G.E.M.S. (Global E-Marketing Soultions) - Weekly Tech Tips- For Social Networking San Diego

Is Social Media Marketing all that complicated or is it actually quite simple?

ktacsocal@gmail.com (Keith) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:45:00 +0000

Social Media Marketing is most certainly the latest Buzz term. Wise and proactive business owners are getting involved in Social Media and reaping the benefits of the Social realm for their business.

Is Social Media Marketing a complex undertaking?
I really do have to ask myself is Social Media all that complex or is it actually quite a simple undertaking?

To answer that lets start by taking a look at the word Social

Source: Dictionary.com

1. pertaining to, devoted to, or characterized by friendly companionship or relations: a social club.
2. seeking or enjoying the companionship of others; friendly; sociable; gregarious.
3. of, pertaining to, connected with, or suited to polite or fashionable society: a social event.
4. living or disposed to live in companionship with others or in a community, rather than in isolation: People are social beings.
If I were to sum up what I take out of these definitions, I would say we are all Social by nature, as humans we enjoy and crave the company and interaction of others.

In a sense I suppose being Social is hard-wired into our DNA or psyche. If this is actually the case, we should be adapting to Social Media Marketing quite naturally. Therefore, does it take the learning of special skills? I don’t thinks so. To interact with others is as natural to humans as eating and breathing.

The Business / Social Mix
Now all that is just fine in a purely social environment, so Internet users who are catching up with old acquaintances and meeting new friends in an online social web space will naturally take to the social interaction online, However, when we add business to the social mix, we have a different perspective, it has passed from being just social to a social interaction between business and consumer and this is where the learning curve begins.

As a business owner I think one of the main perspectives we have to consider is the consumers. Businesses need to look at Social Media Marketing from the consumer’s perspective and act accordingly. This is not all that difficult because is some form we are all consumers.

I believe the best way to look at this is to consider how we as consumers react to the advertisements we are inundated with daily. Some of these advertisements are passive such as in the print media, they don’t really invade our space and therefore we don’t find them overly annoying.

However, some of the more intrusive methods of advertising such as Radio, TV and of course the Telemarketer seem to invade our space when we are taking time out to be with friends and family or in other words being social. How do you feel when the television volume goes up 20 decibels when the adverts come on, or consider your reaction when the Telemarketer phones at just the wrong time. I know that I have numerous feelings from annoyance to just plain old leave me alone.

Now is the time to take the lessons we learn from our personal life and integrate these into our Social Marketing plans and strategies. The most important lesson businesses need to learn to market efficiently in the online social environment is – Don’t invade the personal space.

In many ways the term marketing is not appropriate for how businesses should be interacting with consumers in an online social environment. A few basic considerations in the social business approach will have a significant impact on the success or failure of the Social Marketing initiative.

Listen: Social Media offers the ideal opportunity for businesses to listen to the consumer. Again consider this in your own social interactions. Take into consideration how you feel when the person you are talking to is actually listening to what you have to say. Then consider how you feel when that same person keeps interrupting to get their point across without considering what your opinion.

Participate: Social Marketing is accomplished in a group environment and participation is a prerequisite to success. Again look to your own Social experiences, a conference or business dinner. Who is paying attention to the person who sits in the corner to shy or otherwise to participate?

Be Helpful: Assisting consumers and others in an online Social community garners the same respect and goodwill as it does in your own Town or City. Consider the local charity groups and volunteers in your community. Are these people not generally appreciated, respected and receive the general good will of the community?

Be Yourself: We are who we are, and our characteristics regardless of our interactions being online or offline do come through all the other clutter. Online Social communities are no different than our offline social outlets, it is never difficult to differentiate between the genuine people and those who are not quite what they appear to be.

Social Marketing It’s Human Nature
In conclusion what do we have to learn to participate as a business in the Social Media Realm? I don’t think we have much to learn at all. We have been learning all our life and if we just stop for a moment to consider how we ourselves feel in various real world social situations or through our past social experiences we will find success and enjoyment in our business social media endeavors.

I think to some extent Business Owners will be able to use social media for business up to a certain extent. To have all of these social media sites tie to together and feed together is no easy task. It all comes down to how much time can they put towards this and if the Business owner doesn't have the time due to the fact that he/she must operate their core business everyday then this is why they outsource the time needed for building business relationships online to companies like ours. We have seen it move to the point where our company is creating jobs and our clients are bringing on personal just to work with our company and filter the social media sites that have been flooded with inbox leads to reply to and build that business relationship. We are becoming the re-designing virtual online marketing department in big firms and restructuring organizations for this new online marketing approach attached to their already in use offline marketing, (cold calls, telemarketing, B2B Marketing, TV ads, Newspaper ads, Direct Mail, E-mail blasting) and so on. I hope this answers your question and I'm trying to give you the most realistic that I've seen happen in my company and the trends that are happening regarding Social Media for Business.

