Social Media is such an emerging trend that every other days there a new set of tools in the market or books.

Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith - No matter what you are trying to promote, but building up credibility is the first step in that direction. In order to get a good grasp of things you must visit other people’s website and find out what they are interacting about. By being a part of the community you will be able to connect with them more easily. However, we also did some additional research on ‘trust building’ from a free e-book called Trust by Joe Pullzi — founder and chief content officer Junta 42.

Next in line is The New Community Rules by Tamar Weinberg. The Internet is flooded with information about the emerging trends and technologies in social media. But how would you know which is the right one for you? This book talks about some of the most effective methods like article submissions, holding contests on Twitter and how to use Yahoo! Answers to create thought leadership for your brand etc. We plan to implement the learning’s from this book in our day to day business activities.

How to use Facebook for Business is another valuable resource that walks you through everything you need to know about Facebook and marketing to drive real business results. It has immensely helped us in garnering valuable customers.

If you know about other resources or books, feel free to share it with all of us here. Happy Reading!

What is the one name that springs to your mind when you hear the catchline —   ‘Your Potential. Our Passion’?

No brownie points for guessing this for we all know it is Microsoft. Such is the power of brand building and marketing that we can easily identify a company simply by its logo or a catchy punchline.

Now, with more and more companies competing with one another for visibility, brand building and marketing has become mandatory. It distinguishes you from other companies wearing the same hat. In fact, it’s all about understanding your priorities, goals, objectives, honing your skills, treading the untrodden path and finally creating your own niche. Every company has its own marketing strategy but while building brand value, the company should keep in mind the customers’ tastes and preferences. They will never go for your product or services unless they can relate to it. In other words, Branding=Identity. As soon as your brand becomes a household name, it will automatically result in consumer generated referrals.

In social media marketing too, the importance of brand building and marketing is paramount. With the advent of social networking sites, the online community is vibrant like never before and there is also a general desire among people to connect and be social. As people connect, conversations ensue. This can help in promoting brands that are in need of adequate exposure. So, instead of shying away, marketers should tap into the potential of the Internet by devising new social marketing tactics of engaging potential consumers. For more information on brand building in social media, check this out.

Following closely on the heels of innovative social advertising techniques, we too are improvising and working on branding services and marketing along with technology based solutions. The role of SEO in popularizing a website is of utmost importance. But Social Media Marketing through websites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc can indeed go a long way in driving traffic to your site as indicated by this article.

If you are interested, contact us for further information.

A picture speaks a thousand words, while a video perhaps speaks a thousand pictures!

When a non-profit organization comes into existence their motto is to reach out to as many people as possible.

But how do they intend to do this? Through powerful and compelling videos. Yes, more and more NPOs are harnessing the potential of videos for getting their voice heard to the millions of people outside. A well-made video can be a very powerful tool of drawing people to the organization. But having said so, the importance of a website cannot be undermined. While it may take some time to make your web presence felt, posting a video on free video sharing sites like Youtube, Vimeo.com, Veoh.com, Tangle.com, Sevenload.com, Revver.com, DoGooder.tv, Blip.tv etc can easily help you to connect with your supporters. Moreover, when your website goes live you can also post your videos and touch the hearts of millions of people worldwide.

Now, coming to videos again, due to the easy availability of low-cost cameras, and free or inexpensive software tools, producing a video is very much within the budget of small non-profits and associations. Moreover, free distribution also makes it much cheaper and easier to use. According to an April 2009 survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, the percentage of adults who watch videos on video-sharing sites has nearly doubled since 2006. For more information you can check this out.

However, there are some organizations which believe every video would be a viral one as ‘viral videos’ have the potential to bring in vast multitudes of visitors. In fact it is also one of the short cuts to an organization’s success. But from past experiences we have seen that ‘viral videos’ are mostly watched by teenagers and the content of these videos are usually not aligned with the mission of a non-profit organization. Any video produced by the latter should have an underlying message. So, is it correct to call a video viral only on the basis of its viewership? Certainly not. Otherwise, this video for the Maryland State Teachers’ Association with only 2,000 views would probably not have been one of the biggest ‘viral video’ hits.

Non-profit organizations must remember that they do not have a product to sell. Instead they have a mission to fulfill. What matters most is to spread their cause, spread the awareness around. So, they need to have online strategies that may evoke interest in the people and eventually convert them into donors. So, they should try and establish an audience base by making a series of videos with a single purpose over a protracted period of time. However, they should of course be interesting enough to keep the audience hooked.

