Home » Social Media Network
Four Amazing Photosharing Alternatives to Facebook and Flickr
It's been more than a century since photography knocked on our doors but it still remains a powerful to tool to convey emotions and feelings. It is one of the most expressive and enduring way for us to capture and share experiences. It's hardly strikes as a surprise when we take note of the fact that photo sharing sites were some of the first social sites to hit the web. People love to click pictures and then share them with their friends and family.
In the present times, Facebook, Flickr and Google Picassa dominate the photo-sharing websites' space on the internet. These sites provide users a great, easy-to-use platform to share photographs and videos with their friends and family, online acquaintances and even random people on the web. Now in case, you are kind of bored with these same websites after using them a repetitively, there are several other photo sharing alternatives available on the web.
Let's take look at some of them
SmugMug
It is paid photosharing service on the web. Mashable says its prime focus is making easy for users to showcase and organise pictures - whether they want to sell them or not. There are no bandwidth caps and you can upload and share an unlimited no. of photos. Your photos can password-protected, you can add watermarks, and share them on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr quite easily.
Now the thing with this service is that it is paid. There are Basic, Power and Pro versions of SmugMug and they are priced in ascending order. SmugMug Pro is ideal for a professional photographer who can avail the service for $20 a month or $150 a year and also avail tons of e-commerce options. It also has dedicated apps for iPhone, Android, and iPad.
Smugmug(dot)com
Instagram is an easy-to-use iPhone app using which the users can upload photos on Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr, and Foursquare. Filters and customizations can be easily applied to these photos. The application is compatible with any iPhone or iPod Touch running Ios 3.1.2 or above. What sets it apart from its counterparts is its ease of sharing, browsing and commenting. The best thing about it is that comes for free.
Instagram had more than 100,000 downloads in its first week of release.
Instagr(dot)am
deviantArt
Often abbreviated as dA, deviantArt is an online community showcasing various forms of user-made artwork. Headquartered in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, devianArt aims to provide a place for any artist to exhibit and discuss works of arts. Photography finds a dedicated spot in this website.
devianArt consists of 14.5 million registered members and receives about 1,40,000 submissions each day. It is a free service and is gaining rapid popularity on the web.
Deviantart(dot)com
picplz
It is a photosharing app that makes sharing of photos on Facebook and Twitter like a walk in the park. Users can browse, comment and upload photos using this website. However, the core focus of this service is the mobile phone. It enables users to apply amazing photo effects and turn “average into amazing” as is claimed on its website. 'Cross Process', 'The 70s', 'Russian Toy Camera' etc. are some of the effects to choose from.
Picplz is free and is available in the App Store or Android Market.
How social media works…
Now let’s take a look at each of the main types of social media, and how they work. These explanations are intentionally very general, because with social media every rule seems to have an exception.
In fact, among the defining characteristics of social media are the blurring of definitions, rapid innovation, reinvention and mash-ups. Each explanation also has a section on how to try out that form of social media yourself, with pointers on both how to find social media that’s relevant to you and how you might go about creating it. If you want to really understand how social media works, there’s no better way than to take part in it.
Mash-ups
The combination of two or more pieces of content (or software, or websites) is one of the phenomena in social media that make it at once so exciting, fast-moving and sometimes bewildering. Mash-ups are possible because of the openness of social media – many websites and software developers encourage people to play with their services and reinvent them.
There are literally hundreds of mash-ups of the Google Earth service, where people have attached information to parts of the maps. For instance there is a UK rail service mash-up where you can track in real time where trains are on the map. Fans of the TV series 24 have mapped locations from the shows’ plotlines on to a Google Earth map.
How social networks work
Social networks on the web are like contained versions of the sprawling blog network. People joining a social network usually create a profile and then build a network by connecting to friends and contacts in the network, or by inviting real-world contacts and friends to join the social network.
These communities retain the interest of their members by being useful to them and providing services that are entertaining or help them to expand their networks. MySpace, for instance, allows members to create vivid, chaotic home pages (they’ve been likened to the walls of a teenager’s bedroom) to which they can upload images, videos and music.
MySpace has built a lot of its popularity around its music services. There are said to be over three million bands and musicians registered on it, trying to attract a fan base from the 200 million registered accounts. According to Hitwise, in September 2006 MySpace was the 8th largest referrer of traffic to HMV.co.uk, more even than the MSN search engine.
In 2007, Facebook, a social network that originated in US colleges, became available for public use in the UK. Its popularity quickly rocketed. Part of Facebook’s success is its creators’ decision to ‘open up’ and allow anyone to develop applications and run them on Facebook - without charging them. This has seen Facebook users able to play each other at Scrabble and Chess, compare each others’ tastes and send ‘virtual gifts’, among any number of new ideas vying for attention.
Bebo, which is popular among school-age children, actually has the most members, perhaps helped by the fact that it is grouped around schools and colleges. Crucially, the growth in the use of social networks by young people in recent years has come at the expense of their consumption of traditional media such as TV and magazines. This switch in behaviour was one of the drivers behind the biggest deal in social media to date, when Rupert Murdoch bought MySpace for US $580 million.
Marketers have also increasingly begun to experiment with trying to reach the members of MySpace and other social networks. Bebo hosts pages for many children’s authors for instance, while MySpace has seen a rush of marketing efforts from Toyota to the US Army. Perhaps the most ‘grown-up’ of the popular networks is LinkedIn, which allows users build their business and professional contacts into an online network. It has been criticised for not being open enough and for charging for too many of its services – but next to Facebook it is still the most popular online social network among people aged 25 and over. The huge success of the ‘opening up’ of Facebook, as mentioned above, could be a challenge to LinkedIn’s ‘closed’ approach in the future.
How BLOGS WORK
At its simplest, a blog is an online journal where the entries are published with the most recent first. There are a number of features that make blogs noteworthy and different to other websites:
Tone
Blogs tend to be written in a personal, conversational style. They are usually the work of an identified author or group of authors.
Topic
blogs tend to define what it is they are writing about. They can be as specific as a blog about a book in progress or as wide in scope as „my musings on life and stuff‟.
Links and trackbacks
the services people use to write blogs make it very easy for them to insert links to other websites, usually in reference to an article or blog post or to provide further information about the subject they are writing about.
Comments
each blog post has a comments section, effectively a message board for that article. On blogs with large audiences the debates in these sections can run to hundreds of comments at a time.
Subscription
blogs can be subscribed to, usually via RSS technology, making it easy to keep up with new content. Blogs are easy to set up using any of a number of services. One of the simplest is the free Blogger service from Google. Others such as Wordpress and TypePad offer more features, the latter for a fee.
How WIKIS WORK
Wikis are websites that allow people to contribute or edit content on them. They are great for collaborative working, for instance creating a large document or project plan with a team in several offices. A wiki can be as private or as open as the people who create it want it to be.
Wikipedia
The most famous wiki is of course Wikipedia, an online encyclopaedia that was started in 2001. It now has over 2.5 million articles in English alone6 and over a million members. In 2005 the respected scientific journal Nature conducted a study7 into the reliability of the scientific entries in Wikipedia and Encyclopaedia Britannica. No one was surprised that Encyclopaedia Britannica was the more reliable of the two – what was remarkable was that it was only marginally more accurate. The Encyclopedia Britannica team issued a 20-page rebuttal of the study a few months later. Others observed that while Encyclopaedia Britannica had no entries for wiki, Wikipedia has a 2,500 word article on Encyclopaedia Britannica, its history and methodology. But Wikipedia is more than a reference source. During a major breaking news story, especially one which affects large numbers of people directly, such a natural disaster or political crisis, Wikipedia acts as a collective reporting function.
How PODCASTS WORK
Podcasts are audio or video files that are published on the internet and that users can subscribe to. Sometimes ‘vodcast’ is used to specifically describe video services. It is the subscription feature that makes a podcast so powerful as a form of social media. People have long been able to upload audio content to the web, but the subscription feature means that people can build regular audiences and communities around their shows. It effectively puts private individuals or brands on a level playing field with traditional media organisations when it comes to competing for people’s attention with AV content online.
Podcasts, like personal video recorders (PVRs), are part of a shift in media consumption patterns, which increasingly sees people watching or listening to content when and where it suits them. This is sometimes known as time-shifting. When a new podcast is posted to the web, all the subscribers’ podcast services (such as iTunes) are automatically notified and download the programme to their computer’s hard drive. The podcast can then be either listened to on the computer or downloaded onto an MP3 player, such as an iPod.
Naturally the advent of the podcast has also meant that media brands have been able to invade one another’s traditional territory. Many national newspapers in the UK have started effectively producing their own radio-style programmes and distributing them via their previously text-and-picture based websites. Channel 4 has also launched its own audio/podcasting brand, 4Radio.
How FORUMS WORK
Internet forums are the longest established form of online social media. They most commonly exist around specific topics and interests, for example cars or music. Each discussion in a forum is known as a thread, and many different threads can be active simultaneously. This makes forums good places to find and engage in a variety of detailed discussions. They are often built into websites as an added feature, but some exist as stand-alone entities. Forums can be places for lively, vociferous debate, for seeking advice on a subject, for sharing news, for flirting, or simply for whiling away time with idle chat. In other words, their huge variety reflects that of face-to-face conversations. The sites are moderated by an administrator, whose role it is to remove unsuitable posts or spam. However, a moderator will not lead or guide the discussion. This is a major difference between forums and blogs. Blogs have a clear owner, whereas a forum’s threads are started by its members.
