LinkedIn and Facebook Advantages for Business

Many companies leverage the power of Facebook by establishing a fan page for their business, but until recently, many companies were not aware that a company page can also be established on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn, the world's largest professional network, now has a section completely dedicated to companies and their pages. In comparison, personal profiles on LinkedIn, much like a Facebook personal profile, is a way for individuals to detail their work history, education, likes, and contacts. A company page, on the other hand, details a company, its history, field of expertise, products, services, and location. LinkedIn.com/companies is a portal for company pages and LinkedIn company pages are rapidly growing in popularity as marketers see the benefits of showcasing their company's strengths front-and-center to professionals in their industry or those that are searching for their product or service.

If your company has a page on LinkedIn, you can post status updates for your company. Any company page administrator can type a note in the status box on your company's overview page. This is helpful and keeps your followers thinking about your company. Updates will appear on your followers home pages. Followers can like, comment on, share updates or develop unique conversions with your company and, best of all, these conversations can be seen by their networks, exposing your company to a greater audience. You can view metrics to see what followers found interesting, which allows you the opportunity to optimize the conversation.

Now, LinkedIn users who 'follow' certain companies will be able to receive more information such as breaking company news, employee moves, job opportunities, or updates on products and services (including multimedia content) directly from those companies.

Consider LinkedIn's new "company status updates" field as very similar to Facebook business page updates. Companies can share text and links to other content as well as multimedia content like videos and images.

LinkedIn and Facebook offer many similar advantages for business marketers.

A company page brings awareness to your business. It keeps your company in the minds of consumers, or reminds them of your company's strengths, products, and services. With LinkedIn and Facebook, companies can share and collaborate on content, start a discussion, and build a community of followers. LinkedIn's new "company status updates" field is very similar to Facebook "business page updates". Companies can share text and links to other content as well as multimedia content like videos and images. By liking, commenting or sharing updates to groups, LinkedIn and Facebook users can reach out to like-minded professionals, and bring awareness. Updates posted on company pages appear on followers' home pages, which in-turn can appear on their contacts' home pages... and so on. Both LinkedIn and Facebook provide metrics and insights to track the success of conversations.

Building a business is no longer about passing out flyers or offering a sale. Rather, social media has taken a front-and-center role and is essential in building and growing a business and marketers are capitalizing on the tools offered by LinkedIn and Facebook.

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Add Some Pinterest to Your Business

A few weeks ago I discovered Pinterest. It's quickly become my favourite social media tool! What a blast!

Of course, being a small business owner, I'm also interested in finding ways to build my business with it without being annoying. My personal experience and the research I've done have led me to the following tips:

Carve Out Some Time: As with everything you are going to need to spend some time. Start by simply opening an account, connecting to your friends who are already there, finding stuff you like, and sharing it. Get a feel for how the site works. Spend 30 minutes a day for about 10 days to start with. Find Your Target Market: Do some research when you're first on (use the search bar) to find people who are already interested in what you're offering. Follow them. Know Your Goal: Once you've spent time and found your market, you're ready to figure out what it is you'd like to do with Pinterest. What kinds of things are others doing that you could adapt for your business? Where are some of the holes that you could fill. figure out what you want, and then be focused in your work on Pinterest. Make Sure You're Shareworthy: Find things to share that are interesting to others and truly worthy of a share. (translation: Spare us the spamming!) Be Generous: Share things from others, too - including those that might be competing. They might share your stuff to their followers, which could expand your market Watch Your Links: When you share something from your site, make sure you have a working link that takes the viewer back to your page if they're interested in finding out more Use Catchy Captions: Create a catchy caption with your links to entice people to look further - works like a headline! Use your captions to define your brand if you can. Start or Join In the Conversation: Before re-pinning, make a comment on the other person's pin and say something that engages them in conversation. Also use questions on your pins to start a conversation. Share a Wide Variety: As with every social media platform, please don't just share a bunch of links to your products. Engage. Create lots of boards that tell a little bit about you. Make some quirky, some fun, some interesting, some original, etc. Boost Pinterest with Other Platforms: talk up your Pinterest page on other platforms you're involved in to engage your followers in a different way again. Respond to your comments: People will often comment back to you about your pin - make sure you follow up with these. See the action on the left hand column of the home page. Share Your Discusssions: When a discussion starts on your page, share it to your other platforms using the share links on the actual pin Bring in Your Physical Store: If you have a physical location that your clients come to make sure you have special promotions that encourage your clientele to follow you on Pinterest just like you did with your other social media platforms

