Social Media Marketing (SMM) Blog

Social Media Marketing has become an increasingly used method of promoting your business or increasing the visibility of your brand by carefully making your presence known across various social media networks like Digg, Reddit, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc.

It is a general concept that marketing on social networks is a challenging task that can only be done by experts. However, that is not the reality of the situation. The actual tasks that are involved in marketing on different social networks are time consuming rather than being difficult. There are efficient and effective ways for you to manage your social media marketing campaign. An expert can be assigned to work on the social aspect of your business, but if you have time, you can also put some DIY efforts into the promotion and visibility of your business on different social networking sites.

Social Media Marketing DIY-Key Points:

If you have decided to get your hands dirty by marketing your business or services on the social networking sites by yourself then you should consider the following key points before beginning.

• Find your target – First of all, take a look at the target you want to attract by participating in the social media websites. For example you might want to be acknowledged for your expertise, or maybe you want to be listed in the top searches for keywords related to your industry.
• Manage your time – After setting your goals, carefully consider giving the right amount of time to the marketing plan that you have devised for your social media marketing strategy each day or at least each week.
• Have a plan – Planning the marketing campaign is one of the most important steps toward reaching your goals. You do not want to blindly jump into a social media campaign. Take time to think out the different steps and how you are going to accomplish each one.
• Create benchmarks – Start working on your plan toward achieving your goals. It is better to set benchmarks between where you are now and where you want to end up, so you know where to aim first. Social media marketing is not something that is ever completed, so you will want to aim for a small goal, then work your way up to bigger goals.

Types of Social Networking Sites:

Various types of social networking sites are all over the internet. Lay down different strategies for each type of social networking site according to its design. You might be interested more in one type than the other according to your set goals and plans. Some of the different types of social networking sites are:

1. Business Networking Sites — These websites are devoted to business people who are interested in networking. LinkedIn, Zoominfo and Spoke.

2. Social Bookmarking Websites — Such websites allow you to collect and organize your bookmarks and share them with others. StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us and Backfile.

3. Content Voting Sites — Allow their users to vote for the content they find useful on the internet. Digg, Netscape and Reddit.

4. Collaborative Directories – These directories allow you to add information about your company in the form of article. Wikipedia, Prefound and Zimbio.

5. Social Networking Sites — Such websites help you reconnect with old friends and make new friends. MySpace, Facebook and Orkut.

6. Video and Audio Sharing Websites – These sites allow you to promote your business using videos and word of mouth marketing. Flickr, Webshots and YouTube.

I recommend creating a profile on all of the popular networking sites to start out, and concentrate on those websites that can be more effective in achieving your goals.

Best DIY Practices

Here are some of the best DIY practices that you can use on the social networking sites to promote your business.

Strong profile:

Every social networking site allows you to create a profile. You can create your own profile or a business profile in the form of Business Pages. Try to portray your best aspects, your skills and expertise while creating your profiles with links to your website and your blog. Never forget to express your achievements in details as those will give you an edge. You can even put the links of your clients’ websites (with their permission) to demonstrate your work.

Stronger network, better results:

The theme of the game is your network. Gaining a colossal network of people is the basic idea behind the social networking sites. Connect with old friends and to make new friends. So, try to add as many as you can to your network and keep yourself connected to them. Be there for everyone, let them know of your presence by replying their questions, by asking questions, by discussing problems or just by sending invitations to join your networks on the sites.

Benefit from the bookmarks:

There are websites that are fully devoted to adding contents written by you. You can even bookmark new and increasingly used contents written by others and those bookmarks will be saved in your profile. Even if you are not the one writing, you can gain popularity for the quality of bookmarks that you provide to others on bookmarking sites like Digg and Reddit.

Leave your foot prints:

It is a good strategy that you leave your foot prints wherever you go on the internet, even on your competitors’ websites. You can leave a comment, add to a conversation and even politely disagree with their views in a discussion. This way the visitors to your competitor’s site might come to your website to see what more you have to say.

Create a blog site or add a blog to your website:

Blogs are a big part of social media these days. If you have contents and ideas that you think are worth sharing then you should consider having a blog. Blogs can be helpful in increasing your clientele by increasing your visibility in search engines and social bookmarking websites. You should even consider having a blog right on your website instead of creating a separate website for the blog.