Forums have a strong sense of community. Some are very enclosed, existing as ‘islands’ of online social activity with little or no connection to other forms of social media. This may be because forums were around long before the term ‘social media’ was coined, and in advance of any of the other types of community we associate with the term. In any event, they remain hugely popular, often with membership in the hundreds of thousands. Forum search engine BoardTracker monitors over 61 million conversation threads across almost 40,000 forums8, and it is by no means a comprehensive index.
How CONTENT COMMUNITIES WORK
Content communities look a bit like social networks – you have to register, you get a home page and you can make connections with friends. However, they are focussed on sharing a particular type of content.
For example,
Flickr is based around sharing photography and is the most popular service of its kind in the UK. Members upload their photos to the site and choose whether to make them public or just share with family and friends in their network. Thousands of groups have formed on Flickr around areas of common interest. There are groups dedicated to particular graffiti artists, towns, sports and animals. If you work for a reasonably well-known brand it is worth taking a look to see if there is a Flickr group about you – there are groups for motorbike brands, consumer electronics brands and even the cult notebook brand Moleskine. As testament to its enormous success.
YouTube is the world’s largest video sharing service, with over 100 million videos viewed every day. Members of YouTube can upload videos or create their own “channels” of favourite videos. The viral nature of YouTube videos is enhanced by a feature that makes it easy for people to cut and paste videos hosted by YouTube directly into their blogs.
As well as thousands of short films from people’s own video cameras, webcams and camera phones, there are many clips from TV shows and movies hosted on the service. Some people also use the service to record video blogs. YouTube started as a small private company, but was bought by Google for $1.65 billion in October 2006.
Digg is a news and content community. Members submit links to news stories that they think will be of interest and these are voted on by other members. Once a story has garnered about a critical number of votes (the number varies according to how busy the site is) it will be moved to the front page where it will receive wider attention from members as well as more casual visitors to the site. Digg claims to receive 20 million unique visitors every month, and certainly the volume of traffic via popular links from the service is so great that it can cause smaller companies’ servers to crash.
As with other social media platforms, rumours of acquisition deals and massive valuations for the service are flying around, but it remains independent and relatively small in terms of the number of employees (around 40).
How MICRO-BLOGING WORKS
Micro-blogging is tool that combines elements of blogging with instant messaging and social networking.
The clear leader in the micro-blogging field is Twitter with over 1 million users11. Other notable micro-blogging players include Pownce and Jaiku, which offer various different features, but for the purposes of this e-book it makes sense to focus on the Twitter format.
Twitter users can send messages of up to 140 characters instantly to multiple platforms. 90% of Twitter interactions12 are not made via the Twitter website, but via mobile text message, Instant Messaging, or a desktop application such as Twitterific. Its flexibility is further enhanced by the ability to subscribe to updates via RSS. Uses of Twitter vary. It’s popular among homeworkers and freelancers, who use it in part as a ‘virtual watercooler’. Other people use it simply to stay in touch with a close network and share thoughts or start conversations. Its suitability as a vehicle for breaking news has encouraged the BBC and CNN to introduce Twitter feeds. Even candidates for the US Presidency have taken to Twitter (for example, Barack Obama). An important feature to note is that Twitter can be indexed via Google. As with so much on the web, it’s a public platform, so it’s worth remembering that as such your use of it may become part of your ‘permanent record’.
Read more…
In fact, among the defining characteristics of social media are the blurring of definitions, rapid innovation, reinvention and mash-ups. Each explanation also has a section on how to try out that form of social media yourself, with pointers on both how to find social media that’s relevant to you and how you might go about creating it. If you want to really understand how social media works, there’s no better way than to take part in it.
Mash-ups
The combination of two or more pieces of content (or software, or websites) is one of the phenomena in social media that make it at once so exciting, fast-moving and sometimes bewildering. Mash-ups are possible because of the openness of social media – many websites and software developers encourage people to play with their services and reinvent them.
There are literally hundreds of mash-ups of the Google Earth service, where people have attached information to parts of the maps. For instance there is a UK rail service mash-up where you can track in real time where trains are on the map. Fans of the TV series 24 have mapped locations from the shows’ plotlines on to a Google Earth map.
How social networks work
Social networks on the web are like contained versions of the sprawling blog network. People joining a social network usually create a profile and then build a network by connecting to friends and contacts in the network, or by inviting real-world contacts and friends to join the social network.
These communities retain the interest of their members by being useful to them and providing services that are entertaining or help them to expand their networks. MySpace, for instance, allows members to create vivid, chaotic home pages (they’ve been likened to the walls of a teenager’s bedroom) to which they can upload images, videos and music.
MySpace has built a lot of its popularity around its music services. There are said to be over three million bands and musicians registered on it, trying to attract a fan base from the 200 million registered accounts. According to Hitwise, in September 2006 MySpace was the 8th largest referrer of traffic to HMV.co.uk, more even than the MSN search engine.
In 2007, Facebook, a social network that originated in US colleges, became available for public use in the UK. Its popularity quickly rocketed. Part of Facebook’s success is its creators’ decision to ‘open up’ and allow anyone to develop applications and run them on Facebook - without charging them. This has seen Facebook users able to play each other at Scrabble and Chess, compare each others’ tastes and send ‘virtual gifts’, among any number of new ideas vying for attention.
Bebo, which is popular among school-age children, actually has the most members, perhaps helped by the fact that it is grouped around schools and colleges. Crucially, the growth in the use of social networks by young people in recent years has come at the expense of their consumption of traditional media such as TV and magazines. This switch in behaviour was one of the drivers behind the biggest deal in social media to date, when Rupert Murdoch bought MySpace for US $580 million.
Marketers have also increasingly begun to experiment with trying to reach the members of MySpace and other social networks. Bebo hosts pages for many children’s authors for instance, while MySpace has seen a rush of marketing efforts from Toyota to the US Army. Perhaps the most ‘grown-up’ of the popular networks is LinkedIn, which allows users build their business and professional contacts into an online network. It has been criticised for not being open enough and for charging for too many of its services – but next to Facebook it is still the most popular online social network among people aged 25 and over. The huge success of the ‘opening up’ of Facebook, as mentioned above, could be a challenge to LinkedIn’s ‘closed’ approach in the future.
How BLOGS WORK
At its simplest, a blog is an online journal where the entries are published with the most recent first. There are a number of features that make blogs noteworthy and different to other websites:
Tone
Blogs tend to be written in a personal, conversational style. They are usually the work of an identified author or group of authors.
Topic
blogs tend to define what it is they are writing about. They can be as specific as a blog about a book in progress or as wide in scope as „my musings on life and stuff‟.
Links and trackbacks
the services people use to write blogs make it very easy for them to insert links to other websites, usually in reference to an article or blog post or to provide further information about the subject they are writing about.
Comments
each blog post has a comments section, effectively a message board for that article. On blogs with large audiences the debates in these sections can run to hundreds of comments at a time.
Subscription
blogs can be subscribed to, usually via RSS technology, making it easy to keep up with new content. Blogs are easy to set up using any of a number of services. One of the simplest is the free Blogger service from Google. Others such as Wordpress and TypePad offer more features, the latter for a fee.
How WIKIS WORK
Wikis are websites that allow people to contribute or edit content on them. They are great for collaborative working, for instance creating a large document or project plan with a team in several offices. A wiki can be as private or as open as the people who create it want it to be.
Wikipedia
The most famous wiki is of course Wikipedia, an online encyclopaedia that was started in 2001. It now has over 2.5 million articles in English alone6 and over a million members. In 2005 the respected scientific journal Nature conducted a study7 into the reliability of the scientific entries in Wikipedia and Encyclopaedia Britannica. No one was surprised that Encyclopaedia Britannica was the more reliable of the two – what was remarkable was that it was only marginally more accurate. The Encyclopedia Britannica team issued a 20-page rebuttal of the study a few months later. Others observed that while Encyclopaedia Britannica had no entries for wiki, Wikipedia has a 2,500 word article on Encyclopaedia Britannica, its history and methodology. But Wikipedia is more than a reference source. During a major breaking news story, especially one which affects large numbers of people directly, such a natural disaster or political crisis, Wikipedia acts as a collective reporting function.
How PODCASTS WORK
Podcasts are audio or video files that are published on the internet and that users can subscribe to. Sometimes ‘vodcast’ is used to specifically describe video services. It is the subscription feature that makes a podcast so powerful as a form of social media. People have long been able to upload audio content to the web, but the subscription feature means that people can build regular audiences and communities around their shows. It effectively puts private individuals or brands on a level playing field with traditional media organisations when it comes to competing for people’s attention with AV content online.
Podcasts, like personal video recorders (PVRs), are part of a shift in media consumption patterns, which increasingly sees people watching or listening to content when and where it suits them. This is sometimes known as time-shifting. When a new podcast is posted to the web, all the subscribers’ podcast services (such as iTunes) are automatically notified and download the programme to their computer’s hard drive. The podcast can then be either listened to on the computer or downloaded onto an MP3 player, such as an iPod.
Naturally the advent of the podcast has also meant that media brands have been able to invade one another’s traditional territory. Many national newspapers in the UK have started effectively producing their own radio-style programmes and distributing them via their previously text-and-picture based websites. Channel 4 has also launched its own audio/podcasting brand, 4Radio.
How FORUMS WORK
Internet forums are the longest established form of online social media. They most commonly exist around specific topics and interests, for example cars or music. Each discussion in a forum is known as a thread, and many different threads can be active simultaneously. This makes forums good places to find and engage in a variety of detailed discussions. They are often built into websites as an added feature, but some exist as stand-alone entities. Forums can be places for lively, vociferous debate, for seeking advice on a subject, for sharing news, for flirting, or simply for whiling away time with idle chat. In other words, their huge variety reflects that of face-to-face conversations. The sites are moderated by an administrator, whose role it is to remove unsuitable posts or spam. However, a moderator will not lead or guide the discussion. This is a major difference between forums and blogs. Blogs have a clear owner, whereas a forum’s threads are started by its members.