Eventually your focus should be on the ‘viral cause’ and not on the ‘viral videos’. For a non-profit organization it is more important to raise awareness about its mission and goals. So, reaching out to the masses through quality videos is a novel way of connecting them to your work.

For more information on non profit videos click here.

(Picture Courtesy: Google Images)

Imagine a popular chain of café getting the idea of marketing through Facebook and imagine the Facebook fans making 36% more visit to their store each month! 

With an ever expanding reach of social media, Facebook campaigns are fast replacing the traditional billboards blocking the view of your swanky house or a large decal in a supermarket disrupting your shopping experience.

Unlike traditional advertisements, Facebook ad campaigns are quite affordable and this is perhaps one of the most important factors spurring more and more companies to jump into the bandwagon. Many business owners are now using Facebook profiles to promote their companies and create a large customer base. However, promoting your brand or product on Facebook may not be as easy as it may seem. The key to successful advertising on Facebook requires communication not advertising.

So, here is a quick rundown on some of the factors you should keep in mind while planning on a Facebook ad campaign.

* Do proper customer profiling — Understanding the profile of your target audience is important if you want to have real success. You can either begin by trying to reach out to the fans of your company’s Facebook page or look for certain keywords that might help you to determine your audience. Or you may simply target ads based on a user’s profile information like age, gender, location, college, relationship status, and interests.

* Choose the right mode of advertisement — Facebook offers a plethora of options for marketers who want to advertise their products through this medium. However, one of the most effective channels of marketing and communications on Facebook are sponsored groups. They not only allow you to create customized navigation but also edit the look and feel of a page. Moreover, they also provide provisions for discussion boards, Facebook wall, and consumer generated media with fan photos and videos. Like Google AdWords, ad prices on Facebook are also determined by auction. So, for companies which cannot invest in sponsored pages, they can go for options like Facebook Engagement Ad. Thus, Facebook allows you to experiment when it comes to selecting the right mode of advertisement for your business.

* Decide on a budget — Decide if you wish to pay per click (CPC) or pay per views (CPM).  Usually CPM helps you if you wish to raise awareness among visitors and CPC is beneficial for companies who want visitors to respond to their ads. For e.g. when they land on their website by clicking and take action by purchase or member registration.

Check this out for more details.

* Do your own tracking — Facebook can only keep track of the number of ‘click throughs’ your ad receives. But it cannot keep a tab on whether the users are making purchases or not. So, what you can do is track them down with the help of analytics programs like Google Analytics and HitsLink which help to find out which Facebook ads result in purchases.

* Design your own ad campaigns — It is very difficult to get noticed on Facebook with the large number of ads competing for space. You have to design your ads in such a way so that you can have an edge over the others. Some of the experts point out that traditional writing is beating a hasty retreat. So, in order to draw users to your ads you have to write catchy sentences that make your campaigns stand out from the crowd. Facebook offers multiple advantages that make your marketing campaign simple and convenient. It not only helps you monitor the performance of your ads but just in case they are not doing too well you can adjust them by incorporating necessary changes.

However, for some of the great Facebook marketing campaigns click here.

(Picture Courtesy: Google Images)

According to a recent study conducted by market research firm Nielsen Claritas people in more affluent geographical locations are 25 percent more likely to be found networking on Facebook, while the less affluent are 37 percent more likely to connect on MySpace. Similarly another unpublished research by Eszter Hargittai of Northwestern University in Chicago found huge differences between American users of Facebook and that of MySpace. Even CNN talks about the ‘class divide online’.

Class divide has been existent in human society since time immemorial. But given its recent emergence, class segregation in social networking appears rather alarming. This finding once again reestablishes that our bonding with the outside world depends greatly on the social and economic class we belong to.

Initially, Internet was believed to be a great equalizer but with the passage of time it is being observed that we are unable to get rid of the problems of the physical world. By nature we have become so discriminating that even if we do not meet the people in persons, we are incapable of striking up a good rapport because of class stratification.

