Hello to all Social Media Vision readers, you may of known me as the previous writer and owner of Social Media Vision. I started the blog back in November 2008 and I had no idea how successful the blog would turn out so quickly. I got Google Page Rank 3 in less than a month and eventually got accepted into the AdAge Power 150 ranking.

As many might already know, I am no longer the owner of Social Media Vision as I am unable to keep up with the blog as I have new projects that I been working on. My vision for SMV was to have great articles on Social Media Marketing and I believe the new owner will do just that.

I hope to still see everyone in the Social Media Sphere and let’s give Garrett Pierson the new owner of SMV a warm welcome!

Sincerely Justin Williams

P.S. Find out more about Garrett Pierson – click here.

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Farewell Post by Justin Williams

I would like to introduce Garrett Pierson as the new owner and content provider of SocialMediaVision.com! If you don’t know Garrett here is a quick background:

Garrett Pierson has been helping individuals and businesses find “what it takes to be successful” in creating the life they deserve and business they desire by giving them the tools and techniques to make it happen.

He is Founder and President of New Generation Consulting LLC, a consulting firm specializing in search engine optimization, social media, website conversion, and success. Clients include Alex Mandossian, Global Marketing Strategies, Trust Guard, Webstarget, and many more satisfied clients worldwide.

Garrett has created software, training, and product services that give business owners the ability to drive targeted traffic to their websites and therefore obtain more sales and profits.

Garrett is author of the upcoming book “What Success Takes“, a print and audio book on “The Die Hard Principles of True Victory in Life, Business, and Soul.” This book includes 30 interviews of successful people such as Raymond Aaron, Michael Angelo Caruso, Carolyn Ellis, Noah St. John, Joel Comm, and many more.

Garrett is a family centered entrepreneur that lives his passion each and every day and it is his goal to help others do the same. To find out more about Garrett and his services visit http://www.garrettpierson.com today!

You can also learn more about his new upcoming Social Media Marketing Training Course called Building Social Equity 2.0 that launches November 18th, 2009 to the public.

So we hope you accept this new change to Social Media Vision and enjoy the upcoming content.

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Introducing Garrett Pierson

I am pleased to announce that I was recently interviewed from Social Media Portal.  I have been working on a local Social Media Event that is launching in January 2010.  The event is called Social Media @ The Beach.  This will be my 3rd event I have coordinated for and had the privilege in speaking at.

I had a ton of fun answering questions related to the event and Social Media topics.  I believe Social Media is a strong movement that is becoming more effective everyday and I am just happy to be part of the movement.

Read the whole interview here Interview with Justin Williams

For more information regarding Social Media @ The Beach please go visit here http://www.socialmediabeach.com/

Thanks to all my readers checking out my blog!  Feel free to leave a comment and have a great day!!

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Interview with Social Media Portal

Facebook Backup Plan

It may not occur to you but have you ever though about backing up data from your Facebook account?

Recently for some odd reason Facebook has decided to go Battlestar Glitchtastica on some of my friends recently to the point of having some of my friends completely lose their Facebook account information and start over.  Crazy Right?

For the people who has lost all their friends Contacts, Wall Posts and even precious Photos, everyone pretty much said the same thing..They all wished they would of backed up their account somehow.

Socialsafe the Facebook Backup Application (http://www.socialsafe.net)

When Socialsafe first launched you could only download Facebook photos pretty much.  Now Socialsafe added some great new features:

• Backup Facebook friends & contact details

• Backup Facebook photos & tagged photos

• Backup Facebook profile details

• Backup Facebook wall posts

• View time capsule feature (view how has your Facebook profile progressed since the start)

Never worry again about losing important data on your Facebook account now.  The application is very cheap for only pricing at $2.99 its a steal!!

I love the new features and I have to admit the price is a small price to pay to backup everything you ever wanted in your Facebook profile.  Imagine getting your account hacked, Facebook glitches or ever wanted to delete your account without worrying about coming back, this is priceless.

SocialSafe Explanation .. Introducing Wall Backups from Pascal Wheeler on Vimeo.

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Backup Your Entire Facebook Account, Wall & Contacts

Blog Action Day

Last year I participated in Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty.  I had such a great feeling writing that post and knowing the fact that millions of other bloggers participated on that same day in order to spread awareness for that current cause for that year.  It was the biggest Social Event of the year and I am happy to say that I will also be participating in 2009 as well.

October 15th 2009 (http://www.blogactionday.org/)

Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day on their own blogs with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. Blog Action Day 2009 will be the largest-ever social change event on the web. One day. One issue. Thousands of voices.

