Is Social Network a Waste of Time

Another new report about what a waste of time social networks are - but is it missing the point?
More grist to the mill for bosses unhappy about the impact of social networking sites on staff productivity: a new survey from technology company Morse claims that the use of these sites is costing British business somewhere in the region of £1.4bn a year in wasted time. And that’s just the conservative estimate: around half of office workers admitted to Morse that they accessed Twitter and Facebook for personal use during the working day, thereby ‘wasting’ around 40 minutes a week (though they put the amount of time their colleagues spend visiting social networking sites at a full hour a week, so someone’s telling porkies). But what’s to say that all this time is wasted?

It’s certainly true that the use of these sites can have a damaging effect on a company’s reputation. Just look at electrical retailer Currys, whose staff were recently found to have posted unflattering comments about their customers on Facebook. Indeed, one in three of the 1,460 office workers questioned for the Morse study said they had seen sensitive company information posted on social networking sites. This is the kind of reason employers will seize upon as an excuse to block access to these sites (although the approach doesn’t seem to be consistent across the board - three-quarters of those surveyed said that their employer hadn’t issued them with specific guidelines on using Twitter, for example).

But while checking out your friend’s holiday snaps is never likely to be classed as a productive use of company time, it seems short-sighted to dismiss the business benefits of these sites out of hand. Far from being a waste of time, the likes of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn may help to improve communication, collaboration, creativity and knowledge sharing. So an outright ban might not only go down badly with staff; you might also be cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Unfortunately, some businesses are clearly still failing to take an enlightened approach to the brave new world of Web 2.0. Or even Web 1.0 – figures from Notting Hill Internet Services, released this week, suggest that over half of small businesses still don’t have a website. A slightly worrying proportion – although at least that’s one less ‘acceptable use’ policy to worry about…

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Social Media Obsession at work

IF YOU’VE got access to your favourite sites at work ask yourself: ‘When I get into work in the morning am I most likely to a) get straight on with the daily grind or b) take a quick look at my online profile?’

If the answer is b then don’t worry, you’re not alone. From Myspace to Twitter and on to Facebook, it seems we are obsessed with having an online presence.

While our employers may not be so happy about the work hours lost to social networking, there is a way we can combine our favourite online pastime with building successful careers.

Cristina Hoole, European marketing director for social networking site LinkedIn, said: “People are starting to realise you exist online whether you like it or not. Whether you’re on a social network or friends who have blogs have talked about you, it’s likely you already have an online presence even if you’re not aware of it.

“With this in mind, it’s important to realise you can manage it. You want to be sure that if you’re looking for another job, or even if you just want to network with colleagues or clients, that you have a professional presence online.

“Being online is a good thing, the more you put yourself out there the bigger the opportunities you have.”

So, if we want to make our profiles something which we don’t have to hide when the boss walks by what should we do?

Follow our top tips to productive and stress-free social networking.

KEEP YOUR PRIVATE LIFE PRIVATE

OK, so you had a great night out on Saturday and your best mate has happily uploaded the photo evidence on to a website but exactly who is looking at how many glasses of white wine you consumed? You need to think about how your profile looks, and who can access it.

All social networking sites should have privacy settings which will not only restrict outside users viewing your information. For example someone who is just taking a look on a search engine, but also friends and colleagues.

Take Facebook’s advice and use its profile privacy settings to control who can see your profile.

Ms Hoole said: “Make a good impression on contacts by understanding the settings and projecting an appropriate image. Start by determining who can view your profile by selecting access for networks, friends of friends, or just friends.

“From there, determine what those people can and cannot see on your profile, such as status updates, tagged photos, personal information, friends, and wall posts.”

KEEP YOUR PROFILE UP TO DATE

If you’re looking for a new job or just want to show your colleagues and your employers that you’re an integral member of the team then keep people updated with your ability and make your profile work for you.

Ms Hoole added: “Your profile is your chance to showcase your skills and talents, and help the right people and opportunities find their way to you. As your professional representation online, you can set it to be discoverable through the millions of searches on leading search engines and on LinkedIn.

“Users with complete profiles are 40 times more likely to receive opportunities through LinkedIn.”

DO YOUR RESEARCH

It’s not just our own profiles we need to focus on but also those of people who we’re networking with.

If you’re looking to impress clients or organisations then showing you are internet savvy and interested in what they have to say will help.

We’re not talking about requesting the friendship of an individual client so you can poke them, but just take a look to see if their business has an online social network account.

Do they send twitter updates about their news and the services they offer? If so, get in contact and build an online relationship with them. They’ll be impressed that you’re taking an interest in their organisation.

THINK OF IT AS YOUR BUSINESS

“We are all mini entrepreneurs in our own way now and the view we have of our career today is similar to that of managing a business,” Ms Hoole said.