However, the way Facebook and MySpace descended on the social scene, also has a lot to do with the class affiliations, said Adam Ostrow, editor-in-chief of Mashable. Facebook originated at Harvard University and was limited at first to students at approved colleges before becoming accessible to the public in September 2006. While MySpace, opened itself to the public right from the very beginning also lay great emphasis on monetization, Ostrow said. They also used a lot of banner ads which compromised greatly on quality, he believes. Moreover, Eszter Hargittai’s research corroborates that Facebook users were more likely to have grown up in a household where parents had graduate degrees unlike MySpace users who generally hailed from families that were less educated.

However, despite the presence of a very strong social divide, research has shown that people with a strong inclination for applications are more attracted to Facebook than MySpace. The latter attracts people with an affinity for features like music etc. Is this some good news at least?

Yes we should keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best. Who knows the differences might be resolved very soon thus ushering in a completely new phase. And in case you are looking for a way to stay connected without these inhibitions Twitter may be your best option because according to Nielsen’s survey those who use Twitter are more likely to live in an urban area where there is greater access to wireless network coverage.

We definitely have the right to choose self-segregation but when it comes to social networking one should try and rise above class and ethnicity so that we can make the world a better place for everyone to live in.

(Picture Courtesy: Google Images)

With the advent of the magic ‘Donate Now’ button on the social media scene, the donation process has become simple like never before. So, now you only need to have a heart for it. The rest is taken care of by online payment gateways like CanadaHelps, Network for Good, PayPal, PincGiving etc that allow payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet.

They have in fact developed into one of the most trusted means of online fundraising for the non- profit charitable organizations. Creating the button is easy. Nonprofits that sign up for a Nonprofit Admin Account can get access to a ‘Donate Now’ button in 24 hours or less. The button comes in eight different colors which can easily be embedded onto your Facebook Page, blog, or website by simply copying and pasting a small piece of html code. Donors can then click the ‘button’ to make donations.

The ‘Donate Now’ button has completely revolutionized the donation process. It now takes only a few clicks of a mouse to help someone or something. You can even make donations to more than one charity at a time, and make gifts on behalf of your family and friends with the help of credit or debit cards. If you wish to make monthly donation to an organization you can simply select the charity and set up recurring donations. Your payment would be directly deposited into the recipient’s account on a fixed date every month. The donor can also contribute any amount he likes. Above all there is no set up fees for the button.

So, we can now use the ‘Donate Now’ button for saving a person’s life via Facebook, Twitter or MySpace. Need more info to add this on your facebook page, blog etc? Click here. This is also a great way of reforming the society by spreading the word for ‘charity’ everywhere. We are so embroiled in our day to day life that we hardly have the time to care for other people. But as Homer aptly points out “The charity that is trifle to us can be a blessing to others” any small work of goodness may change the world around you and bring a smile to somebody’s lips.

If you consider the efforts undertaken by Warm Blankets Orphan Care International in the rehabilitation of children rendered parentless by the Haiti earthquake you would understand what role the ‘Donate Now’ button can actually play. However, this is only a case in point. There are in fact thousands of other charitable organizations engaged in similar kind of work.

Thus the ‘Donate Now’ button can aptly be called a wonder button for its immense potential to change lives in the wink of an eye.

(Picture Courtesy: Google Images)

Social media is all over the place with new tools descending upon the scene at a lightening fast speed. What started off as a means of connecting friends is now playing an instrumental role in large scale business operations world wide. It has transcended all barriers and attained a ‘cult’ status. Of late social media has also made its foray into marketing giving rise to a full grown area of specialization known as ‘social media marketing’. So, with the ever expanding area of operations, the number of applications too, is fast increasing.

As of now there are tools and applications galore. But the top 5 social media tools would be:

Evernote – This is probably one of the most useful among the plethora of social media tools
out there.

* It helps us to keep notes, passwords, etc. We can even tag and search for items
* It helps us to drag URL, images and also keep note of sites/blog posts for future references
* Now, we can also record voice notes with the help of Blackberry functionality

Hootsuite – We probably work with numerous Twitter web clients in our day to day work, but Hootsuite seems to steal a march over others.

* We can manage multiple twitter profiles from here because it enables us to quickly switch between multiple twitter accounts with one click. And do you know the best part? We can view and manage DM, sent tweets, replies, favorites, pending tweets and mentions all at
one go.
* For bloggers hootsuite will automatically tweet the blogs with updated posts via feeds. All we have to do is add our feed address and select the profile from which we want to autotweet.
* Tweet scheduling is another key feature of hootsuite. It helps us to schedule our tweets in advance.

