Web Design Development Articles

The explosion of online social networks like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn has opened up a whole new world of marketing. These social networks create new realms of possibility in the realm of online marketing, as it enables (at a minimal cost) a massive word-of-mouth campaign. As word-of-mouth is the most effective form of advertising, it’s no wonder that so many companies of all sizes are interested in social network marketing.

The earliest and still most common form of marketing on social networks is to simply create a presence on the social network. Many corporations, charities, bands and other organizations have an account on the social network, and one or more employees is tasked with maintaining this social presence. Through the social network, the organization can announce to it’s many friends and customers what new products and services they are offering, in addition to enabling customers to have a more personal relationship with them. This is free and productive, however it does not have much of an effect and many corporations are seeking other options.

The best way to market via social networks is to encourage participation. Many companies have found that by taking suggestions, running contests and otherwise bringing the members of the social network in, they can greatly increase customer loyalty. It also permits companies to quickly “crowd source” projects such as logos or new food flavors.

One last way many organizations use social networks is for “Astroturfing,” which is when an organization works to make the appearance of a grassroots organization when actually they are using a network of company agents to advertise a product or service. This is often against the terms of service of the social network, and it also often leads to severe backlash. Many modern consumers will see astroturfing as lying to them, and so it is a tactic best avoided.

LinkedIn is the perfect place to feature your group. It’s easy to set up and manage a group. You can create a specialized community of like-minded folks who can interact and create even stronger networks among themselves. Not only can you invite folks from your own network, but you can reach out and find others within the larger LinkedIn network who might enjoy being a part of your group.

Here are a few helpful tips and tricks for your LinkedIn group:

Groups are designed for interaction - for the benefit of all. As a member of a LinkedIn group you can change your settings so that you can allow fellow group members to contact you without using a referral. Go to your homepage to modify your settings.

When you create a group on LinkedIn, any and all communications within the group are your responsibility. LinkedIn will never send any communications to your group.

If you’ve got a large group to manage or if you just need some extra help, now you can easily add a manager to your group. After logging in to LinkedIn, go to your group and click Manage. Then click on My Groups. Select Managers. You’ll be able to quickly add or delete managers. If you want to add a manager, he or she must already be a member of the group. The person you add will also be able to manage the group from their own LinkedIn homepage.

If you manage a group and you were wondering how many members you can have, the default group size is 1,000 members. As with most things, there are exceptions. If you want to request an increase in your group size, you can put in a request by contacting customer service.

You can pre-approve members to join your group - even if they aren’t currently members of LinkedIn. When they do join LinkedIn, they’ll automatically be invited to join your group.

If you have put together a list of pre-approved folks for a new group you’ve created (in .csv format!), be sure to keep it to 100 rows or less. LinkedIn will automatically check the people on your “request to join” list against your pre-approved list. You can still manually approve folks who are pending.

LinkedIn groups are a great way to keep in touch and share information with your group members. Use these tips to help get the most out of your group!

There’ s no question that Twitter has become the next big thing in internet social networking. Yet to this day, less than 10% of North American internet users actually “Twitter.” But unique visitors the Twitter website has grown over 1300 % in one year.

So what exactly is Twitter?

Twitter is an automated service for sharing of short 140 character communications. Why 140? So that you can send “tweets,” or communications from your cell phone as well as your computer. Most celebrities have a twitter channel as part of their marketing and promotion. And now businesses are seeing Twitter as a business tool.

Some feel that Twitter is just a vehicle to kill time, filing any moment with useless drivel. But does it serve a deeper need?  Moses Ma, writing in Psychology Today believes it does. He says that we are living in a culture starved for real community, which is a message that Robert Putnam gave us in Bowling Alone. Our brains have been biologically hard-wired to operate within a social community, but the industrial age and its extension, free market capitalism has weakened those bonds. People are compelled to tweet, facebook, and to email as well as meet face to face, because they crave social connection.

The critics of Twitter would argue that it is a near perfect example of an intermittent variable reward, a key addictive element of slot machines, and Twitter can trick the brain into thinking its having a meaningful social interaction when you actually aren’t, and finally, Twitter can add to the already recognized problem of overwhelm through multi-tasking, reducing your ability to perform.

The proponents of  Twitter would argue that Twitter, like all social networking, aims primarily at social needs, like those for belonging, love and friendship. At  higher level, Ma suggests, Twitter is related to self-esteem and social recognition. Twitter allows normal people to feel like celebrities. You get a following, and people “like you.” Dr. David Lewis, a cognitive neuropsychologist at the University of Sussex argues that Twitter helps people feel less insecure.

So do people use Twitter to self-actualize, the highest human need according to Maslow? Deepak Chopra and Tony Robbins and scores of other personal growth and spiritual gurus have twitters. Or are they just exercising a new form of smart marketing and promotion of their products?

One way to look at Twitters is what is the impact if you participate. Are you just adding to the crushing weight of spam and useless garbage already out there in cyberspace, or are you participating in  great planetary social experiment that will help us all evolve into better human beings?

