The best way to maximise performance on these resources is to:

• Update regularly with quality content – such as knowledge, news updates, media releases, fun stuff!?/upcoming events and specials.

Create a fan base for the groups. The best way to do this is:

• become a fan of other groups – to increase potential client base world wide/nationwide – I can do this
• let people know you are on there – newsletters, website widgets – ie Become A Fan, Word of Mouth, if you have friends on Facebook- get them to join as you never know who They Know.

Social Media effectiveness relies on others to contribute to the resources. The Social Media Marketing really is word of mouth and it is because of this, that the less spam on the resource the better. We don’t want people to think we are there purely for money!

Another good way to increase fan bases is by being a little crazy – I have heard people having slogans such as “If I get 80000 fans I will do….” Or in a marketing world “I will donate/give away such and such if we get 80000 fans”.

Completely up to you, depending on how conservative you would like to be. I have yet to see if the above slogans work for non celebrity’s…you can only wonder!

We are going to work with Michael Massey @ Atmanjai (Detox, Yoga and Wellness Centre in Phuket) to get 80000 fans - and if we do, we will put money towards a sponsorhip for a child in need.

Here's to the sponsorship of a child in need!!

Exploding iPhones spark French investigation - Business news, business advice and information for Australian SMEs | SmartCompany

Change #1
Facebook buys Friendfeed Friendfeed.com (smaller social networking site founded in 2007 founded by a few ex-Google executives). The site was loved for its simplicity and integration of social media activities. Facebook borrowed heavily from some of their applications - such as the live feed feature. It has now been bought out by Facebook. Friendfeed.com will continue to function for now....

This = facebook will get even bigger. That is why users and business' should maintain three main - Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The small sites will continue to get swallowed up.

Newer and Innovative Change #2: Facebook Search Expanded
Facebook search will now expand to allow you to search status updates and more - up to 30 days (photos, links, videos and notes being shared by your friends and the Facebook Pages of which you're a fan).
If people have chosen to make their content available to everyone, you also will be able to search for their status updates, links and notes, regardless of whether or not you are friends. Search results will continue to include people's profiles as well as relevant Facebook Pages, groups and applications.
To search for a particular term, just enter your query in the search box in the upper-right corner of any page. Once you're taken to the search results, use the filters on the left-hand side of the page to view only posts by friends or posts by everyone.
If you're searching for a specific person, Page, group or application, you also can filter by those results.
This = be patient if you can't search updates yet. It means you have to be even more careful about what you post as a status update. It also means that you are going to have the ability to reach more people that you realize....the next social media Search Engine....will Google buy Facebook?

Update your status.
Update your status regularly and strategically. Use your status update to remind your network what you do and what you know. Example: “David is writing a LinkedIn best practices piece for his blog.” You can also use your status update to share articles with your network. If you provide interesting links the people in your network will be much more likely to pay attention to your updates, which keeps you top of mind and also positions you as knowledgeable in your area. That trust in your ability will make it much more likely that people will consider you as an expert to whom they can refer their contacts. If you plan on doing this, use a URL shortener like bit.ly to save space in your status updates and to track how many click-throughs a given link garnered.

Learn Advanced Search.
LinkedIn’s Advanced Search is extremely powerful. LinkedIn’s Advanced Search helps you find very targeted audiences. LinkedIn’s Advanced Search is your friend.

Join industry groups.
Search for and join industry-related LinkedIn groups , even if there is no activity within them. The icons for those groups will show up on your profile which tells people at a glance that you are involved in your industry and presumably knowledgeable about it. It also creates a connection between you an anyone else who is a member of that group. If the group is active, join in the conversation where appropriate. This is an opportunity to demonstrate your expertise.

Post news.
Many groups allow you to post links to news articles intended to spark conversation. More often than not, conversations do not arise from these links but that doesn’t mean that no one pays attention to them. Like status updates, this function can be used to position yourself as knowledgeable in your field. But think before you go down this route. Before you post anything, ask yourself if what you’re about to share is truly valuable to the group. If it’s sheer self-promotion don’t do it. Only post content that you sincerely feel will be of value to your fellow group members. I have shared some of my blog posts and, because the pieces were useful to the group members, I got a lot of traffic to my blog because people genuinely wanted to read it. If your article is not going to add value, it’s spam; don’t post it.

Ask and you shall receive.
If you want to make connections with a specific type of person, you can use LinkedIn’s Answer feature to try and attract them by posing a question the LinkedIn audience. Think about the type of person you want to reach and then formulate a question for which you think that person would have an opinion about that they’d like to share. If you’re looking for an open source web developer, for example, you might ask “Which is better, Drupal or Joomla?”