So, Hootsuite is really great. We should all go and try this twitter application and make the utmost use of it. Till then happy tweeting!

Google Reader – This tool really saves us the hassle of opening numerous websites on our  system. We can get the latest updates from Google Reader. It is pretty simple. What we have to do is subscribe to an rss feed on any desired website and add it to our Google reader.

* It helps us to see the new items at a glance.
* It helps us to import and export subscription lists as an OPML file.
* We can choose between list view or expanded view for item viewing.
* In expanded view as we scroll past the items, they are automatically marked read.

Twellow – Everyone of us would agree that Twitter is a great tool for networking but when it comes to business we are a little apprehensive. But in reality Twitter has a huge potential to generate page traffic, and conversions. Although we can go on Twitter and search for potential contacts, Twellow makes it much easier and simpler for us. We have all heard of Yellow Pages right? This service is basically a ‘yellow pages’ for Twitter. We can go in and search different categories. For example, if we are interested in retailing we can visit Twellow’s category page dedicated to the same. This applies for others as well. There are multifarious advantages of the service. It not only makes navigation easier, but also helps in narrowing down the search. So, what are us waiting for? Get started with Twellow right away!

Del.icio.us – We have to continually bookmark videos and also look for interesting links for our social media pursuits and for doing this Del.icio.us is the most trustworthy. There are an umpteen number of sites that deal with articles related to technology. But Delicious offers a vast selection of web development articles which are not only useful but also make for a very interesting read.

That’s all for now but we shall keep you updated about our experiments with the social media tools in the days to come.

(Picture Courtesy: Google Images)

Blogging seems to be the most interesting and exciting thing in the whole world when you first take the plunge. You are swarming with ideas and stories waiting to be captured. But as time rolls by, there is an unexpected drought of inspiration. What seemed to be refreshing and intellectually stimulating earlier is now fraught with impediments and difficulties. And one day suddenly you might find yourself gaping at the monitor for long hours trying to reinvent ideas but with no result. 

“Blogging is not easy. You may experience unexpected droughts of inspiration, difficultly maintaining a schedule, or succumb to the pressures of always needing fresh content.” You will never realize this till you start blogging yourself!

This can happen both in the case of personal and corporate blogs  alike. In case of personal ones you have the liberty to come back after a long hiatus. But if you are blogging for your company’s website even the slightest negligence can cost your organization dearly. So, the bottom line is you have to keep the corporate blogs always updated with fresh and appealing content.

But is it actually possible to overcome the blogger’s block? Let’s find out.

* Make sure that you are subscribed to good RSS feeds from popular sites that you follow.

* Use tools such as Delicious for bookmarking sites on your browser, so you don’t spend time surfing the net.

*You can even keep a notepad where you can jot down fresh ideas, article topics when it comes to your mind.

* Keep track of the emerging technologies since it would help you to give the readers something new every week. However, it is always better to write blogs related to your business goals and mission.

* To break the monotony you can also try this new technique. Write about things that happened on this day in history. The internet is awash in information about such events. Write whatever you like but never digress from your core expertise.

* It is very important to create a readership base for they might really come in handy during an hour of crisis. Apart from inviting people to write guest posts, you can also draw inspirations of your blog topics from them.

*Most importantly encourage your readers to comment on your blogs. Many a times you may end up getting new topics from your readers. That way, you not only enhance conversation but also help to increase the popularity of your blog!

Blogging is an art. But not all people are unaware of the subtleties. For them it is merely a routine exercise. If you want your blogs to be read and appreciated you have to put your heart and soul into it. It should be a reflection of your mind and personality. However, for generation of ideas you should read voraciously and also engage in extensive research work.

For further reference you can look up problogger.

(Picture Courtesy: Google Images)

Since the announcement at the Google Developer I/O conference on May 27th, social media has been riding on a wave. It’s the latest offering from the Google stable — the world’s largest and most scalable platforms for developing huge web based applications. Google Wave is an online tool for real- time communication and collaboration that uses computing platform and communications protocol to merge e-mail, Instant Messaging (IM), wikis, Internet Chat, social networking and project management all in one-web browser communication tool.

