creating a high-quality search engine, a social bookmarking system has several advantages over traditional automated resource location and classification software, such as search engine spiders. And, making matters even sweeter for those in the know is the fact that successful mastery of the social bookmarking scene has Google advantages, too.

One thing is for sure: Social bookmarking is a technology whose time has come, and once corporate America discovers it, advertising will surely follow. Combination of article writing,blogging,RSS and social bookmarking is essential if you want targeted traffic to your site. Another valuable use of social bookmarking is to gain insight into how your brand is perceived by the users saving and tagging your (or your competitors) website or content. If your goal is traffic then blogging combined with social bookmarking is a guaranteed formula for success.