Spread the love.
Answer questions posed by others. This, again, is another aspect of LinkedIn that can be used to demonstrate your competence. Only answer the questions for which you know the answer intimately. If you use this tactic, don’t just do intellectual handstands to show off your knowledge, actually answer the question. Your attitude should be that you want to help the person who posed the question by sharing your expertise. If you are truly helpful to the person, they’ll consider assigning you as the best answer among the group. Your answer but also the fact that it was the best answer will be displayed on your profile.

Install applications.
LinkedIn doesn’t have many apps, but those that they do can be helpful for positioning and to create more contact points.

Free Webinar on social media networking click here to sign up - they are on every Tuesday at around 2pm. Id love to see you there!!

A list of LinkedIn best practices:
1. Find who you know. Start with your existing contacts by letting LinkedIn scan your email address book to find out who you know is on LinkedIn.
2. Personalize your URL. Change your LinkedIn profile URL from the default set of numbers to your name. This helps people find you when they search for your name within LinkedIn as well as in Google and other search engines.
3. Email Marketing Campaign. Include your LinkedIn URL in your email signature.
4. Add a picture to your profile. As I stated above, LinkedIn is about individuals so it looks odd when someone’s LinkedIn profile has a faceless silhouette rather than an actual photograph.
5. Ask to connect. Whenever you have interactions with people, ask them if they’re on LinkedIn and if they’d like to connect. MS Outlook has the ability to integrate LinkedIn which makes it easy to connect once you have a New Contact!
6. The more you give, the more you get. Fill out as much of your profile as you can. The more information you put in, the more connections you’re making and by doing so, you’re creating more opportunities for people to find you.
7. Put yourself in the mind of the user. If they know you or know who you are, people will search LinkedIn by your name in order to find your profile. But if people are looking for expertise, they will likely be using topical searches such as “public relations professional”
8. Use keywords that people will likely be using in their searches. As you put yourself in the mind of the people by whom you want to be found, think about what searches they’d perform on LinkedIn in order to find you. Build up a list of those keywords and search phrases and use them throughout your profile.
9. Don’t hide. All the SEO work will go to waste if you hide your profile. The two things that people do when researching business associates they have not met is Google them and search for their LinkedIn profile. Change the settings on your profile to “Full View” so your profile can be fully indexed by the search engines.
10. Link to your profile. If you have a Web site or a blog or a Twitter account or other social media profiles, link to your LinkedIn profile from them.
11. Link to yourself. LinkedIn lets you link three Web sites on your profile. The drop-down menu offers options such as “My Website” and “My Blog” but you’ll want to choose “Other” so you can use your own text for the link.
12. Recommend. Give and ask for recommendations. But be sincere or it will not sound authentic. When you recommend someone and when someone recommends you, that fact is displayed on your profile for all to see. (Don’t worry, you can control which recommendations appear on your profile). Don’t be afraid to ask people who you think have high regard for you for a recommendation. Recommend those you think are worthy before they ask you to recommend them. They will often return the favor. Recommendations are yet another aspect of LinkedIn that helps to establish trust.
13. Update your status. Update your status regularly and strategically. Use your status update to remind your network what you do and what you know.

There are more best practices...will let you know this week!!

Social media news and business strategies blog | Socialmedia.biz

Shared via AddThis

Twitter really does increase the speed of information sharing. Twitter is instant, more so than the internet..I found an article today about Capitalising on the mistakes of others, Tweeted discounts a success and funnily enough drinking to Twitter.
Swine flu updates are on twitter and are used in Australian hospitals; a prime example that this communication method is instant and obviously works in Government hospitals.
The article discusses ways in which you can market yourself using Twitter - for example: discounting products if you sign up to follow your biz. The more people that do, the higher your word of mouth goes out - which then, increases your advertising at little to No Cost at all. AS Long as you are ethical and maintain a good image and name in the market, this is great. Of course you would not want to have discounting for the entire period - maybe just at launches and special release dates.
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/information-technology/20090804-twitter.html