BIG CAUTION! Before you get too excited about sharing stuff on Pinterest, take note of this from their guidelines:

Most people separate topics for the pins. For example, food, cats, cars, skiing, etc. You should also use care and not upload images you do not own or have the rights to - Pinterest may not police copyrights, but copyright laws still apply. A good rule of thumb is to never upload anything to the web for public viewing that you do not have the right to. (See, Getty Images Settlement Demand Letter to learn how you can get into trouble for using images you don't own.)

And that's it! So get started and get pinning!

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Google+ Pages Now Open For Businesses, Brands, Places, and More

If you are an online marketer looking out for a platform to give your business the real boost, then, Google+ Pages, can serve you best. Launched on November 7th 2011, these pages have now opened up all the exclusive communication lines for your business, to reach out to your customers and clients, something which all online marketers always ideated about. Google now allows marketing business brands and has actually taken an initiative to transform Google+ into a much needed commercially inclined network. By also enabling non-human participation, Google has brought about a complete metamorphosis of the face and fate of online marketing methodologies.

Now, Google+ pages will not only give you an effective means of direct business communications, but, having a profile on Google+ pages with a +1 button on your page, will also boost your site up, in the SERPS, providing it with a high valuable backlink, which is very crucial when it comes to online marketing. Apart from providing you with a customizable enclosure to market your product, it will also enable you to track down your opponents along with their product updates and strategies. You can also think of getting real time feedback from clients and customers, directly from your target zones, if in case there is a new product you might be thinking of experimenting with. Google+ pages program now features user defined Hangout Areas, to capacitate you to interact with your fans and followers, when it comes to product improvisations and developments.

Teamed up with Google Circles pages, you can now choose to target your brand advertisements only at a limited group of prospective clients and interested customers, rather than having them generalized for the entire online market. It is now time for you to implement assorted marketing strategies depending upon the group of people you will be dealing with, and also their varied views about your product. Thus, facilitating you with an option of Tailored Ad Usage, Google+ provides you with a dynamic market, especially when you are aiming your ads at your followers on Google+, who are well acquainted with you and your product as well.

Today, if you are lucky enough to survive the random rollout by Google to shortlist businesses, you can gain access to Google+ to create your own business account and have a commercially usable Google+ page for yourself. Next, you are asked to choose the type of page you would like to create. From a list of 5 different categories like local, brand, company and arts, you are instructed to choose any one, to suit your requirements, and there you are with a brand new Google+ page to your name.

Google, with its well deserved high rising reputation in the World Wide Web, undoubtedly dominates the online market. Having read this, if you are an online marketer out there looking out for a state-of-the-art customizable marketing domain for your product, then you cannot really afford to lose this opportunity to have your product reach out to the world and become famous, using the Google+ business pages.

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Generating Leads From LinkedIn - What No One Tells You

LinkedIn... Just the word (at first) made me cringe. I had seen what the site was about and it all looked a bit too fancy schmancy for me. It looked upper class and confusing... but with a little research I've found that it's actually an AMAZING tool that can be used to generate leads.

As with anything else, it's discipline and consistency that will get you where you want to go.. and that's the name of the game with LinkedIn as well.

Now I'm not asking you to become a LinkedIn fanatic, just that you set aside half an hour to an hour per week to work on your LinkedIn profile, groups, page, leads, connections and recommendations. (I know, I know!! What the heck is she talking about? Allow me to explain.)

1. Create Your Account

This is an obvious Step 1, but in case you haven't created your LinkedIn account I suggest you take a short few minutes to do so now.

Alright, we're back on track then. What you want to do is be specific when you're adding content to your profile. In the "Summary" section you want to tell people who you are, who you help, and how you help them. Put this in the most basic terms possible, nobody likes to read long-winded bios.

Don't forget your headline, work experience, and specialties. Adding all this information gives your account value.

2. Websites

In the section that asks you to add your websites I suggest you choose "other" and add your blog but perhaps title it "Network Marketing Tips". Maybe you want to add your business, do the same thing but choose an eye-catching title that will make people want to click on the link and see what it's all about.

