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Social Media Usage Trends And Facts

Thomas Oppong — Tue, 22 May 2012 09:16:25 +0000

Internet usage is growing at a phenomenal rate across all continents. The interesting revealation is that a lot more people are gradually shifting internet access from laptops to portable mobile devices (smartphones and tablets). Popular among sites accessed are social sites. EMarketer predicts there will be a whopping 1.43 billion social network users in 2012, representing a 19.2 percent increase over 2011 figures. This figure could just be the beginning. With the increase in smartphone and tablet usage among internet consumers, the numbers are bound to grow at an amazing rate. Social media is here to stay.This offers opportunities for small businesses and companies that are targeting internet consumers.

Broadband service providers will witness a surge in consumer subscriptions. Companies will keep offering competitive packages to attract the greater percentage of mobile(tablet) internet users. Public(airport, train stations, business streets) WiFi service providers are now thinking of strategic ways to offer mobile internet to tablet users without internet subscription packages.

Facebook is now a public company and a few social services including the fastest growing social network Pinterest could go public in the future as well. Millions of people are now very confident to share personal images and data online with friends and even strangers. Klout, a social platform on authority of digital influence attempts to to help individuals and businesses figure out how influential they are in their social space.

Businesses are beginning to treat social channels more like communication platforms. Social media has become an integral part of customer support. Businesses are now listening and taking feedback from the millions of their prospective customers and customers on social media sites. “While seniors are testing the waters, many Baby Boomers are beginning to make a trip to the social media pool part of their daily routine.” said Senior Research Specialist and report co-author Mary Madden.

Now some social media facts:
-Twitter encountered 16,000 tweets per second in January 2012, almost doubling that of the start of 2011.
-Users spend a total of 6.7 billion hours on social networks towards the close of 2011.
-82% of the worlds online population are using social media networks, boasting 1.2 billion users.
-In December 2011 Pinterest became one of the top 10 largest social networks with 11 million visits per week.
- Youtube records 2 billion views per day.
- Over 250 million photos are uploaded to Facebook every day.

Ignoring Social Media Platforms Could Cost You Millions

Guest Author — Wed, 09 May 2012 21:07:31 +0000

Facebook has become nearly synonymous with social media marketing. If you don’t have a presence on Facebook, the general consensus is that you are either completely out of the loop or you just don’t really want to succeed, maybe both.

The same could be said of Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and more recently, Pinterest. These platforms make up the pillars of any social media campaign, and most would say that a campaign lacking in any one of these platforms is a campaign doomed to fail.

While the common wisdom about these social media platforms isn’t misguided or wrong, it does leave out one very important platform — one nearly as old as the internet itself, and one that could have an extraordinary impact on your marketing success:

Forums and message boards.

“But how are forums and message boards supposed to help me market?” It’s a fair question. After all, forums and message boards as rule forbid the kind of manipulative and artificial communications that most marketing campaigns employ.

But before you start scratching your head and grunting dismissively, consider this — the primary objective of any marketing campaign is to convince customers to buy your product. To get a customer to buy your product, you have to gain their trust. And to gain their trust you have to build a brand that seems trustworthy, which is where the manipulative and artificial marketing rhetoric usually comes in.

Ad campaigns, e-mail marketing, and a powerful social media presence are all effective trust builders, but word-of-mouth marketing from one customer to another trumps all the other initiatives combined every time.

Why are forums and message boards so important? They approximate word-of-mouth marketing.

There is no real substitute for word-of-mouth marketing, but the kind of trust that has been developed in forums and message boards is as close as you will ever get in the online community. People go to message boards and forums for advice, recommendations, and feedback, and they trust the other members of the message board. If you can establish a presence on forums and message boards, you can be a voice in the on-going discussion about products or services in your field, and with any luck, will lead people back to your site or product, with the trust that only a forum or message board can instill.

It’s a little strange, given how powerful message boards can be, that more marketers don’t make forums and message boards a part of their campaigns.

About the Author: This guest contribution was submitted by Samantha Gray, who specializes in writing about online bachelor degree. Questions and comments can be sent to: samanthagray024@gmail.com.

Learning To Embrace The Digital Invasion

Thomas Oppong — Tue, 01 May 2012 19:57:31 +0000

Are you moving too fast or too slowly in response to changing technology. A lot of people have embraced new technology in business, politics, medicine,education and everyday life. The faster you know what’s going on around you, the easier you can understand the age of digital invasion. But are all digital invasion good for your productive life. Staying up to date with digital trends and everything that’s going on in mobile and web technology and tech is almost impossible.