Ma would argue that being in the “twitterverse” is like a rive of human awareness, composed of billions of 140 character molecules, each a snapshot of life or thought or reflection, and that river of pure information equals energy in the quantum universe.  And therefore it is a good thing.

Given that as a background, will Twitter go the direction that Facebook is now heading, and become a new vehicle for business marketing and promotion, and the distribution of unedited news and information?

World Wide Web, the word which does not amaze many! In fact, it is like a pair of shoes, everyone’s wearing it. Everyone’s having a website nowadays! From the time, when the hyperlink was an invention and Tim Berners Lee’s notebook program contained such links in 1980s till today, we had countless advancement in the way we use web. From text to pictures, the experience was enchanting throughout. Just before a few years, we were still feeling excited with the multi-colour images loading in pieces on the website. Web world has gone far in a short period.

As it is called, Web 2.0 is a second generation of web design and development and the idea behind is security of shared information, interoperability, smooth communication and the synchronized WWW. We have been viewing pictures, videos and also interacting with applications on web. Web 2.0 is taking us to the next level, with web-based communities, applications, social networking, video-sharing and streaming, blogs, encyclopaedia and what not!

Bringing uniqueness and sophisticated web experience to the users, is the main advantage of Web 2.0. Although, simplicity has always been attractive and that is also an added feature of Web 2.0 Functionally, it is highly interrelated and interactive amongst the web contents. Users are closer to the application and more involved where users can literally own the data and they do have significant control. Adding values to the design and flow, content modification, and running the application from the browser itself are the main benefits you could derive from Web 2.0. Along with that, Web 2.0 is a technical innovation which allows, thorough searching, link management, tags, extensions and feeds to utilize the web capacities.

Be it the most popular blog roll - Wordpress, the most efficient photo engine - Flickr, the coolest video site - YouTube, or the hottest community - Facebook, Web 2.0 is almost a synonym to success and popularity. What it gives is a prolonged experience for anything you are doing online. Faster registration, non-reloading activities, integration of external modules and creating your own modules with a push button - endless things are being innovated by exploring this technology. But let us take a look at the other side too, as the internal concerns are not less important.

There are a few concerns related to Web 2.0 library service and the professionals see them as the barriers to implementation of Web 2.0. Saleability, support issues, longevity and commercialization are some of those issues which really need to be considered. But at the end professionals have to take risks and try their hands on. As you use it more, you derive the do’s and don’ts from it. All you can do is look for the users’ review, feedbacks and everything which can provide the way to choose correct approach which works for Web 2.0. Although it will be a bit early to conclude whether Web 2.0 has established more success than failure, let us keep our eyes on the changing technologies! We might be discussing something more important in a short time, who knows!

There has been a lot in the news lately about social networking and the popularity of social sites online, such as Facebook and MySpace, Ning, Twitter, and more. How is a small business owner, overwhelmed with the various hats they are required to wear supposed to know which site is best for their business, or even if it’s necessary to even be on a social site? The choices facing small business owners can almost seem overwhelming, and different networks pop up almost on a monthly basis. It’s easy to get lost in the crowd, or worse, to lose control of how you’re presented in this new social media. Plus should employees be allowed to broadcast their affiliation with your company to their social network?

The very first thing to do is relax. Social networking is a lot like networking at an after hours business function. It can be more, but until you develop a plan, just visit with people and find out about them. A social network can be a great place to develop business connections, but it can also be used to create a forum for your customers to comment on your business, on your service and be used to promote other buying opportunities. Managing your social network doesn’t have to be a chore, but it is one more duty that should be taken very seriously.

Take Facebook for example. What started as a way for college students to interact with each other in an online environment has evolved into a forum where you can reunite with high school buddies, discover like minded individuals who read what you read, watch the shows you watch, shop where you shop and listen to the same kind of music. Think of it as a way of finding peers in your niche group. Now how can you apply that to your business? Easy, just find people interested in your product, and then educate them on it. Don’t sell. Never sell. But there are ways to educate your audience to predispose them to thinking about you the next time they want to buy a product like yours.

Social networking is a great way to find evangelists for your product. These are customers who go out and “preach” about the virtues of what you offer. They don’t do it for pay, they do it out of love for the product. It’s your job to give them something remarkable to talk about, even down to their experience on your social site. Allowing customers to connect to each other and exchange stories about your business may seem scary, but they are doing it already. By giving them a place to do it online, you can stay tapped into the conversation, perhaps even participate in the conversation, and if necessary, solve problems. There are dozens of applications for social networking you can use every day, including Twitter. Twitter is the latest “what are you doing?” feed that keeps you in the loop on what your friends or network is doing. You can twitter coupons, twitter specials, and even more via that particular social network. Just remember not to abuse the privilege of communicating with your customers.

Social networking is tough. It can be a landmine of etiquette and what’s right or wrong, plus how the interaction will work for your business may be different from your business neighbor. A smart business owner will use the services of a professional online marketing company experienced in social networking and the in’s and out’s of marketing to reach the market in the best way possible. If you want to save time, money and not waste effort, then use a professional to develop your social network presence.