3. Customize

This is an important one! Did you notice that ALL the LinkedIn profiles out there look pretty much the same? BORING! Well, here's where customizing comes in. You can add Apps to your account, such as Reading List by Amazon, WordPress, and SlideShare Presentations. Why these three? Well, the Amazon app will tell people a little more about you by the books that you read. You can add as many as you like and a nice picture of the book cover pops up when you do so. Adding the WordPress app allows you to import your blog into your LinkedIn account. Finally, the SlideShare Presentation app can be used to create a welcome video for your page (something that will definitely make you stand out!).

4. Add New Connections

Set aside 10 or 15 minutes ONE day a week to add new connections to your LinkedIn profile. The top bar when you log in has a section called "Contacts"; hover over that and click on "Add Connections". You will be able to import contacts from any email address you own. Once you've built a few connections what you do is search THEIR friends for more people to connect with. Pretty simple if you ask me! And it's only going to take 10 or 15 minutes out of your WHOLE week.

5. Getting Leads

Now you've got your account set up, it's customized, and you've connected with a few people. Let's talk about how to get leads. What you want to do is join about a dozen groups (related to your industry) and start a topic in each group. Remember to try and be consistent about this because the responses you get on your topics are the people who will be potential leads. Pick two or three groups per day and start a topic in them. Don't worry!! It can be the exact same topic, so it's all copy and past (5 minutes of work MAX).

Next you're going to go to the "Answers" page and answer a few questions a week that pertain to your area of expertise; again gauging the answers for potential leads.

6. Recommendations

Recommendations are a big thing on LinkedIn. The more you have, the more you appear to be knowledgeable in your industry. Now, you're not just going to get recommendations out of the blue... the best way to go about this is by GIVING others recommendations because... the more you give, the more you will receive.

Well, there you have it my friends... I would like to have gone further into details but I do not like to make my blogs too long, so I will save all the "nuggets" I have picked up from LinkedIn for another time.

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Social Networking Cars of the Future

We've seen the niftiest gadgets, features, and applications on cars in recent years. From automatic start engines, navigation and entertainment systems but now a new incorporation emerges. Today social networking has taken on another level in our lives, but it has yet to reach our cars. If you don't account for being able to access social media through our phone, anywhere, anytime, why not be able to socially network with others while we are on the road? It may sound like a ridiculous and borderline unsafe idea, but for some car manufacturers, it's not such a far out idea.

While it's highly debatable whether incorporating social media into our cars is a good idea, in the very near future, it may very well be a popular addition. Speculated to launch and release in 2012, social networks are apparently going to be integrated in our cars in a number of ways. Firstly as an additional application on a tablet or portable computational system that is embedded as an additional feature in our car. A system that uses twitter and Facebook to let you know when something's happening or to notify of certain settings that you can control or edit. In addition, the service may notify you of batter power warnings to nearby electric car owners, remind you of some maintenance tips, and even allow you to communicate with nearby cars and owners or passengers of nearby vehicles.

Social networking is seriously going to take over our lives if we're not careful. By 2015 it has been speculated that automakers will woo its consumers and social media crazed fans with additional communications features. Touch screen command systems are already available and will incorporate almost instant access to social networking sites. Thumb wheel controls will not only allow you to increase and decrease volume, or command your windshield wipers to start wiping - but also let you control audio, navigation, and climate control functions. It seems that a robust amount of technology and communication will be made available in our cars.

On another Facebook platform, being able to befriend nearby cars and users is a novel and almost outrageous idea. This will allow drivers to "talk" to other cars and their drivers, and even befriend them on a social networking site like twitter or Facebook, and receive updates in your feed from these users. How this new feature will transform our lives, and ways of interaction, our driving habits, and the way we communicate to one another is uncertain.

What is certain that while these new features can be useful, many question the safety it brings. Drivers should be paying attention to the road and looking out for any hazards on the road. Will these additions affect our attention to the things that really matter? How will this affect auto insurance policies? One thing is certain, new social media features can only increase auto insurance rates, whether by a lot or a minuscule number. Taking the responsible steps and making sure your vehicle is insured is crucial, with this added distraction.

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How Social Networks Can Help Your Business

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last couple of years, you already know that social networks are quite possibly the best thing that happened to online businesses since sliced bread (and SEO!).

