Hosting a Contest to Attract Facebook Friends

When it comes to advertising and online marketing, there is nothing like having a Facebook page with a healthy fan following. Lots of Facebook fans will make your company look trusted, which is a great way to draw in more potential customers. And who doesn't like to do business with a trusted company?

The trick is, how do you start attracting fans when you're a newcomer to your particular niche? Being friended by your mother, sister, and best high school chum may be a nice way to stay in touch, but it won't do a lot to build market credibility (sorry, mom).

Facebook marketing has evolved into a kind of sub genre of organic, Web2.0 online marketing; it has its own set of rules and techniques. One of the most effective ways to attract Facebook fans is to host a contest.

Some pretty big players in the consumer sector have used the contest technique to attract more friends. And why wouldn't they? Most people will throw their names in the hat if the if there's free stuff at stake and the risks are minimal or non-existent.

Here are eight tips that will help get you started:

1. Determine which type of contest you want to run

There are four types of contests you can run on your Facebook page: Sweepstakes, essay, photo, and video. Keep in mind that video, photo, and essay contests require more work on the part of your contestants. If your aim is to promote user interactivity, these types of contests may be the way to go. If you just want to gather basic information while making it easy on your new-found friends, you probably want to use the sweepstakes contest.

2. Get to know the rules

As tempting as it may seem, you cannot use the Facebook "Like" button as a means for your readers to enter your contest. Since the whole purpose of promoting a contest is to gather Facebook friends, using the "Like" button might seem like a sure-fire way to accomplish your goal. Facebook says this is a major no-no!

Another stipulation is that you must notify your winners before you publish their names (on Facebook or anywhere else). You can do this via email, snail mail, or private FB message.

And the granddaddy of all Facebook contest rules: you must clearly state that Facebook is not sponsoring your contest in any way. Facebook will provide you with the communication medium, but they do not want to take on the liability of your promotion. Can't blame them, really.

Go to facebook.com for a complete list of sweepstakes guidelines.

3. There's an app for that...

Facebook requires users to run their contests through third-party apps. There are plenty of these apps in the marketplace, some cheap or free, others... not so much. If you're looking for a free app, keep in mind that you'll need an app that is customizable, embeddable, and that has mobile capabilities. Beware, free apps may not offer all (or any) of these features. The tried-and-true rule of consumerism indeed applies to Facebook contest applications: you get what you pay for.

To get you started, here are two of the best apps that fully support your Facebook contest efforts:

Fanappz

Offerpop

4. What's in it for your readers?

Don't go cheap. Don't give away junk. This bit of advice may not even seem worth mentioning, but many a contest campaign has flopped because the promoter didn't want to part with stock and/or revenue. If your business designs Websites, do one for free. If you sell cameras, shell out the wholesale cost for a Nikon D40 and give it away. If your objective is to gain more traffic through Facebook friends, think of your prize as part of your advertising budget. Also, if you don't pique your reader's interest with a decent giveaway, you won't attract any friends anyway. Your campaign will be a total waste of time and energy.

5. K.I.S.S.

What's the best way to run a successful contest campaign? Keep it simple, sweetheart. Many of the Facebook contest apps you will find are highly customizable, which means you can design an entry form to account for many different details. Don't do it! The quickest way to make a contest fall flat on its face is to make it too difficult for your readers to play. Contests are supposed to be fun, not work.

If you are asking for more than the reader's name, email address, phone number (optional), and in the case of a video, photo, or essay content, their entry file, then you're asking for too much. Also, make the contest app easy to find on your page. The second quickest way to make your contest flop is to advertise it and then turn finding the submission form into an Easter egg hunt.

6. Get the word out

If you have a Twitter account, Tweet about your Facebook contest. If you have an email newsletter, mention your Facebook contest in bold letters. If you have a Web site, add a blurb about your Facebook contest on the home page.

Consider advertising your contest an exercise in driving traffic from multiple sources. You want to drive traffic to your Facebook page, which will in turn drive traffic to your blog or Web site. eMarketing is a cycle of traffic, and you want to make sure you're coaxing it, tweaking it, and always keeping an eye on where it's coming from and how fast it's coming in.

7. Facebook ads

Once you start getting the hang of contest marketing through Facebook--that is, once you start seeing some positive results--you may want to consider making a small investment in Facebook advertising.

Facebook ads make it easy to target users who share your interests and demographics. It's also a good way to reach beyond the people who already like your page by placing them where your ideal demographic hangs out.

8. Follow up

Your work isn't finished once you've announced a winner. Building a database of potential customers was the objective of this project in the first place, so make sure you follow up with them. Keep all the information they send you in a spreadsheet and send them a friendly email thanking them for their interest in your campaign. In your thank you email, ask them if they would be interested in receiving details about your products, services, or future contests. Ask them, do not spam them! Keeping your message friendly, conversational, and honest is likely to add at least a few more subscribers to your newsletter database.