“It’s less common now for people to stay with the same company for 25 years.

“You go to a company and pick up the skills you need to enhance your career and then you move on. You make the experience enjoyable but also something that feeds your life.

“I think the more you’re open to opportunities online, the better the things that will come your way. That’s the beauty of opening yourself up to having an online business profile, the more you put into your ‘business’ the more opportunities you’ll have.”

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Best Deals Now on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube

For the past years, companies are traditionally telling their customers about sales and special discounts through newspapers, advertisements, radio spots and in-store announcements. But now, most of the companies are turning into a more avant-garde form of communication which is Social Networking.

On my recent blog post, I've discussed there that some Car Manufacturers get their prospective clients thru Twitter. Other companies like Starbucks, Scottrade, Zappos and many others are among those using Twitter, Facebook and Youtube to talk to the customers and to hear from them. According to Amber Talbot, online public relation specialist for Scottrade, both the company and the customers benefit. They have two twitter accounts, two Facebook acoounts, and YouTube account where they post educational videos.

Talbot spends the majority of her day interacting with customers online. After the customer posted a question, she answers them immediately and forwarded the concern to their customer service team. The customer service team will directly call the customer within 10 minutes to answer his/her queries.

According to Bridget Baker, spokeswoman for Starbucks, "It's a great way to connect with customers". Her twitter account has over 245,000 followers and occassionally hosts contests for free giveaways. On the other hand, Starbucks has 3 million fans on Facebook, where it is giving away 800 coupons for pints of ice cream each hour through Sunday. Last 2008 election day, the company's coffee ad got the fourth most popular video on YouTube.

Click on the link to know other companies that you might find popping up on your favorite social networking site.
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Get Noticed on Twitter

Once upon a time, Twitter was an innocent and casual place to hang out. Everyone was positive and was nearly over-interested in what everyone had to say. However, now that the initial “buzz has worn off and people are realizing how difficult it can be to manage thousands of follows and followers, the interaction has been reduced to tightly knit groups of key players and in turn leaves many people without the friends they once had. Sure, everyone has a base of friends, followers, and fans that they can rely on to spur conversation and reply to their requests, but overall it has become increasingly difficult to stand out in the crowd. Since getting noticed is one of the crucial aspects of getting more “legit” followers and building a following that converts into blog readers, buyers, and fans, finding ways to get noticed is extremely important.

The simple methods, like RT’ing, offering contests, quoting, and recommending friends for #followfriday no longer have the power they once did. Although those staples are still great ways to increase your influence, if you really want to get noticed on Twitter you’ll have to find other ways to create buzz and show up on the radar.

One such way to do this is to start or take a leadership role in local Twitter Mashups and Tweetups. Use a site like Twitter Grader (http://twittergrader.com) to find local Twitterers in your area to contact and ask for their help in creating a group and notifying others. When you do this, the following events will take place:

1. You will be looked to as a creator, leader, and as a key player in the market. Even if you don’t know what you are doing, you are taking on the responsibility that most don’t feel comfortable with. This gives you a great position of leverage within your local market, which can spread to other markets.

2. You will have the opportunity to create a local brand that can expand based on your effort. Start a website for your Tweetup group and post pics, notes, and blogs about the people involved. They’ll be happy to get noticed online and in turn will help you get noticed too. Over time, you’ll have the opportunity to gain traction as you travel or start groups for others.

If Tweetups are not your thing, then why not host an online mentorship group for people new to Twitter? Most of the Twitter pro’s already have their schedules booked and their feeds filled, so showing new people the ropes can help you share your knowledge and establish a very dedicated base of fans.

Lastly, if you really want to become a Twitter Rockstar, you will need to get noticed by the big dogs. Yeah, I know…bidding on popularity sounds juvenile, but I consider it a marketing effort suited to a specific audience. Spend time being responsive on the blogs and websites of the big dogs on Twitter and work to let them know you are there. If you are the most consistent fan in their feed, they can’t help but to notice your dedication. Once you’ve proven that you are an action taker, they’ll start to notice your work as well, especially if you turn your fans into fans of theirs. The same rules work for blogging and other content promotion methods.

Getting noticed on Twitter really isn’t that difficult if you create the time and dedicate the energy to doing so. If Twitter isn’t your main effort, then trying to become one of the gurus might be tough. However, if you simply implement a few key strategies and continue to offer great content, then you should have no trouble breaking away from the pack. Just like everywhere else, Twitter rewards creativity, originality, and honesty. Make that your creed and eventually you will become a leader in your niche.

An article courtesy of this site.
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Maximizing Twitter Traffic

Internet marketers these days want to dominate social networks. Well, as an internet marketer, it will be easier to access the global market through Twitter and other social sites. By simply making friends online, you can already build a list of valuable leads. If you want to maximize your Twitter traffic, you’re on the right track.