With their help, you can develop your online presence, create brand awareness, interact with your audience and have control over your company's image. It's a great way to add to your SEO activities. To make the most out of the Web 2.0 opportunities, it's important to understand what different social networking sites have to offer, so you can use them in a way that best meets your business objectives.

However, before you do so, there's one thing to bear in mind, and that's making sure that your social media strategy involves the following:

Connecting with the audience that's directly relevant to your business.

Creating useful and engaging content that will encourage a debate.

Engaging with your audience - social media is about a two-way interaction - basically, to make social media work, you need to be social yourself!

Regardless of the nature of your business, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are definitely the best places to start your social media adventure. The much talked about Google+, although not quite ready for businesses, is also worth looking into.

Facebook

Create a page for your Business

This is a great way of reaching your audience - people who 'like' your page will automatically see your status updates in their News Feed. You can enhance your page by using additional features such as friends' recommendations, Facebook events, or promote it using Facebook ads(concentrate on Facebook Sponsored Story ads as they tend to be more effective than standard ads). An alternative to creating a page is using Facebook groups, however they are less valuable from the SEO perspective because they don't get indexed.

Pages Dos and don'ts:

Do:

Customise your page by creating a vanity URL (having a URL associated with your business helps your SEO).

Engage your fans - upload photos, talk about current business happenings, ask for their opinions.

Make sure that the 'About' text box and the 'Info' tab include your keywords - this, again, is for SEO.

Keep the page up-to-date - update it daily!

Don't:

Engage in arguments. If someone is posting abusive or rude messages, delete them and block the person if necessary.

Post too many updates - if you clog your fans' News Feeds with too many posts, chances are they will get annoyed and 'unlike' your page.

Twitter

Twitter is a great tool for networking, keeping up with news and opinions in your field and, of course, interacting with your customers. For example, if you'd like to find out more about SEO services, type 'SEO' or 'SEO company' in the Search box and join the recent debate! Although Facebook updates are now shown in real-time, Twitter remains more dynamic and gives you an instant access to what's being said about you (or your competitors!) in a given moment. The fact that your messages can be up to 140 characters is a great way of ensuring that whatever you say, you remain concise and straight to the point.

Twitter Dos and Don'ts:

Do:

Creative an informative profile that clearly explains what your business is about. Twitter's bio box is indexed by Google so make sure you optimise it for keywords to help your SEO!

Constantly monitor your competitors and relevant keywords - this will give you a chance to get involved in relevant discussions.

Tweet only about things that are relevant to your followers!

Don't:

Start following people at a random in a bid to create a huge following.

Auto-Tweet - it's important to be engaging on a personal level!

Tweet too much or get too personal.

LinkedIn

The biggest difference between LinkedIn and Facebook/Twitter is that it was designed with business professionals in mind. It basically lets you see who is who in the industry, who knows whom and who can introduce you to the people that can play an important role in your business. It's almost like being at a networking event, except you make business connections with a click of a mouse!

LinkedIn Dos and Don'ts:

Do:

Customise your URL so it includes your name, and include relevant keywords in your profile - such as the names of the companies you worked for or the services you offer - this will improve the SEO of your profile.

Keep your photos professional.

When it comes to the number of connections, put quality over quantity!

Join groups to connect with people - or create your own.

Don't:

Send generic invitations - people will be more likely to reply if you keep it personal.

Say anything that you wouldn't want your potential clients or business partners to read.

Google +

Although Google+ won't be ready for businesses until later this year, you can take advantage of the fact that Google indexes Google + posts - which means that they appear in Google search results. Links pointing to your site from Google + posts can help you generate more business awareness, while improving your search engine rankings, so it's good for SEO!

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Google Like

Long ago, Google was introduced as an online search engine equipped to supply different information concerning many entities from personal issues to public sentiments. Today, Google has flourished into one of the most successful websites that has been thoroughly utilized by people.

To further serve all Google users, developers have established and integrated a lot of applications just to improve the features that have made Google, up to this date, a leading online site. Part of the numerous applications includes the Google Like.

What is Google Like?

Just like the Facebook Like button, Google Like icon functions by showing the person's preference to the signed up social network; hence, informing and advertising products, items, pictures, and notes. Specifically, it is a form of promotional information linking a certain advertisement from the third person to the direct consumer.