Facebook contests have been proven an effective way to attract leads and augment your client base. Plenty of major corporations use this technique with great success, and you have access to the same method and tools (albeit on a smaller scale). If you make your contest fun, easy, and personable, you're likely to make some friends who will stop by your site every now and then to see what you're up to. And isn't this what making friends is all about? At least the Facebook kind.

Youths And Social Networking   Why Privacy Is the Key Against Social Bullies and Identity Thieves   

Why a Social Network Is Only Worth the Privacy a Person Can Have On Their Network

A social profile is only worth as much privacy as a user can get on the social network. People do not realize how much information that some of the social networks keep about their users and what they use that information for (mostly monetary reasons). However, people have to ask how much information is too much information for the social media networks to have about them.

The social media systems may have bigger files on a user than some of the government departments. This is not a misnomer. The social media systems collect data about a person and their habits. They know things about a user that a user's best friends may not know about them. All because the users all have a false sense of privacy on the social networks and they (the social networks) use this false sense of security to make money.

The only asset that the social networks really have is the users of their systems. This means that they have to get revenue by selling the information about their users. They categorically sort their users for easy use. The advertisers then buy access to these lists and make money by targeting their ads to them.

There is a darker side to all of this, however. The applications that run on some of the major social networks are allowed to capture information about their users. Whatever is in their profile is fair game. Which means, a 3rd party company could capture a name, their job, their date of birth, who they are married to, and who their kids are all in one fell swoop. Who knows what else they could capture, if it is on the social profile then it is fair game. This could even be their home address if a user is not careful.

A company that develops an application for the social networks does not have to tell the social networks what they will do with the data (most of the time). Therefore, this information is transferred unchecked and for whatever use the company or developer deems appropriate. This may be the scariest side of the social networks.

The social networks have made privacy not as private as most people think it should be in the first place. The truth is that privacy is mostly dead on the social networks unless the user takes up their sword and fights to keep the privacy that they had when they began to use the system. The truth is that a person cannot have more social privacy, they only make choices to keep the privacy they already have in their possession.

Therefore, every person who uses a social media platform must ask him or herself if the lack of privacy is worth the connections they make on the social media systems. This means that every step and move on the social media systems brings them closer to having no privacy at all. This also means that businesses can invade a person's life at will if the user does not make the right choices to keep those businesses out of their lives.

The best thing for a person to do is to be very careful with what they post and say on the social media systems. It is fair to assume that anything on the social media systems can and will be sold because the legalese is hidden in the fine print. Therefore, a person must be extremely careful what they say, what they "thumbs up" or "like", and what applications they use on social media networks.

Youths And Social Networking   Why Privacy Is the Key Against Social Bullies and Identity Thieves   

Where Should Someone Sign Up To Learn Social Networking For Business?

The best place to learn social networking for business purposes is not in any classroom. The problem with most classroom classes is that those who teach the subject are no longer practitioners they are teachers. Even if the teacher was effective at the discipline in question, their skill set is constantly becoming outdated unless they have their foot in the business outside of the classroom.

Before a person learns social networking for business purposes from anyone, they should ask if the person has ever made money from social networking. This is the real test of how skilled a social networking guru or expert really is because most experts are self-proclaimed experts. There is no hard evidence of their skill other than a large list of people who may or may not be following them. The truth about social networks is that there are plenty of robots who do nothing other than query databases for names of people who have posted updates about a relevant topic. This robot then follows the person and begins to post predetermined messages to the system. The person behind the messages and the robot never reads the messages on the server or platform, and therefore the profile is actually a robot and not a human. Most social media campaigns are not geared towards pleasing robots because robots cannot be a good source of revenue (because they do not interact and usually cannot make buying decisions).

Once a person has a positive response to the ultimate question in all of business activities (have you made money with this approach), they should then buckle down and listen to that person very intently. The problem with most people is that they bring their own head trash into the game before they even begin learning. This causes them not to be able to hear that the teacher is actually telling them. It does not make sense to hire a mentor if the student only wants to argue with the mentor at every step. Once, a business owner or person has made the decision that they should get help from a mentor, and then they must make the choice to actually listen and work with the mentor until they learn what must be learned.

All that is left at this point is just to put in the time to learn what is necessary for the business owner or business person to learn. There are no short cuts to success if someone is building their social profile from the ground up. A person or business can purchase a profile; however, this also does not guarantee success because the tone and the writing style of the new owner will not be the same as he previous person. Therefore, some of the followers may just drop off the system all together. Putting in the time and effort to develop a list that likes to hear how that business owner or business person specifically talks is always the best idea on any social networking platform.