Selection of keywords related to your business:

It is a good strategy to use tools like Google Keywords in order to have a comprehensive search on keywords related to your profession or business. You can use those keywords as part of the contents of your business websites and in your blogs. Keywords will help you to drive more traffic to your website from search engines. Tools that you can subscribe to for particular keywords include Google Alerts and Google Blogsearch.

Try to generate news content:

If your company is going to start a joint venture with another renowned company, or if your company is launching a new product then don’t miss the opportunity to list your achievements on the social news websites, then spread the news to your contacts. This can give you great visibility since your contents will be new and unique.

From the preceding discussion, it can be easily concluded that you can DIY your social media marketing with ease. It is not hard to promote your business and services by participating in the social media marketing world. The only thing that is required is patience and continuous involvement in the social networking sites.

References:

1. http://www.doshdosh.com/developing-tactical-knowledge-on-social-media-websites/
2. http://socialmarketingjournal.com/2008/07/25/diy-social-marketing/
3. http://news.stepforth.com/2007-news/pdf/diy-social-media-marketing.pdf

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WikiAnswers and Yahoo! Answers are both very popular sites that people go to for answers to their questions and solutions to their problems. Both sites are working in a positive way as collaborative social networking sites to serve their users. Both sites are dynamic platforms for their user communities who ask questions and provide each other solutions.

Basic Differences

Although both sites are dynamic user generated content sites and their basic purpose is the same, they differ quite a bit from each other.

1. In Yahoo! Answers, different users can reply with answer to a question, then the asker can select the best answer for that question. In WikiAnswers there is a wiki format which allows users to provide a single answer for each question, and that single answer can be edited and improved by any user. 
2. Users can personalize your profile in WikiAnswers. It gives you more flexibility, such as creating a personal message board, a watch list, a personal community and a personal io page. In Yahoo! Answers, users do not have access to personal networks or other personalizations.

Statistical Comparison

Yahoo! Answers and WikiAnswers share a majority of the social media market. According to statistics, Yahoo! Answers is winning the race by a clear margin. Both sites are using the UGC (user generated content) technique, which means that all of the questions and answers are provided by users.

The following statistical analysis was given by Manoj Jasra:

“The market share of U.S. visits to a custom category of Question and Answer websites has increased 118 percent for the week ending Mar. 15, 2008, compared to the same week in 2007, Hitwise reported today. Over the past two years, U.S. visits to this category have increased 889 percent comparing Feb. 2008 versus Feb. 2006. The most visited website within the Questions and Answers category last week was Yahoo! Answers (answers.yahoo.com), which received 74.05 percent of the market share of U.S. visits. Wiki.Answers.com was the second most visited website receiving 18.35 percent of visits, followed by Answerbag.com, which received 4.42 percent of visits. WikiAnswers, launched in June 2007 has seen its U.S. visits increase 125 percent comparing the week ending Jun. 9, 2007 versus Mar. 15, 2008.”

There is no doubt that WikiAnswers is growing faster than Yahoo! Answers, but so far the stats show that Yahoo! is ahead.

References

1. http://www.answers.com/topic/wikianswers
2. http://searchengineland.com/061213-085832.php
3. http://www.webpronews.com/blogtalk/2008/03/20/yahoo-answers-leads-the-way-in-qa-site-visits

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When you are surfing the internet, it is hard to avoid seeing at least one or two blogs. They are everywhere! It is hard to imagine the internet without everyone having their own blog. With so many people putting out their personal thoughts and insights in their blogs, how many of them actually know proper blogging etiquette?