Forums have a strong sense of community. Some are very enclosed, existing as ‘islands’ of online social activity with little or no connection to other forms of social media. This may be because forums were around long before the term ‘social media’ was coined, and in advance of any of the other types of community we associate with the term. In any event, they remain hugely popular, often with membership in the hundreds of thousands. Forum search engine BoardTracker monitors over 61 million conversation threads across almost 40,000 forums8, and it is by no means a comprehensive index.
How CONTENT COMMUNITIES WORK
Content communities look a bit like social networks – you have to register, you get a home page and you can make connections with friends. However, they are focussed on sharing a particular type of content.
For example,
Flickr is based around sharing photography and is the most popular service of its kind in the UK. Members upload their photos to the site and choose whether to make them public or just share with family and friends in their network. Thousands of groups have formed on Flickr around areas of common interest. There are groups dedicated to particular graffiti artists, towns, sports and animals. If you work for a reasonably well-known brand it is worth taking a look to see if there is a Flickr group about you – there are groups for motorbike brands, consumer electronics brands and even the cult notebook brand Moleskine. As testament to its enormous success.
How CONTENT COMUNITIES WORK
Content communities look a bit like social networks – you have to register, you get a home page and you can make connections with friends. However, they are focussed on sharing a particular type of content. For example,
YouTube is the world’s largest video sharing service, with over 100 million videos viewed every day. Members of YouTube can upload videos or create their own “channels” of favourite videos. The viral nature of YouTube videos is enhanced by a feature that makes it easy for people to cut and paste videos hosted by YouTube directly into their blogs.
As well as thousands of short films from people’s own video cameras, webcams and camera phones, there are many clips from TV shows and movies hosted on the service. Some people also use the service to record video blogs. YouTube started as a small private company, but was bought by Google for $1.65 billion in October 2006.
Digg is a news and content community. Members submit links to news stories that they think will be of interest and these are voted on by other members. Once a story has garnered about a critical number of votes (the number varies according to how busy the site is) it will be moved to the front page where it will receive wider attention from members as well as more casual visitors to the site. Digg claims to receive 20 million unique visitors every month, and certainly the volume of traffic via popular links from the service is so great that it can cause smaller companies’ servers to crash.
As with other social media platforms, rumours of acquisition deals and massive valuations for the service are flying around, but it remains independent and relatively small in terms of the number of employees (around 40).
How MICRO-BLOGING WORKS
Micro-blogging is tool that combines elements of blogging with instant messaging and social networking.
The clear leader in the micro-blogging field is Twitter with over 1 million users11. Other notable micro-blogging players include Pownce and Jaiku, which offer various different features, but for the purposes of this e-book it makes sense to focus on the Twitter format.
Twitter users can send messages of up to 140 characters instantly to multiple platforms. 90% of Twitter interactions12 are not made via the Twitter website, but via mobile text message, Instant Messaging, or a desktop application such as Twitterific. Its flexibility is further enhanced by the ability to subscribe to updates via RSS. Uses of Twitter vary. It’s popular among homeworkers and freelancers, who use it in part as a ‘virtual watercooler’. Other people use it simply to stay in touch with a close network and share thoughts or start conversations. Its suitability as a vehicle for breaking news has encouraged the BBC and CNN to introduce Twitter feeds. Even candidates for the US Presidency have taken to Twitter (for example, Barack Obama). An important feature to note is that Twitter can be indexed via Google. As with so much on the web, it’s a public platform, so it’s worth remembering that as such your use of it may become part of your ‘permanent record’.
Top 10 social media questions marketers want answered
We simply asked, "What question about marketing with social media do you most want answered?" A significant 685 people provided their open-ended responses. We clustered them into groups and ranked them below. These are the top questions marketing professionals want answered regarding social media marketing:
#1: What are the best tactics to use?
The top question marketers want answered is related to best practices and tactics. A sampling of some of those questions include:
• Which social media method has been the most successful overall and how have you used that method?
• How do I stand out while creating strategic partnerships with those in the same field?
• How can social media help to build our brand and reinforce our credibility among consumers?
• Can using blogs, short videos, tweets and status updates help us market our core products, or do they just get in the way of our message?
• Is it true that social media marketing is better suited for branding than direct response?
#2: How do I measure the effectiveness of social media?
The next biggest question on people's minds can be summarized as, "How can I know if campaigns are working and what will the return be?" A sampling of questions in this category include:
• How do you measure success?
• What is the return on investment? Silly thing, but management needs it.
• What metrics are translatable in real terms that we can use as proof points or milestones?
• How do I assess return on investment and measure the impact on brand valuation?
#3: Where do I start?
A large percentage of marketers want to know where to begin with social media marketing. Some common questions include:
• Is there a system or a plan that can be reproduced? Such as, "start here, go here, then here and then here..."
• I want to better incorporate social media into my marketing efforts, but there are so many options that I don't know where to begin. Where are the best places to start?
• How do newbies like me get started?
#4: How do I manage the social balance?
Understanding the balance between behaving properly and marketing is a common question people want answered. Here are a few related questions:
• How do I respect the medium and maintain proper etiquette for each social media outlet?
• How carefully should we proceed with social media, so what's meant to be "social" doesn't turn out to be "business" only?
• Are there online protocols for beginners so we don't break the "unspoken rules" that experienced marketers know about already?
#5: What are the best sites and tools out there?
Given the endless array of social media options, it's no surprise that marketers want to fast-track their experience by focusing on the sites and tools that will bring the greatest return. Here are a few sample questions from this cluster group:
• Which social media sites should I concentrate my efforts on?
• What are the top three most effective and easiest to implement social media tools?
• What social media platforms are customers going to be looking at in three months and three years from now?
• Which elements are persistent and long-term versus those that are fads?
• What sites are best to use for my market?
#6: How do I make the most of my available time?
Many who have already begun marketing with social media recognize the enormous amount of time that can be directed to such efforts. Managing the time sink is a common question. Here are a few samples from this category:
• How do I keep up without getting consumed?
• How can I aggregate and automate social media marketing so that it's less timeconsuming?
• How do people cope with thousands of followers?
#7: How do I find and focus my efforts on my target audience?
Because of the broad nature of many social media sites, it's no surprise that marketers want to know how to narrow their efforts to an audience that matches their desired demographics. Here are a few questions from this grouping:
• How do I reach my "target" customers/business partners and drive traffic to my site or blog?
• What are the practical ways to use social media for more of a niche market?
• How can I target social media marketing tools to my target market?
• How can I best find people who are interested in the same things I am?
#8: How do I convert my social media marketing efforts into tangible results?
Moving from effort to actual income is a question many marketers want answered. What follows are a few questions from this category:
• How do I convert lookers to prospects?
• How do we create cash flow?
• How do I move from Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook activities to a sale?
• What generates sales and what generates business?
• How do I monetize social media marketing?
#9: How do I cohesively tie different social media efforts together?
Can social media and traditional media work together? Is there a way to manage all the social media campaigns in one central location? These are the types of questions marketers are seeking answers to in this category. Here's a few more:
• How do I tie all the pieces together into one cohesive strategy?
• Are there any apps that will let me use several social media tools at once for my marketing campaigns?
• How can we aggregate various social media channels into a single view so we reduce the amount of time required to visit numerous sites and see a holistic view of the social spheres we're part of?
• How do we integrate social media into our traditional media?
#10: Does social media marketing work, and if so, how effective is it?
Surprisingly, this is question number 10. Marketers want to know if social media marketing really works.
Here are some related questions in this category:
• Where are the documented real success stories?
• Does it really work, or is it just a great idea that doesn't return real value?
• Does anybody know how it really works?
• Where's the money?
5 Bonus Questions: Here are a few more questions that did not make our top 10 list. Each of these questions was asked by between 12 and 19 different people.
• How do I get others to see the value and get involved?
• What does the future look like?
• How do I manage the complexity?
• How do I attract traffic to my efforts?
• Is it cost-effective?
#1: What are the best tactics to use?
The top question marketers want answered is related to best practices and tactics. A sampling of some of those questions include:
• Which social media method has been the most successful overall and how have you used that method?
• How do I stand out while creating strategic partnerships with those in the same field?
• How can social media help to build our brand and reinforce our credibility among consumers?
• Can using blogs, short videos, tweets and status updates help us market our core products, or do they just get in the way of our message?
• Is it true that social media marketing is better suited for branding than direct response?
#2: How do I measure the effectiveness of social media?
The next biggest question on people's minds can be summarized as, "How can I know if campaigns are working and what will the return be?" A sampling of questions in this category include:
• How do you measure success?
• What is the return on investment? Silly thing, but management needs it.
• What metrics are translatable in real terms that we can use as proof points or milestones?
• How do I assess return on investment and measure the impact on brand valuation?
#3: Where do I start?
A large percentage of marketers want to know where to begin with social media marketing. Some common questions include:
• Is there a system or a plan that can be reproduced? Such as, "start here, go here, then here and then here..."
• I want to better incorporate social media into my marketing efforts, but there are so many options that I don't know where to begin. Where are the best places to start?
• How do newbies like me get started?
#4: How do I manage the social balance?
Understanding the balance between behaving properly and marketing is a common question people want answered. Here are a few related questions:
• How do I respect the medium and maintain proper etiquette for each social media outlet?
• How carefully should we proceed with social media, so what's meant to be "social" doesn't turn out to be "business" only?
• Are there online protocols for beginners so we don't break the "unspoken rules" that experienced marketers know about already?
#5: What are the best sites and tools out there?