In conclusion, a business person who wants to learn highly effective social networking should ask the magic question of any person they are thinking of asking to teach them. This question is, "how much have you made using your techniques." If the teacher cannot respond with anything but, "I have x amount of followers" or "I have x amount of retweets" then that business person should avoid that teacher. This is the best way to find a social networker who knows what they are doing.

Youths And Social Networking   Why Privacy Is the Key Against Social Bullies and Identity Thieves   

How To Build Confidence Meeting Business Owners In Real Life Via the Internet

The skills of business social networking are universal. This means that the skills that developed online are just as applicable in the offline world. This is the best reason that a person should cut their teeth in the online world and then take their skills to the offline world. This should be considered as if the online world is training wheels for the real world. The real world is where deals are closed and partnerships are formed. Every move online should bring the offline world closer to the business.

One of the best skills to generate in the online world of business social networking is the ability to start a conversation. This ability will allow a person to meet virtually anyone what he or she want to meet. This is the "six degrees of Kevin Bacon" phenomenon. There are invisible strings that lead us to virtually every other person. It is best to keep generating contacts and clients to expand the base of people a person knows over time. This action gives them a tremendous advantage over those people who do not network effectively over time.

A person or business owner can generate an understanding of certain types of people before they meet them in real life. This will give them the ability to feel more relaxed when meeting them in person. A person or business owner who does this can develop their social skills in a relaxed environment. There is no need to feel anxiety or wonder what to say because they will have cultivated the relationship before the first meeting ever took place. A successful business meeting is when two parties agree on a mutually beneficial result and feel confident in each other's ability to hold their end of the bargain.

Pacing is another important skill that can be learned through social networking systems. The ability to pace a person who is talking is a good skill to obtain. Pacing a person means that their language patterns and tone is matched. If the language pattern and tone is matched, then that person usually feels more at ease because they believe that the other party understands them. Pacing is much easier to learn through social media because there is time to think about what the other person is saying and how they will react to the next response. This is chess in language. Just like chess, pacing is a skill that can be developed. A smart person develops this skill as soon as they can.

The online world is the perfect place to practice social skills and gain contacts that can help a business grow. No anxiety needs to be felt while relating to another user online. There is no pressure and no need to worry about what the other person thinks of the clothing the business owner is wearing that day. Social networking for business is the perfect place to learn how to network in the real world. A business owner should use their social networking skills and practice them online. They should, then take those skills and meet more people at events and functions to extend the reach of their business.

Youths And Social Networking   Why Privacy Is the Key Against Social Bullies and Identity Thieves   

Uses of Business Page On Facebook for Business Owners

Facebook is availed by many firms in various ways to build their brand image, generate traffic to blogs and websites, receive comments on new goods, attract employees, manage online reputation and to intercept potential prospects. To benefit from Facebook in your business you must start by creating an account. From here, you should build a profile describing information about yourself. According to the Facebook policies, you can build one profile and it should be tied to the human name, like your original name and not in the business name. This social networking site contains a friend finder function which lets the users look for other individuals by school, organization or industry. To be found by others, you should list all of the schools you've studied at, employers and the company in the profile. The about me section, should hold information explaining your company, products and services you offer.

There is also an information box on the profile page where you should add links to the websites newsletter, address, blog and other business details such as your firms contact address, photo, logo etc. The profile page must be regarded as the branding page. Facebook was made according to the principle of connecting with friends. So you can send and get friend requests and after accepted, you can see your friend views and your friends can see your profile. You can also have the facility to see the friends list of every individual with whom you are linked. You can also develop your friend list through inviting all the customers, clients, business associates, co-workers, friends, school alumni, family and any people you consider will be interested in connecting with you. Every Facebook member contains a wall, in which friends can publish messages. In the business networking market, it is equivalent of inviting your friends on the phone.

You can also send a complement, product offerings, and comments on the new service or convey any networking opportunity or upcoming training to your company colleagues. On the top of the Facebook page you can see a status box. If you post a status update, your friends will be able to view your update on the home page. The business owners use Facebook to promote events, share tips, release information about new items, post blog updates, link to audio or video presentations, articles, websites and newsletters, and link to the affiliate programs. Online communities let you network virtually with prospective customers. You can join communities on Facebook which are associated to the business work.

There are many groups for every possible profession including coaches and teachers. You can join and study much more information from the professional in the field. You can also browse numerous communities by the area of interest, market, business and location. Networking works effectively if there is two way sharing.

Facebook also contains an online marketplace which lets you list products and services. It is the best method for you to obtain good exposure.