Whether you are a blog owner or you are thinking of commenting on one of your favorites, having an idea of good blog etiquette is key. Here are a few tips:

Tips for bloggers:

• Use original content. There is a reason plagiarism was against the rules in school. Stealing other people’s content is unethical and wrong. It is also boring for readers to read the same paragraph on different blogs. This does not mean that you should not use quotes, data or other meaningful information. Just make sure that you put it in quotes and include a reference. Give the author their proper acknowledgement. They just might quote you back!
• Do not be afraid of criticism. If you cannot handle reading negative opinions about what you wrote, do not create a blog. You cannot please everyone, so keep an open mind when people do not agree with you.
• When someone does leave a negative comment, be cautious if you decide to write back. Responding to a comment should only be done if you are politely acknowledging what they said. You might point out something that they missed, or correct them if they misquoted you, but do not attack them or write anything overly negative back. This can start a virtual fight that will be hard to stop. Since it will show up on your blog, you are the one who looks bad.
• Avoid personal attacks in your blog posts. When you are writing about someone, stick to facts. Show your readers that you are above smearing someone’s name.
• Remember, you are writing for a global audience. Once your blog is out there, you cannot decide who reads it. Everything you write reflects on yourself, so focus on not being ignorant or hateful. Try to be constructive and teach your readers something.

Tips for readers:

• Blog etiquette is similar to the unspoken etiquette in your day to day conversations. Avoid rude and immature behavior while commenting!
• If you are going to say something, do not hide behind an anonymous posting. Be brave enough to show who you are.
• If you are also a blogger, avoid constantly advertising your own blog or business in every comment. It makes you look like a walking billboard instead of a person with a real opinion.
• Post comments that are relevant and useful for both the blogger and your fellow readers. If you want to say hello to the blogger, save that for an email or IM. Keep your private comments out of the public eye.
• Avoid repetitive comments on the same blog.
• If you have a serious problem with a blog, you are not being forced to read it. If you have constructive criticism or a comment with relevant, substantial information, go ahead and leave it but make sure you are not attacking anyone. If the only thing you can say is catty and mean, just move on to another blog instead of starting a personal war. No one wants to read personal attacks back and forth.

Both bloggers and readers need to keep their reputation in mind. Although the blogosphere is large, your reputation can still catch up with you later on down the road. Some people will always have different opinions and feelings than you do. If you want to share yours, keep it mature. You do not need to, and probably cannot, change another person’s mind.

Keep in mind the three R’s – Be Responsible, Respect the people at the other keyboards, and Relax. Open your mind and enjoy the blogosphere’s endless possibilities!

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A web log, or blog, is a website that is usually maintained by an individual or business with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events or other material such as graphics, photos or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. To blog is also a verb, which means to maintain or add content to a blog.

Writing a blog is not rocket science – just about anyone who has some general knowledge can do it. The best way to get an idea of how to blog is to read other blogs and articles on the internet. Journalism and blogging are two different things, but they are similar in many aspects. Bloggers are not necessarily journalists, and a web log form is more casual than journalism, though some blogs are widely read. Some bloggers argue that they should not be expected to follow the same ethics as journalists. Bloggers do have a code of ethics to follow, which is centered around one phrase: “Integrity is the cornerstone of credibility.”

By following this code, bloggers can also prove to their readers that they are trustworthy and ethical. I have read different articles on ethics in blogging and I came to see that many bloggers try to defend their code of conduct. There are some primary concerns that bloggers have to watch out for.

Be transparent and honest

• Almost everyone knows that honest is the best policy, and not following this policy can come back to bite a blogger.
• A blogger must be transparent and very honest, and lack of either of those things can be detrimental. If you are not transparent in your data collecting, your readers will take notice. Transparency is when the information is open and freely available.

Be fair

• Never try to claim that your opinions are facts.
• Allow your readers to comment on your blog, whether their comments are positive or negative.

Be Accountable

• Always admit your mistakes and be ready to be accountable if you have written something incorrect. Fix your mistakes right away.
• Explain the mission of your blog. What is the point of what you are saying?
• If you are doing favors for advertisers, mention it to your readers.
• Do not simply follow along with what other bloggers are saying. Take time to do the research first. If they are incorrect, stand up and tell the truth on your blog.
• Never compromise your standards.

Minimize harm

“Ethical bloggers treat sources and subjects as human beings deserving of respect.