Digital experts and early adopters of popular blogs and news sites keep saying and asking, “You need a Facebook brand page for marketing! Why are you not on Twitter yet? Have you checked-in on Foursquare? Hurry up and get set up on Google+. Have your tried Pinterest? Have you installed the new mobile app? If you don’t get on social media, you and your business are missing out and loosing connections, leads or leads.

Gradually you are building your life around new technology and the digital invasion. The moment you wake up from bed, you cannot help but check your email or read new emails on your your smartphone. The rest follows naturally- Twitter updates, Facebook status, Pins, check-ins,Instagram photos and news just for you via Flipboard, Google Currents, News.me, Pulse, Zite etc. This goes on for most part of the day. Of course if you go to work you can take time at break times dive into your digital life.

You may have embraced Google, Email, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, personalized news and cannot live without them. Learning to embrace the digital invasion is faster with a smartphone. And gradually you cannot live without them. This very minute you are reading and learning about the new age of digital invasion. The next minute you will be checking your mail. You even get updates of incoming emails. You are very much used to emailing. But it doesn’t end there. You even want to be updated about all your social networks. You have either subscribed to signed up to a service that can update you consistently. Updates are not enough.

Human needs are insatiable, so you want to access each of the social networks separately. Check out what is new on Twitter or Facebook or Foursquare. Once a while you add your voice and share your knowledge with the rest of the world through a twit, a Facebook update, or a blog. That is what keeps the web with fresh news and updates. We are all a part of the the bigger web.

If you want to learn something new and you consider a lecture room too odd to embrace you embrace Google. Google is the new lecture theatre and everybody is a resource person. Google survives on what you and I honestly share online. Self education has come to stay. You can almost learn anything you want with a few keywords.

But the BIG question is-Have we become productive or unproductive with the emergence of new technology.

The Evolution of Online Marketing

Guest Author — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 11:56:59 +0000

Many companies attempt to hire their own online marketing staff and fail to achieve desired results due to lack of technical know how. Since the advent of the Internet, businesses have been harnessing the sheer potential of the powerful media to boost their sales and to increase awareness in the target market.

The methods have changed over the years due to new technologies and advancements that have paved the way for more collaboration in the global market place. Before the arrival of web 2.0, companies that wanted to market their products and services online used to rely on blogs and forums, article spinning, directory submissions and classified ads. Google ads were also being used to promote the brand name and products online. But with the new web 2.0 standards, the social media scene has really changed the way companies market themselves online. More companies are now relying on Facebook, Twitter, Four Squares, LinkedIn and YouTube to get a better return on their investment.

The social media scene is still booming with new sites cropping up each week that offer new functionalities that are useful for spreading the word to a larger and more focused market. Traditional and modern online marketing techniques involve organic search engine marketing which is always a top priority of companies seeking a front page presence for their major keywords. Preparing a website for high rankings in Google, Yahoo and Bing is quite a complicated process. Not everyone is familiar with all the Google algorithms, which is why it is important to find a good online marketing company that is an expert with all SEO procedures.

Previously, link farms used to help companies boost their ranks. But now Google algorithms have changed and it pays more credit to companies who do not use link farms and two way linking. It prefers more collaboration and likes a large social media presence for companies. The more fans you have on Facebook and the more Twitter followers you have, the more traffic you will get from these two resources. With more social media presence, Google will rank you higher as compared to other companies who do not have such a presence.

Google Panda is against syndicated text and article spinning is not so favored. These are now considered spammy ways and Google is going to put your keyword in the sandbox, if you continue to work with old methods to gain a better rank. Fresh content for all pages and fresh blogs are well appreciated by search engines. Attention needs to be paid to the anchor text and the landing pages as well. When you wish to start micro blogging make sure you use original text and do not repeat the same text time over again.

Building a Facebook fan page, a Google + page and Google circles helps build an online community. Google ads and Facebook ads bring a better return on investment. Gaining knowledge about the latest trend in online marketing is vital to the success of your online company. So choosing a good company is vital when it is time to market your products or services online.

About the author: Victor Daily is a tech blogger and freelance writer. His interests span from cloud computing and VPS to gadgets and gaming. He currently works for an IT consulting company in Brisbane as well as writing for several blogs and publications.