Youths And Social Networking   Why Privacy Is the Key Against Social Bullies and Identity Thieves   

How Twitter Can Help You to Find a Job

As a social media tool that is still lagging behind LinkedIn, Facebook and My Space, Twitter may not be the most popular but it does have some advantages when it comes to job search. Knowing how Twitter works may help you understand why it's so useful searching for work and with an insight in to it's working it may offer more appeal to you than it probably does at the moment.

Tweeting on Twitter, sometimes known as micro-blogging, allows you no more than 140 characters to get your message across. With millions of people tweeting billions of tweets, all available to everyone on the site, your selection of who to follow and read reduces the mass of information available to you personally.

Your ability to have short and pertinent snippets to read from your chosen areas can be a refining tool, and reduce the mountain of information available to a manageable amount. Using the site in the same way as other social networking sites, it allows you to connect with recruiters. Unlike other social network sites there is no requirement to ask to connect and wait to be accepted, you can simply 'follow', you are then able to see all of their writings.

By following recruiters and hiring agents, you are able to listen and learn from their words. You can reply to anything you read that they have written, hopefully drawing attraction to yourself from recruiters.

To begin making connections Twitter search and Twellow will find the people you want to follow. Some may well follow you back but don't worry if they don't, your 'follow' will enable you to communicate with them. You can follow conversations and reply if you have anything to say. If you have found a post informative a 'thank you' is very welcome.

Twitter search allows you to search any keywords you choose, identifying your niche, and searching for jobs and vacancies within the tweets. Many hiring managers/recruiters will tweet about vacancies they have. Keyword search for your job you are looking for, and Twitter will provide a stream of tweets containing these words. The search term can then be saved and reviewed several times throughout the day. When using a Tweet reader, e.g. Hootsuite, Tweetdeck keyword searches can be entered and when these words appear in any conversation the tweet will appear in your feedreader.

As many businesses track social media sites to check when they are being talked about, good or bad, responses to tweets can be rapidly executed. Likewise if you are tracking companies for job vacancies you can be first to respond and have your application in before the crowd.

Tell Twitter you need a job. Using Twitter to announce that you are looking for work gets the message out quickly and to an audience that you could never hope to reach with just an email. The information is not reliant on an email being read, it's there for all to see in 140 letters or less. In the same way that you are looking for work with keyword searches, likewise companies are looking to recruit. Select your 'follows' by researching them, checking that they are the right people to follow, this will build a good network for you to read and learn from. Follow your industry and recruiters within your area of expertise will help improve the possibility of someone noticing when you tweet that you need a job or that someone that you follow will know of an opening. Choose your 'follows' wisely, focus on people who can help with your job search and don't just add for the numbers.

Make your Twitter presence a balanced one. Try to involve all aspects of yourself in the Twitter feed. It's nice to see the person behind the words, with some personal '140s', but don't concentrate on this entirely. It's good to add some words of value, whether it is links to your blog, things you have found valuable and think others might benefit from or re-tweeting other people's words of wisdom. Don't let your content fall into the 'spam' category, there is nothing more likely to lose your following or get you ignored. Aim to impress your prospective hirers and add value in your tweets.

At this point, if you feel you need to keep your work life and private life separate, set up two individual accounts and organise settings of the account to make sure that people need to be authorised to view your private account. Better still, don't put it on the internet if you have any doubts, the web has an awful habit of coming back and biting you.

In your bio, briefly describe yourself and include a link to your site, ensure the information that people will be directed to is professional and honest. If I find that the information I'm sent to is in any way unprofessional, I don't feel the need to follow them. Your bio on Twitter can be linked to your blog, website, LinkedIn profile or a visual CV. Don't miss this opportunity to impress people, letting them know all about you and your abilities.

Twitter has the ability to reach an audience that you would be hard put to match in any other way and on a personal level too. But remember if you don't want the word spreading don't put it on the internet.

Youths And Social Networking   Why Privacy Is the Key Against Social Bullies and Identity Thieves   

10 Tips to Optimize Your Local Business Using Facebook

Social Media nowadays is not just limited to connecting with friends or acquaintances, sharing pictures or life updates. It has become a platform for business marketing as well, both in the global as well as the local field.

Facebook, as we all know, is the king of social networks. It is a good place to reach out to clients and build your brand online. The said social network provides much different functionality in which SEO analyst; web developers and marketers can use to get their business noticed online.

In this article we will be focusing on how you can optimize your local business' online presence with the use of Facebook.

10 Tips To Optimize Your Local Business Using Facebook

• A Good Page Name -It is best to have the name of your business as your page name in Facebook. This will help maintain a consistent identity of your brand and search engines can associate your Facebook page with your business. If you have establishments located in different areas, you can create a page with your business name plus the location, such as: Joe's Diner - Los Angeles.