Regards,
Keith Tacla
Vice President
Social Networking San Diego
http://www.socialnetworkingsandiego.com
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ktacsocal

1st Annual Career Connection Night - April 28th (Clarke Field House, Grand Salon - 6:30 to 9:00pm)

ktacsocal@gmail.com (Keith) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 05:51:00 +0000

Join the MIS Society, the Global Supply-Chain Management Society, and the Cal State San Marcos Career Center for the finale event of the semester! Come connect with over twenty different sponsors, discover intern opportunities, and network with fifteen of San Diego’s premier companies! This event has limited seating so RSVP now, business attire is required, and we will have catered food service!

Mark your calendar and RSVP here for Career Connection Night.

Hello you can make it out there and I hope to network with you all at the event.

Regards,

Keith Tacla
Vice President
Social Networking San Diego
http://www.socialnetworkingsandiego.com

Outbound vs. Inbound Marketing

ktacsocal@gmail.com (Keith) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 20:01:00 +0000

Are you one of the millions of companies out there today that are using Outbound Marketing Methods for lead generation? Well, have you ever thought about getting involved with a Social Media company that handles the Online approach to marketing attached to your already existing Offline marketing attack for your business.

Business owners are banging their heads against the wall hating their salary paid job that consists of cold calling new prospects, B2B marketing, and going to networking events and kissing the butts of other white collar executives just to get a card and this leaves you never being able to contact that person again. You job is to bring new business in and, leaving you frustated and looking for a better way to market thier business is always a challenge.

Today, things are changing and the way we ALL do business is slowing changing around using the internet for building business relationships for marketing purposes. With close to a billion users online do you think it may be time to look into a Internet Marketing Campaign for your business? These people are online waiting to be marketed to and you should look into being the company that takes to first mover advantage or your competitor will take the spot over you as time goes on. All you need to do is put yourself out there before you competition locks you out!

“I can personally guarantee our TEAM @ SNSD can increase your website ranking (grade) and increase traffic to your website in 90 days or less if you sign-up with us on one of our internet marketing packages and follow our recommendations and actually net-WORK on-line”

-JustinRFrench CEO Social Networking San Diego

Like any marketing plan building your online presence takes time and as a business owners may know their competitors in the real world but, what about the virtual world? Typically in about 8 months our clients see a inbound, pre-qualified lead generation system where you ONLY interact with those who contact you first.

Staying in the office and using social media websites to build business relationships is what companies are doing to stay alive in 2009 and, they attach it to the Offline marketing their currently doing. They know it's becoming important to build a presence online and my company teaches these employees how to make business relationships online at a rapid rate and in the least amount of time, with our traffic driving system behind them.

Social Media companies are hiring for blogger and site controllers for businesses all over the globe and, this is bringing small to mid-size businesses back to life with new lead generation system. Job creation is a powerful thing and helping to get people employed or, at the least give them some kind of opportunity is our company goal in this down economy.

Here a video is my Business Development days that better explains what we do:

Give me a call and we can discuss if your company would be a good fit for an Online Marketing Campaign and needs help with branding your company name online,

Keith Tacla
Vice President
Social Networking San Diego
ktacsocal@gmail.com
http://www.socialnetworkingsandiego.com

Is It Worth It To Create SEO Links In Social Bookmarking Sites?

ktacsocal@gmail.com (Keith) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:51:00 +0000

This is a guest post from Chung Bey Luen. The writer blogs about SEO and traffic attraction tips at BlogHighlight (http://www.bloghighlight.com). His goal is to help you achieve what you want by driving quality and targeted traffic to your website.

Are the links in social bookmarking sites have SEO value? Do their worth our time to create SEO links on those sites? My answer is yes and no, and it depends on how you value the link on social bookmarking site.

Link Juice
----------

Social bookmarking has been exist in the market for quite a number of years and they did change their rules over these period of time. One of the change they implemented is stop giving link juice to the web pages submitted.

Since some of the social bookmarking sites do use nofollow link attribute, for sure this will discount the SEO value of the link as Google does not follow the link and does not give the link juice to your web page.