Camera Awesome App Is An Awesome Alternative To Instagram

Thomas Oppong — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:10:55 +0000

In the wake of Instagram’s acquisition by Facebook, lots of people are wondering about its future and what could happen to the most valuable photo sharing app of the moment. Facebook intends to maintain Instagram as it is, but that could change soon. Well there hundreds of photo sharing apps out there for both Android users and iPhone users as well. Camera Awesome is one of such alternative. The app has great camera enhancement functions that can give your images the best outcomes you seek.

Camera Awesome was downloaded more than one million times; it hit two million in less than a week. Camera Awesome takes your photos to the next level by shooting faassst and taking sharper, better-exposed shots. The app includes 36 free effects, including presets, filters, textures and frames. You can also trim or rotate your photo any way you like.You have the option to buy over 250 additional effects and throw your creativity into overdrive.

Tap once to upload photos and videos to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, SmugMug and Flickr. Or let auto-sharing do it for you, so you can focus on the next shot. The app’s video-recording feature can capture footage from five seconds before “Record” is turned on. SmugMug users get some extra benefits. All photos they take using the app can be automatically cloud-archived in SmugMug at full resolution.

You even havethe option to share images via Instagram’s photo sharing service. You can adjust sharpness, temperature, vibrance and contrast on a photo once it’s taken. The company is interested in adding support for Path, WordPress and Tumblr, CEO Don McAskill said on Twitter.

Facebook Acquires Another Startup-Tagtile, A Mobile Loyalty Program

Thomas Oppong — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 19:34:07 +0000

Facebook has acquired another startup-Tagtile, after its $1 billion acquisition of Instagram a few days ago. This is the second acquisition in single week.Tagtile helps local businesses identify, engage and increase repeat purchases from customers through a loyalty and direct marketing solution. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.

The Tagtile product consists of a custom hardware device, the Tagtile Cube, that merchants place at their cash counter. Users record their transactions at these businesses by tapping their smartphone against the Tagtile Cube, and get rewarded for being a loyal customer.

The Tagtile team made the announcement yesterday on its website and said:

Today, we are happy to announce that we are joining Facebook, and that they are acquiring substantially all of our assets. It’s a huge opportunity for us to take our goal – helping businesses grow – and do it on a much, much bigger scale than we could have on our own.

We won’t be taking on any new customers as of today, but the service will continue to work as is for now. We’ll be reaching out to customers directly once future plans are set, but Tagtile as it exists today won’t be part of what we do at Facebook.

We want to thank every business owner who used Tagtile and every user who downloaded the app. We’re excited by what lies ahead for us with Facebook, and are sure you will like what you see next.

Facebook Acquires Instagram For $1 Billion In Cash And Stock

Thomas Oppong — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 18:29:52 +0000

Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook has just acquired Instagram- the popular photo sharing app for approximately $1 billion in cash and stock. The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close later this quarter.

Instagram will remain an independent of Facebook. Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook has posted details about the transaction on his Timeline: It reads:

I’m excited to share the news that we’ve agreed to acquire Instagram and that their talented team will be joining Facebook.

For years, we’ve focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now, we’ll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.

We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram’s strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook.

That’s why we’re committed to building and growing Instagram independently. Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people.

We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience. We plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks, the ability to not share your Instagrams on Facebook if you want, and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from your friends on Facebook. Read more..

Best Social Networks – 3 of The Greatest For Business

Guest Author — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 18:35:49 +0000

A number of businesses unable to capitalize on the extraordinary power that is available through social media networks, however, other do not utilize this powerful means to its fullest utility. Both these attitudes are harmful to the well being of business because social media outlets are now more and more widespread in daily lives of consumers. Here are some of the reasons that explain the power of social networks to the advantage of your business.