• Inject Keywords in About Section - There is no need to be an expert web developer in order to get this done. Writing something for the "About" page is quite manageable. Insert keywords, essential business details as well as local address and phone number in the information section of your Facebook page, as this can help in the optimization for search engines. However, always remember to not overstuff it with keywords and keep in mind the proper keyword density, as this will gain high ranking in SERPs.

• Customize Facebook URL - As soon as you get certain numbers of Likes in Facebook, you will be able to make a custom URL for your page. It is best to still use your keywords, company or business name to add into the URL - as this will help in sharing your social profile easily and put a signal to search engines to associate the page with your product brand and services.

• Become a Fan - Use your local business page to become a fan of related local pages in Facebook, however, keep away from competitors. Liking a related local business page will enable you to interact and post comments on their updates, which gives you more exposure to the target audience.

• Target Locations with Status Updates - This is a good function to promote your brand products or services in a certain location. This will allow your status updates only to appear to people in specific locations. You can set this by clicking the dropdown arrow under your status box and change "Public" to Location/Language where you can specify a particular country, city or state.

• Offsite Page Links - Link to your Facebook page from your official blog or business website. This increases the value of your Facebook page in search engines and connects your brand with its social network outlets in the web. You can also consider spending some time commenting or posting to blogs or forums including a link to your page to maximize the backlinks.

• Content With Snippets - Turn your Facebook page into a hub of information where people get relevant answers to their needs in relation to the products or services that your business offers. You can post snippets of articles or lines with keywords from your official local business website then the link towards the page. This will serve as another inbound link strategy that helps in increasing your online presence.

• Add Images - Since Facebook implemented its Timeline version, posted pictures are the first things to capture the attention of many. As such, businesses took this advantage to promote their brands and services. Hence, it is recommended to put a cover photo that depicts the story of your local brand and tells the customers what it is all about. You can also add some graphics and images into your status updates as this will result in more "Likes".

• Regular Content Update - Unique, relevant and interesting content has always been an important factor in SEO. It can add value to your Facebook page. A page update highlights fun and informative contents that drive likes to your page. You can also reward you page fans special discounts on your products or host contests in your local page. This will give followers the idea that you have an active page and increase the value of your SEO efforts.

• Facebook Ads - This is an affordable way in promoting your brand to your target customers in a specific country, city, state, region, and etc. Facebook gives you the capability of serving ads only in a targeted geographical area, you will also know how many people are likely to see your ads, use images, and show up in a user's Facebook News feeds once they click "Like".

These are just some of the countless tips out there for optimizing Facebook pages for your local business. And as with all global or local SEO strategies, never expect increase in conversion to happen immediately, as everything takes time to see the change in results.

However, giving constant reliable and quality content in your page is not rocket science; all you need to keep in mind is what your clients and future customers want and need from a local business, and make sure that you cater to them effectively.

Youths And Social Networking   Why Privacy Is the Key Against Social Bullies and Identity Thieves   

Numerous Advantages of Social Networking

There have been countless trends popping up and subsiding on the Internet since it first broke out in a big way during the mid 1990s. Truthfully, it's hard to recall everything that didn't quite pan out. We're just so inundated with viral and digital these days that it's really hard to believe anything else existed before, and social networking has been the new king for a few years.

Social networking is used by millions upon millions of people around the world. Sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, HubPages and hundreds more have made it so everyone, whether a regular Joe looking to connect with other people or a businessperson looking for customers, can use these sites to market themselves.

The advantages are numerous. It would take a full length novel to fully describe just how essential social networking can be to your Internet business. So, to keep it short, we'll just cover a few of the genre's most flattering aspects and how they can relate to big business on your end.

One of the largest advantages is that it is extremely cost effective. If you were to run an ad in a popular newspaper or shoot a television commercial, you may get a lot of business, but you'd also be forking over a lot of money to compete. With social networking, the lion's share of it can be done for free.

If you were to join a site like Twitter or YouTube to branch out and brand your business, the only thing you'd really need to invest is time. Even if you were looking to make some flashy videos to lure people to your site, a webcam or other type of small camera is dirt cheap these days, and any type of editing software can be downloaded via the web for free.

This means that, if you feel like putting the time in, you can build up a customer base without having to spend money to do so. Businesses are always risky ventures, and they're always prone to failure, but eliminating most of the start-up costs means that you're eliminating much of the risk associated with a business.

Then there's the market of social networking. Even if you were only trying to tap into a niche, the market is not only incredibly easy to find with the right keywords and user groups and the like, but they're also large. Practically everyone has and uses a computer these days, so we're talking about a gigantic marketplace.

The web is also a universal location. There's no traveling involved here. When you market to a customer, they can simply click and arrive at your site. By using social networking to advertise, you can put your business in countless locations on the web where it will be noticed.