Given the endless array of social media options, it's no surprise that marketers want to fast-track their experience by focusing on the sites and tools that will bring the greatest return. Here are a few sample questions from this cluster group:
• Which social media sites should I concentrate my efforts on?
• What are the top three most effective and easiest to implement social media tools?
• What social media platforms are customers going to be looking at in three months and three years from now?
• Which elements are persistent and long-term versus those that are fads?
• What sites are best to use for my market?
#6: How do I make the most of my available time?
Many who have already begun marketing with social media recognize the enormous amount of time that can be directed to such efforts. Managing the time sink is a common question. Here are a few samples from this category:
• How do I keep up without getting consumed?
• How can I aggregate and automate social media marketing so that it's less timeconsuming?
• How do people cope with thousands of followers?
#7: How do I find and focus my efforts on my target audience?
Because of the broad nature of many social media sites, it's no surprise that marketers want to know how to narrow their efforts to an audience that matches their desired demographics. Here are a few questions from this grouping:
• How do I reach my "target" customers/business partners and drive traffic to my site or blog?
• What are the practical ways to use social media for more of a niche market?
• How can I target social media marketing tools to my target market?
• How can I best find people who are interested in the same things I am?
#8: How do I convert my social media marketing efforts into tangible results?
Moving from effort to actual income is a question many marketers want answered. What follows are a few questions from this category:
• How do I convert lookers to prospects?
• How do we create cash flow?
• How do I move from Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook activities to a sale?
• What generates sales and what generates business?
• How do I monetize social media marketing?
#9: How do I cohesively tie different social media efforts together?
Can social media and traditional media work together? Is there a way to manage all the social media campaigns in one central location? These are the types of questions marketers are seeking answers to in this category. Here's a few more:
• How do I tie all the pieces together into one cohesive strategy?
• Are there any apps that will let me use several social media tools at once for my marketing campaigns?
• How can we aggregate various social media channels into a single view so we reduce the amount of time required to visit numerous sites and see a holistic view of the social spheres we're part of?
• How do we integrate social media into our traditional media?
#10: Does social media marketing work, and if so, how effective is it?
Surprisingly, this is question number 10. Marketers want to know if social media marketing really works.
Here are some related questions in this category:
• Where are the documented real success stories?
• Does it really work, or is it just a great idea that doesn't return real value?
• Does anybody know how it really works?
• Where's the money?
5 Bonus Questions: Here are a few more questions that did not make our top 10 list. Each of these questions was asked by between 12 and 19 different people.
• How do I get others to see the value and get involved?
• What does the future look like?
• How do I manage the complexity?
• How do I attract traffic to my efforts?
• Is it cost-effective?
Social Media Marketing: Why do I need it?
Social Media Marketing (SMM) is the act of promoting your site, business, or blogs through social media web sites. SMM when coupled with your current or traditional advertising campaign is a very powerful tool that builds customer loyalty by way of customer contact. And most important if you are patient, diligent, and stead fast in your SMMing you will bring massive amounts of traffic to your location on the web.
SMM is still in it’s infancy stage, and there are no tried and true methods to the madness as there is in traditional marketing. Most all marketing efforts to this point are trial and error, but as things hash out in this industry some methods are starting to stand out as the “so called” standards of SMM. One thing is for sure by creating viral content and promoting it via social media, you can build a very large, loyal group of fans that keep coming back for more and bring their friends with them.
Today there are many business managers and owners that are in one of the following categories.
- The ones that don’t know about SMM
- The ones that have heard of it, but have no clue how to get into SMM
- The ones that feel there is no value in SMM
No matter which category you are in, take some time to surf the web and find out as much as you can about social media. No matter if you look at small companies or large mega companies one thing they all have in common, a follow me in Twitter and FaceBook logo on their main page of their web site. From Dell to Starbucks, to the mom and pop shop up the street, everyone is finding out that customer loyalty via customer contact is building strong customer relationship.
If you are looking for return on investment (ROI), or if you are asking yourself how does social media make me money, then you are looking at social media in the wrong light. Because most companies will tell you they have not seen a direct correlation between SMM and ROI. Most companies have no real method of tracking tangible ROI in direct relation to their SMM campaigns. But to wet your appetite for information in regards to how well SMM is doing for some companies check out these facts posted in June 2009.
- Dell Computers surpassed $3 million in sales via links from one of it’s Twitter accounts
- Cisco Systems found 43% of visits to online support forum are in lieu of opening up a support case though the standard methods
- Ebay found in 2006 that participants in online communities spend 54% more than non-community users.
Better customer experiences, far lower support costs and more buying activity in the long run, coupled with higher customer satisfaction is what Social Media Marketing can bring to the company that successfully implements SMM into their advertising campaign.
Just remember these few items as you try to decide on if you should use SMM or not.
- Your customers are using it
- Your competition is already doing it
- Your partners are using it
- Your web site hits are static
- Your advertising budget is busted
Social media is a way to reliably dispense your message to a group of people who want to hear what you have to say, and want to feel included as they converse with you on the subject.
SlideShare Offers Branded Channels To Businesses
SlideShare, the “YouTube for presentations,” has been steadily ramping up its offerings for business users. Last year, the startup unveiled two premium services for businesses, LeadShare and AdShare. SlideShare lets anyone share presentations and also serves as a social discovery platform for users to find relevant content and connect with other members who share similar interests. Today, the startup is launching another business-friendly offering, branded channels.
Rashmi Sinha, SlideShare’s co-founder and CEO, says that much of the startup’s community is composed of businesses users, and SlideShare is increasingly becoming a vehicle for businesses to socialize and share their content, from documents to webinars to presentations. Branded channels help users find this content easily and in a more organized manner. Ogilvy, Microsoft, and even the President Obama’s White House have all created branded channels for their content.
SlideShare’s branded channels can be fully customized, with pricing ranging depending on the businesses’ preferred layout. Sinha declined to share the pricing range for the channels. As SlideShare continues to attract business users, the startup has been rolling out premium services to not offer compelling features to users but to also monetize the platform. LeadShare is a self-service tool that businesses can use to capturing leads from documents and presentations and AdShare allows users promote their content via ads on SlideShare’s platform.
Competitor Scribd also offers branded readers. In the past year or so, SlideShare has unveiled a mobile-friendly site, launched a free Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 plug-in that allows for one-click publication of your presentations to the cloud, and support for embedding YouTube videos in SlideShare-hosted presentations. The company is based out of San Francisco and raised over $3 million in capital to date, from VC firm Venrock and a number of prominent angel investors like Dave McClure, Mark Cuban, Saul Klein, Jonathan Abrams, Hal Varian and others.
Non Twitter Tweeting: Marketing With Micro Messages On Other Social Websites
While the online press might see things differently, Twitter certainly is not the only micro messaging service out there. While micro blogging has certainly come into the mainstream recently, it is not even a modern phenomenon. From short form blogs to instant messaging, the short and punchy promotional message has been a staple of advertising since, well, since the beginning.
This short form platform is what is pushing Twitter ahead of so many other online services, at least in terms of rapid growth and user adoption. To put it simply, we love short, snappy messages, especially when they contain the same amount of valuable content and wisdom as a long blog post. Call it impatience or a lack of any real attention span; it is the end result of the internet and it is proving to be remarkably useful, not just for marketers but for everyday people.
Tumblr, a micro blogging service that specializes in varied and powerful blog options, could just be a Twitter killer if it gains the size. Built to allow dynamic multimedia as part of posts, it is a dream come true for marketers. Not only are you given space for micro messages and short quotes, but a built in video box, embedding options, and room for longer messages if you need them.
Flickr, the popular image hosting service, is much more than an image host. How many visual advertisements excel with added commentary? Flickr, while majorly popular amongst amateur photographers and artists, is also a powerful tool for marketers, allowing them to adopt the power of a pure social media website with the multimedia capabilities of an image host.
The point to take home when you read a story about Twitter’s massive growth and huge marketing potential is not just that it is a viable marketing platform, but that its potential competitors and related services are just as, if not more, valuable to marketers. Twitter is packed with potential, but it is also plagued with spam and marketing competition. When you embrace a smaller service with just as much potential, you allow yourself to lay the foundations for a future massive marketing success.
Let us put it this way: When Myspace was developed in the early 2000s, their service was unknown but loaded with potential. Instead of waiting for organic growth to turn them into a success, they looked at Friendster and identified how top users were getting the most out of the service, and how they thought it could improve. Then, they approached them, offering all that Friendster could give, plus a lot more.
For marketers, it might be wise to take the Myspace strategy. While their social media website is not what it once was, their initial tactics were smart. Do not just look for the biggest incumbent service, for they could fail once you arrive look at where Friendster and Myspace today. Instead, look for the service with the best growth potential. For short form messaging, that might not be Twitter much longer.
This short form platform is what is pushing Twitter ahead of so many other online services, at least in terms of rapid growth and user adoption. To put it simply, we love short, snappy messages, especially when they contain the same amount of valuable content and wisdom as a long blog post. Call it impatience or a lack of any real attention span; it is the end result of the internet and it is proving to be remarkably useful, not just for marketers but for everyday people.
Tumblr, a micro blogging service that specializes in varied and powerful blog options, could just be a Twitter killer if it gains the size. Built to allow dynamic multimedia as part of posts, it is a dream come true for marketers. Not only are you given space for micro messages and short quotes, but a built in video box, embedding options, and room for longer messages if you need them.
Flickr, the popular image hosting service, is much more than an image host. How many visual advertisements excel with added commentary? Flickr, while majorly popular amongst amateur photographers and artists, is also a powerful tool for marketers, allowing them to adopt the power of a pure social media website with the multimedia capabilities of an image host.
