Philosophy – When people think of social media, the last thing that usually comes to mind is philosophy. But if you have studied philosophy and have worked on any social network, you will find that ethics and human nature play a giant role in structuring how an efficient and rewarding social media campaign should be ran. Philosophical users place high importance on the value of interaction and addressing fundamental questions with rational answers. Social media needs this systematic approach; research, reporting, and a deeper understanding of the audience one is involved with.

These lessons need to be constantly built on and fine-tuned. Philosophy majors usually have the easiest time figuring out what they have been doing right, and what they have doing wrong. And the ability come up with rational ways to avoid the issue in the future. Compromise is usually the name of the game, and if you can resist the urge to let your emotions get into the way of social networking it always works to everyone’s advantage.

English – Never underestimate the power of grammar, or the desire of an online audience to get their information from a user who speaks proper English. This is the easiest way to tell if someone is not worth listening to. The tone and spelling can make the same two messages look completely different. This is one of the problems with outsourcing social media to overseas companies who are separated from the actual business, and target audience.

Childish, is the word that usually comes to mind when you find simple spelling errors, even within a 140 character tweet. Small things, like not capitalizing the ‘I’ makes your information look amateur and half-hearted. This brings me to my final point; know the power of drafts and editing before submitting your work on any online network. Remember that what you put online today usually stays online for the rest of eternity. You don’t want to look back and find a mistake that isn’t correctable, and you don’t want to be put in the position of apologizing for something you said. No one understands this better then an English major.

Communications – Being able to communicate effectively with everyone around you is a key part of social media. Back and forth dialogue is fundamental in any networking environment. In order to understand social media you have to understand basic human interaction, and know the importance of communicating on a positive level.

Any sort of client or customer within the confines of a conversation needs to be stimulated, cared for, listened to, and answered politely. In no way should communication over social media ever be hateful, defensive, offensive, or hurtful. This is why being educated in the process of communicating with others is so powerful within the realm of social networking.

Social media isn’t Twitter or even Facebook, it is a conglomerate of millions of communities building upon each other. Understanding one is important, but understanding them all is so much more powerful, and tends to be more simple then provoked. From bookmarking services, to forums, to open blogs, to social networks, social media is a cornucopia of information and positive back-and-forth dialogue. Getting familiar with all of these communities can seem a daunting task, but as long as your remember some basic skills you will do fine no matter what new network you are researching. Here are some easy steps to take before starting your profile on any social media platform.

1. Figure out what you are trying to accomplish with this new social media website. Before anything you must understand why you are entering into another realm of social media. Is it going to be for personal uses, or are you going to use social media for business purposes. If you are going to set up a business account (which most are), you need to know what you are going to achieve from it. Will you have time to be an active member of this community? What will the ROI for this social media campaign be for your company? Will you be concentrating on a local city/state population or a worldwide audience? Is this community going to benefit your business in the long term? Questions like these are important for anyone launching a social media campaign in unfamiliar territory.

2. Go somewhere else and learn about the social media community you are researching; this will give you a better perspective of what others think about the particular website. Create a Google search for news, or blog articles that pertain to the URL of the site you are interested in. Read through the articles and posts; what are other people saying about the site? It’s usually better to hear an explanation of the website you are investigating through outside sources. Not only will this teach you whether or not it is a social network that will last, but it will introduce you to creative ways to best utilize the community.

3. Learn the site and listen to others, spend your first few hours watching how other people are using the website. Pay close attention to the ’seemingly’ most successful users; what are they doing that you might try to accomplish. Say you are a real estate agent, and you are trying to understand a real estate forum. First thing you should do is search for other real estate professionals and study their effectiveness. Learn the different ways you can use the features and tools of the website to help immerse yourself within the community. Read the FAQs and guidelines of the website, and educate yourself on what kind of marketing behavior is considered acceptable.

These are just a few steps to take when investigating any new social media platform, before you even set up a profile, it’s best practice to develop a plan and goals for your campaign. Social media can be used for endless possibilities; use your imagination and creativity, have fun, and simply try to better understand why you are doing what you are doing.

1. The most popular social media hashtag is simply #socialmedia. It is used by most marketing and social media professionals when talking about social media, usually when citing a news source or article. However, it is also used widely in sentences such as “#socialmedia is a great way to build a community around your company”.

2. #sm Another popular social media hash tag (yet used less partly because of its heteronym) #sm is used usually with the #socialmedia tag or a tag that has to do with the idea of community and conversation.

3. #social is found most often to simply connect words using a social media tag, as in “#social media is”, or “#social communities can”, or even “#social #media”.