For example, a person is visiting an online store selling bags. After surfing its page, the same person finds a traveling bag enticing. Without hesitation, the share button is clicked and it is immediately presented on the person's social media ready to be viewed by others. Written in the page are the traveling bag's detailed description, price, size, quality, web address, and brand. Since it is being promoted on the person's wall, others will check the item linking them back to the website of the bag; therefore, enhancing traffic to site, popularity, and even improvement of online purchase.

By clicking the Google Like, others will see the merchandise in one's page. Once others find it of their liking, they, too, will present it on their own pages. This way, the popularity of product accelerates.

Promotional campaign

Google Like is not just a one-way income influx. It is created to improve the sales of businesses while helping individuals earn from it. Simply by advertising commercial campaigns on one's own social network page, any form of purchase allows a small percentage of monetary earning from the business owner to the page advertiser since it is considered as a paid link or endorsement. More so, social networks receive revenues on every product promoted and sold that was depicted in their own sites.

Through this Google-patented application, a win-win approach is ensured. Everyone receives profits starting from the third person advertiser, the social media owners, to the company sellers.

Google Like, also, presents consumers variety of products to select from, therefore, guaranteeing that the item procured by the costumers is of their personal discretion. In having many choices, the consumers are not limited to single purchase only but are welcome to buy as many products as possible allowing advertisers to profit as much as the costumers are buying.

Google Like The hype of e commerce

Websites, undeniably, have hastily multiplied like mushrooms. This is due to the increasing number of individuals hooked on the internet. Because of this trend, many businesses have found an avenue to promote their items at a global scale. Everyone is capable of opening their own store through the internet and everyone is qualified to advertise other people's business.

By launching an online business, the Google Like button helps people notice one's industry. The sale is directly proportional to the number of people publicizing the site. Through promoting an online store, the advertiser earns incentives in every product sold by using Google Like.

This is the beauty of e commerce. Every person has the opportunity to use internet in order to generate money; may it be full-time or in part-time.

In conclusion, Google Like application is an indispensable key in generating funds online. No money is necessary to start this type of advertisement, it only entails time and diligence in promoting products to people; may it be one's family, friends, acquaintances, or even strangers. By the looks of it, Google Like will always retain as Google button ready to be utilized by anybody.

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What You Need to Know About the New Facebook Timeline

Last week, Facebook gave its social network a noticeable facelift with the new Timeline profile pages. The old, familiar "Wall" is gone and has been replaced with a look that is more creative and interesting to look at. Friends are able to look at any activity, photo, video, status update that is added to your profile reaching all the way back to the day you were born, depending on what you have included on your Timeline.

The new Facebook profile features a cover photo across the top portion of the screen and several blocks of activities underneath. The new Timeline feature can be viewed on desktop computers, Android phones and, now, iPhones and will soon be available on the iPad.

As with any new social networking feature, there are a few important things that you will need to know in order to make the most of it. Here is what you need to know about the new Facebook Timeline:

Sign up: For anyone who still hasn't made the switch, it's free to update by visiting facebook.com/about/timeline. When you land on that page, look for the green box at the bottom that says "Get Timeline." When you click on it, you will be able to start setting up your own Timeline.

Eventually, all of the profiles will be switched to this new format, so there's no sense in waiting. Go ahead and get to work on it so you can ensure that it looks the way you want.

It has been confirmed by Facebook that you can't go back to the old version once the switch to Timeline has been made.

You get a week to review: When you start the switch to Timeline, you will have a seven-day review period before your new profile is viewable by your friends. Take that time to make any tweaks and adjustments so that only the things you want seen will be seen. Once the week is up, the profile will be switched over.

Choose an ideal cover photo: The cover photo is hard to miss on the new profile pages, so be sure to pick a good one. You want a high-resolution image that won't look distorted when displayed in wide rage. Your profile picture is still going to be on the page, so pick something unique, like a picture of your pet, your favorite vacation spot, or anything that represents you. This cover photo is viewed by the public, even if you set your account to private, so keep that in mind when choosing an image.

Your privacy settings stay the same: Facebook promised the FTC that users would be asked permission before any changes are made to their privacy settings or profile. If you have it set so that "just friends" can view photos and posts, then that is how it will stay.