The point to take home when you read a story about Twitter’s massive growth and huge marketing potential is not just that it is a viable marketing platform, but that its potential competitors and related services are just as, if not more, valuable to marketers. Twitter is packed with potential, but it is also plagued with spam and marketing competition. When you embrace a smaller service with just as much potential, you allow yourself to lay the foundations for a future massive marketing success.
Let us put it this way: When Myspace was developed in the early 2000s, their service was unknown but loaded with potential. Instead of waiting for organic growth to turn them into a success, they looked at Friendster and identified how top users were getting the most out of the service, and how they thought it could improve. Then, they approached them, offering all that Friendster could give, plus a lot more.
For marketers, it might be wise to take the Myspace strategy. While their social media website is not what it once was, their initial tactics were smart. Do not just look for the biggest incumbent service, for they could fail once you arrive look at where Friendster and Myspace today. Instead, look for the service with the best growth potential. For short form messaging, that might not be Twitter much longer.
Facebook viewed as riskiest social network by companies
Seventy percent more companies reported spam and malicious infections arrived via social networks in 2009 vs. 2008. By the end of last year, 72% of companies expressed concern that their employees' use of popular social sites could result in a security breach. And 60% of companies now consider Facebook to be the riskiest social network out there.
Those findings, released Monday, come from a survey of 500 companies worldwide conducted by security firm Sophos. They help quantify the rising tide of spam and malicious infections proliferating on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Bebo and other such social networks.
As the planet' s largest social network, Facebook might naturally be expected to emerge as the No. 1 target of cybercriminals, says Graham Cluley, a senior analyst at Sophos. But he says Facebook has exacerbated matters by asking its members to embrace a new, more granular privacy setting. Cluley demonstrates in this video how the new setting, in effect, authorizes Facebook to expose more of its member-generated content to everyone on the Internet.
Facebook's new privacy setting gives the company leeway to submit more content to Google, Microsoft Bing and Yahoo Search so the search services can incorporate more Facebook content into real-time search results, much as they've begun doing with Twitter microblog postings, says Cluley.
However, the wider release of Facebook members' data "inevitably means more information will be made available to cybercriminals who want to target you or you company for an attack," says Cluley.
Facebook continues to defend its new privacy setting as flexible and easy to change. But privacy advocates continue to criticize the move. And last week the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada launched an investigation into a citizen's complaint about the new settings.
Meanwhile, Sophos' new survey includes extensive analysis about how Facebook, Twitter and other social networks have become like a candy store for data thieves. The fast-morphing Koobface social network worm is a case in point:
Those findings, released Monday, come from a survey of 500 companies worldwide conducted by security firm Sophos. They help quantify the rising tide of spam and malicious infections proliferating on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Bebo and other such social networks.
As the planet' s largest social network, Facebook might naturally be expected to emerge as the No. 1 target of cybercriminals, says Graham Cluley, a senior analyst at Sophos. But he says Facebook has exacerbated matters by asking its members to embrace a new, more granular privacy setting. Cluley demonstrates in this video how the new setting, in effect, authorizes Facebook to expose more of its member-generated content to everyone on the Internet.
Facebook's new privacy setting gives the company leeway to submit more content to Google, Microsoft Bing and Yahoo Search so the search services can incorporate more Facebook content into real-time search results, much as they've begun doing with Twitter microblog postings, says Cluley.
However, the wider release of Facebook members' data "inevitably means more information will be made available to cybercriminals who want to target you or you company for an attack," says Cluley.
Facebook continues to defend its new privacy setting as flexible and easy to change. But privacy advocates continue to criticize the move. And last week the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada launched an investigation into a citizen's complaint about the new settings.
Meanwhile, Sophos' new survey includes extensive analysis about how Facebook, Twitter and other social networks have become like a candy store for data thieves. The fast-morphing Koobface social network worm is a case in point:
Rapid growth of Social Media Marketing spends in India
Marketers are increasingly looking at new ways and means to reach out effectively to their target consumers, even as they continue to reach out through the conventional routes. Fast emerging as a good medium to reach out and connect are the internet-based social networking sites such as Orkut, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Ibibo and Twitter, and homegrown sites such as BigAdda.
By extension, since they are socially interactive too, gaming sites and apps on social networking sites are also becoming good marketing avenues, offering focused targeting and interactivity. Rahul Sharma, VP - brand solutions, Ibibo.com, says, “A large subscriber base helped us unveil promotional campaigns for Bollywood movies, including Paa and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. We are now looking at social games as the next big thing.” Ibibo has five million registered users.
Besides, a series of new online services such as Foursquare, Yelp and Gowalla are building upon the mobile platform by incorporating ‘location’ into social networking. Foursquare already has a footprint across the world.
Go where the consumers are and interact with them, is the marketers’ growing focus. Mahesh Murthy, founder, Pinstorm, an integrated digital marketing company, says, “Social networking sites such as Facebook and Orkut offer an opportunity for brand engagement, where the audience can experience a brand through an application or a status update. Business networking sites such as LinkedIn and Xing offer brands the ability to do specialised B2B targeting and corporate campaigns. Microblogging services such as Twitter and Identi.ca allow a brand to broadcast entertaining or informative updates to fans and followers.”
Parminder Singh, business head, Google India, says, “Social media are increasingly becoming an integral part of marketing strategies. They offer advertisers micro-targeting opportunities and the means to engage the user through communities and other applications. Social media networks have gained importance with big and small advertisers. In the last one year, it has extensively picked up with small advertisers who’ve ramped up their budgets.” Google owns Orkut.
Reliance-ADAG’s BigAdda.com COO Shivanandan Pare believes social media automatically becomes integral to a marketers’ strategy if the target is youth (18-35 years). “The measurability is scientific and wastage of media spend is less. With high engagement and increasing use of social networking sites, more advertisers are coming back to us. Progressive advertisers are increasing their media spends on social networking websites.” BigAdda has done campaigns for Hindustan Unilever’s Axe, handset makers and telecom players.
Pinstorm’s Murthy says significant social media users in India include the country’s biggest banks, leading travel services companies and consumer electronics brands. “Pinstorm helps Sharekhan, Jet Airways and leading financial, travel, consumer and business brands with digital brand management, including social media.”
Noel Swain, VP marketing, Cleartrip.com, says, “Our digital spend has gone up from two per cent earlier to 70 per cent. The social networking space is seeing more allocation.”
Amitabh Pandey, president and head – ebusiness, Thomas Cook India, says his company is looking at a dedicated ad spend for online social media and may also offer discounts through them.
At Nokia, the digital platform has been popular, including social media that Nokia uses extensively to create a buzz around its product launches. Viral Oza, Nokia India’s head – activation, media, online sales and marketing, says, “Social media are an inherent part of our digital marketing strategy. We use various touchpoints on them to influence active online users.”
According to market estimates, around 25 million Indians are now on social platforms and growing at 20-30 per cent per annum. These consumers are the influencers for their friends and, therefore, advertisers too. Alok Kejriwal, CEO and co-founder of Games2win, says, “Our in-game ad network allows us to talk to consumers and influence them to either see commercial ads or click on other game products. Typical advertisers are FMCG, youth-centric marketers and Internet brands. In interactive gaming, the apps are branded very subtly and appear without disturbing the consumer.” Games2win has created applications for many social networks and claims they get around 10,000 visitors daily from India.
Marketing spends on online social media are still small compared to other online alternatives. But there is agreement that it is a space set to gallop with marketers as they find its interactivity and measurability, along with sharply focused targeting opportunities increasingly attractive. Kejriwal concludes, “Today, an e-mail, SMS or a message on Facebook from your friend, telling you about what she bought, has 100 times more value than the most expensive 30-second television ad.”
Tools You Need to Succeed in an Online Business
If you are in any kind of online business, the trick to generating profit lies in generating Traffic. Every article you will come across about making your home business or work at home business successful would always stress the importance of generating traffic.
Traffic therefore is the most essential thing to a successful internet based business. Besides ensuring a great product to sell, and setting up a website, it would be time to get to the task of generating traffic.
If you already have a site and you find that you’re not getting the traffic that you’re supposed to be getting, then its time to reconsider. If you are willing to stay on in these very competitive business, you should always be a step ahead of your competition, and increasing your traffic flow should be your priority.
Here are some seven definite ways to increase your traffic starting with immediate effect.
1) Invest in good advertising with search engines
Google’s Adwords and Yahoo’s Overture provide great advertising schemes that are very truly popular and assures great traffic. This will of course cost you some money. While some would shy away from spending money to increase traffic, it is imperative in this case to do so because Adwords and Overture is the top bet to increase your traffic.
Lots of site feature these advertising system and many have signed on to reap the benefits. Do not be left behind. Every penny is worth it with using Google and Yahoo’s advertising.
2) Exchange or Trade Links with other sites
With exchanging links with other sites, both of you will benefit from the efforts both of you do to enhance your sites traffic. When one site features another sites link, they could provide one another with the traffic one site generates. The efforts are doubly beneficial because it would seem like both of you are working to generate more traffic. The more links traded with more sites the more traffic could be expected.
3) Viral Marketing
Viral marketing allows you to spread the word about your site and product without any cost or probably a little cost. This is a marketing method that can be quite sneaky; you can attach your website name, product or link to a certain media such as a funny video, entertaining game, an interesting article or a gossip or buzz. With this method, people get infected with the creativity and entertainment of the medium that they will pass it on to many people.
4) Search and use proper keywords or keyword phrases for your sites content
Search engines look for certain keywords that they would show in their results page. In doing so, having the right keyword and keyword phrase is a high requirement in ranking high in search engine results. You could write your own content or you could hire someone to do it for you.