• Show compassion for those who may be affected adversely by Weblog content. Use special sensitivity when dealing with children and inexperienced sources or subjects.
• Be sensitive when seeking or using interviews or photographs of those affected by tragedy or grief.
• Recognize that gathering and reporting information may cause harm or discomfort. Pursuit of information is not a license for arrogance.
• Recognize that private people have a greater right to control information about themselves than do public officials and others who seek power, influence or attention. Only an overriding public need can justify intrusion into anyone’s privacy.
• Show good taste. Avoid pandering to lurid curiosity.
• Be cautious about identifying juvenile suspects, victims of sex crimes and criminal suspects before the formal filing of charges.” [1]

By following the code of ethics you can be a great blogger. Being fair, transparent and accountable will take you far. You are conveying your thoughts to the public, so it is important to do it the right way.

References:

1. http://www.cyberjournalist.net/news/000215.php
2. http://mamamusings.net/archives/2005/10/25/internet_librarian_05_karen_schneider_on_blogging_ethics.php

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When someone creates and new product, there is usually a manual to go along with it that includes step by step instructions on how to use that product. These manuals are usually very helpful for a new user. You would not be very happy to receive a new digital camera with no user’s manual to walk you through all of the advanced features. What would you do? You could consult the digital camera company, or you could search through pages and pages of information online. A helpful tool in this situation would be a how-to social media network. Among these is wikiHow – one of the largest and most popular how-to social media groups.

What is WikiHow?

WikiHow is both a wiki-based project and a database of how-to guides. It can also be considered a social media networking site. Since it is a wiki-based project, users are able to edit the how-to articles. If you, as a user, think that you have some information that would be helpful to another user, one of the best places for you to share your knowledge is on wikiHow. There are users who voluntarily contribute content from all around the globe. There are new articles every day that are created by different people who have a fresh perspective and might be able to solve a problem you are having. Since existing articles are constantly being edited by users, wrong information is fixed quickly.

A brief history of wikiHow:

The goal for wikiHow was to build the world’s largest how-to manual, which needs to be kept up-to-date, accurate and comprised of virtually every imaginable topic out there. wikiHow was founded by Jack Herrick on January 15, 2005. Travis Derouin did all of the engineering work on the site and Josh Hannah assisted by paying for the servers and other expenses.

Jack and Josh decided to purchase eHow when it was on the verge of bankruptcy. eHow already contained more than 17,000 how-to articles which were all professionally written and edited by experts. Jack’s first plan to hire professionals from all over the world to write more articles for the how-to manual did not really work. They got inspiration from Wikipedia, which is considered to be the largest encyclopedia on the web. Travis and Jack began modifying the open source MediaWiki software to be more suitable for a how-to manual.

Launching WikiHow:

WikiHow was finally open to the world on January 15, 2005. This date was selected by Josh and Jack because it was Wikipedia’s 4^th birthday. By the end of January, 2,638 unique visitors came and read the meager selection of articles. Of those first 2,638 readers, nine people made more than ten edits. With the passage of time, wikiHow started gaining momentum and more visitors started showing their interest in the idea, then more volunteers from around the globe started editing and posting how-to articles for other readers.

“By April, over 100,000 readers were visiting WikiHow each month. By June, bloggers and the press were starting to write about the “how-to Wiki” Eventually, WikiHow appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, ABC News, PBS Newshour, Singapore Straits Times, LeMonde, and other media.”[1]

In May 2006, Jack and Josh sold eHow and focused completely on wikiHow. Now wikiHow is a completely separate project eHow and running off totally different technology.

How wikiHow works:

Anyone can write and edit articles on wikiHow. To start, you need to create a free account and become a registered user. You can begin by making edits to an existing article, or you can jump right in and contribute a how-to of your own. Once your article is submitted, anyone with a wikiHow account can enhance, edit or update your post. Over time, your post will probably be improved and perfected. Any changes made by you or another user will be visible in recent changes or page history. Changes that are considered vandalism or inappropriate will be quickly removed.

WikiHow statistics:

WikiHow has experienced some impressive growth since their launch on January 15, 2005.

June 2008 Update:

“In June 2008, wikiHow had 11.4 million unique readers. These 11.4 million different people visited us a total of 14.7 million times in the month. While it isn’t a directly applicable comparison, it is interesting to note that the daily circulation of the New York Times is 1.2 million, the LA Times is 1 million, the Washington Post is 760,000 and the Boston Herald is 236,000.”[2]

Mission Statement:

WikiHow is a collaboration to build the world’s largest, highest quality how-to manual. [2]

The idea behind wikiHow is to create the world’s largest database on how to do things. This goal turned out to be practically impossible without creating a wiki site that users can add to and edit. Go try out this fantastic open source community.