You can feature or hide old posts: In your Activity Log, you can delete or alter anything that has been posted on your profile. Some events will be featured automatically on the Timeline, like your birthday or wedding. You can also choose which events to feature yourself by clicking on the star icon. To remove an event from being featured, you can simply click on the pencil icon and choose the "Hide from Timeline" option.

What you should avoid: The last thing you want is for an embarrassing picture, circa 1992, to pop up in your Timeline without your permission. If you don't change the settings, any of your friends can tag you in a photo that they've uploaded and it will show up on your Timeline. To avoid this, go to the Facebook privacy settings and click on the option "How you connect" in order to manage who has permission to post things to your Timeline and who can view posts from others on your Timeline.

Have you updated your own profile to the new Timeline? What do you think about the changes? Do you prefer the old school version or the new one? Share with us!

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Networking - Strengthening Business Ties

Primarily, networking has several facets that companies have to deal with. While the main goal is to create a community of people who will benefit from and will be of benefit to the company, there should also be a deeper understanding of its essence. As defined, business networking is treated as a socioeconomic activity. Like minded individuals run the circle and each functions to come up with an enactment of a business prospect.

What are the main reasons why networking with your luncheon mates should go beyond exchanging pleasantries and extend to online relations? First and foremost, your business, apart from seeming familiar to people, should also at least bear a "face" or identity. While meeting people is always a relief, a business also has to be able to exist even when not physically present in areas it can reach. The internet is the perfect place to be in for when a business wants to explore networks despite geographical location.

Meanwhile, association is the key to immediately getting the attention of the audience. If you do get to meet people from the industry in person, the principle of "who you know" applies pretty well once you go your separate ways. Therefore, a follow up of the said meet-ups is the next big step you have to take to keep the business relations functioning and growing.

Going back to the basics, think of this situation:

You are a writer and you do have the talent in creating short fiction stories. At dawn, you are at your most creative, finishing up to three pieces per hour. You have the growing desire to expand, share the world how you view things. The problem is, nobody knows about you or your growing collection. How then will you make a living out of your skill?

This is exactly why entrepreneurs have to exhaust all efforts in building ties and connecting with like minded groups and individuals. The purpose of being present in real life and in the online market is to get your word out the fastest and easiest way possible, guaranteeing even better results compared to the years past.

To take advantage of the internet age means to gear up on social networking and use it as a tool for establishing friendships, and most importantly, business relations. Social media sites are now very open to catering to the needs of businesses and have optimized the online experience for entrepreneurs. Clearly, there is no excuse to miss out on this fun and effective way of making a business reach its potential!

Do you network more online or in person?

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Facebook and Personality Types: Two New Studies

With more than 600 million users worldwide, Facebook is having a marked effect on our social interactions and sense of self. It is no surprise that academics are rushing to understand this impact. Two recent studies look at the way various personality types impact Facebook use. This is a rich vein of inquiry, as it is well-established that personality is an important variable in on-line behavior. As more and more of our lives move online, it seems worth considering how this is playing out.

Study 1: Facebook, Extraverts and Introverts

Who uses Facebook? An investigation into the relationship between the Big Five, shyness, narcissism, loneliness and Facebook usage by Tracii Ryan and Sopia Xenos, studied 1400+ Australian internet users between the ages of 18 and 44 and came to some interesting conclusions.

The study began by splitting the sample into Facebook users and nonusers. They found that Facebook nonusers tend to be shyer, more conscientious and socially lonely than Facebook users. These people have smaller social networks and therefore have less incentive to join Facebook. What is worrisome here is that as more of our social engagement moves online, those who choose not to engage because they are shy could be further socially marginalized.

Facebook users - the vast majority of the sample studied -- scored higher on the characteristics of extroversion and narcissism than non-users. This finding was in keeping with earlier work that views social networking as a form of social extension. Facebook clearly serves as an excellent platform for self-promotion. Not surprisingly, the extraverts on Facebook tended to be heavy users of Photos and Status Updates as well as the various communications tools such as Chat.