4. #scrm is used by customer relations managers and marketers. Social customer relationship and management, deals with communicating with your customers over social media networks.

5. #hcsm is based around the Healthcare Communication & Social Media community. This hashtag deals with healthcare communication through social media avenues.

6. #smm Just as it sounds, social media marketing; a small way to fit the three words in as a last 4 character shout.

7. #socialmarketing This tag is used mostly for tagging URLs, or referencing the idea of marketing through social media communities.

8. #socialnetworking is the idea of networking (meeting others and introducing yourself) personal and business accounts through social media. Such as “LinkedIn #socialnetworking”, or “check out the new tool that helps programmers with #socialnetworking”.

9. #seo, all though not usually defined as social media, search engine optimization and social media have a lot in common. I is Usually used when dealing with social media the #seo tag follows a #socialmedia tag.

10. And last but not least, the tags for the actual social media communities, #twitter #facebook #googlebuzz #yahoo #bing #forum #blog (as you know the list goes on). These simple tags go a long way, they sponsor very broad definitions but can be used with social media tags for effectiveness.

It’s time to introduce another amazing artist, and release some good news from the artist fore-front.

Sometimes it’s better to let a sketchbook do the talking, and that’s exactly what Martijn C. Swart did when we asked him to give us some artwork for the world to fancy. From a Twitter bird on a limb, to a social den bear, we couldn’t help but love Martijn’s style of artwork. Martijn has allowed us to put some of his art online for anyone to download and use to their pleasing (how about color-in fun). Head over and check out his stuff at our featured artist page.

Or visit Martijn’s Blog

Social media is about doing things free and discovering good communities. We like be a part of this tradition, and love helping artists reach a larger audience through social media. We are getting ready to launch a forum for artists, and expanding our ability to feature and archive artists on a global scale. Sound confusing? Think of it as a social artwork den, where you can search through hundreds of artists work, download what you wish, and share your thoughts with everyone in the community. And the best part, it’s all completely and totally 100% free. Check back here for updates!

Things are getting exciting and we are having a great time learning about, and meeting all of the new upcoming Social Den artists. We also look forward to helping many, many more. If you would like to become part of The Social Den artists’ community and would like to be featured on our website, please fill out our artists form.

Becoming a greater part of the social web isn’t about starting an account or even clicking buttons to the tone of “friend me” or “follow me”. Utilizing less mainstream social media takes time learning, researching and investigating. Before jumping into an online community, you should educate yourself on the clients or target-audience you wish to be interacting with. Starting a conversation on the internet is easy, but finding the right people to talk to can be frustrating and meticulously time-consuming.

Start out by using online tools such as alexa.com to find out how important the online community you are researching is. Compare the results to similar websites and choose the best of the bunch. You should only invest your time in communities that are going to last. If a forum or blog doesn’t have a collection of active members or a large base of followers, it might not be worth becoming a part of. However, finding an upcoming social media website and becoming an active user can be very powerful (imagine having one of the first Twitter accounts).

So you found a great community and have signed up for an account. First things first go straight to your profile and customize your appearance (don’t forget to add a link to your website). You will be using this account in the future constantly, so make a home for yourself. After you have completed filling out your profile, it’s best to find some friends in the community that are like-minded. Start applying your basic life skills, be respectful of every user, respond to questions, and most of all treat others like you wish to be treated. As they always say, try to simply be yourself and have fun.

This is the basis of utilizing less mainstream social media avenues, notice how I didn’t talk about advertising to the masses or creating links within signatures to divert traffic to your website. Social media is about becoming part of an online community and gaining the respect of your fellow peers. It’s about who you know and who knows you. It’s constant communication on the web, within the boundaries of normal human relationships. Teach others, let others teach you.

The turn from television to online streaming is creating a social scene that resembles a giant living room with a hundred-thousand people watching the same movie. From You Tube to Vimeo to Hulu, to Netflix. Social Media covers a broad spectrum of viewing platforms, and the impact of community is the same no matter where you go.

You Tube

You tube is the iconic symbol for social media videos; from the comments, to the rating systems, to the personalized profile pages. Free content equals free traffic, and has the ability to entertain millions of users simultaneously. Viral videos are the powerhouse behind You Tube; a video of a guy dancing in ‘evolution’ gets more views then Montana has population. Or how about a Doritos loving Seagull, if it’s fun to watch, it has a good chance of going viral.