5) Write Articles that can lead traffic to your site
Submit articles to sites that would contain the same subject that your site deals in. If you sell mobile phones or its spare parts write press releases and articles about mobile phones and its spare parts. Attach your sites description and services at the end of the article as well as the link.
6) Join forums and form online communities
Capture a market and show your expertise and credibility. When you found a good foundation for your site, people will trust you. In the process your site will pass on to many people their trust. Traffic will certainly increase because they know that you can provide what they need.
7) Lastly, offer newsletters.
If many people know what you are about and your existence is shared with many others, you will find a loyal traffic that can provide you with more traffic by recommendation. If you arouse the curiosity of your customers they would be pushed to help you with your traffic.
Read more…
Traffic therefore is the most essential thing to a successful internet based business. Besides ensuring a great product to sell, and setting up a website, it would be time to get to the task of generating traffic.
If you already have a site and you find that you’re not getting the traffic that you’re supposed to be getting, then its time to reconsider. If you are willing to stay on in these very competitive business, you should always be a step ahead of your competition, and increasing your traffic flow should be your priority.
Here are some seven definite ways to increase your traffic starting with immediate effect.
1) Invest in good advertising with search engines
Google’s Adwords and Yahoo’s Overture provide great advertising schemes that are very truly popular and assures great traffic. This will of course cost you some money. While some would shy away from spending money to increase traffic, it is imperative in this case to do so because Adwords and Overture is the top bet to increase your traffic.
Lots of site feature these advertising system and many have signed on to reap the benefits. Do not be left behind. Every penny is worth it with using Google and Yahoo’s advertising.
2) Exchange or Trade Links with other sites
With exchanging links with other sites, both of you will benefit from the efforts both of you do to enhance your sites traffic. When one site features another sites link, they could provide one another with the traffic one site generates. The efforts are doubly beneficial because it would seem like both of you are working to generate more traffic. The more links traded with more sites the more traffic could be expected.
3) Viral Marketing
Viral marketing allows you to spread the word about your site and product without any cost or probably a little cost. This is a marketing method that can be quite sneaky; you can attach your website name, product or link to a certain media such as a funny video, entertaining game, an interesting article or a gossip or buzz. With this method, people get infected with the creativity and entertainment of the medium that they will pass it on to many people.
4) Search and use proper keywords or keyword phrases for your sites content
Search engines look for certain keywords that they would show in their results page. In doing so, having the right keyword and keyword phrase is a high requirement in ranking high in search engine results. You could write your own content or you could hire someone to do it for you.
5) Write Articles that can lead traffic to your site
Submit articles to sites that would contain the same subject that your site deals in. If you sell mobile phones or its spare parts write press releases and articles about mobile phones and its spare parts. Attach your sites description and services at the end of the article as well as the link.
6) Join forums and form online communities
Capture a market and show your expertise and credibility. When you found a good foundation for your site, people will trust you. In the process your site will pass on to many people their trust. Traffic will certainly increase because they know that you can provide what they need.
7) Lastly, offer newsletters.
If many people know what you are about and your existence is shared with many others, you will find a loyal traffic that can provide you with more traffic by recommendation. If you arouse the curiosity of your customers they would be pushed to help you with your traffic.
Top 10 Open Source and Commercial Applications
Top 10 Open Source
1. Dia2. OpenOffice Draw
3. Clonezilla
4. Cinelerra
5. Gimpshop
6. StarUML
7. Quanta Plus
8. Avidemux
9. InfraRecorder
10. Gimp
Top 10 Commercial
1. Visio
2. Photoshop
3. Dreamweaver
4. AutoCAD
5. Nero Burning Rom
6. Norton Ghost
7. Movie Maker
8. Illustrator
9. Publisher
10. MSN Messenger
Is It Time For a Change Of The Search Engine Optimisation Approach?
SEO is experiencing an increase in popularity, as traditional marketing media decline. But as far more companies become target customers, is there a need for a change of approach?
Many sectors of the media are experiencing a decline in advertising revenue, as people fast-forward through TV ads, and wonder about the value they’re getting from magazine advertising. Online marketing is still on the increase, and as more people become aware of what can be achieved online, there’s a need to start providing different styles of offerings for the very different customer profiles out there.
SEO Search Engine Optimisation (Optimization in the US) is one area that has tremendous growth potential, but many people think it is super-technical and it needs re-positioning if it’s going to appeal to the masses.
Of course SEO is not very technical at all. The process is much more about marketing… understanding the keywords people are putting into the search engines, optimising the web site and submitting press releases, articles and link submissions. It really is a marketer’s job. If only more of the marketing industry understood that, they’d be on to a goldmine.
Then there’s the SEO offerings in the market. Many SEO ‘experts’ prefer to let people think that it is highly technical, or a black art.. something they’d never understand. What’s really needed is a response to the marketplace, which caters for all sizes of companies in all kinds of competitive markets.
Perhaps larger companies, with complex websites, and very competitive markets, require a consultancy approach where they can involve their marketing and IT people in the process and build their own in-house capability in the longer term?
Perhaps there’s also a place for the ‘Do It Yourself’ approach for some companies. Maybe they could use computer aided training to learn the fundamentals, and then have someone on hand on the phone to help when they’re stuck.
You see, the potential marketplace is huge, but there will always be a large part of that market that would be put off by large up-front fees, and on-going monthly maintenance costs. The SEO specialists are actually missing out on a large portion of the market by restricting the way they do business.
So this is a rallying call to the SEO market. It’s time for some evolution. This isn’t a time for the misguided notion that ‘knowledge is power’. Let people know what it’s about… You would ALL benefit.
Read more…
Many sectors of the media are experiencing a decline in advertising revenue, as people fast-forward through TV ads, and wonder about the value they’re getting from magazine advertising. Online marketing is still on the increase, and as more people become aware of what can be achieved online, there’s a need to start providing different styles of offerings for the very different customer profiles out there.
SEO Search Engine Optimisation (Optimization in the US) is one area that has tremendous growth potential, but many people think it is super-technical and it needs re-positioning if it’s going to appeal to the masses.
Of course SEO is not very technical at all. The process is much more about marketing… understanding the keywords people are putting into the search engines, optimising the web site and submitting press releases, articles and link submissions. It really is a marketer’s job. If only more of the marketing industry understood that, they’d be on to a goldmine.
Then there’s the SEO offerings in the market. Many SEO ‘experts’ prefer to let people think that it is highly technical, or a black art.. something they’d never understand. What’s really needed is a response to the marketplace, which caters for all sizes of companies in all kinds of competitive markets.
Perhaps larger companies, with complex websites, and very competitive markets, require a consultancy approach where they can involve their marketing and IT people in the process and build their own in-house capability in the longer term?
Perhaps there’s also a place for the ‘Do It Yourself’ approach for some companies. Maybe they could use computer aided training to learn the fundamentals, and then have someone on hand on the phone to help when they’re stuck.
You see, the potential marketplace is huge, but there will always be a large part of that market that would be put off by large up-front fees, and on-going monthly maintenance costs. The SEO specialists are actually missing out on a large portion of the market by restricting the way they do business.
So this is a rallying call to the SEO market. It’s time for some evolution. This isn’t a time for the misguided notion that ‘knowledge is power’. Let people know what it’s about… You would ALL benefit.
Networking Tips for the Busy Designer
Professional networking is an important part of being a designer and working towards a challenging and rewarding career. Unfortunately, most designers are so busy with client work, or trying to find more clients, that networking-related activities are more of an afterthought that get attention whenever the time happens to be available. While networking is critical, it doesn’t have to adsorb huge amounts of time that prevent you from getting other essential tasks completed.
In this article we’ll look at a series of tips and suggestions that are aimed at designers who want to network more successfully, but without committing large amounts of time each day or each week. The idea is to get as much benefit as possible from a reasonable time commitment that can be accommodated by just about any schedule.
1. Organize Your Contacts
Whenever efficiency and minimizing time commitment are the goals, evaluating and improving organization is a great place to start. If you are wasting time trying to find an email address, a phone number, or a name from someone that you met a few months ago, that is a lack of productivity that could be avoided with better organization.
There are any number of ways you can organize your contacts. You can use a program like Outlook or Thunderbird, or you could choose a full-feature CRM like Highrise. How you organize your contacts is less important than the fact that you actually have a method for doing so. Each person is different, and you should consider your own needs work habits in deciding on a solution.
2. Take Advantage of Useful Tools and Resources
Aside from organizing, another part of achieving efficiency involves making use of resources that are available to make networking less time consuming and more effective. Particularly when dealing with online networking, there are a number of resources available, some free and some for pay. Two examples that are highly useful for designers are Skype and TweetDeck. With Skype you can talk to people all over the world to get in touch whenever necessary. TweetDeck makes it possible to use Twitter effectively without spending all day reading and sending tweets. Personally, my usage of Twitter multiplied exponentially after I started using TweetDeck while still not losing productivity.
Skype and TweetDeck are certainly not the only options, they are simply two examples. Make an effort to find resources like this that can help you to get more out of your networking efforts while keeping the time requirements low.
3. Set Aside Time in Your Schedule for Networking
Because networking activities tend to get pushed to the back burner in favor of other more urgent tasks, it may be necessary to build blocks in to your schedule in order to find time to network. Simple networking activities won’t require that you give up large amounts of time away from your income-generating work. For example, you could block off an hour to update your LinkedIn profile and look for some new connections, set up a day to meet a contact for lunch, or even to simply read some blog posts and respond in the comments.
Of course, some types of networking activities will require more time (such as traveling to a conference or an event), but just building in small amounts of time in your weekly schedule can make a noticeable difference.