Purpose of Blog Action Day

The goal is to create a world wide awareness on a different topic each year through the power of blogging.  Blogs are a great promotion, communicator and resource of information.  What better way to help promote this years topic by contributing a blog to this cause.

No Excuses.  You don’t have to donate money or even run in a marathon.  All you have to do to spread awareness is write a blog on the topic for that day.

Did I mention you get free Backlink?  By participating you blog link will be on the blog roll which will be interconnected with all the millions of other blogs out there.

Bloggers Unite – Climate Change

This years topic is climate change.  Climate change affects us all and it threatens more than the environment. It threatens to cause famine, flooding, war, and millions of refugees.

Given the urgency of the issue of climate change and the upcoming international climate negotiations in Copenhagen this December, we think the blogosphere has the unique opportunity to mobilize millions of people around expressing support for finding a sustainable solution to the climate crisis.

Participate now by registering your blog here http://www.blogactionday.org/en/blogs/new

Then just follow the instructions once registered.   Hope to see everyone participating.

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Social Media For A Good Cause – Blog Action Day 2009 Registered – Bloggers Unite

The news of Kanye West disrespecting poor Taylor Swift on stage which resulted in Taylor Swift crying back stage was spread like wildfire on all the major social networks.

Before Kanye or his PR management team could control the fire and backlash, the news had spread so rapidly that no response from Kanye’s camp came until hours later from Kanye’s blog.

Could of Kanye spoke out and responded to his actions portayed on T.V before it got out of control?  Before we determine that lets recap for a moment for anyone who has forgotten or hasn’t had the opportunity to watch what happened at the M.T.V VMAs last night.

Photo credit AP

Taylor Swift had won the award for Best Female Music Video and went on stage to accept her reward when Kanye West bursted on stage, grabbed the mic and proclaimed that Beyonce had the best video of all time.  This of course left Taylor Swift stunned and motionless while MTV cut away the cameras leaving Taylor Swift a no show on her award speech, which btw was her first ever VMA award.

The Twitter Attacks

Soon afterwards, the Social Media retaliation mob started in full effect most notably with the celebrities voicing thier opinions about Kanye West which @Ijustine proclaimed over 300,000 Tweets in just one hour about the Kanye incident.

Well incase no one knows, Kanye West doesn’t have a Twitter account due to the fact he went on a rampage removing all imposters of his name on Twitter and has proclaimed he will never use Twitter.  More could be read here on his own blog.

Kanye did however blog about his apology hours later.  The only problem with a blog is that its only seen by the Blog Followers/Subscribers and is not an instant broadcast like Twitter is.

*Update*  This blog article has since been removed.  Just another reason why Kanye needed a Twitter presence.

The Social Media Rule

This is Social Media 101 folks.  Social Media is used to keep your online brand management under control and to monitor effectively.  Without having a proper online management, Kanye was left without a Voice to correctly address the problem and provide a solution.

Having a Twitter Account Kanye will benefit you by:

• Increasing Brand Awareness & Online Presence to of course gain more exposure for your ego driving force there Kanye.
• Increasing Reputation Management to handle the misunderstood press releases and news media out there.  Also provides you a way to voice your own side of the story straight

Instead you get attacks like these from various Celebrities on Twitter.

Kanye should rethink his Twitter presence

So Kanye we all know how much you love to voice your opinion but to really ban Twitter and not use this great Social Media tool in your online management and PR arsenal is such a waste and your PR manager should be fired.

For a person who loves to show how much of a voice he really carries ironically doesn’t have one in the Social Media sphere.

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Why Kanye West Should Of Had A Twitter Presence At The VMAs

by guest Blogger Hanna Watson

Social media is being used for just about everything these days from keeping in touch with friends to promoting a business. While it works well for these uses, it can also be a great tool for doing good and making a change in the world as well. Perhaps the biggest and most successful example of this is the use of social media in the Obama campaign and in the recent health care debate. It worked for them and it can work for you too. Here are some reasons why you should consider it, if you’re not already utilizing social media tools for your charity, group or organization.

• You can spread information rapidly. Social media is a great way to get the word out about what you’re doing and what you support. Information on blogs, Facebook and Twitter is copied, pasted and spread around quickly, making it easier to inform.

• Let people know about real events. Using social media, you can easily let people know about real events in the community that your organization is taking part in. They can add it to their personal calendars and get updates and reminders about it as well.