Vimeo

The Classier online video website, with a hint of creativity and liveliness that just doesn’t come across in the plain ol’ You Tube. Vimeo is a hub for independent film makers, to sports enthusiasts, to viral video junkies. With the ability to stream higher quality videos, Vimeo is pushing the boundries of communication through Hi-definition. Its embedding features are outstanding, and encourage sharing within your community, website or blog.

Hulu

Hulu came out of nowhere and if you visited it back when it was first starting out, you probably thought you had struck gold (at least those without cable television did). With the help of an enourmous community and the ability to rate movies and hold discussions about any desired theme, Hulu is stretching the fabric of watching tv with a buddy, creating a million-plus social of its own. *Rumors are flying around about summer 2010 when Comcast (who bought a large share of NBC/Hulu) might start charging for certain aspects of television streaming service.

Netflix

Netflix jumped into the social back in 2007, when it implemented its user interaction abilities. It is at this time Netflix took center stage in the social media movie-world. Users often find themselves delving into a social without knowing it; Following a certain community of critics that share their same interests. If they give a movie a bad rating and it has negative comments, its probably not worth wasting your time on. It’s like having thousands of friends to seed through the mass collection of digital entertainment and pick the best of the bunch. Movies are a dime a thousand these days, and it’s not worth watching them all.

With the release of Google Buzz, Google has been catching a lot of attention lately for making a big social media play. But let’s not forget that Google has been in the social media game for some time, developing social tools and acquiring social media companies left and right. (See Google Already Social) Google’s first social media acquisition was the purchase of Blogger (Pyra Labs) way back in 2003. Here’s a look at the six most recent social media company purchases by Google starting with the most recent.

1. Aardvark – A social search engine that answers your questions by asking real people in your extended network
Price: $50M
Date Acquired: 2/12/2010
Website: http://www.vark.com
Why: Search has always been at the heart of everything Google. As the social web grows, a social search engine is a natural integration for the search giant. This purchase fits nicely into Google’s mission statement to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”.

2. AppJet – Makers of Etherpad, a real time web-based word processor
Price: Undisclosed
Date Acquired: 12/4/2009
Website: http://etherpad.com/
Why: The leg up that Etherpad had over Google Docs was that there wasn’t a 15 second lag between edits. On top of that, many of the staff members of AppJet were former Google employees. It appears that now the AppJet team has joined with the Google Wave team to increase the quality of the Google Wave product.

3. TNC (Tatter and Company) – Korean blogging software
Price: Undisclosed
Date Acquired: 9/12/2008
Why: This Korean play was two-fold. First, Google acquired a very popular and powerful blogging platform in Korea (Textcube) that had yet to be globalized. Second, Google’s search market share in Korea has been miniscule compared to other places in the world (less than 5% in 2009 according to an article in the Economist). Considering that Korea is the world’s sixth largest market in terms of internet users, it’s easy to see why Google is so interested in increasing their popularity within the country.

4. Ominsio – Adds content to video
Price: $15M
Date Acquired: 07/30/2008
Website: http://www.omnisio.com/ Why: The purchase of Ominsio added the ability to comment at particular time stamps within YouTube videos. This increases the social aspects of YouTube and enables more interaction with the community and the videos being watched (it also can be very annoying at times).

5. Jaiku – Micro-blogging service in Finland that allows real time status updates to be sent to friends cell phones
Price: Undisclosed
Date Acquired: 10/9/2007
Website: http://www.jaiku.com/
Why: More collaboration and connection via text messages. People often wonder if Google made a blunder by purchasing Jaiku instead of Twitter. Google has since integrated aspects of Jaiku into Google Mobile. Development was halted in 2009.

6. Zingku – Powerful text messaging tools to connect with large groups
Price: Undisclosed
Date Acquired: 9/27/2007
Website: http://www.zingku.com
Why: Zingku has powerful social media elements allowing users to send text messages to groups, take polls via text messages, and interact with your own personal website using SMS. These features have since been integrated into Google Mobile.

Summary:
Of all of the social media purchases buy Google in recent years, you can see that Google is continuing to connect with its users in as many ways as possible. With all this interconnectivity the implications for social search and knowledge sharing is staggering. The future of Google search results will further blur the line between static web pages and real-time dynamics.

1. Start a Blog, and update it daily if possible.

Starting a blog is the best way to begin building your online community. Setting up a blog can be as easy as signing up for a free account at www.wordpress.com; and if you want, for around 7 dollars you can buy a personal domain through a registration company such as www.godaddy.com. *Put your URL on your business card, flyers, and on the back of any art that you sell. Remember to pick a good name, and stick by it forever.

