Archive for the ‘Business Social Networking’ Category

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Calculation Suggests Linkedin is Now Worth Over $2 Billion

Friday, July 30th, 2010

A recent calculation by Bloomberg suggests that Linkedin has now reached the $2 billion mark. With over 60 million members and tools like “LinkedIn Reasearch Network” for market researchers and investors, the LinkedIn brand has made it to one the top 3 social media networking sites worldwide.

Mashable released an article breaking down the math:

Hedge fund Tiger Global Management spent $20 million to acquire approximately a 1% stake in the business social network. The hedge fund specifically paid $21.50 per share.

…According to SharesPost, an online marketplace for privately held companies, LinkedIn has 105 million shares outstanding. Multiply that by the $21.50 Tiger Global Management spent, and you arrive at a valuation of $2.26 billion.

Via Mashable

How can you tap into the success of social networking sites like Social Harbor, AboutUs and LinkedIn? If you don’t know how to optimally utilize these sites for success, your business or personal brand can get lost in pages of search results. Search Engine Optimization is crutial; SEO is the spigot that controls the amount of exposure your brand will receive. Our service at Social Harbor targets valuable keywords that make sense to your unique company and implement those words frequently into your profiles. The result is a consistent, highly professional image for you, portrayed through effective online content that best represents you and your company.

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Posted in Business Social Networking, Linkedin | No Comments »

Integrating Search Engine Marketing with Social Media

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

A problem many marketers have is how to merge their Paid Search Engine Advertising with their Social Media presence. These two channels work differently and need completely different strategies. Matt Lawson, director of marketing for Marin Software, wrote a great How-To article on Mashable about this subject.

The first thing you need to realize is that Paid Search and Social Media should be used together, not as separate channels that do not communicate. Both have different strengths and weaknesses, so you must leverage each one’s strengths to optimize your marketing campaign. Most marketers agree that the main goal of social media is to build an online presence, communicate with customers, and build brand value. The main goal of Paid Search is to drive sales.

Lawson gives a few tips to optimize the usage of your Paid Search Advertising and Social Media:

Make your Social Media Campaigns Search Friendly. Your social media programs, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc, need to be properly tagged and the metadata for your pages include your top keywords. Along with your natural and paid search results, you also want people to find your social media easily.

Experiment With Keyword Advertising on Social Media Sites. Facebook and YouTube both offer keyword advertising programs that are vastly different from Google. Facebook allows you to target users through the preferences and items they put on their profile. YouTube allows you to target search queries. Although, unlike Google, YouTube’s search queries do not usually include a specifc product but rather general content. Make sure you target your ads correctly.

Create Social Media-Influenced Paid Search Campaigns. Take what you learn from your social media, through conversations with your customers and general discussions that are happening around your campaigns, and bid on keywords that reflect this information on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Remember to measure the performance of your ads and capitalize on keywords that are more effective.

By integrating your social media and paid search campaigns correctly you will not only build a better brand presence, but you will improve the effectiveness of both campaigns.

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Posted in Business Social Networking | 1 Comment »

Facebook Money Transfer Scam

Monday, March 15th, 2010

Here is a Facebook Money Transfer Scam I got hit up with today. Now I know this person from a long time ago. It was completely random early morning chat conversation. I knew something was fishy, and I followed two courses of action.

1. I alerted Facebook that I thought her account was hacked. This link will allow you to report Facebook Scams.

2. I contacted the local police in Cambridge, UK and they said there is not much they could do. There have been a bunch of scams that have been reported to them, so they were well aware of this. But it was difficult for them to pursue it further.

Facebook Scams

I really hope my friend is not in trouble. I could have quizzed more to ask a personal question of how she knew me, etc. But I didn’t do this. She has since emailed me multiple times, asking me to send the details of the wire transfer to an email account. Seems she has access to my friend’s email and Facebook accounts.

Here is the Facebook chat conversation I had with the scammer:

Heather
hey
how are you doing ?
8:48amDerek
Good morning
I’m allright - working - what are you up to?
8:49amHeather
not good at the moment in a deep mess
8:49amDerek
what happened?
8:49amHeather
am stuck in London i went there on a short vacation
8:49amDerek
oh jeez
why are you stuck?
8:50amHeather
I was mugged at a gun point last night all cash on me was stolen my cell and credit card off me
8:51amDerek
omg
that’s terrible
freaky
scary
8:51amHeather
I thank God am still alive and am still with my passport …am freaked out here i need your help
8:52amDerek
what do you need?
8:53amHeather
am having a little problem in settling the hotel bills before leaving i need you to loan me some few bucks
8:54amDerek
how can I get you the money?
8:54amHeather
you can get the money wire to me Via western union on my name
Do you know any western union outlet around you ?
8:55amDerek
yeah there are some close by
just send it to you?
is there some number?
8:55amHeather
all you need is my name and my location
8, Scotland Road Industrial Estate, Dry Drayton Cambridge CB23 8AT , United Kingdom
Heather S*****
8:57amDerek
OK
It may take me a couple hours to get over there -
how much do you need?
8:57amHeather
1450
8:58amDerek
euros or $
8:58amHeather
euros
can you head down there now
8:58amDerek
woah that’s a lot of cash
have a 9 AM meeting
after that I open up
8:59amHeather
I promise i will def refund it as soon as am back home
8:59amDerek
OK - where are you living these days?
9:00amHeather
am in a public library now …am freaked out here
can you head down to the nearest western union around you ..
9:01amDerek
yes
9:01amHeather
how long would it take you ?
9:03amDerek
1 hour or so
9:03amHeather
ok
i want you to get the western union transfer details send to my email address
in case am not online
9:04amDerek
ok
9:04amHeather
*******@yahoo.com
9:04amDerek
what email?
OK
I can do that
9:05amHeather
I want you to send me a test mail now ..

Beware of Facebook Phishing Scams. It’s scary to get hit up for so much money and if you don’t know it’s real, better to be safe than sorry. Certainly don’t send money via Western Union as it’s hard to track, and you could simply lose your money w/o helping anyone. I hope to connect w/ my friend at some point - once she regains her accounts. I am not sure how to reach her now, because I believe all her emails to be compromised.

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Posted in Business Social Networking, Facebook | 5 Comments »

Experts Share Their Predictions for Social Media in 2010

Monday, December 28th, 2009

What will 2010 bring for Social Media? The experts have weighed in.

TrendsSportting Market Research has released its report on 2010 Social Media predictions. The report is comprised of educated opinions from some of the biggest names in the game. David Meerman Scott, Seth Godin, Chris Brogan, Pete Cashmore, and also the team at eMarketer all give their forecast.

The forecast they’re each painting has some common trends.

The experts are betting we’ll see a stronger push into mobile landscapes and location based networking & marketing. Transparency will continue gain steam as the most important thing for brands to keep in mind, and it’s no secret everyone will be paying much more attention to Social Media Measurement and ROI in  2010. Many people are predicting a shift from the enormous social networks we know today, to smaller and more segmented communities.

You can check out the entire slide show right here, then let us know your thoughts in the comments:

TrendsSpotting’s 2010 Social Media Influencers - Trend Predictions in 140 Characters

View more documents from Taly Weiss.

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Posted in Business Social Networking | No Comments »

Social Media for the Evolving Business

Friday, November 20th, 2009

Social media is slowly changing the face of how businesses get, respond, and discover new information. Those that do not adapt will simply die, but the ones that embrace social media, will undoubtedly succeed and be seen as leaders in that field of business.

Courtesy of @Mashable, here are four ways that social media is altering businesses:

1. From “Trying to Sell” to “Making Connections”

Show some personality, that is part of your brand. Engage with your customers by telling them what’s going on when the 9-5 job ends. If you’re transparent and “put yourself out there,” people feel more comfortable about doing business with those companies.

business social networking

2. From”Large Campaigns” to “Small Acts”

Less is more.

Less is more. It bears repeating. The cliché of the decade, but it couldn’t be more true, especially when opting to use social media in your business plan. Focus on the niche mediums that your target audience utilizes. This allows you to better connect and track them; you won’t be wasting millions of dollars blasting your message to world, not knowing who saw it and if they responded to your call-to-action.
People share stories through the web. It is much faster. So if your customer has a negative experience, you need to make sure you address their concerns before it becomes too viral. It pays for companies to pay attention to the one-on-one customer relationships forged via social media.

3. From “Controlling our Image” to “Being Ourselves”

This reinforces rule #1 — personality. Don’t control your employees so that your company is portrayed as this squeaky-clean, monotonous factory. Allow your employees to write and talk about hobbies that they’re passionate about outside of work.
Take a page from Google’s 70/20/10 rule, which allows employees to spend 20% of their time on “Innovation time off” pursuing their own ideas that relate to Google and then 10% of their time on stuff completely unrelated to Google. “By doing this, Google gains a loyal employee by allowing them to do whatever they want without Big Brother looking over their shoulder.  At the same time, it captures innovative thinking due to random stimulation.” (the99percent)

4. From “Hard to Reach” to “Available Everywhere”

People want to interact with and engage businesses via their chosen means of communication, whether that is Twitter, Facebook, discussion forums, etc. Company telephone numbers and e-mail addresses will not suffice any longer. If I’m loyal to a brand, and I see that they use Twitter or Facebook often, it makes me feel more comfortable knowing I can communicate with their company through those means. Allow customers to communicate through their chosen means, not yours.

Don’t be dinosaur and stick with what you’re comfortable with (i.e. old media). You’ll go extinct like they did. Instead, jump ship to where the future of interactivity is going.