These are just a few of the many advantages of social networking. If you're working in the Internet industry, then social networking is a must-do.

Youths And Social Networking   Why Privacy Is the Key Against Social Bullies and Identity Thieves   

Why a Person Should Protect Their Identity at All Times on the Internet

The possession that a person has (that every business is trying to get on the social media systems) is their identity. This matters to businesses because they are trying to see if the person fits their demographic profile of a buyer. A business that understands the demographic profile of their buyer is a business that can make a lot of money. Make no mistake about it. A business that knows their demographic profile like the back of their hand is a business that can dominate their competition.

The truth about most businesses is that they do not take the time to evaluate who they sell to at all. They do not take the time to do what a major internet market guru says which is figure out what a buyer looks like and smells like. This means that the business is too busy trying to sell to everyone to truly understand who actually buys from them. This is a massive problem because there are only so many people who will buy from the company. Why not go for the people who will buy from the company instead of trying to convert those people who will not buy from the company no matter how hard they try.

Therefore, this is the information that a social media is trying to sell to businesses. This information is a gold mine of sales for most businesses. They just have to know the demographics of their buyers and target them through the social media systems. What is even scarier about this proposition is that the social media systems allow them to do it with laser focused accuracy.

The social media systems are collecting information about a user at every turn. They need to use this information to entice the advertisers to buy space on their systems. This means that the social media user is unintentionally bringing his or herself closer and closer to ads that will become harder and harder to resist as they post more and more information on the social networks.

Therefore, a person must protect their identity at every turn, at every update, and every choice they make on the social network. This is because every choice that a person makes on the social network is a choice that causes them to have more privacy or less privacy. It is all up to the user, but the user must make a choice at every turn.

In closing, a person who manages their social media privacy and understands that they must protect their identity online is a person who spends less in a year than their counter part who does not think about this fact. The social media systems will always push for more and more information about a person on the social networks. Therefore, a smart social media user is aware of this fact and manages their privacy at the post level.

Youths And Social Networking   Why Privacy Is the Key Against Social Bullies and Identity Thieves   

How Valuable Are Your Online Friends? Does the Time Spent In Social Networking Really Pay Off?

What is the value of a friend on Facebook? Did you know there are some companies that will provide you with fake virtual online friends for price? I'm not sure what they are charging these days, maybe it's 10 for $10, and you get the 11th one free? That seems pretty silly doesn't it? Okay so let's talk about all these topics for second shall we?

Not long ago, someone mentioned to me after reading an article I'd written on this topic that he'd noticed an interesting trend in our society with regards to online "friends" on social networks. He stated; "The more acquaintances you can amass, the greater the chance you will have someone to turn to in need."

Now then, I understand the concept of amassing "friends" online to network and improve the chances of getting help in time of need. Maybe that's why so many people wish to be my friend? I hate to think that everyone contacting me "wants something" but alas that is the mentality of so many folks - they want a stimulus, food stamps, a new job, or some gift from the gods, such as the old fat mean-spirited lady who reads romance novels where an ultra-rich, good looking, muscular hunk rescues them from mundaneness. I just see this sort of nonsense as counter-productive and much akin to playing the lottery, after all if one amasses enough lottery tickets they are bound to eventually win? I see it all as petty, and quite telling of society's mentality.

Okay so, you might indeed see it differently, in fact, you might be all in when it comes to getting friends on Facebook or your other social networking websites. If that's your goal to amass the highest number of friends to surpass your other friends (real or imaginary), and therefore find self-validation, then go for it. Who am I to tell you what your life's goals should be? To each his own I say. Nevertheless, one could ask the question; is this even healthy for human societies, not just here the United States, but everywhere else in the world as well.

There are over 1 billion people on Facebook alone, and even if 10% of those people are make believe and bogus profiles that still leaves 900 million people and that is a large percentage of the Earth's population. Not only that, but Facebook is hardly the only social networking website online. Why not do a self-study, why not ask all your friends on your social networking site to help you with some important project that you have or to send you money. How many of those friends that you have would be so inclined to help you?

You probably haven't asked anyone for help so far on your social networking site, so this would be a new thing. Indeed, many individuals believe that amassing friends is a smart way to go in case these individual users are ever in need. Of course, accumulating friends in advance to ask them for something is not a very friendly thing to do, is it? What happened to self-reliance? I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

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Social Profile Pictures Must Match What Other People Say About You

The online world is littered with pictures of people. Everywhere you look there are headshots of people on their Facebook page or on their Twitter profile or over at LinkedIn. Bloggers usually have their faces at the top of the page somewhere and on company websites you can find mugshots of workers. The faces of millions look out at you from the web.