• You can find new supporters. Every time someone links to your profiles, articles or videos through social media your organization gains a potential new supporter. Many people may not be familiar with your organization or what you support and the whole social aspect of social media can be a great way to spread the word.

• It’s easy to post a variety of media. Some people will be especially moved by photographs while others will require the action of a video to be engaged. Social media makes it easy to employ all of these different kinds of media in one place.

• You can support other charities as they support you. Social sites are called such because they support online communities, and as part of that community you can help lend a hand to other groups by supporting them through your site as well. When you help them, they can help you back and you both will get the support you need.

• It’s easy to get feedback. With social media it’s easy to get feedback from your supporters (or opponents) on what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong. It can make a big difference in the success of your future endeavors.

This post was contributed by Hannah Watson, who writes about the distance learning colleges.

She welcomes your feedback E-mail: HannahWatson84 [at] yahoo [dot] com

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How Social Media Can be a Valuable Tool in Promoting Your Cause

There will always be critics, haters and naysayers out there in the real world and online world.

How many times have we heard sayings like:

“I don’t care what people are doing or where they are going, don’t tell the world on Facebook/Twitter”

The funny thing is mostly the people who do complain about this rant are usually users who have not found a benefit in using Facebook or Twitter and merely have an account just to have one.  They maybe update their account once every 2 weeks and has less than 50 friends.  However there are your emos and haters who just like to bicker and rant on things.

Honestly these people just seem to be bitter in life generally and are grumpy grandpas, if you ask me.

Then there are a few who doesn’t seem to grasp the benefit in status updates.

Take a look at a few more examples below:

Heres a Facebook Group

Twitter Comments

The benefits of Status Updates – Enough with the pointless bashing

Ok so whats the real benefit of an update of:

“I am getting ready for my trip to NYC”

“I just bought a new puppy”

“Just saw the movie G.I Joe”

Close minded people may view these updates..just babble….pointless.  I beg to differ.  Matter of fact, the millions of other users who effectively use Facebook & Twitter as an excellent medium for communication and engagement beg to differ as well, here’s why.

The main point in displaying these updates are to open up conversations and provide the lead for engagement

Its that simple folks.  Most people don’t realize that this is an excellent way to strike up a conversation and a perfect time to engage so that you are effectively using your Social Network to its full potential.  Why let anything go to waste when your not using it at full potential?  That’s like buying a Fast Expensive Car that just sits in your garage.

Now some people may say that some updates are too excessive?

Yes I do agree, some people need to learn The Ultimate Social Media Etiquette Handbook by Tamar Weinberg, however it goes back to the old saying “Something is better than nothing”

Its just like in jr.high when the boys would be afraid to dance with the girls but one boy who may not be the best dancer, dances himself silly in the middle of the gym and magically girls start to dance with him.  While the cool guys were laughing at the silly boy, the silly boy got to dance with the girls.

So stop the bickering, its only making yourself look bitter.  Go out there and Engage!  Communicate!  Do what the Social Networks were created for you to do and that’s Socialize, no matter how pointless the updates maybe, its just another way to provide communication.

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Why Facebook and Twitter status updates are not useless

Engage & Connect

So now you have all thje major Social Networks in your portfolio…Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIN, now what?

The biggest common mistake out there is when people sign up for Social Media and are not active on there or better yet develop a stasis lock and waits for something to happen.  This isn’t dating and in which dating rules apply you have to make sure the time is right before you make the first move.

There is no waiting for the perfect time to make the first move, anytime is a good time to make the first move.

Why Make The First Move?

The worst thing you can do is just have your Social Media profiles just sitting idle, collecting dust.  It will be a waste of time and conform to the myth that Social Media is a waste of time.

• Be Proactive

Don’t be afraid of rejection or feeling scared to engage people.  Quite often or not you will find most of the time that people on Social Media networks are generally receptive and engaging when you first contact them

Contacting people first opens up a Social Engagement and shows the recipient that you are providing value on your Social Media profile and validating that your not some spammer or non-active user.  What people hate the most are Spammers and users who just sign up for Social Media profiles but don’t provide value or any updates.  It’s like buying a Nintendo Wii because everyone is buying one but just showcasing it to the world without actually opening the box and playing with the system.

How To Maske The First Move?

Facebook / LinkedIN

• Join groups that fit your interests and niche – If you like surfing, then search for Surfing groups.  Find groups that can benefit you by networking and sharing the same interests.  An added bonus when joining groups, you will make new friends and it’s ok to friend request people in the same group as long as you indicate that in your message.

