A number of the world’s biggest businesses and brands are using Twitter. Chances are, they’re also using Facebook. And their employees are using LinkedIn, to connect with other professionals. How do you, as a small business owner, set yourself apart from the competition? Obviously you’ll have to be more creative with leveraging social media, and with finding alternative platforms where you can engage with customers. You’ll have to seize overlooked opportunities for marketing, or create these opportunities where none exist. Start by knowing there are other social networking tools in town. Like Flickr, for example. Okay, so we can almost hear you say it. Flickr? Really? How do you use that for marketing? Um, isn’t Flickr a picture community for hobbyists and photographers and artists? Just like Vimeo is a video community? And doesn’t Flickr explicitly say that you can’t use the site for commercial purposes? All of the questions above have a point, but that doesn’t mean you can’t – Read the full article
Blogs have increasingly become valuable multimedia hubs where personal bloggers and companies provide information through all types of media in various categories of interest. When bloggers write posts and get them published, they expect readers to find them. The fact, however, is that your blog is one among millions of others – probably even hundreds of millions – existing in the Web universe. Instead of waiting to be discovered, you need to find a way of telling the world that you exist. The best way of doing this is to promote your blog to social media sites. Once your post is published at your ‘hub’, you should let your followers and fans find the post where they hang out. With more than 200 million Twitter users and about 800 million on Facebook, having your post promoted through social media is crucial in giving your blog much needed exposure. There are several major platforms where you can publish and enable people – Read the full article
I recently entered a contest to win a free ticket to the BlueGlass conference and I got really excited with the opportunity. As part of the comment I made a photoshopped image which shows Google telling them that I should be selected was the winner. So who deserves that ticket to the upcoming Blueglass TPA? I think I do and I want to tell you why and a little about myself. I met the AL team just a few months ago at Gangplank in Chandler, while in town for Startup Weekend. Chase sat down with for at least an hour to explain all the cool stuff the AL team was working on, explain how they were able to get accurate rankings and the fact that I have been a customer for a year, will make me a great brand ambassador while I am down in Florida. I would love the rep the AL while I am down there. I am – Read the full article
In mid-March, Google launched a social sharing tool called “+1.” Similar to the Facebook “Like”, +1 was added to search results to improve social relevance for users. It was noted last week that +1 will make its way across the Web in addition to (simply) search, with a widget that allows Web pages to allow +1 sharing. This will link Google profiles to content and websites, and the +1 now aims to put Google in a space where they have strived to be in for the past 5 years: social. Now, what exactly is +1? And why does it even matter? Essentially the +1 button is Google’s version of the “Like.” With hopes to capture a bit of Facebook market share, Google looks to take the world’s information and make it publicly available (according to their mission statement). So what does this mean for you? Well, besides the fact that it’s another way to draw traffic to your blog, the – Read the full article
Looking to get ahead of the social media marketing game? Sure, Facebook and Twitter are still the king and queen of this kingdom – just as reported in a recent StrongMail survey of online marketing budgets in 2011 – but the New Year also heralds a number of new social media darlings that are certainly worth keeping an eye on. Last year, it was Foursquare and Posterous leading the pack. This year is just as promising – if not more promising, thanks in large part to the continued expansion of social media and to the crazy range of new sites, apps, and startups out there. Here are our picks for social media websites to watch in 2011. Quora Last March 2010, Quora reportedly received $86 million in funding from Benchmark Capital (also a Twitter investor). It didn’t make any million-dollar noise the rest of the year, but this 2011 just might be the year Quora really makes waves. As a – Read the full article
Let’s face it: we post a huge amount of information on Facebook. It doesn’t even matter whether we’re using the hugely popular social network for business or for pleasure. They’re all there: status updates, photos, videos, notes, links, messages, apps, etc. Imagine if we suddenly lose all these tomorrow. So much social data, lost in a digital black hole. It would be like Yahoo! GeoCities all over again. Don’t let any unexpected turn of events mark the end of the world – or the end of your Facebook life. Because it won’t be, not with these great ways to download, store, and back up your Facebook data. (Hey, and while you’re at it, make sure you check out our recent guide on how to create a Twitter archive.) Facebook’s Download Your Information feature Not many users know about it, but Facebook has its own information backup tool, which you can access by going to your “My Account Settings”. (Check out – Read the full article
A free photo-centric social sharing app called Path was launched early this week by a familiar face in social media: former Facebook Platform Manager Dave Morin. Just don’t call it a social network, though. Path – unlike Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn – is being positioned as “the personal network”. According to its San Francisco-based founders, Path is the place where “you will always feel comfortable being yourself and sharing the story of your life with your closest friends and family via the photos you take every day with your mobile device.” Sounds like Facebook Photos or Flickr – but there is this twist: with Path, you can only have up to 50 members in your network. Fifty and no more. That’s right. At a time when Facebook users are sharing bits and pieces of their lives to up to 5,000 friends, and where people are tweeting all kinds of information for thousands and thousands of followers to see, Path is – Read the full article
It’s been around, but up to this day, when people think of Moo (at Moo.com), there’s a good chance they might associate it with domestic livestock. That’s why we here at Lakeshore Branding thought of outlining the top reasons why we love Moo, a great card creation service that doesn’t at all have anything to do with cows. Founded in 2004, Moo is basically an online print business, specializing in the creation of high-quality business cards and related products. The service is catered to businesses and professionals, but it is equally great for designers, freelancers, bloggers, photographers, and anyone else who has to personally introduce himself or herself in some form and situation to another human being. In short, Moo is for everyone. As a creative online communications agency, Lakeshore Branding is always on the lookout for great ideas and inspiration for the Web. But no matter how much we love the Internet, we still can’t put it in our – Read the full article