There is plenty of research which shows, for instance, that your profile pictures should show you smiling if you want people to think you are young or that visitors decide whether or not to follow you based on your head and shoulders image. But it is not quite that simple.

New research shows that there is also the issue of "congruency". Do the comments made by other people on your Facebook page, for example, match the kind of person you say you are in your profile - and also are consistent with your picture. In other words, your profile visitors take an holistic approach, looking at your headshot and deciding whether or not you are as attractive as they think you might be based upon the comments other people make.

As an example, think of a profile picture which shows an individual as a smiling, happy relaxed person, yet the profile is rather business like and formal and all the comments are full of "business-speak". The text and the pictures do not match, there is no congruency between them and so the individual becomes less attractive to the visitor.

The problem is worsened when there are "social cues" in the picture. Some people include objects or backgrounds which show the kind of person they are. For example, the fun-loving surfer may have their surf board in the background or actually be surfing. Yet if the comments made by other people do not relate to surfing, the individual is deemed less attractive to follow.

What this research really means is that you need to be careful about the pictures you use for your profiles and you need to ensure that they "go with" the text you use and the comments other people make on your profile page. Otherwise you are less likely to attract more friends or get more followers.

The research also shows that people take into account what other people say about you over and above what you say in your own profile. So even if your profile words match your picture if the comments other people make do not then you are deemed less attractive.

Youths And Social Networking   Why Privacy Is the Key Against Social Bullies and Identity Thieves   

What You Need to Know About File Sharing

Cloud services might be one of the biggest advancements that has ever happened to online productivity. This because cloud services allow a business owner or business person to work wherever they are, without needing to carry around a external hard drive. This means that the business owner is faster on their feet and has access to the files wherever they need them; they are much more productive in the coffee shop or in the office because they do not have to worry about accessing the files as long as they have an Internet connection. Once an entrepreneur has an Internet connection and a file sharing system they are highly productive wherever they are at that moment.

However, the problem with most cloud services is that privacy is an issue. The truth about the cloud services is that most of the companies do not charge very much for use of the system. This means that the company is not making their money off the front-end membership. Where they are making the money is with advertising from third parties. Is an attractive model to the third-party advertisers because the cloud services know a lot about their customers.

What the cloud services do is scan the files that the user uploads to the system and then they make determinations about what products and services would do well if sold to those users. They send sell the advertising space to these advertisers and they make money off the revenues from that system. This is not unlike social media where the draw social media is the interaction between people. However, where social media makes its money is selling the advertising within the system. Therefore, the cloud services are following this business model to make money in the cloud service game.

This means that a company or user's information is not truly private. The unfortunate part about this is that most people do not realize that their information is not private on the systems. Therefore, they give up a lot of their privacy on the systems without realizing that they are doing it. The Cloud will scan the files in figure out what services would make sense or be advertisers to sell. Even though the cloud services are cheap, they could end up costing the user more in the long run because of the advertising being sold to them and their specific needs.

Obviously, the answer to this problem is to be careful about what information is loaded onto the cloud-hosted service. The user is always in control of what information is posted to the service and therefore they are our always in control of what advertising they see on the cloud-hosted service. Therefore, it is smart to figure out what kinds of information should be loaded onto the system before the user starts using the system. This will influence what type of ads they will see on the system and how targeted those ads are to them personally.

Youths And Social Networking   Why Privacy Is the Key Against Social Bullies and Identity Thieves   

Why Sales People Need Social Networking Platforms Built For Business

Social networking for business purposes is very necessary for people who work in the business-to-business world. Social networking allows a sales representative to increase their pool of possible clients because they are not tied to their physical location. This is an important distinction that cannot be ignored. A sales person has to pitch their services to as many people as possible and the ability to pitch their services globally is very important.

A business person or sales representative has to network to expand their network or possible clients and contacts constantly. These people must keep their "hopper" full of possible clients at all times. There is no better way to do that then to expand their network via the social networks. A business person only has to find the like minded people in a category to find new prospects. They can begin to develop a relationship with them right on the spot. There is no waiting for a meeting, the only thing that a business person needs to do is make the introduction and start the process of getting to know the other party.

Sales person may also need immediate access to their colleagues while they are traveling around the town and outside of the country. Social media is a way that they can stay connected with their peers and continue to work uninterrupted. This access allows a sales representative to have smoother presentations and to be able to course correct a presentation when it goes off track. This allows for a high degree of personalization that will help the business and sales representative close more sales and generate more revenue.

A business owner will also be able to keep in contact with this sales representative even when out of the country. Changes in the marketing system or to the product are relayed through the system with lighting speed. This means that a sales person never has to feel out of the loop again, they are immediately notified of changes to a product on the spot on the social networking platform.