References:

1. http://www.wikihow.com/wikiHow:History-of-wikiHow
2. http://www.wikihow.com/wikiHow:Statistics

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These days, everyone knows what Yahoo! is and probably use several Yahoo! tools. It is a global Internet services company that operates an Internet portal and provides a full range of products and services including a search engine, the Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Flickr.com and Yahoo! 360⁰. The idea was first generated by two electrical engineering graduate students, Jerry Yang and David Filo from Stanford University, USA.

How Yahoo! Incorporated

In January 1994, Jerry Yang and David Filo created a website named “Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web”. In April 1994 “Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web” was renamed Yahoo!. By the end of 1994, Yahoo! had already received one million hits and Yang and Filo realized that their website had huge business potential. [1]

Yahoo 360⁰

Yahoo! has created numerous services which include Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Maps, Yahoo! Groups and Yahoo! Messenger. Today we will talk about a service that many people might not know about - Yahoo! 360⁰.

In March 2005, Yahoo! decided to launch a Social Media Networking website called Yahoo 360⁰, which put them in the SMM race. It includes services like social networking, blogging and photo sharing and it still is in beta version.

Yahoo 360⁰ is a good service but it has failed to gain as much response as Yahoo’s other services. As a social networking tool it will do well, and it is more useful to those who were already using other Yahoo! services since they can fully integrate the service with Yahoo! Mail, Photos, My Yahoo! and Groups. Yahoo 360⁰ pulls all of these different services together into one easy-to-use interface. Another feature Yahoo 360⁰ provides is basic blogging. For bloggers Yahoo 360⁰ provides some nice features, but it also comes with drawbacks.

Let’s take a look at some pros and cons of blogging on Yahoo 360^0.

Pros

The first advantage is that Yahoo 360⁰ is totally free, and it provides blogroll lists. The RSS feed is automatic. Yahoo 360⁰ provides the facility of moblogging, which is a blog published directly to the web from a mobile phone or device. Another advantage is their easy-to-use WYSIWYG (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get) program for creating web pages.

Cons

Sometimes the pages just go blank while editing, which is frustrating for users. The URL for each blog is structured like a subfolder, or a subdomain. Users are not able to change the time zone setting for their blog. There is no trackback option, no pings and very limited customization for blogs. These are some problems that are preventing bloggers from utilizing Yahoo 360⁰.

More bad news

Jerry yang announced that they would no longer provide support for or perform bug fixes on Yahoo! 360°. Passionate Yahoo 360⁰ users got infuriated after hearing that news.

In October 2007, Matt Warburton, Yahoo! Community Manager said in his blog:

“On Yahoo’s Q3 Earnings call today, it was announced that we intend to transition Yahoo! 360 to a more integrated Yahoo! experience in early 2008. I want to provide additional information on this news and assure you that we will minimize any disruption to you and our valued Yahoo! 360 community. I also want to assure you that you can still use all the features of Yahoo! 360 until this transition takes place in early 2008.

“We will be sharing specifics of this transition over the next several months, but I can tell you today that Yahoo! 360 will transition to a new universal Yahoo! profile that will be closely tied to other relevant services across Yahoo!, and will include improved blogging capabilities.

“With the announcement of this transition, we assure you:

• We will preserve your Yahoo! 360 blog content, profile photo, nickname, and friends lists during and after the transition
• We will provide the right tools to move your blog content;
• We will give you ample notice before this transition begins in early 2008.”[2]

Yahoo 360⁰ is a nice service to use, but they have already taken themselves out of the race. If you are looking for a free, hosted service for blogging, Yahoo! is probably not your best option.