4. Think About Your Career Path
One of the reasons that networking is so important is that it can play a crucial role in career advancement and development. Knowing the right person and being in the right place is just as important as having the right skills. However, in order for your networking efforts to truly be effective in helping you to get the career that you want, you’ll need to think about which direction you want to go with your career.
Networking without a plan may lead to some great opportunities, but networking with a plan will give you a much better chance of getting the results you are looking for. Take some time to think about your future. For example, if you goal is to be a freelance designer, making connections with people who can help you to land more work would be very significant. On the other hand, if you are freelancing with the goal of being hired by an agency, you would be more likely to meet your goals by working towards making some contacts with designers and/or managers from various agencies.
5. Identify Key People
After you have given consideration to the path that you would like to take with your career, you should take some time to identify key people who would be able to have an influence. Once you know who you would like to get to know, make an effort to connect with them in one way or another. If they have a blog, you could start by getting involved in the comments on their posts, linking to their posts and writing your own responses, or you could even contact them about writing for their blog. If you know what groups or professional associations they are involved with, you could make an effort to get involved there as well.
Knowing specifically who you want to connect with will help you spend your time in the right way. Your efforts will lead to better results, as opposed to networking with whoever you happen to come across.
There are a few things that should be pointed out here. First, while identifying your key contacts is a good habit, always keep in mind that networking is a two-way street and simply using them for your own gain is neither ethical nor effective. The most effective way to network is to find ways for mutual benefit, so first you should be looking at how you can help them or what it is you can bring to the table.
Second, keep in mind that if you have identified these people as being key, chances are many other designers like you have done the same. Getting connected to an influential person is not easy because they most likely have a lot of people contacting them on a regular basis, which is all the more reason why you need to know what you have to offer them.
Third, have realistic expectations. Depending on your level of experience, you may want to work on your designing and networking skills for a while before reaching out to those key people that you have identified. It may be more effective to dedicate the time to improving yourself as a designer and building up your network of people who are at comparable places in their careers and work your way towards your key people.
6. Integrate Networking into Your Work
One of the most effective ways to build your network without losing valuable working time is to combine the two activities. The are a number of ways that you could do this. Personally, I stumbled across one method a few years ago without even realizing that it could pay huge dividends. In my situation it was freelance blogging that allowed me to go about my business and build my network at the same time. I started to write for other blogs as a paid contributor because it gave me a way to make some money in addition to designing, but what I found out is that it was an extremely effective way to get to know influential people in the industry. As a paid writer for a number of successful design blogs and publications, I’ve had the privilege of getting to work with some very talented and well-connected people.
Many freelance designers do some work that agencies choose to outsource. Just like the freelance blogging example, this can be a very effective way to build your network without neglecting the income-generating work that you need to do. If you already maintain a blog of your own, one effective method would be to interview other designers and post the interviews to your blog. Most designers are open to accepting interview requests, and it will give you a good opportunity to learn and to build some ties to the other designer while simply producing content for your blog. Regardless of what your approach may be, if you can find ways to strengthen your network while still focusing on your work, you will be well on your way to building the network that you need without much time commitment.
7. Pursue Collaborations
Building on the previous point, collaborative efforts are great for strengthening your network while still staying focused on your primary business objectives. Your collaboration could be the sharing of referrals with someone who offers complimentary services, developing an app with someone you know, starting a multi-author blog, working with someone else to design and develop templates for sale, and the possibilities are endless.
Collaborations are great because they allow people to focus on what they do best and to complement each other’s skills. Additionally, it allows you to build very strong relationships with other professionals that can often lead to bigger and better opportunities. Like point number 6, it also allows you to earn some money and make very productive use of your time while strengthening your network.
8. Maintain Quality Relationships
A strong network is based more on quality of relationships than quantity. Rather than trying to get some contact with every designer out there, make an effort to build a few very strong relationships. Making the most of the connections you have may be more important than dedicating time and effort to making additional connections (of course, this depends on your situation and your existing network).
In order to maximize the connections that you already have, make an effort to stay in touch with the people who seem like they would be the best fit for your network. Find new ways to work together or just get to know more about them. Stronger relationships and connections will be much more likely to lead to something significant than several casual connections.
9. Up the Level
There are a lot of different ways to communicate with others and different levels of networking. This would include things like leaving comments on blogs, responding to forum postings, using IM, tweeting back and forth, email, phone, face-to-face, etc. If you’re looking to get more impact with your networking efforts, take it to the next level. If all of your contact with someone has been done via email, make an effort to get on the phone with that person. If you’ve always spoken on the phone, try to set up a face-to-face meeting. Different levels of communication and networking will produce varying results. Getting to interact with someone on a deeper level can lead to a stronger connection.
Of course, it may not always be feasible to take it to the next level, such as a face-to-face meeting, but try to consider the situation thoroughly. If you are trying to build a strong network while still maintaining an active business that involves plenty of design work you will typically be spending only small amounts of time networking and slowly developing some connections. On the other hand, if there is a convention or conference in your area that you could attend for a day or two, you would miss some time for client work, but you could have a better impact with the time that you allocate for networking.
10. Minimize Meaningless Activities
Since you want to achieve greater efficiency with your networking activities, pay attention to the results that you are getting and dedicate your time to those activities that are producing results. If you are spending an hour every day on social media sites hoping that your Diggs and Stumbles will send enough traffic to someone that they will notice you, most likely you could be more successful with other methods.
What’s meaningless and unproductive for one person may be very effective for someone else, so give it some time and evaluate your own results to make the best decision for yourself. After you have been consistently networking for a while, adjust your strategy and your schedule accordingly so that you are getting the most out of your time.
Survey :: There are more women than men, including on social networks
This just in: Females outnumber males on social networking sites. The site Pingdom did a survey, and concluded that 16 out of 19 (84%) of the most popular social sites have more women populating them than men. The super geek sites Digg, Reddit, and Slashdot have more men on them, but the more popular sites including Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, all have more women visiting them.
The average ratio of all sites surveyed, according to Pingdom, was 47% male, 53% female.Am I surprised? Not really. This strikes me as proof that women really are better communicators; certainly the data indicates that they work more at it. But while a six-point spread is significant, it is not a landslide. More research that corrects for job types and access to the Internet might be needed to see if there's much difference.
Forget the averages for a moment. Bebo had 66% female users, and MySpace and Classmates each had 64%. Slashdot had over 80% male visitors. What does that say? If you are in business or designing messages for social media, you might want to start focusing your messages better. I am sure there are other studies in a similar vein -- and if you know of some, please let us know -- and if there are no other studies, I bet there will be.
Fundamentally, if we are at a point in the explosion of social media where we are beginning to see this kind of demographic specialization, then the trend is long passed its salad days. Early in a new paradigm, there aren't the number of choices or specialization that we are now seeing in social media.
This has huge implications for business. For example, we already knew from more exhaustive research that women account for more than three quarters of domestic spending. If you add that to the Pingdom research, you must conclude that if you think you can market in cyberspace as if you are selling car batteries at halftime, think again and again.
There's so much I would like to know that this data does not illuminate. Think about the skill set that we prize in sales and marketing people. How does that skill set align with the people in the social strata?
Also, since men and women make up equal halves of the population, the data suggests that a considerable number of men are not participating. Does this mean that those who elect to participate share some characteristics with women that the abstainers do not?
Not long ago I was at a conference, and I can't recall if someone said this or if I read it, but the statement was that men went to social sites because women went there.
If that was the case, I would have expected the numbers to be closer. Who knows -- maybe another survey will reverse these findings, but for now it sure is curious.
Social networking joins addiction list
Celebrities and everyday people are discovering social networking has its pros and cons, says entertainment reporter JESSICA LEO.
SOCIAL networking has joined sex, drugs and alcohol as the latest addiction plaguing celebrities. With Australians spending a third of their time online perusing Facebook, however, it seems the everyday Aussie is not far behind in mirroring the trend.
British pop singer Lily Allen has become the latest celebrity casualty of the affliction, announcing she is quitting social networking sites and declaring she will be a "neo-Luddite".
Allen joins US pop sensation Miley Cyrus and Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, who deleted their Twitter accounts, claiming the site had caused too much disruption to their lives.
TIPS FOR SOCIAL NETWORK ADDICTS
- Limit logging on to only once a day.
- When logged in, limit the time spent to 15 minutes or less.
- Set a timer to monitor time spent on sites.
- Reward yourself (for example, with a coffee) when you stick to the allocated time limit.
- Punish yourself if you stray outside the limits - perhaps donate to a charity you wouldn't normally assist or forgo your morning coffee.
- Make time to schedule face-to-face contact with friends.
- Don't update every minute of your life - think about whose life would be enriched by knowing your every move.
Allen, 24, says she is signing off from Facebook, Twitter and blogging to settle into a normal life with her boyfriend, building contractor Sam Cooper.
"It's not about being famous; it's not about all the parties; it's not about wanting to be the biggest pop star on the planet. It's about being happy," Allen said of her decision.
"For me, that is Sam, spending time at home, sorting out bed linen - being normal."
Allen's final Twitter post said it all, with the singer writing: "I am a neo-luddite. Goodbye."
Despite her music gaining exposure via social networking site MySpace, Allen said she recognised she had a problem. "I just had this revelation that Facebook, blogging, all those things were becoming a total addiction," she said.
"I'd be with my boyfriend or my mum and they'd have got just half of me. So I put my Blackberry, my laptop, my iPod in a box and that's the end.
"We've ended up in this world of unreal communication and I don't want that. I want real life back."
The singer's words are sure to resonate with many, particularly here in Australia. It was revealed last month we lead the world for the time spent on social media sites each month, with our average of 7.12 hours exceeding the national averages of Britain, Italy, North America and Japan.