If the platform allows file sharing, then they can be given the new materials on the spot and their presentation will be adjusted on the spot to account for the new paradigm. A sales person can also show a personalized message from the business owner if the business owner creates one and sends it through the server. This can generate goodwill for a business and their business partners.

In conclusion, sales representatives stand to gain the most from the use of social networking systems built for business purposes. These people will always have a connection to the home office and contact with anyone that they need to speak with at the speed of the internet. This speed helps a business streamline their processes and sell more products. A sales person who uses these systems will have greater confidence when asked to present their products to outside businesses. Therefore, they will be more efficient at presenting and selling the products and services of a business. The use of social networking platforms allows any business to sell more and generate more revenue.

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Importance Of Social Media Marketing Campaigns In Online Marketing

With the emergence of social media as a tool for marketing, it has opened new gateways for the businesses to reach their target audience. We all are aware of the fact that most of the individuals use social networking sites in order to remain in contact with their friends and relatives. They not only communicate with their friends and relatives but also use it as a tool for searching various products of their requirements. It is due to this fact that most of the organizations use these online tools to promote their products and services in the market. An effective social media marketing campaign can help you to a great deal in reaching the potential customers. These social media campaigns offer numerous benefits to the organizations.

Reach targeted customers Now social sites like YouTube and Facebook are widely used for conducting business searches. Therefore, it is necessary that your website gets listed on the first page of the search results. It is similar to that of search engine ranking. In order to make your presence you need to use most effective tags related to your business. A search using these tags can help you in reaching new customers as well as the segment targeted by you.

Enhanced awareness of your offerings Social sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube serve as an effective tool to promote your products and services and create awareness among the individuals regarding the products and services offered by your business. Your marketing campaign for this process can include video and articles posting, linking your business page to your official website, placing the URL of your site on various social sites etc.

Generate more traffic Using the social media tools, you can direct more and more customers towards your site. This can be done by placing the link of your business site on various social media pages. The main reason behind this is that customers generally visit the official site of the company if they are interested in the products and services offered by them. Hence, linking your site to different social networking channels can bring in more customers.

Increase Revenue The main motive of the business organizations is to generate huge revenue. Implementing effective strategies can help you in achieving your goals. Using the social media tools you can efficiently reach the potential customers and generate benefits by increasing the traffic on your site. This can also enhance the conversion rate of the customers.

Most of the enterprises have their own social media marketing team that works on each and every aspect of the campaign including effective strategies to enhance the conversion rate of customers. They not only promote your product and services among the customers but also popularize your brand name. A reputed brand name attracts more customers towards it. After knowing the various benefits offered by social media marketing campaign, you should get connected to an online marketing service provider and get outstanding promotional strategies for your business. These tools have brought about a revolution in the field of marketing and promotion.

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Why Social Media Is Like a Muscle

Muscles only grow when a person works out. The same thing is true of social network privacy. A person will only have as much privacy as they put into the systems. This means that the cost of privacy is eternal vigilance. Eternal vigilance is never fun; therefore, many people are not willing to pay the price. Therefore, they have no privacy.

A person interested in privacy has to be on the lookout for information that reveals things about themselves. On the social systems, this means that they have to be careful about what they say on the systems. The social systems are looking to capture information bout their users every day and this means that they are in the process of collecting information about the user.

Social media systems have to collect this information about their users because this information is the only asset they have in their businesses. They usually do not charge for use of their system, therefore, they cannot make money with that avenue. They must sell the information that they collect about their users.

To be completely honest, this is a lot of information about the user. This is because the social media systems have somehow made it so that the users will reveal everything about themselves on the social media systems. This is the main slide of hand that the social media systems have accomplished. This is usually accomplished through the guise of security.

Ideally, a person and a few trusted people would know the birth place and birth date of a user. Therefore, this information can prove that a person is who they say they are, and this makes it a very good security measure for most systems. However, this information is collected for the social media system's use.

Therefore, what was a security measure is actually being used to make a person have less privacy. A measure that was meant to give a person security is actually being used to take away a person's privacy. The very thing that they were striving to protect, if this is not an oxymoron, then there are no oxymorons.

What is even worse is that most of the social programs show this information to anyone who happens to pass by the user's profile. This means that any person (friend, family, or enemy) that wants to see that person's birthday only has to visit their profile by default. The social media systems do not protect this information well enough and this one fact could cause a person to experience identity theft.

A person must weigh the use of the social system against the amount of privacy they give up from using the systems. This means that a person must be very careful about how they use the social media system (or search engine) if they decide that the trade off is worth the risk. This is the only way that a person can make an intelligence decision on whether or not they should use social media systems in the future.

Youths And Social Networking   Why Privacy Is the Key Against Social Bullies and Identity Thieves