Tag Archives: social networking

Dealing With Web 2.0’s Demographic Battlelines and Social Media Fatigue

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According to a recent research report, social media users appear to have segmented themselves primarily along demographic criteria. Additionally, as social media channels grow in sophistication, it appears that the sheer amount of information flowing through these channels may be exerting a hefty time and psychological cost on users.

In a recent Pew Internet & American Life Project report, internet users in the 18-53 year old age bracket (as at 2009) represent a higher proportion of internet users, compared to their numerical percentage in the general population.

“Older boomers” aged 54-63, make up 13% of the general population and are on par, constituing 13% of internet users.

The “Silent generation” aged 64-72, who make up 9% of the general population, amount to 7% of internet users.

The “GI generation” aged 73 and older and are 9% of the population, only represent 4% of internet users.

twitter users

Likewise, when it comes to media consumption, Twitter users Continue reading →

Social Marketing In The Nude

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Social marketing is a double-edged sword because what can greatly help you, can also greatly hurt you if you don’t respect the medium and the unspoken rules of social behavior. Here’s a couple of tips to brand and market yourself and your business more effectively in the Web 2.0 world.

Fact: You are naked on the internet, especially with social media.

naked

The fact that most social networks are open systems and have low barriers to communication and sharing of information means that everything you do within the social matrix is transparent and wholly obvious.

A couple of days ago, I got a Twitter public message from: Jodi Joseph Asaiag with the message:

@andrewwee for IP resources, tools and discussions visit www.bpcouncil.com – suggestions welcome at editor@bpcouncil.com

–

Sounds like a pleasant and helpful message.

I took a look at her Continue reading →

DoFollow or NoFollow?: The “I Can Has Backlink” Dilemma

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SEO best practises, especially linkbuilding (off-site SEO) has come to the forefront since social networks have built critical mass in the last couple of years. Some ambiguous/enigmatic practices with regards to giving backlinks to users has left SEO specialists like Aaron Wall, Rae Hoffman, Michael Gray, Todd Malicoat, Dave Naylor amused, puzzled, frustrated and at times outright indignant.

[This is a follow up to: Blackhole SEO: Has Google’s Hegemony Spilled into Twitter?]

So the sticking point in recent days (originating from discussions last year) was why Twitter nofollows links from your profile page and your tweets.

Is it because you could be potentially linking to “bad neighborhoods”? Or social spamming links like what some marketers have been doing on MySpace, Squidoo and HubPages and potentially Google Knol?

Here is the thing: the social space and social networks in particular will need some degree of human intervention/curation. That’s why Squidoo has a staff of moderators/volunteers to review lenses, article directories have human editors. The best content review algorithmn still has a couple of years to catch up with user-generated content.

So some human intervention is needed to review content.

i can has backlink

And if users are spending 1-2 hours each day on sites like Digg, Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, shouldn’t they gain some outbound link benefit from their efforts? Your users are Continue reading →

Taking Twitter To The Next Level With TweetDeck

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I typically for the simplest approach when it comes to using web services. If a browser interface is available, I prefer to use that over download and installing an external program – I already have enough “stuff” on my computer.

If you are a Twitter user, you might want to take a close look at TweetDeck, especially with their recent feature upgrade.

Having gone through a couple of other Twitter clients (they essentially bring Twitter updates to your desktop via the API and provide additional functions) like Twhirl, I will be using TweetDeck for a long time.

For starters, with the recent v0.21.5b upgrade, the client includes the option of a 4th column, you’re also able to perform a search within TweetDeck and setup groups and follow friends more easily.

tweetdeck

Unless you’re a strict stickler to talking to 1 person at a time, the multi-threaded approach to managing conversations makes Twitter more managable, especially once Continue reading →

Making The Most Out Of Social Media

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At last month’s Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas, I took a question asking “How do I effectively use social media in my business?”

Here is the long answer:

Social media (I would consider this as “blogging and the other stuff that goes with it”) is more than just a tool in my business. Up till now, it is the foundation of my business.

If HTML websites are billboards filled with information waiting for people to stumble upon them and read them, then blogs are like aggressive ticket scalpers running up to you and shouting in-your-face, in a direct manner. (this is a good thing).

And if you’re new to the social traffic, social networking game, here are some pointers:

seagulls

  • Go out and try everything: The best and worst part of social marketing is that it’s usually free to sign up and participate in. (Although if you forget to factor in the value of your time invested, you could be losing out in a great deal of opportunity cost). Heard about LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook, Plurk, FriendFeed, Friendster, Orkut, Plurk, Hi5, Flickr, Craigslist, YouTube, Twitter? Why not sign up for an account. If you’re concerned about it (and you probably should be), make sure you register your personal name, your business, your brand, and get your related domain or account name before someone else does. Sure, you can go after “social network domain/account name squatters” after the fact, but it’s going to take time and resources to do that, so why not spare yourself the trouble now.
  • Learn to specialize: I don’t think it’s worth being a “jack-of-all-trades” and spread yourself across all the social networks and have merely superficial relationships with the people in those communities. Instead, I’d suggest focusing on specializing in one or two social networks and “embedding” yourself in them. Learn the social rituals, get to know the influencers, build YOUR own social influence within those circles. Some wannabe “gurus” would have you believe that your social influence is dictated by the number of followers or friends you have. In my opinion, that is utter nonsense and is at best a simpleton’s scare tactic. Just like wine, it’s quality than counts, not quantity.
  • Stay away from the Dark Side: Yes, the medium is a free one, but does that mean you should keep taking away from it (see: How NOT to be a tool on Twitter and How NOT to be a tool on Twitter part 2)? Believe or not, there’s a better course of action, that’s to build your goodwill bank.

Being “successful” with your social marketing efforts has a lot to do with your social influence and ability to shape opinions and behavior. And that’s going to take more than just a simple follower count to resolve.

how not to be a tool on twitter

How Not To Be A Tool On Twitter Part 2

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Remember when a college kid came up with the idea of selling pixels on a webpage, pricing each pixel at $1 and having 1 million in “inventory”?

And how he raised $1 million and the Million Dollar Home Page generated buzz all over the internet and was mentioned in the newspapers and TV?

It was a novel, funny and creative way to “make money online”.

Then another guys comes up with another page, selling pixels at $1 a pop, hoping to replicate the same results. I don’t know the outcome, but I have a feeling he or she failed.

Then some clever codes came up with software that let you sell pixels on a page. It sold initially for hundreds of dollars and you can probably get free versions now. The poor saps who bought it for $297, probably ended up making $50.

What’s the moral of the story? You need to be first, be the first to bring a product to the market, even if it might be somewhat flawed.

The other side of the coin is that people have short attention spans and have 15 second “soundbyte” attention. Rehash something and it’s bound to be an epic fail.

scream

Likewise, on the Twitter micro-blogging platform/social network, a trend has emerged where Twitter users hold contests where they stipulate that Continue reading →