For about three years, Twitter has gained extreme popularity worldwide. People talk about various subjects. Some talk about their personal interests and there are also those who market their business online. Ordinary individuals use Twitter to send tweets to one another. Many of today’s online marketers are serious in using Twitter to drive traffic to their business sites. The social network is considered as one of the most effective and impressive ways to increase traffic.

With increased traffic to your business site, you can ensure more sales. How can you maximize your Twitter traffic? Here are several ways to do it.

Firstly, you need to spread the news that you’re on Twitter. If you’re into online marketing, you probably send lots of email messages or post blogs. Try to include your Twitter account on all your messages, blog posts, and even on your business site. That way, everyone will know that you’re using Twitter. You should also be active in using Twitter and in sending tweets regularly. When your followers see that you’re active, they will visit your website.

Regularly updating your tweets can also drive more traffic to your site, like people on Twitter who post tweets regularly. You can gain active followers through your tweets. However, you must ensure that you post more personal tweets; sending out bad ones can cause you to lose your followers. There are tools that you can use to help you in posting your tweets automatically but you need to be extra careful in using such tools.

By building good relationships with your followers, you will not have a hard time in selling your products or business. Don’t barrage your followers with sales promotions or else you can lose them. Instead, try to post helpful information every now and then because the social community will appreciate it more. Establishing a good relationship with your followers is vital. By investing a little of your time and effort in posting informative tweets and in replying to the ones addressed to you, you can ensure the profitability of your business in the near future.

Maximizing traffic in Twitter is very important. To sum it all up, make your presence known. Let everyone know that you’re on Twitter. Send tweets regularly and give more attention to the kind of tweets you’re sending. Make the tweets personal and most of all, build good relationships. So now, do you know how to increase traffic to your business site? Try these helpful steps and you can go a long way.

Using Twitter is fun and easy. Many online marketers are now using Twitter to boost site traffic, so why don’t you try it? It seems to be the fad these days. But to tell you frankly, not everyone who use Twitter as a marketing tool is able to succeed. You see, it takes time, effort, and patience to see effective results.

Maximizing Twitter traffic for your business can be effectively done if you know how to tweet properly.

This is an article written by Salim Galou posted in Internet and Businesses Online : Social Networking. source [...]

Creative Ways to Use Twitter

From my previous post, I've discussed that Twitter can be used as a recruitment tool.

Here are some other ways you can use Twitter particularly in supporting your marketing and branding efforts:

* Press releases: you can keep your audience up to date with your brand’s latest developments by posting links to your press releases.
* Time-sensitive special offers: you can use Twitter to promote items on sale, or special fares, like some airlines are already doing.
* Post event updates: if you go to a conference or trade show, you can tweet about the latest developments.
* News updates: Twitter can be a good medium to post news items of interest to your customers.
* Disaster Relief: Organizations such as the Red Cross are using twitter to post updates on their efforts to help during natural disasters and emergencies.
* Daily schedules: musicians, politicians and other traveling acts are using Twitter to post news about their appearances, schedules, etc.
* Links to interesting web pages: You can use Twitter as a social bookmarking service, like Delicious or Stumbleupon.
* New blog posts announcements: You can post a tweet every time you update your blog. True, you can also achieve this through RSS, but Twitter gives you yet another avenue to reach people that otherwise wouldn’t have had access to your RSS feed.
* Blog widget: you can install Twitter on your blog’s sidebar to show your latest tweets and give your blog a more interactive feel.
* Real estate listings: real estate agents can use Twitter to post links to new listings.
* Promotions: if you have a “deal of the day”, “daily lunch special” or any other recurring, time-sensitive promotion you can announce it in Twitter.
* Recruitment tool: many companies have filled positions with people they found through Twitter.
* Personal branding: by drafting a compelling personal profile, posting brief insights on topics related to your field, and by nurturing your network of followers, over time your Twitter account can turn into a strong personal branding signal.

Another beauty of Twitter is that’s it’s very easy to post. You can do so from Twitter’s website, by IM and even by sending text messages from your phone. source
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Twitterific Application : What are you doing?

According to Wikepedia, Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts which are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers).

Once you've signed in, the Twitter site immediately prompts you with a question in bold type: "What are you doing?" Below, there's a blinking cursor and a blank white space where you have 140 characters with which to answer. That's basically it.

Is twitter the next big thing in online social networking? We'll see... But more or less it has the potential. Twitter application invades not only computers but other communication device as well. In fact a lot of application can be linked with twitter (more of this on the next posts).

I joined twitter a month ago and so far, I admit, I have not maximize it yet as much as I want to. How about you? Join the next big thing now. Please see sidebar to register or click here.
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