Not all Facebook users are extraverts and narcissists. There are also shy and socially anxious types that use the site regularly. In fact, it is this group that are the heaviest users in terms of hours burned. Neurotic or socially anxious types tend to have a strong preference for using the Wall feature, which is a mode of asynchronous communication. Asynchronous communication enables these types to take more time to think through, edit and compose their responses and thus lower the risk of saying something they fear they will regret later. Lonely Facebook users tend primarily to have "family loneliness," meaning that they do not feel deeply connected to those they share their lives with. These types also have a strong preference for the more passive features of the system such as groups, games and fan pages. Lonely users tend to lurk for hours without strongly participating, an activity that could lead to further loneliness and a growing sense that everyone but them is happy and engaged. This " anti-social network" effect has been getting some press as of late. If you are lonely and socially anxious, participation on Facebook can exacerbate those feelings.

Study 2: Social Networking, Deep Thinking and Innovativeness

A study released last month (Less effortful thinking leads to more social networking? The associations between the use of social network sites and personality traits by Bu Zhong, Marie Hardin and Tao Sun) examined the link between social network use and two key personality traits - cognition and innovativeness - in a group of college students at a North American university. The researchers measured cognition using an established scale called Need for Cognition (NFC) that determines whether you are the kind of person who really enjoys thinking hard and deep about issues (high NFC) or whether you enjoy skimming the surface (low NFC). High NFC types do lots of research and are attracted to in-depth information. Low NFC people are more drawn to information that evokes moods and emotions that they can infer conclusions from.

The study revealed that high NFC students spend less time on social media and tend to add fewer friends to their networks while their low NFC peers tended to be heavy users of social media. The type of content that is typically shared on Facebook in this age group, which is full of rich peripheral cues, tends to appeal more to low NFC individuals. However, the authors readily acknowledge that neither high nor low types are particularly motivated to process social media information deeply. Social networking activity is not particularly cognitively challenging. Therefore, the authors caution, we shouldn't necessarily conclude that students who spend a lot of time on social media are not interested in effortful thinking. They just aren't interested in doing it on Facebook.

Students who were heavy social media users, and who self-reported as low NFC, were also much higher in the other trait the authors studied -- ICT innovativeness. The authors define ICT innovativeness as the desire to be early adopters of new media and devices. In other words, low NFC students are generally pretty deeply engaged in the on-line environment as consumers of tools and technologies. This trait has real value in a world where everyone, regardless of their NFC, spends increasingly large amounts of time online.

Both skill sets - the deep thinker and the curious adopter -- will be needed in the future. This study points to the fact that based on our "need for cognition" we have a tendency to fall into one camp or another. One of the really interesting questions that the study does not address is how our social relationships will be affected as we begin to self-sort into distinct pockets of activity online as a result of the way we prefer to engage with the world.

Does any of this ring true for you?

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Social Networking Demographics

Demographics on Social Networking Sites

Based on studies, 22% of the time spent on the web, is spent on social networking sites. But, it's interesting to discover the stats behind users of the social networks sites...Here are several interesting facts on social networking demographics.

Demographics by Age Do you know that the fastest growing demographic on Facebook are senior users above the age 65? This may come as a surprise for many people, however seniors are using social websites more than ever before. What are the reasons? Basically to be able to connect to family members, find people from the past or search for online support groups for concerns such as chronic illness. One of the most prominent age group on social media nonetheless, continues to be age group 25-44. Facebook has 46% of the company's users age 25-44, while the percentage for the same age group for Twitter is 57%. The age group 45-54 is consistently gaining ground on social networks. It is more dominant on Facebook that Twitter, with 26% and 18% respectively.

Demographics by Gender

Women surpass men for most activity. For example, on Facebook 54% of the users are female as well as on Twitter the percentage is 52%. However, on the professional side LinkedIn, 58,9% of the users are male. Google+, one of the newest sites, is totally ruled by men, with a whooping 74% of the users being male.

It is interesting to see that women and men have completely different sharing habits. Females are 600% more likely to share content associated with partying and eight times more likely to share one of their favorite love songs as well. Men however, are more likely to express feelings about parenthood on social networking sites than women are. Additionally, men are not afraid to project a more "nerdy" side on social networks than women do, since they are 10 times more likely to share stories about buying their first computer or about getting bullied when they went to school. Both women and men however, equally share content on career aspirations or more personal feelings such as self-doubt or worries.