Social media bind the power of mouth marketing. Work of mouth marketing is known as an effective advertising channel to numerous organizations, which sells effectively with the use of existing networks of reputation and trust for spreading the word of services or goods.
Social media networks have the power of directly engaging consumers. A business makes use of social networks for the initiation of conversations directly with interested people. This kind of direct engagement can allow you a personalization level or attention to the details, which may not evident with the competition, promoting the business of need of the consumers.
The social media networks offers lucrative promotion possibilities that is not available via other forms of media. It will help a lot to a business by interesting applications and programs of promotion rather than a simple banner of business promotion. These opportunities are possible by a number of rich media and social networking platforms that are available to today’s businesses.
This is an inexpensive means if the returns of it are well considered. Conventional channels of advertising are either limited in scope or are incredibly miss or hit making it a big mess. Participation of social media offers rich possibilities for the advertising of specific content. However, it also offers opportunities that are previously mentioned for the direct communication with the customers and provide them with direct information of advertising. These are the benefits of social media networks in this stiff competition of business.

The use of social networking sites can help a lot for the growth of your business. With the proper use, it also helps to get more traffic on website. For the best utilization of your crucial time, you must know the types of social networking websites that are available. Then, it will be easy for you to use the best one fitting in accordance with the needs of your business. Below are the three social networking sites that will be the greatest advantage to your business.

Facebook fan Page: Facebook has become a social networking hot spot with the ever growing population. The Fan pages in FB allow the person to ‘like’ the website or business that enables you to contact those persons in limited capacity.

Ning: This site is recently switched as a paid program. However, you can build your social networking website through it. You can create a site related to your business that helps your business promotion.

YouTube: it is a video sharing site, which allows the users to record video, comment, and other specific functions. You can create videos of your business and upload it on this website. This website is a very good means of your business promotion.

Summary: Social media network is a great platform for your business promotion. Using powerful social media networks will help you a lot in making your business successful.

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The Tragedy of Social Networking Sites

Guest Author — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 18:14:04 +0000

The dramatic success of social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus leave much to think about. What made them so popular? Are they really so good, so innovative, so well-made? Who knows? Tastes are different especially when the talk is about choosing among social networking sites like these giants. If you try to make clear which one of them is more acceptable, more suitable or more appropriate to your needs then be ready to spend long hours on this fussy question.

Facebook is good when you want to chat with your friends about any issue. It gives you the opportunity to express your long and awesome ideas, share the latest photos that you have had and the latest videos you have watched. It is really good for promoting your business. Now with its new Timeline you are able to tell your brand story to the Facebook society. It even makes possible to insert photos and videos, which is like advertising your company on TV without wasting your money. Though it was not enough for them and they decided to take up their own social search engine. This engine is not that advanced but it will be able to find which photo or video has the most “likes” and comments. Agree Facebook marketing seems perfect from which corner you look at it.

Twitter – a platform where every day thousands of people express their either stupid or ridiculous ideas. Among 140 characters Twitter users set everything that excites troubles or irritates them on their Twitter account. Twitter also allows you share video links. However this does not mean that you can’t find anything useful on Twitter. It is perfect for promoting your company. It allows finding people with the same business interest. In one word Twitter is good for business purposes.

Google Plus – this neatly deliberated and systematized network is Google’s awesome innovation which has come up to to make Facebook dreams gloomy and depressing. Its circles are splendid. It overtook Facebook on the context of circles. Differentiating people into friends, acquaintances, family etc is really witty. No wonder that this idea belongs to the Google. This eternal searching system will still open new ways for Google Plus, YouTube, Gmail etc.

So what can I add besides “Keep tight Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites! The Google campaign is not inclined to stop its progress. They will not stay in piece till they have not taken all the advantages from all of you”.

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Vitrue Launches Instagram Tab For Facebook Pages

Thomas Oppong — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 22:06:27 +0000

Vitrue, a social enterprise platform, today announced the launch of a new Instagram Tab module as part of its Vitrue Social Relationship Management (SRM) platform, providing marketers with the ability to seamlessly integrate Instagram photos within Facebook Pages.

Vitrue’s SaaS platform solution helps global brands and agencies manage their social relationships with consumers as well as deploy social marketing campaigns and communications that easily achieve scale with the ability to deliver hyper-targeted content at regional and local levels.

Vitrue’s Instagram Tab module is embedded within a brand’s Facebook Page and automatically pulls Instagram content – pre-defined by the brand – into a Tab view. The Tab view is presented in a consumer-friendly layout and incorporates the “like,” “comment,” and “share” functionalities, resulting in content being instantly shared across the Facebook environment.

Additionally, Vitrue will include a “voting” function within the module, enabling brands to conduct contests through Instagram photos on their Page.

Vitrue SRM platform collectively manages more than one billion social relationships in over 100 countries across more than 4,500 social accounts for its clients.