However, for those of you who are least connected to the world of online tools, the term ‘wave’ might sound a little obscure. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and much more. It’s a dynamic message board for it enables the online users to see what each one of them is typing in, real-time. If you aren’t online, you’ll see what the other person has written on the message board when you log in. This feature sounds so much like Facebook. But there is a difference because here you can even edit someone else’s message if you want to. Can you try the same thing in Facebook? No, and the feature that one finds most gripping in ‘wave’ is the real-time-as-it-happens one. This is indeed a ground breaking solution in software engineering.

Now, the most pertinent question here is can it really help us? Yes, for the most part it does.

* You can see what your friends are keying in real time, instead of waiting for the message to pop up. However, if you want you can turn this feature off as well. Google Wave is in fact the first real example of how e-mails and IM can work together in tandem.

* The wave playback option is perhaps the most exciting feature of Google Wave. With the help of this option, you can actually track back the comments and edits that took place before you joined the wave. What a wonderful way of catching up with conversations… Is it not?

* Wave automatically corrects spelling errors. Moreover, there is another option that can translate your    message into 40 languages of your choice.

* It allows you to add web content to your wave, like a Google Map, an YouTube video, image, links or news feed and also information from third party sites like Twitter —  anything that Google allows you to embed via extensions called ‘gadgets’. After you have finished typing you then go to “Add participants” and share your wave with anyone on your contacts list. You can even use Google’s in-built Yes/No/Maybe gadgets.

* Wave allows you to edit what others are writing and vice versa in real time.

* You can play multi-player games like Sudoku and chess and compete in real time.

* Multiple users can edit a Wave at once and edits will appear to all users in real time.

* You can drag and drop files and pictures into the wave. Google Wave API also allows you to embed the wave on your blog.

* Companies can take down minutes of meetings, make notes, discuss projects and even brainstorm.
Apparently Google Wave seems to be a quite useful tool. But only time will tell whether it can come out with flying colors or not.

To see a better impact of Google Wave check out http://www.chrisbrogan.com/google-wave-my-first-feelings/.

(Picture Courtesy: Google Images)

Hitch your brand to a blog and you will soon find yourself riding on the profit wave. Such is the power of social media that more and more brand managers are resorting to this tactic for making a pitch for their products. Yes, blogging has come out of its cocoon and taken the world by storm. Until recently blogs were used as a means of communicating one’s personal thoughts and views. But with the increasing number of online users, blogs have grown into a potent means of business marketing.

At the very outset, one should remember that a blog is like a website. However, unlike websites, blogs are not static. So, if you are contemplating promoting your brand or product through social media you have to first popularize the blog and cashing on this trend are non-profits. These organizations too are jumping  into the social media bandwagon for their fundraising missions.

However, before taking the plunge, every organization should keep certain factors in mind. It’s not just enough to attract audience. The real challenge lies in retaining them, converting them into subscribers, donors and eventually into propagators of the cause.

Check out some of the effective ways in which you can make your blog grow into your business:

*Before building a blog you should at least know your objective, purpose, goal, mission, and target audience.

*Start interesting blog threads to engage your users, energize them, motivate action, inform them, build contact, hold conversation and sustain discussions.

*It’s not sufficient to feed your audience with loads of information without knowing what they want. And in order to find that out you must conduct polls and surveys from time to time. There should be open forums for discussions on relevant issues. There should also be dedicated sections where people can post their comments.

*For popularizing your blogs link them to some of the most renowned social book marking websites like Twitter, Technorati, Del.icio.us, Digg etc. Also keep yourself abreast of the latest happenings by logging into search.twitter.

*Improve rankings on search engines by carrying out thorough and extensive research with the help of key word tracking tools like Wordtracker and Adwords. This will give you an edge over your competitors.

*Your content should be compelling enough to drive traffic to your blog.

*Post effective and engaging videos on Flickr, Youtube etc.

*Think big and long term. Create a niche for yourself and try to cater to the needs of the audience as uniquely as possible.

*You should be honest and genuine in your approach.

*Problem solving is another important way to keep your audience hooked.

*The relationship with your audience should be based on mutual trust and respect.

*You can segregate your best customers from the rest by creating an email link.

Sometimes, buoyed by enthusiasm these organizations indulge in too much self praise which can be detrimental to the company’s reputation. Understand the pulse of your audience and learn from past mistakes. Always remember you are here to engage the audience in the art of story telling and not indulge in cheap gimmicks for the mere  promotion of brand or products.

(Picture Courtesy: Google Images)