For those bookmarking sites that still use dofollow link attribute, it will help to increase total number of inbound links and link popularity. Ultimately this will result in the increment of your search engine rankings.

If the social bookmarking you are using is specifically for your niche, then Google will give more weight on these type of links because the bookmarking site and your website have some sort of relevancy.

Search Engine Rankings
----------------------

If you are planning to use social bookmarking soley to increase search engine rankings of your web pages, I would say it may not achieve what you want. The reason is to achieve high rankings you are required to build a quite number of inbound links especially for those highly competitive keywords.

But the listings in social bookmarking sites do have great natural SEO value due to the authority of the sites. Your social bookmarking pages have great chance to be ranked highly on search engines.

Traffic
-------

There is no doubt that social bookmarking listing can send you tons of quality traffic no matter from search engines or social bookmarking site itself. You can make use of these traffic to increase your sales or convert them into your loyalty readers.

Social Profile
--------------

Futhermore, social bookmarking profile pages can still send some nice juice to the website linked from that page. People tends to know who is the guy behind the listings and want to find out more. Setting up social profiles with image and interesting introduction is always good for branding, no matter it is personal branding or business branding.

Conclusion
----------

In summary, if you plan to use social bookmarking soley from a link building perspective, I would say this has limited effects. But for overall SEO, brand building and traffic generation, social bookmarks do hold a great deal of value and well worth your time.

Need help getting the right SEO package contact Social Networking San Diego @ (760) 500-6043 for more info or visit http://www.socialnetworkingsandiego.com

SOCIAL NETWORKING SAN DIEGO QUICKLY EXPANDING - NOW HIRING MOTIVATED SALES REPS & AFFILIATES. A GREAT WAY TO TAP INTO YOUR NETWORK AND MAKE $$$$

ktacsocal@gmail.com (Keith) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 21:18:00 +0000

As you know, businesses need help with online marketing. We on Linked-In are ahead of the curve (those of us on twitter even more so)

Social Networking San Diego is signing up MANY businesses (locally and globally) on our proven internet marketing systems and looking to reward those who contribute to the movement.

Here are the Details of the Affiliate Program:
1. You must be able to pre-qualify interested businesses on Social Networking San Diego Internet Marketing Services (see website for details- http://www.socialnetworkingsandiego.com/ they must have a minimum of 1000$ online marketing budget to start.

2. Once the prospected company becomes interested, you need to help schedule the in-depth assessment to better understand their current marketing budget/ plan moving forward with social networking. (this 500$ is a necessity because we have to put on our Business Consulting hat for hours to better understand their goals, objectives, products, services, etc. this is CRITICAL to the success of the program)

3. Any clients you help sign up on one of our internet marketing packages you will get 10% per Month for the LIFE of the client!

4. You must get the prospects interest, educate them on why they need to start some type of internet marketing program or be left in the dust, and help sign them up

5. Just a Referral- Any business you can refer to us that is interested in forming a proper internet marketing strategy around their business model, we will give you 250$ just for the referral (it MUST turn into an ACTUAL paying customer to qualify)

Any Questions- Call me directly at 760-717-5908
PLEASE only interested affiliates/ alliances at this time I am VERY pressed for time- thanks

Blellow: Like Yammer meets LinkedIn Meets Twitter In A Way That Makes Sense

ktacsocal@gmail.com (Keith) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:27:00 +0000

Blellow: Like Yammer meets LinkedIn Meets Twitter In A Way That Makes Sense

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Interview on Entrepreneur Magazine

ktacsocal@gmail.com (Keith) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:05:00 +0000

The question: How Does Internet Marketing Work? What Do You Do?

Keith Tacla states, “Were using social media sites like Facebook, Myspace, and, Twitter to just name a few, and a bunch of other social media sites to blog about your products or services with the objective of building business relationships online. Then once you’ve created followers at a large scale, a pack if u will. These followers become brand ambassadors for your company. They are going to sell your services for you and, that’s what it's about! It’s like me explaining to you how to make friends and, we all know there is a process to that and, online there are ways of making friends fast and effectively for your business and this is where we come in to help you. It’s just like going to a networking event where you may make a few business relationships while talking with people. Afterwards, you still need to follow-up and keep building the relationship with them. The same process in used online except imagine instead, one interaction can turn into 10,000 interactions with a quick click of a mouse on a structured Social Media Website Internet Marketing Strategy.”