References:

1. http://webmsi.free.fr/HEC-MSI-0705W-GR8/nouvellepage1.htm
2. http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-1qCkw2Ehaak.hdNZkEAzDrpa4Q–?cq=1&p=49226&l=2151&u=2175&mx=2175&lmt=50

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Wikipedia has been the most popular wiki on the web since 2001 and is considered the most popular collaborative social media source in the history of internet. Wikipedia is available as a self-styled, multilingual web based encyclopedia which is built by its users from all over the world. Wikipedia is operated by Wikimedia Foundation which is a US based nonprofit organization.

Since its creation, Wikipedia has rapidly grown into the largest reference website on the Internet. The content of Wikipedia is free, and is written collaboratively by people from all around the world. You can expect to find any article on Wikipedia that you might find in other encyclopedias.

There is a great difference between Wikipedia and other encyclopedias. Encyclopedias that are available in the form of books and CDs are written by authoritative writers and compiled by professional editors, while Wikipedia allows its user community to write and edit articles (and correct mistakes or bias). Supporters claim that this model produces an encyclopedia that is more current than traditional encyclopedias.

Social Aspect of Wikipedia:

Wikipedia is the only collaborative social media website that is ranked in top 10 websites all over the world and its articles are available in the top searches of various search engines including Google. Users from all over the world contribute to write the articles and if there are any mistakes or inaccuracies, anyone who has an account on Wikipedia can edit them. Of course, there are errors and vandalism does occur in the articles, but the strong Wikipedia community and its administrators do not let those factual errors exist for very long.

There are different forms of interactions between the global users on Wikipedia. Some of them are:

1-     Interaction in the form of comments on article

2-     The Village Pump where people ask questions about the guidelines and other issues in using Wikipedia

3-     You can submit news to be listed on the “In the News” page

4-     Editing pages - page edits are saved permanently in the edit history of each article

5-     Participating in collaborations organized by Wikipedia to improve the quality of articles that are lacking details or references

6-     Taking part in discussions on different topics

7-     Taking part in wiki projects

There are many other forms of social interactions on Wikipedia. You can visit the Community Portal of Wikipedia to find out how you can contribute and participate in this great community serving website.

Reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About

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A Brief History of Blogs:

I am sure you have heard of blogs, which is derived from term web log. Blogs are virtual journals created by individuals and stored on the internet. It is a platform where people from all around the globe write journal style articles. Usually a blog contains text, images, videos and links to other websites. Readers can leave comments in an interactive format.

Jorn Barger was the first person who used the term weblog on December 1997. In May 1999, Peter Merholz introduced the short term blog.

In a similar style to the Da Vinci Code with their Sangreal/ San Greal/ Sang Real compositions, Peter Merholz turned the word ‘Weblog’ into ‘We blog’ on the sidebar of his blog.[1]

There are currently numerous blog search engines on the web, such as Bloglines, BlogScope and Technorati. Among these, Technorati is the most popular. It provides current information on popular searches and tags that are used to categorize blog postings.

Technorati:

When it comes to blog search engines, Technorati is leading the market after Google and Yahoo. Technorati was created by Dave Sifry.

Technorati’s About Us page says that they are currently tracking 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media. LinuxCare and Wi-Fi access point software developer Sputnik are also the key projects of Dave Sifry. [2] According to Technorati data, there are over 175,000 new blogs every day, and as many as 1.6 million new posts per day, which is about 18 posts per second..

How can you utilize Technorati?

You can benefit from Technorati by following a few simple steps:

• Claim Your Blog:

To add and modify your blog you have to claim it at Technorati, and then confirm your ownership. After that you can ping Technorati and it will verify your blog by bringing up your blog in the results.

• Blog Description:

Your next step is to edit the blog description. Once you have claimed your blog, you need to edit the settings and description. The language you use to describe your blog needs to be clear and concise. Keep your target audience in mind.

• Complete Your Profile:

Now it is time to create a profile. When a user is viewing your blog, they will see a link to the author. When they click on that link it will take them to your profile, and to a list of all of your blogs on Technorati. It will also show your top tags, which gives users an idea of what topics you blog about often. Make sure you fill out all of the information in your profile.

• Add Photo:

Part of completing your profile is adding a photo. Including a professional photo of you is not mandatory, but it can make a big difference when your profile is being viewed by users. People like to have a visual when they are reading blogs and articles.

• Adding Tags:

Adding the tags is one of the most important steps. When users