2. Sign up for a Twitter account, and start following 50 of your favorite artists.

Be sure to tell them how their artwork has inspired your own. Building an online relationship takes time; you must befriend your followers before you start promoting your own art.

3. Join and participate in a Facebook ‘artist’ group.

So you might have a Facebook account, but are you participating in any Facebook groups? Becoming part of Facebook group will allow you to meet other like-minded artists, and help create a community around your art. Find a group that you like using the Facebook search, and immerse yourself in the conversation.

4. Put all of your art on Flikr

Flikr is a great way to store and tag your artwork for archiving and retrieval purposes. Uploading your artwork to Flikr allows you to use those photos in the future on whatever social-mediums/websites you wish (this gets rid of having to upload the same image multiple times to show across a spectrum of sites).

5. Etsy.com

Etsy.com is a social website that allows artists to sell their artwork online. You should start by signing-up for an account and putting a set of art up for sale (Remember to start out small, selling works of art that cost less then $20). Big paintings rarely are sold online unless the artist is well known. To build an audience of supporters and raise awareness of your art you should also be sure to complement other Etsy.com artists on their own work.

These are just a few ways you can utilize social media to help promote your artwork. The key things to remember when setting up your online art community, is to be creative, polite, and respectful.

The scope of Social Media includes everyone and everything (even the hardcore skiers who spend more time on the mountain-side then they do a computer). In Montana, if you don’t ski, you have to ask yourself at least once a winter “why do I live here?” Montana contains amazing big-mountain playgrounds, all with a smaller ‘Rockies’ close-to-town feeling. From the Bridgers, to Lolo Peak, to the Glacier foothills of Whitefish; winter and summer in Montana are a mecca for outdoor activities.

Smart phones will soon be standard, and as cell reception gets stronger, more and more outdoor enthusiasts are going to rely on the social web. There is no better example of this, then mtavalanche.com. The “avalanche guys” are leading the way in social snow education, and giving a new meaning to the term avalanche-awareness. Through their Twitter account, MT Avalanche is able to post real-time messages warning Montana backcountry skiers, and snowmobile riders about unstable snow conditions in the area. Here is the latest tweet from www.twitter.com/avalancheguys

Many natural & human triggered slides Sunday: Buck, Beehive, Wyoming Bowl, Truman, Hebgen, Cooke. New pics today @http://bit.ly/7CUtDJ

Small 140 character or less messages like this have the ability to inform quickly and help save lives. Maybe you were planning on snowmobiling into Beehive Basin? Well, you need to know as much as you can about the current conditions. The key is to caution yourself when traveling into the backcountry of Montana. Mother Nature is awesome and exciting, but can be very dangerous at the same time.

Skiers have the ability to use smart phones to view current, and past conditions of the mountains they are hiking up. They can see recent photos, or find avalanches that have been geo-tagged using Foursquare or Gowalla. Twitter feeds can educate skiers on present avalanche conditions and snow stability. Even Facebook can be used to meet other skiers from the area; there is power in numbers when it comes to avalanches. It’s always better to go with others then to go alone. And utilizing the social web can only help, after all you can never be too prepared when it comes to outdoor safety.

1. Don’t just sign up for a Twitter or Facebook account

Creating a community doesn’t happen overnight, so certainly it wouldn’t happen within the fifteen minutes it takes to set up a Twitter or Facebook account. Follow, be followed, earn respect, and become friends with each and every person in your community.

2. Never look at social media as a means of quick traffic

Social media has the potential to drive heavy amounts of traffic to your website. However, creating the audience takes patience and work. Always keep a close eye on your Google Analytics (or individual monitoring software). Find out where the traffic is coming from, and build on those foundations.

3. Forums and Blogs aren’t a place for advertisements

Too many times have small businesses hastily ruined their reputation on notable forums and blogs by using their sites as a link displayer or traffic diverter. Forums and blogs can be powerful community builders, but respect is a necessary tool for any engagement. Always read and obey by the user guidelines, make sure to introduce yourself, take the time to meet the forum/blog owners and moderators, give them the credit they deserve.

4. Anything with the word bot or automatic is usually bad.

Social media is done by hand, heart, and mind, a business should never use programs that promise to auto-anything (whether they auto-follow, auto-post, or auto-email). *Friends aren’t made through repetitive robot scripts.

5. Stray far from spam

The big question should be: Will your niche community find this link beneficial, entertaining, or educational? If you answer no for any reason, it’s spam. Spam can only damage your presence on the social web. Share with others as they would share with you.