The term ‘social media’ is somewhat misleading. Though web-based platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have greatly transformed the way humans interact with one another on an informal level, this technology also has many applications in the business world. Today, self-made professionals are using social media to find work, network with potential colleagues and market themselves to the World Wide Web. 

Academia has also begun to take notice of this shift in marketing and customer service and has even begun offering courses in social media. Schools as prestigious as the University of Washington and top online programs in Utah still in their nascent stages have begun providing students with opportunity to take classes on these techniques and many graduates are able to begin careers in startups and large corporations with the intent to find and woo potential customers. 

The first step toward self-marketing via social media is overcoming the idea that these sites are strictly recreational, says US News & World Report. LinkedIn, for example, claims 60 million users in more than 200 countries whose sole motive is to network and exchange ideas with other professionals. Other sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, are not always used in a professional context. However, they can also be used to seek out companies, organizations and peers. The trick is to separate the social from the professional. If one wishes to use social media for entrepreneurial reasons, he or she should create specific pages for this -- and limit things like personal comments and photos that are unrelated to business.

As they begin to feel comfortable within the world of social media, Jay Palter of The Globe and Mail believes entrepreneurs should focus on brand development. Within the current ‘influence economy’, Facebook likes and re-tweets are valuable commodities. He urges entrepreneurs to pay less attention to site metrics, and focus more energy on curating high-quality site content. Mr. Palter also encourages self-starters to imbue professional content with personal touches – at least, to an appropriate degree. Thanks to Google+, online self-publishing, e-mail direct marketing and other technological advances, private businesses are able to effectively compete with corporate brands. Palter writes, “There’s increasing evidence coming from online influence measurement to suggest that personal brands actually exert more pull than established corporate brands in the social media space.”

Mark McGinnis of The 99 Percent, notes that the ultimate online goal of any self-made professional should be substantial traffic on their own official website. For this reason, social media activity should be treated as a supplemental tool – not a primary strategy. But he notes that professionals in a wide range of fields can take advantage of the current online craze. Independent musicians can upload MP3 files on MySpace and YouTube; aspiring authors can create portfolios using sites like Behance; and business developers and consultants can create spreadsheets on Google documents. 

If one’s original work is circulated among the web-using population using a variety of avenues, their official site traffic is likely to increase exponentially. In addition, McGinnis suggests writing guest blog posts to garner exposure. “Your 'payment' is a link back to your site -- make a great offer and you could land hundreds of new subscribers with every guest post you write,” he writes. “And make sure it's your best work. This is your chance to make a big impression -- don't blow it by sending out second-rate articles and keeping the best stuff for your own site.” 

Online business is no longer relegated to corporate websites. Everyday, entrepreneurs and corporate leaders utilize social media in order to establish a rapport with millions of web users. By understanding how these various platforms function  and recognizing both their strengths and limitations, professionals are able to launch successful companies with little more than a keyboard and mouse.  

The arrival of the smartphone is having a massive impact on these traditional marketing strategies, and indeed the whole promotional world. HTML emails have replaced leaflet drops, press adverts have been replaced by leaderboards and web skyscrapers and social media has opened up new and effective ways of engaging consumers.

Paradigm Shift

Desktop computers used to be the sole avenue for web browsing, with all online marketing activity based around it. In recent years the smartphone has become the target for many modern marketing departments because they can be used anywhere at any time; Wi-Fi access and data technology is becoming widespread, from coffee shops to business office receptions. The internet has been unchained from PCs and tucked into our pockets.

It seems as simple as placing your online advert on a mobile-friendly website and then sitting back to wait for the results, but it’s more complicated than that.

The Social Aspect

The same Ofcom report of 2011 suggests that the vast majority of smartphone usage is focused on communicating with friends, whether by email or on Facebook. Facebook is the most visited website by handheld devices, with 43 million hours spent there in December of 2010 alone.This clearly indicates that social media is the key to encouraging users to register their interest, whether by sharing or clicking ‘like’. Word of mouth has always been a powerful marketing tool and with the constant communication of smartphones, this element is now more powerful than ever.

Promotional campaigns can become instantly visible, with just one competition entry or ‘like’ being broadcast to hundreds of friends instantly. Another advantage of all online activity is that it can be tracked, with results enhancing both market research and well-informed decisions. This wealth of data can be used to tailor future campaigns to be even more effective.

However there can be a downside. Over-promotion and shameless harassment has always irritated fans, and this is even truer online. Building relationships are more important than promotional material. A good guideline is an 80/20 split, focusing 80 per cent of your energy on networking and socialising but only 20 per cent on conventional promotion.

The world is moving fast. If businesses choose to ignore digital platforms, especially handheld devices like smartphones, there is a strong chance that they’ll be left behind.

Nick Deyong is the managing director of NDL Group, a prize promotion agency that delivers incentive and motivation schemes for customers and employees, as well as events, partnerships and digital services.

1. Infographics make content memorable
   Incorporating graphics that relate to your content in an interesting manner opens up the information there in. People are able to translate those graphics into the words you are putting across. Info graphics also make content memorable and users will remember it in days to come. 