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Posted in Business Social Networking | No Comments »

LinkedIn and Twitter Join Forces

Friday, November 13th, 2009

Earlier this week, social networking mega-sites LinkedIn and Twitter joined forces. Why it didn’t happen sooner is anyone’s guess.

Both companies, now synced, earn ample benefits from their respective partners, such as data exchange and worthwhile business intelligence. LinkedIn users will able to update their statuses more frequently and appeal to a younger demographic. Twitter can gain access to LinkedIn’s influential and growing user base.

In your LinkedIn settings, you can link your account to Twitter to allow for every tweet to be posted as your LinkedIn status, or just the ones that include either the #li or #in hashtag.

Where this ends up is anyones guess, but for now, enjoy the new networking feature.

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Posted in Business Social Networking, Linkedin | No Comments »

Delicious Organizes Your Favorite Websites

Friday, November 6th, 2009

Social bookmarking site Delicious.com helps you keep track of all the sites you want to remember. It’s free and easy to use.

Simply register for a Delicious account and upload the “Tag” button to your browser. This will make it quicker and easier to bookmark pages you find interesting.

Suppose you’re trying to find information on Google Ad Words. You search the Internet and find a page you like. Tag the site, and a window will open asking for new information. This is where you can input relevant keywords, or tags, that will allow you to return to this specific Web site link after you’ve accrued different Web site links

Say you tag one article as “Fundamentals,” because it’s a useful site about getting started with Google Ad Words.

Delicious Organizes Your Favorite Websites

A few weeks pass and you accumulate more links.

Let’s say you want to return to the introduction to Ad Words article, the one tagged “Fundamentals.” Click the tag on the right-hand sidebar that says “Fundamentals,” and immediately, your list will consolidate to show just the links you tagged with “Fundamentals.”

Now lets see why Delicious is “social bookmarking.”

There are lots of other marketers and advertisers using Ad Words, and they’ve probably come across some useful sites that you’ve missed. Delicious’ bookmarks are made public. This means peers can see your bookmarks and use your tags; your bookmarks can benefit other people.

Delicious takes the most-clicked on article from that keyword and shifts it to the top. So the most applicable and trustworthy site is the first one users can select. Because they’re all public, everyone discovers new and relevant information. Together, this creates a steady stream of useful Web sites, all linked together by tags.

The lesson is that social bookmarking takes a world of chaos and make it orderly and helpful for other people.

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Changing Media Lanscape - Shift Happens, Fall 2009

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

Did You Know 4.0?

You should.

Did you know that newspaper circulation is down 7 million over the last 25 years? But in the last five years, unique readers of online newspapers are up 30 million.

While traditional advertising continues its steep decline, mobile and Internet advertising are up 18.1 and 9.2 percent, respectively.

More video was uploaded to YouTube in the last two months than if ABC, NBC and CBS, had been airing new content 24/7/365 since 1948.

Those statistics were just in the first minute. If you those are startling, watch the rest of the video.

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Posted in Business Social Networking, Facebook | No Comments »

LinkedIn Keeps Growing

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

LinkedIn’s blog is reporting they now have over 50 million users worldwide. They say it took almost sixteen months for LinkedIn to reach its first million users. Their last million? Only took 12 days. This comes on the heels of even more good news, as Compete reported a 5.68% growth in traffic for LinkedIn during the month of September.

LinkedIn stats from Compete

LinkedIn says that while 50% of its users are based in the US, 50% are international. An impressive stat that speaks highly to the power and success of LinkedIn. If you have somehow managed to stay away from LinkedIn to this point, now is as good of a time as any to jump on the wagon. Business is being done here, and soon every business man and woman will have their profile on LinkedIn.

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Social Media Success for Ford Motor Company

Monday, October 5th, 2009

Ford Motor Company has embraced social media quite well. They are definitely generating more chatter and buzz about their brand than any of the other “Big 3″ have.

Today we’re taking a look at their Ford Fiesta Movement as it nears the end of the six month campaign. Remember when this grassroots social media campaign started? Has it worked?

To promote their Fiesta model, Ford gave 100 social “agents” a Fiesta and had them promote the new vehicle through all kinda of social media avenues, such as Twitter, blogs, videos, and events. So did they make it work without spending a dollar on traditional media?

Ford shared some interesting statistics today. They recorded:

  • 4.3 million YouTube views thus far
  • 500,000+ Flickr views
  • 3 million+ Twitter impressions
  • 50,000 interested potential customers, 97% of which do not currently own a Ford

These numbers obviously indicate interest in their brand and product. It’s essentially priceless to have over 8 million eyes see personal advertising. When it’s all said and done however, Fiesta sales will have to determine whether it was a successful marketing plan. Those 50,000 interested potential customers will have a large impact on social media campaigns going forward.

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