Keith continues, “Were specialists in making friends online and, building communities online, these communities have your website/billboard shining outside their home everyday. Soon they are almost forced to, if not DO business with you, then at least they will check your company out and tell one of their friends about what you have to offer. You need to know how to put your website/billboard in Times Square NYC instead of a Corn Field in Iowa. Location, this is what we can help you do with building virtual traffic roads to your website. These communities are going to come together and, this is creating search and it's that simple. People TRUST their friends and if a potential client TRUSTED what you have to offer they will do business with you. They may not TRUST your company website by a quick browse but, they TRUST they're friends' recommendations on what companies are good.”

Keith concludes, “We are pre-qualifying your clients on your products and services before they call so, they already know what they want from you without any selling involved. Just like the selling method I use to have businesses owners understand this concept and, how much they need the power of the Internet to market for them to grow their companies. Now extracting the right friends and groups you find online is where we help you to tie everything together so it’s the most efficient for your company and once structure the monetary results will follow.”

Twitter, Business, and Social Networking Quote of The Day

ktacsocal@gmail.com (Keith) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:14:00 +0000

I know everyone is busy (as am i) but i wanted to answer 1 very important question I'm hearing everyday:

A small business customer quote:
"So Justin, what is social networking, internet marketing, and this whole twitter thing? How can it help my business? Do i need to look into it?"- prospect

My response: YES! if you want to be in business in the next couple of years you should!

Here's the basic formula for those Math whizzes (im not a numbers guy so bear with me)

Internet marketing strategists = helping businesses build relationships on the Internet = building your brand (marketing your products and services online) appropriately - one tweet at a time"

Social Networking = More Search = More Business!

Then i direct them to my blog talk radio appearance which explains the paradigm shift here: Listen To My Radio Appearance

Or if your a client considering social networking for your business this video explains it fairly simple:

get tweeting today!

Need Twitter Training? Contact us we are here to help support the business community

“What is Social Networking San Diego Justin?"
Social Networking San Diego supports and educates businesses on the value and growing trend in social networking, social media, and internet marketing for business. This trend in social networking and social media for business has been packaged together for local business to use as a proven internet marketing system and online advertising strategy to focus on lead generation and drive more pre-qualified traffic to company websites.

- cheers
JustinRFrench

The Future of Advertising Using the Internet For Small Business

ktacsocal@gmail.com (Keith) — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 22:27:00 +0000

The Future of Advertising, APA, 17/02/09

View more presentations from John v Willshire. (tags: communities social)

7 Top Reasons LinkedIn is a Must Have for Your Business

ktacsocal@gmail.com (Keith) — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 06:16:00 +0000

7 Top Reasons LinkedIn is a Must Have for Your Business

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ktacsocal@gmail.com (Keith) — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 03:12:00 +0000

social networking, t Inbound Marketing Will Save Small Business: Inbound Marketing Will Save.. http://ping.fm/v13lS

ktacsocal@gmail.com (Keith) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 08:50:00 +0000

the TRUE face of twitter http://ping.fm/CitGy :)

Twitter defined in 1 sentence/ tweet

ktacsocal@gmail.com (Keith) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 02:56:00 +0000

twitter def. "on demand/ real time virtual networking grp where you share info./ strategies w/ other like-minded professionals"- justinrfrench

The TRUE Power Of Your Social Network

ktacsocal@gmail.com (Keith) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 09:40:00 +0000

To all my Followers, Friends & Family,

I received an unexpected call last week. To my Amazement, I was selected as a Top 10 finalist for the Blackberry & AT&T's small business owners contest! WOW! As many of you know, not only am I on a mission to re-define the business world by using social media/ social networking, but I actually want to win the contest!

Vote For Me HERE

I know you all are very busy, but I wouldn't ask you to do anything unless you got something out of it of course, so here is an incentive to all of you in my network:

You all know how how hard I've been working at building my business & network up over the last 7 years, so if you vote for me and I win, I will raffle off and give away FREE 1 of the blackberry's to a lucky person who is in my network!

I want to make a statement to the World- that social networking, building relationships, always having passion for what you do, and being transparent is the new way to conduct business.

So please help he win this contest and demonstrate the power of my network- built around you of course!

