Check out the WEAVE from SocialDevCamp

http://www.weavethepeople.com/weave/basic?wn=650

Check out the WEAVE from SocialDevCamp

http://www.weavethepeople.com/weave/basic?wn=650

Why online social media networking is relevant to me?

Powered by the new and dynamic force of social media, the world is more connected that ever before. Social media tools have become an essential tool toward the overall success of both small and large business website. In this article we will discuss why should you incorporate social networking tools or at least start proposing them to your company. Also we will explore ways of engaging your users, generating more traffic and interest into your site using cutting edge, and effective online tools.

In the past businesses have relied on conventional media to market their products, today however it is essential to start adopting all possible tools and techniques that make products on your site visible and easily accessible to the community. Social networking tools such as Twitter, Blogger, RSS feed, etc. are some of the cheap and quick ways to get started. Most social networking tools are free or relatively cheap  and quick to create, more importantly, these tools create an online market visibility to your business and hopefully will generate more traffic on your site. One may ask, how would I know that social networking will be the right avenue to take for my business. There is no clear answer, there are a number of free site metrics tools that can measure traffic information on the sire and generate fairly adequate reports such as Google Analytics.

Now we have agreed that social networking is essential to your site, let's think about how to start social networking. To start with state your business goals, the goal for an informational site for a small start-up might be to increase traffic on the site. While the goal for a functional and interactive sports site might be getting users to make an action and purchase game tickets on the site, it may be as simple as getting users to view your posts for an informational site or as my friend calls it "brochure" site. Based on your business goals, choose the most suitable social networking tool such as blogger, YouTube videos, podcasts, etc. and empower your employees to express their passion and genuine enthusiasm about your products for example. This is a relatively cheap and quick way to create more online visibility and generating more traffic- a positive traffic hopefully.

A more involved technique to incorporate social networking into your site is to develop functionalities that connect your site with mainstream social media sites. Facebook Connect for instance allows you to connect your application with users facebook profiles, allowing friends, and groups of such users to see the feed, which in turn means more visibility to your site. This will require some development but the return of investment of such solution is tremendous because it will boost up the number of visitors on your site, increase your business market visibility in the community. For some clients the return of investment can be a "risk of inaction" to emphasize importance of social networking today.

Why online social media networking is relevant to me?

Powered by the new and dynamic force of social media, the world is more connected that ever before. Social media tools have become an essential tool toward the overall success of both small and large business website. In this article we will discuss why should you incorporate social networking tools or at least start proposing them to your company. Also we will explore ways of engaging your users, generating more traffic and interest into your site using cutting edge, and effective online tools.

In the past businesses have relied on conventional media to market their products, today however it is essential to start adopting all possible tools and techniques that make products on your site visible and easily accessible to the community. Social networking tools such as Twitter, Blogger, RSS feed, etc. are some of the cheap and quick ways to get started. Most social networking tools are free or relatively cheap  and quick to create, more importantly, these tools create an online market visibility to your business and hopefully will generate more traffic on your site. One may ask, how would I know that social networking will be the right avenue to take for my business. There is no clear answer, there are a number of free site metrics tools that can measure traffic information on the sire and generate fairly adequate reports such as Google Analytics.

Now we have agreed that social networking is essential to your site, let's think about how to start social networking. To start with state your business goals, the goal for an informational site for a small start-up might be to increase traffic on the site. While the goal for a functional and interactive sports site might be getting users to make an action and purchase game tickets on the site, it may be as simple as getting users to view your posts for an informational site or as my friend calls it "brochure" site. Based on your business goals, choose the most suitable social networking tool such as blogger, YouTube videos, podcasts, etc. and empower your employees to express their passion and genuine enthusiasm about your products for example. This is a relatively cheap and quick way to create more online visibility and generating more traffic- a positive traffic hopefully.

A more involved technique to incorporate social networking into your site is to develop functionalities that connect your site with mainstream social media sites. Facebook Connect for instance allows you to connect your application with users facebook profiles, allowing friends, and groups of such users to see the feed, which in turn means more visibility to your site. This will require some development but the return of investment of such solution is tremendous because it will boost up the number of visitors on your site, increase your business market visibility in the community. For some clients the return of investment can be a "risk of inaction" to emphasize importance of social networking today.

Guidelines for Website content and design

• Provide useful content and meaningful information for users. Write clear and cohesive pages that appeal to a specific topic of interest. 
• Engage users in your pages, i.e. create meet-up, start blogging, connect to social networking, post how-to-dos, write professional articles, etc. You can also provide incentives that encourages users to participate in your site
• Create a list of keywords for your pages, and be sure to include them in your page. This will help search engines identify your site when users search for similar keywords. 
• Create a labels or tags list for your pages in order to help users quickly find information on your site. 
• Include useful links in your site to your own pages or external page. 
• Use text instead of images to describe your topic. While an image is worth thousand words, using images alone as site content does not provide user with helpful information. 

Create a site map for your website to help Google reach any dynamic content of your site that is not easily detected or is relatively new.

When your site is ready for the public, be sure to submit your site to:

http://www.google.com/addurl.html


See more information on online social networking: 
http://ukitech.blogspot.com/2009/09/why-online-social-media-is-relevant-to.html

Guidelines for Website content and design

• Provide useful content and meaningful information for users. Write clear and cohesive pages that appeal to a specific topic of interest. 
• Engage users in your pages, i.e. create meet-up, start blogging, connect to social networking, post how-to-dos, write professional articles, etc. You can also provide incentives that encourages users to participate in your site
• Create a list of keywords for your pages, and be sure to include them in your page. This will help search engines identify your site when users search for similar keywords. 
• Create a labels or tags list for your pages in order to help users quickly find information on your site. 
• Include useful links in your site to your own pages or external page. 
• Use text instead of images to describe your topic. While an image is worth thousand words, using images alone as site content does not provide user with helpful information. 

Create a site map for your website to help Google reach any dynamic content of your site that is not easily detected or is relatively new.

When your site is ready for the public, be sure to submit your site to:

http://www.google.com/addurl.html


See more information on online social networking: 
http://ukitech.blogspot.com/2009/09/why-online-social-media-is-relevant-to.html

Using social networking for sports reporting

Here is a good article about reporting sports using social networking tools. Since my business is all about this subject I thought I will repost it. There are the major bullet points:


- Be human (use real name, not "sports bot")
- Be honest (engage honestly)
- Be aware (users really care about the subject you are reporting)
- Be everywhere (provide answers and feedback to the community)
- Show your work (and your references)

http://apse.dallasnews.com/2009/june2009/062609social_networking_olson.html