• Comment on your friends status updates often – Don’t wait for them to comment on yours, you make the 1st move.

• Friend new people – Proactively try to find new people to friend whether it be the ones Facebook suggest, Groups or manually searching.  More exposure the better and you can’t go wrong with a large network especially now since Facebook allows you to customize & label your feed stories so it won’t be too much noise in your streams.

• Facebook chat – Try often to just Instant Message someone on Facebook just by saying hi, this will open up conversations.

• Suggest a friend

• Wish Happy Birthdays

• Become humble and ask questions – Ask questions often, often we see self indulged narcisstic marketeers that get no respect because they are all about them them them and not enough of letting other people take charge in conversations.

• Join Q&A discussion threads – This tactic gets quite often overlooked but it’s so easy to do, especially in LinkedIN.  Find Question & Answer boards and actively answer questions or ask questions on here.  The point is to engage the community so they can either respect your authoritative responses or help you out and both ultimately providing you with meaningful relationship building.

Twitter

• Follow new people – Find Twitter directories like Twellow or Wefollow and again follow your niche and community, by reaching out to follow them first you can start building your follow empire and community.  Waiting for people to follow you will be the long and hard route so why not take the proactive approach.

• Ask open ended questions – Again often on Twitter people who don’t ask questions arent really engaging correctly and will have a hard time building quality relationships.  Try asking open ended questions and see how the responses are and more than likely great conversations will come about.

• Engage Twitter comments with full replys Just because you reply does not mean your actively engaging in quality manners.  Don’t be lazy and show some decency by replying back with full engaging replys so hopefully you can build quality relationships down the road.

• Retweet The art of retweeting is just to acknowledge the influence and authority of your friends on Twitter.  They will highly appreciate your Retweet

• Follow Fridays It may be a fad but theres a reason behind this madness, its to promote your friends and also become the influencer to your current followers,  The more quality people you recommend the more influence you gain.

• Recommend Friends Start promoting your friends and recommending ones that you admire, chances are the recipients will greatly appreciate that since you are adding value to them.

So like AT&T’s old slogan used to be “Reach out and touch someone”

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This isn’t a date – Make the 1st move in Social Media

The growing topic on Twitter and the Blogosphere is how Online Marketers are becoming very bitter with the increase competition in Social Media Marketing.  You may have witnessed statements like “Everyone is a Social Media Expert” or “I hate how everyone thinks they are a Social Media Marketer”

Put Away The Social Media Hatorade

There seems to be a lot of animosity going on lately but the Top Social Media Strategists in the Web 2.0 world doesn’t seem to care to be affected by this battle.

The truth of the matter is this and its quite simple really.

“Social Media Marketing is the new standard and instead of fighting it, we must embrace it or be left behind”

Embracing Change

Remember back then in the DOT.COM boom where supposedly have a Dot.com business will make you MILLIONS & MILLIONS of money for everyone!!!  Well of course we found out the hard way just because we got online does not mean it’s instant cash.  Keep in mind everyone back then was gunning for a dot.com business, it was a race more or less.  Back then, entrepreneurs were hating on the competition and wanted to be the first to win the race.  However, the race and dot.com business bubbled and simmered down and now everyone is online.

The same concept applies to this day, who cares if everyone is using Social Media Marketing tactics.  Guess what, this is starting to become the normal practice and eventually everyone will use Social Media Marketing tactics in their business.

This is Business 101 folks, instead of being paranoid and bitter about competition.  Embrace competition and find ways to improve yourself and focus on how to be successful rather than pouting and complaining because your Mother is right, “It won’t do you any good”.

So what can we do while the Marketing Revolution shifts and starts conforming the entire world to this new change?  Instead of whining about the competition lets focus on these aspects, shall we:

• Start building your online presence in full affect to get a head start from your competition who hasn’t signed up on board with Social Media Marketing yet.  We are at an advantage while most people are afraid to embrace this new change, why not start building a great gap in your head start before your competition wises up and hops on the bandwagon.

• For your current competition who use Social Media Marketing now, constantly learn and read new things on how to improve your current marketing methods,  You can never learn too much.  Also, learn from the best even if it’s your direct competitor.  Just like Microsoft and the great painters in the world, they steal great ideas, upgrades it, and make it their own.  Sometimes to be successful you have to mirror the best but make it your own.

So let’s all put away the Social Media Hatorade and re-focus our efforts on how to be successful instead of focusing on things we can’t change.  Social Media Marketing is here to stay and we can either embrace it or be left behind.  Whats your decision?

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Put Away The Social Media Hatorade