Tell us how you use twitter...or tweet us on sociallywired

I read (Chronicle Herald Canada)a recent survey comScore revealing that social media are fast becoming a frequent pastime for many consumers.
The last paragraph is the most interesting.
The study revealed that 1.1 billion people went online in May. Three quarters of the web surfers visited social media websites like Facebook.
Canada rounded out the top three in terms of global online presence for the amount of time spent on social media websites. Canadians spent an average of 5.6 hours per month on such sites, having viewed an average 649 pages.
Canadians out surfed their American counterparts, spending nearly two hours more each month at such sites, and averaging more than 150 pages more per person.
Russia topped the list, with 6.6 hours per person per month, averaging 1,307 pages each. Brazil was second with 6.3 hours per person per month, and an average of 1.220 pages. Columbia had the lowest consumption rate for social media, averaging 4.1 hours a month per person online, and 473 pages.
Globally, people averaged 3.7 hours on social media websites monthly, surfing on average 525 pages.
The study also revealed that the number of pages browsed has little to do with the amount of time spent online. Spain and Finland both had higher numbers of page views than Canada did, but their residents spent less time online. Spanish web users logged 5.3 hours monthly, but they visited 968 pages. For Finland, users visited an average of 919 pages monthly, while spending only 4.7 hours online.
Facebook is arguably one of the most popular social media websites. According to Facebook’s own statistics, more than 120 million people around the world log in daily to their Facebook account. Thirty million of those users log in from cellphones and Blackberries, and those who do are 50 per cent more active than those who do not use mobile devices.
These statistics underscore the importance of using social media to communicate with the market, regardless of whether the market is local, regional, national or global.
Social media sites are designed to be electronic networks, linking individuals and other networks, in a dynamic and interactive medium. Users can visit the site as often as they wish. They can engage in on-site discussions, send messages, and invite others to visit or become online friends.
Social media such as Facebook and Myspace, are often updated many times daily. The result is an engaging and highly interactive forum for sharing ideas, concepts, images and videos. Facebook offers the opportunity to create online groups that like-minded individuals can join and can participate in daily.
Facebook statistics indicate that each user has an average of 120 friends who also have Facebook sites of their own. Thirty million Facebook users update their online status at least once a day, and on average, five billion minutes are spent on Facebook worldwide each day.
Social media require different kinds of programming and monitoring than corporate websites do. While corporate websites must be monitored regularly to be sure that information is current and that their designs are appropriate, social media sites must be monitored daily due to their interactivity and dynamic content.
Not all of the information on such websites is positive. While one person might post positive comments about a good or a service, others will be inclined to post negative comments. This ability to express oneself in an open and direct way can create a challenge for firms that do not regularly monitor their social networking sites.
Entrepreneurs who choose to avoid using social media are not necessarily spared negative feedback. The open nature of social networks ensures that free expression is maintained. Freedom of expression means that even entrepreneurs without their own social networking site may be featured in negative online discussion through other sites.
Failure to engage in social media also results in a failure to engage the market. The online market is huge and growing. It is important to consider the Internet to be more than just an advertising medium. The web is a social medium that can be creatively used to link buyers and sellers through more than online sales and auction sites.
The Internet is an opportunity to interact daily with current and potential clients who are seeking information and feedback. It is also an opportunity to build relationships which, unlike face-to-face interactions, have the power to cross borders and oceans.

Have you got an iphone and try to convince others that it is the best phone ever created? Not only can you access fantastic apps, purchase music, videos, search online and Update all of your social media sites...but it is also becoming more secure...they are fixing the security flaw - and will be named the most secure mobile platform available to users.
I recently broke my iphone (well, i dropped it down by the pool), it is being repaired by apple at the moment..i couldnt believe how much I was addicted to checking my emails and updating my 'tweets' and status on my own social media...careless about any of the security flaws...I just wanted to express to everyone i knew where i was and what i was doing...careless...Now I am using my old phone from 5 years ago i had tucked away in my boxes...i have the twitches and feel rather lost and disconnected from technology.. I know other iphone users are much the same...

Check out this article about the secure mobile platform release...
Apple fixes iPhone security flaw
Monday 03 August 2009 10:58 Patrick Stafford

iPhone manufacturer Apple has fixed a security vulnerability in the phone's software that would allow a hacker to take control of the device through a vulnerability in its SMS capabilities.
The company released the "iPhone OS 3.0.1" patch, which iPhone users can download through iTunes, which was highlighted at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas last week.
The two researchers who discovered the flaw, Charlie Miller and Collin Mulliner, gave Apple advanced notice of the flaw before releasing details at the conference so the company could prepare a fix.
The flaw allows a hacker to take complete control of the iPhone via the phone's text messaging features. Miller and Mulliner demonstrated that an attacker could make calls, send text messages and even erase data from a hacked-in phone.
Apple released a statement about the patch, which said that "a memory corruption issue exists in the decoding of SMS messages".
"Receiving a maliciously crafted SMS message may lead to an unexpected service interruption or arbitrary code execution. This update addresses the issue through improved error handling. Credit to Charlie Miller of Independent Security Evaluators, and Collin Mulliner of Technical University Berlin for reporting this issue."
But the problems aren't over for Apple. A poll of 94 security professionals at the Black Hat conference, undertaken by security company nCircle, found that 56% believe the iPhone will be the handset must vulnerable to attacks during 2009.
"Unfortunately, it looks like the security problems with iPhone will continue to grow until Apple makes security a higher priority," nCircle director of information technology , Andrew Storms, said in a statement.
"If there is a silver lining for iPhone users, it's that all of the security research attention it is getting could eventually turn the iPhone into one of the most secure mobile platforms."
Similar vulnerabilities have been found in the Google Android and Microsoft Windows Mobile operating systems. Google has released a fix for the Android vulnerability, while Microsoft currently developing a patch