It is now becoming easier to build a new brand from scratch by use of infographics. You can introduce new brands through the infographics and repackage old ones for more sales.

Those are the 10 reasons that inforgraphics can help your brand awareness and your search engine ranking. Brand awareness and search engine always go together. Good search engine ranking makes people to discover your website, while you need good brand awareness to make them to continue to come back visiting. To some extent, brand awareness can also make search engines to respect your website as a source of good content for internet users.

Sam is a contributing writer for an agency which focuses on improving client’s overall ecommerce conversion rate. 

Want to know more about social video and why will CMOs embrace it?

Check the Infographic ... plus: the Smartwater case with Jennifer Aniston.

Viraltracker.com (Original link)

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It starts with cleaning the computer from viruses.  Viruses, spyware and other threats slow the system down in addition to destroying it.  Even harmless ones like cookies affect computer performance because the risk of confidential information can fall into the wrong hands.  Get anti-virus and anti-spyware tools to scan and rid threats from your dell PC.  There are free and paid options available.  It is important that the computer is protected from outside threats.

Speed up access to data by running disk defragmenter.  Disk defragmentation is when files are scattered everywhere, or fragmented.  The computer has a hard time finding the pieces which will take longer to do.  This response time slows the system down.  The defragmenter gathers these scattered files and places them all in a single section.  In turn the computer runs faster because everything is easier to find.  It should be done as needed.  For example it should be used when installing new programs, adding a ton of files and when the computer is running out of disk space. 

 Run chkdsk yearly or bi-yearly.  Check disk, or chkdsk, is there to check for errors in the hard disk and (if checked) correct them.  Bad sectors in the hard drive makes saving information on the computer difficult. Going to the C drive's properties under error checking is where this is found.  Another way to speed the system up is to attach a blank Dell flash drive at the USB port.  This is called Ready Boost, and it will give the computer extra memory to work with without adding memory manually or professionally. 

There are some other important details a person can do for their computer.  Make sure the computer has the latest updates.  Most computers run slowly because the updates are outdated.  Having the latest updates installed for the operating system, the laptop server and software will make the system run faster.  Uninstall programs from your PC that you rarely use to save space.  Move files that are important but not needed at the moment to storage media.  Using one of the Dell storage solutions will pave the way for computer space.

When every company proclaims "we value customer service" and "we have the highest quality customer service" you can safely bet that they are failing the true test of Customer Service. That is, being different and providing clients with a WOW experience.

To truly provide a Wow experience for your clients you must understand the following:

The normal. Once you understand what your clients are used to, you can ensure that you provide a different and more positive experience for them.

Their expectations. This is different from the normal. Expectations are what your clients really expect out of you and your company. Over time their expectations may change though you should always do your best to understand what type of service they are expecting to receive. Knowing this will help you with the next step.

Consider the unexpected. Now it's time to think about what your clients would appreciate, value and that would be unexpected. If everyone in your industry is providing value by sending personalized thank you cards after purchase, you doing that as well only becomes the status quo. It's expected. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to figure out how you can go above and beyond what everyone else is doing to WOW your clients.

Make it spreadable. If you have completed all of the above steps you will already be ahead of most of the people in your industry. But why stop there when you can multiply the WOW factor even further. To accomplish this give some thought to what initiatives you can implement that will not only WOW your clients, but that will also be easy for your clients to tell others about you. For example, if you send your client a loyalty type of thank you gift that only they can use and that stays in their office, they may well think about you each time they see it, but it becomes hard for them to tell others about you. Now imagine what happens when that same client gets a gift that they can share with their colleagues, friends or family (for example a basket with many delicious items in it)? You guessed it, they will be more than happy to share it, and each time they do your name will come up. That's how you make your WOW experience go viral and have many more people talking about you and your company.

Don't sell. Providing truly amazing customer service will help you grow your business. There's no doubt in that. However, when you provide these WOW experiences for your clients, be sure that you're not coming across as salesy or self-serving. By taking the best care of your clients, they will buy more from you, tell more people, and stay with you longer. There's no need to bombard them with sales talk to accomplish this.

It takes time. Yes, this isn't some get rich quick overnight success strategy. Providing WOW experiences and amazing customer service can take time for you to see the benefits in your business. It's an investment. However, it's an investment that is almost always guaranteed to pay you handsomely as time goes on. Astute marketers, consultants and business owners alike know that the real money in business comes from the back-end and not the front-end sales. Each time you bring a client through the door, you may make some money on that transaction. But your acquisition costs (the costs of marketing to and acquiring that client) eat away at your initial profit. The longer your client stays with you and the more they buy from you the more profit you make because your acquisition costs are already taken care of in most cases. Plus, it does wonders for employee morale and doesn't everyone like happier clients too?

Coming next ... Part 2, Wow Stories

Michael Zipursky is a marketing consultant and the co-founder of FreshGigs.ca, a jobsite specializing in media and marketing jobs in Canada. His work has been featured in FOX Business, the Financial Times, HR Executive and other media.

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