Thanks Everyone- cross your "twittering" fingers We win!
twitterholic justinrfrench

Vote For Me HERE

Vote For Me HERE

HOW TO: Live Inside Twitter and Still Stay Productive

ktacsocal@gmail.com (Keith) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:58:00 +0000

HOW TO: Live Inside Twitter and Still Stay Productive
This is an insightful post on how to work full time on twitter and get full time results in your business :) keeping yourself productive, organized, and achieving goals

5 keys to twitter success for small businesses on the internet

ktacsocal@gmail.com (Keith) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 07:01:00 +0000

Seth Godin- Social media/ social networking expert always does short blog posts so I figured I would have a shot at it. I am often asked, “So twitterholic justinrfrench, what are the key factors you would suggest to fellow entrepreneurs & business owners so here are my top 5 CURRENT recommendations:

1. Business & Tech- Being both knowledgeable in the foundations of Business & Information Technology can be a huge benefit to any business owner.

2. Transparency- Try to be more transparent as a business owner- just tell your story online and watch who listens. You will be amazed.

3. Great Communication- but being able to have creative & meaning behind your communication is even more important.

4. Organization- is key. If your business life is disorganized, you may be missing out on business opportunities

5. People- Pay it forward- always give back to your community, fiends, and clients. You will go a lot further this way and remember to have full transparency.

Please subscribe to our new blog here which is dedicated strictly to social networking and social media for business

p.s. here’s a SPECIAL REWARD video challenge to my followers on Twitter that will pay you back ten fold I promise!

Follow me on these social networks:

Subscribe to our Social Media & Social Networking for Business Blog here: Subscribe here

Friend Feed Add me on Friend Feed

Twitter

You Tube follow me on you tube

Linked In click here

Top 5 Lessons Learned in January about Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter and Business

ktacsocal@gmail.com (Keith) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 06:29:00 +0000

Top 5 Lessons Learned in January about Social Media,
Social Networking, Twitter, and Business

With all of the current hype and news on Web 2.0, Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter, and the bailout, I take this time to reflect on this past month- January 2009. Lets all just take a deep breath, count to 3, and begin to realize how much information overload we really have; or the lack of proper filtering. I, justinrfrench break it all down for you here. I give you the full Entrepreneurial, Business Minded, Tech Guru, Social Media/ Social Networking addict, twitterholic synopsis with-out leaving your seat!

If there is one blog site you're going to read about the growing trends in social networking for business, internet marketing for business, social media for business, or any of the other Web 2.0 solutions for business then I HIGHLY suggest you keep reading this blog.

I would hope after reading this, you would be kind enough to pay it forward, re-tweet this blog, subscribe to this blog, and help spread the word about this revolution occurring because we have only touched the tip of the iceberg on what is to come from my team and I in the not to distant future. If you think Google, Apple, and Microsoft were big, wait till twitter, justinrfrench, and his followers get on the map! You won't want to miss this 21st century bailout we are giving businesses on a silver platter.

For all my fellow twitterholics, followers, alliances, and partners I have formed over the years, I dedicate my mission and personal journey to you. This year I will fully dedicate myself to being the driving force for spreading the word to all Southern California businesses to help educate, instruct, and consult their firms on how to best utilize a social media workflow system tailored around their company.

Here are my Top 5 Lessons Learned (in no particular order) of what you or your business can gain from my summary of the month on the above topics:

1. Lesson 1- Barack Obama has proven to be more of a leader than I thought. After even talking about setting a cap on CEO pay- he became my hero. MOST CEO's (not all) are over paid, under delivering to shareholders, and quite frankly do not know how to lead in today's 21st century and need a full makeover in upper management. Small businesses will be what gets us through these tough times as Obama states, so start finding how you can fit into this paradigm puzzle.

2. Lesson 2- Sign up and start using twitter right now! The best business social networking tool I've seen in the last 5 years! If you have not signed up on twitter, heard of twitter, or been active on twitter, then you are already behind. If you are a true business person, then you already know the importance of first mover advantage so I suggest you get on board. Just Google "twitter" and get going. If you need twitter training, instruction, or consulting on how to use twitter for business, I have teams of consultants that will come to your office and train, tutor, and educate you on the importance of twitter. After you sign up, make sure you follow me on twitter at CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW JUSTIN

3. Lesson 3- Is all this social media, social networking hype really for my business? I thought MySpace and Facebook were for teens and young adults. YES! If your business does not form some type of internet marketing strategy today then you will not be in business tomorrow. I guarantee I can think of one or two social media sites or social networking sites for business that will be beneficial in some way to growing your business.