Demographics by Education Level

Most users have a high education level. On Facebook, 26% of the users have a minimum of a bachelor's degree, while 55% claim having at least some college education. The education level is even higher for Twitter users, on which at least 37% have a bachelor degree and 49% have some college education. YouTube is also a site with high education level users. 51% have some college education and 26% of the users have at least a bachelor's degree.

Demographics by Income

LinkedIn is the online community site with the wealthiest users, since 71% of the users make at least 50K per year. On Facebook, 66% of the users have a salary of 25K-75K and on Twitter 52% of the users make at least 50K.

What is your opinion about this information? Are any of them surprising?

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Effective Social Networking - How to Bring On New Clients With Social Network Marketing

Marketing your business blatantly on most social networks will get you tossed in the social network slammer (read BANNED). You don't want to go there so follow these simple social networking rules to prevent that major social disaster!

Don't market your business on social networking sites.

Just don't. That's all. Don't market your business there, and whatever you do don't SELL your stuff there.

So, how do you present your business on social networks without marketing? Here's the answer you've been looking for:

Make friends first - get to know people. Offer ideas and suggestions, invite people to read your blog posts, if they're relevant. Include events that people really want to attend on your social calendar. Schedule a party, a coffee, or a gathering of friends and buddies so you get an opportunity to see what these people are interested in, if you don't already know them personally. Offer referral friends and buddies to your friends who might be interested in each other. Build connections and networks of friends who know friends. Create private groups and networks of friends who would love to know each other and could actually gain something from meeting other people in the group. Perhaps a REAL people event where they could all get together would be a good idea. Interact with other people on your social network outside the network and your personal wall. They'll want to see more of you than the group presentation you do to everyone else online.

The more you get to know people, the better people will know you and the more they'll refer you to others. Be sure part of your 'relationship' online includes letting people know what you do.

Share your business links online - in your info, be sure your business links are visible and active. They should be able to click directly to your website. Occasionally mention your business goals online - share them with your friends. "Hey, I'm working to create two new client accounts, if you know anyone who needs an Iron Arm Jockey, send them my way." Ask for advice - where appropriate. "My Iron Arm Jockey wants to get married, but I can't find him a woman. Does anyone know a girl that wants to marry and Iron Arm Jockey?" Invite your readers to participate in your contests. "My Iron Arm Jockey is wrestling Jack Rabbits on Sunday, if you'd like to come watch, leave a comment. One lucky commenter will win tickets for two to visit the match." Hold an open event and invite readers to participate in your event. Invite readers to participate in your business. This works particularly well for writers who are giving their books a title or naming characters. A reader will market your product for you, if he or she named the leading character.

Get involved with your readers and read their social media pages too. You'll want to know them really well!

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4 Things You Must Know About Online Courses in Networking

One of the biggest myths about online networking is that this technique to earn money is time-consuming. The truth is that before courses in networking were offered, it did take people a lot of time to use this method to earn money mainly because most users did not have the required information and various tools to get maximum results with online networking. However, these days, courses in online networking and various resources such as online tools have helped individuals achieve their goals in just a few days. Listed below are 4 things you must know if you plan to do a course in networking.

#1 - Contrary to the popular belief, online courses in networking are actually helpful. These not only offer information on the latest networking strategies but they also information on how to earn money by working from home. These provide information on the right way to build contacts, the right way to use various resources and how to use tools that you may have to get contacts. In reality, these do a lot more than just to help earn quick money. They help people with certain skills, use these skills to develop a career in the networking field.

#2 - Courses that are offered online are not time-consuming which means that you can complete these with ease in your free time. Those who want to opt for these are generally recommended to study 1 full module a day however, this is not a must.

#3 - Good networking courses teach people how to earn money by getting contacts without sitting in front of the computer at home. Good ones teach various strategies through which individuals can go out of their house or complete other tasks while they get contacts online. Also, these help beginners understand how online networking works, how to make most out of the resources you have and how to get contacts in less than a week.

#4 - There are various websites that offer networking courses and some of these websites are not worth investing time or money in. People who are interested in building a career in networking should look for those that offer definite goals. Good courses usually elaborate on what can be done by completing it and they also elaborate on what study material will be offered if the person opts for it. The best courses in networking offer no questions asked money back guarantees since they are confident that the material they are providing will definitely help you achieve their goals in the given time frame.

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