Furthermore, figures collated for October show Australians spent an average of 27.2 hours browsing online, 7.55 hours of which was taken up by Facebook, while MySpace and Twitter accounted for 39 and 17 minutes respectively.
That is not to say, however, the problem is exclusively ours. A Nielsen audit of Americans' use of online time revealed that in 12 months, Facebook use had grown by 700 per cent and Twitter's numbers had grown exponentially.
The issue this year attracted the attention of former South Australian thinker in residence and neuroscientist Baroness Susan Greenfield, who claimed repeated exposure to sites such as Facebook, Bebo and Twitter, with computer games and fast-paced TV shows, could effectively "rewire" the brain.
"Attention spans are shorter, personal communication skills are reduced and there's a marked reduction in the ability to think abstractly," Lady Greenfield said.
Adelaide psychologist Dr Darryl Cross, of Crossways Consulting, said social networking was a double-edged sword - while it could serve a purpose of connecting people who were separated by distance, addiction was a serious and very real concern.
"I think people are naturally curious and that's why people entertain gossip, innuendo and rumour," Dr Cross said.
"They love that intrigue. You have a medium like Facebook that feeds into that intrigue.
"Unfortunately, some people do get addicted to it as it feeds their desire about what other people are doing."
Dr Cross said that with technology, such as iPhones and Blackberries, increasing our ease of access to social networking sites, the problem might intensify.
Social networking also can serve a valuable purpose. This year has seen fans and celebrities embrace the power of sites, such as Facebook, to effect social change.
Fans of band Rage Against the Machine launched a Facebook campaign to snare top spot in British charts and deny X-Factor winner the honour, customary each Christmas.
Closer to home, passionate Adelaideans launched Facebook groups to resurrect Hey Hey It's Saturday and the Adelaide Skyshow, generating a groundswell of support.
Dr Cross said it was a matter of adopting the everything-in-moderation adage, suggesting addicts limit time spent and frequency of visits rather than trying to go cold turkey.
Social networking sites cause 12.5% loss in office productivity: Survey
According to a survey by Assocham (The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India), an average corporate employee in India spends an hour every day on social networking sites such as Orkut, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace for personal use during the office hours, leading to a loss of about 12.5 per cent of employees’ productivity in the country’s corporate sector.
An interesting finding of the survey states that 73 per cent of corporate employees aged 45-58 spend over an hour online daily to use online sources to access news. The survey further reveals that 84 per cent of internet users in metropolitan cities show signs of internet addiction -- they don’t take breaks and can get irritable if they are interrupted while surfing.
It was also found that 19 per cent of companies allow use of social networking sites only for business purposes, while 16 per cent allow their limited personal use. Only 40 per cent of the employees interviewed said their companies allow employees full access to social networking sites during work hours.
According to Assocham, the findings are based on a survey of about 4,000 corporate employees in the age group 21-60 years in Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Cochin, Indore, Ahmedabad, Surat, Mumbai, Pune, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Lucknow and Kanpur. The survey was conducted by Assocham Social Development Foundation (ASDF) during September-November 2009.
Read more…
An interesting finding of the survey states that 73 per cent of corporate employees aged 45-58 spend over an hour online daily to use online sources to access news. The survey further reveals that 84 per cent of internet users in metropolitan cities show signs of internet addiction -- they don’t take breaks and can get irritable if they are interrupted while surfing.
It was also found that 19 per cent of companies allow use of social networking sites only for business purposes, while 16 per cent allow their limited personal use. Only 40 per cent of the employees interviewed said their companies allow employees full access to social networking sites during work hours.
According to Assocham, the findings are based on a survey of about 4,000 corporate employees in the age group 21-60 years in Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Cochin, Indore, Ahmedabad, Surat, Mumbai, Pune, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Lucknow and Kanpur. The survey was conducted by Assocham Social Development Foundation (ASDF) during September-November 2009.
Neatorama Has Social Bookmarking Features Now
Neatorama is one of the most popular blogs on the Internet. They cover all sorts of neat, weird and interesting things. A great part of their stories is also sent by the readers themselves. I have been linked from them in the past, and it sent over 3,000 visitors my way in matter of 24 hours, just to give you an idea of their traffic levels.
Read more…
One problem that they had was the fact that the number of submissions was too high to be manageable, and obviously not all of them could get featured on the homepage.
In order to solve that problem, the recently introduced a very cool and innovative feature, called Upcoming Queue.
It is basically a social media voting section inside their website, ala Digg or Reddit, where the users can submit their stories, and vote the other stories up or down. The most popular ones get promote to the front page. Here are the details of that section:
Your submission is a blog post: Neatorama is a blog and will remain a blog. By writing a blog post instead of a link, you’ll have more than just a few sentences to tell people what your pick is all about.
Equal chance to get promoted to front page: Not a power user? Don’t have a lot of friends that will vote for your submissions? No problem. Besides garnering upvotes, Neatorama editors will be on the look out for good posts to promote, regardless of the number of votes they garner. This will even out the playing field for everyone.
Credit is given where credit is due: This is a personal pet peeve of mine: social networking posts don’t give via or author credits. If you found an interesting item to post on Neatorama via a certain blog, please be neighborly and give it a via credit link. Promoted posts will also have author credit - your posts will carry a link to your blog or website. (We do reserve the right to edit this in cases of spam or inappropriate content).
No burying: Once a post is on the front page, it’s on the front page. There’s no burying or personal vendettas (though we do reserve the right to edit/delete in cases of spam or inappropriate content).
Pretty cool huh? I also think that this idea has a bright future. Imagine popular blogs like TechCrunch or PerezHilton creating similar sections where the users would be able to submit blog posts themselves. It is a win-win situation.
Anyway go check it out on Neatorama, and perhaps even submit a post there.
9 Tips To Pitch Your Blog Successfully
This is a guest post by Brandon J. Mendelson.
I have successfully pitched stories and thoughts to local and national media outlets, ranging from the Albany Times Union, where I volunteer as a blogger, to The Christian Science Monitor, MSNBC.com, E! Online, Newsweek, the LA Times, and others. Working as both a blogger and journalist for the past eight years has provided me with some insight on how to pitch successfully. Proceed with the knowledge that you will only succeed in pitching if you persist. If you do not, these tips are useless.
1. Tell Me About Your Blog. Briefly.
In the comment section for this post, can you describe your blog in a sentence? Two? If you can’t quickly describe your blog, to anyone really, the reporter or editor will move on.
Exercise: Pretend you are leaving a voice mail and only have so much time for your message. What do you cut?
2. How Do I Contact You?
Your email signature is useless. Include at the end of your email the best and preferred method of contact.
3. What’s The Hook?
Find a relevant hook. Daniel’s blog focuses on blogging tips. In Massena, New York, the GM plant is closing. How about a pitch that explains why your blogging tips could help the recently laid off employees make money?
Find a local hook. Local outlets want local news, simple right? So find a way to tie your blog to something going on in local markets. Do some research before contacting a reporter or editor.
4. No All Purpose Emails Or Press Releases
The press release is dead. Sending one to a reporter that has not asked for it is deadly. Ditto with blanket emails. Make every email personal. Yes, it takes time, but you want to have your blog talked about, right?
Remember: If there is a designated editor for the area you are pitching, contact the editor before the reporter.
Within your email, you may include a link to your press release and previous press for further information, but …
5. No, I will Not Click On Your Link
Do not just send links. Your email must be self contained. If there is interest, you can provide further information later or include links at the end of your email. Linking out says you’re lazy and the odds of a busy, layoff fearing reporter taking the time to visit your website if there is no interest are low.
Also: Do not contact reporters for every announcement. Wait until you have something groundbreaking. Try the Brandon test: Talk to your offline friends and ask for their opinion. If they’re interested, you may proceed in contacting reporters.
6. The Follow-up
After a week, you may send a brief note to inquire about your pitch. If you do not hear anything, the second week you may call. Do not call until you’ve waited the appropriate amount of time. If you are unsuccessful, move on. You will meet many dead ends, the important thing is to keep moving forward.
And of course, never, ever assume that your email was all you need to do. Some journalists are old school and want you to call and follow-up.
7. Networking
Make friends. This will be the difference between getting your story covered and being ignored.
Media breeds media. Once you have an outlet reporting about you, it lends credibility to your blog and allows you to advance to bigger outlets.
Look at it like this: I am twittering my way across America to fight breast cancer. You can find details by following me on Twitter @BJMendelson. The New York Times won’t cover this story, and it is unlikely television reporters will at first. They want to see who I am, how other outlets treat me, and if I can present myself in an intelligent way. So you start small. Contact smaller blogs and local newspapers, then move to medium blogs and regional newspapers, then to large blogs and city papers. This is the same for television and radio.
Once you have built to a critical mass, one of two things will happen:
1. The New York Times or Oprah will come to you
2. You will be well positioned to go to them.
FYI: Don’t call the Oprah people, they are not fans of the cold call as I learned.
8. Punchy Email Subject Lines
Many people won’t even have the time or will to open your email. If you use a punchy or catchy subject line, however, your chances increase.
Try to be descriptive and succinct at the same time.
9. Make It Personal
Sometimes your own story makes what you’re pitching interesting. What from your background ties you to the outlet or community? I am a former Alfred State College student. So when I contact media outlets in Western New York, I mention this.
Never email general email accounts.. Find out who covers what, look at their previous stories, and if you can’t tie in your pitch or find a local connection, make a pitch about how your blog ties into that outlets area of coverage.
This is not a perfect list. Far from it; however, my intention is to be helpful to my fellow bloggers and relieve some of the stress induced by bloggers for my fellow journalists. Pitch well.