4. Lesson 4- What is Social Networking San Diego, Why does my business need to know about this site, and how will it benefit my business? "Social Networking San Diego supports and educates businesses on the value and growing trend in social networking, social media, social marketing, and internet marketing for business. This trend in social networking and social media for business has been packaged together for local companies to use as a proven internet marketing system and online advertising strategy to focus on lead generation and driving traffic to company websites in turn generating new business."- justinrfrench

5. Lesson 5- What Social Media/ Social Networking sites does twitterholic justinrfrench suggest to lay the proper foundation for my business to start gaining a better presence online?
a. Twitter
b. Linked-in
c. Friend feed
d. Facebook
e. Word Press

I look forward to your comments, recommendations, or insight on this post- don't be shy. yours truly-
Fellow twitterholic justinrfrench

Social Networking 101 6.11.08

ktacsocal@gmail.com (Keith) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 03:05:00 +0000

Check out this SlideShare Presentation on social networking 101:

Social Networking 101 6.11.08

View more presentations from altamerc.

ktacsocal@gmail.com (Keith) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 00:17:00 +0000

Social Networking San Diego supports and educates businesses on the value and growing trend in social networking, social media, and internet marketing for business. This trend in social networking and social media for business has been packaged together for local business to use as a proven internet marketing system and online advertising strategy to focus on lead generation and driving traffic to company websites." www.socialnetworkingsandiego.com

Social Networking San Diego- Why social media needs to be part of your business strategy

ktacsocal@gmail.com (Keith) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 00:16:00 +0000

ktacsocal@gmail.com (Keith) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 00:15:00 +0000

ktacsocal@gmail.com (Keith) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 22:07:00 +0000

social networking, t How Can Social Networking Help My Business?: 1/24/09 response on blogge.. http://ping.fm/VM1QF

ktacsocal@gmail.com (Keith) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 10:15:00 +0000

The Future of Web Apps: 7 Things Companies Must Do to Succeed (http://ping.fm/G63ni)

ktacsocal@gmail.com (Keith) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 04:41:00 +0000

justinrfrench fellow twitterholic says "remember to always pay it forward- it will come back ten fold"

The difference between social media and social networking

ktacsocal@gmail.com (Keith) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 18:37:00 +0000

Social Networking San Diego Blog

by Andrea Hill on December 18, 2008 · 4 comments

in featured, social media

When the New York Times infers that social networking helped Barack Obama get the most powerful job in the world, you know there is a serious paradigm shift underway.

So when you decide your organization needs some of this “social stuff” for your own, how do you know what to ask for?

The social part is easy. You know you want a way for people to connect. Hopefully they’ll talk about your organization and your fantastic products and services. But what’s the difference between social media, and social networking? What do you need?

Social media is still media: a means to transmit information. The difference is that social media offers the opportunity for anyone to create or disseminate the information.

Social networking refers to people with some shared characteristics associating together, and social networks or social networking sites are where this happens.

We don’t think of television or radio as places; they are channels for communication and we can access the information at our home, in our car, or at our favorite sports bar. The message may be pervasive: it isn’t tied to a specific location. It is the message that is primary. Media isn’t a place.

Networking tends to be more context-focused. When we speak of social networking sites, we speak of Facebook or mySpace. In real life, we may think of where we like to spend our time: the golf course, the gym, the local starbucks. We may go to these places because of the people and the atmosphere, because it gives us the opportunity to engage with others with similar interests or experiences.

Do you want to create a radio station, or a coffee shop? Do you want to offer people an easier way to spread your message, or do you want them to hang out? Don’t worry, it’s not that easy a question to answer. It depends on what you want to accomplish, and who your audience is and what THEY want to accomplish. But getting comfortable with these concepts is a first step towards social success!

by Andrea Hill on December 18, 2008

Insight from twitterholic justinrfrench 1-31-08

I have long been asking myself this question and thanks to Andrea's article, this really helps me clarify the difference between social media and social networking. Some of our clients usually ask the same thing too (if they are even savy enough to know what social networking or social media is )

now when i think of social networking- i think of twitter and how twitter has become a business tool. twitter for business and its power has become a focus of mine and i want to educate the masses on the power of twitter and its limitless possibilities. on another note- we have just put together a new blog that focuses JUST on social networking for business! This phenomenon is so new, and there is a large educational shift that traditional business people must realize. You all asked for it, so you all got it! thanks to all my followers, i am dedicating the social networking san diego blog here:
Social Networking San Diego Blog to you. i will see you all soon on twitter- please follow me and subscribe to the new blog

twitterholic justinrfrench
Social Networking San Diego Blog