There has been an ongoing theme – to be honest, for quite a while now - resurfacing at various intervals, about the imminent death of blogging, generally to be replaced it seems with the social media tools of the moment such as Facebook and Twitter.
For a small minority, I would agree that this may well be on the cards. The ability to connect with people using little bitesized chunks of information is tempting and may seem easier than sitting down and writing something longer than the typical “update”. However, for the vast majority, and particularly businesses looking to use social media as a tool to reach their customers – shouldn’t we all be? 
– I would say that this prediction is premature in the extreme.
Indeed, with social media now firmly ensconced among the more established marketing and communications tools, I would suggest that not only will we not see a decline in the role of blogging, we will actually see it grow in importance. If you have a moment, then let me explain why – I guarantee that it’ll be worthwhile. …
| Article Categories: | Business Blogging, Business Networking, Social Media Thoughts, Social Networking |
| Article Tags: | Business Blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn, Online Marketing, Social Media, Twitter |
5 key elements of LinkedIn success
There is an ever increasing body of evidence showing that LinkedIn is the place to be within the social media world if you are looking to gain serious traction in the online business networking world. It is also generally considered to be a great social media antidote to the (all too often) chaotic worlds of Facebook and Twitter.
However, it’s important to realise that using LinkedIn can still very time intensive like most social media tools, even if we make the most of integrating our other online tools and sharing information we create elsewhere (as well as on LinkedIn itself). It’s unfortunately true that the business world is littered with people who have tried to take on too much and suffered the consequences – the internet world, because of it very nature, offers us a range of tools and the ability to follow in those footsteps unless we go in with clear business objectives in mind!
Therefore, to gain all of the benefits that LinkedIn can offer without suffering the potential downsides, it’s important to …
| Article Categories: | Business Networking, LinkedIn, Social Media Thoughts, Social Networking |
| Article Tags: | Business Networking, Social Media Tools, Using LinkedIn |
Social Media needs to be integrated
Social media tools aren’t intended to replace the current marketing tools and techniques that we already use – and they won’t, at least not in the short-term. What they are is complementary and, to be most effective, they should be integrated with our better understood online and offline tools.
Let’s remember: at the end of the day, all of these tools from business cards, conferences and magazine advertising to search engines, emails and Facebook marketing, are merely being used to communicate and help convey a message. The message is the key element. However, the benefit that social media offers is …
| Article Categories: | Business Blogging, Social Media Thoughts, Social Networking |
| Article Tags: | Business Blogging, Social Media Integration, Social Media Tools, Social Networking |
Social Media: scary yet familiar somehow!
Currently, businesses of all sizes find themselves in the position where they’re faced with “Social Media, coming ready or not!”. To many it feels like a scary step to get involved with this “new” marketing area BUT you can be certain that it’ll be even scarier not to!
For many, the scary part is that it feels like walking into the unknown. The idea of handing even part of the control of our marketing to the very people we are looking to appeal to and attract fills us with dread.
But don’t worry, you’ve actually been doing it for years. …
| Article Categories: | Social Media Thoughts |
| Article Tags: | Google Alerts, Social Media, TweetBeep, Twitter, Word of Mouse, Word of Mouth |
Facebook and Google: social media versus search?
There you go then – statistics never lie do they? For a time earlier this month, Facebook was the most trafficed site on the planet according to Hitwise, relegating Google to second place for the first time in, oh, I don’t know how long! Clearly Social Media has now beaten Online Search into submission and a new era has dawned!
Not really Armageddon for Search
Well not really, though we are entering an interesting phase, even if it isn’t the cataclismic event that I’m sure the film industry would manage to turn it into if they had the chance. Simple measurement of user hits remain somewhat skewed because of the very different nature of the beasts – Facebook is designed to be …
| Article Categories: | Facebook, Social Media News, Social Media Thoughts |
| Article Tags: | Facebook, Google, Social Media, Social Media for Business, Social Search |
Using Video as part of your Social Media Toolkit
With YouTube now having overtaken Yahoo when it comes to the quantity of online searches it receives, the arguments against integrating a video element get thinner and thinner. However, in many respects, it really doesn’t matter where it is relative to the others – the fact is that the 60m+ visitors it attracts on a monthly basis speaks volumes on its own. It also begs the question – how are you using video to benefit your blog and your business?
Where videos prove their worth
Video, together with the increasing use of social media such as blogs, social networking and podcasts in marketing, has been winning new fans because of the extra dimension that it can give to our marketing activities. Using video not only helps to differentiate you from your competitors, it also allows you to convey your message in a different way.
The use of video has had a huge rise in popularity over recent years, with steeply rising user numbers. YouTube, with its estimated 64 million visitors every month leads the way, but …
| Article Categories: | Social Media Thoughts, Video & YouTube |
| Article Tags: | Social Media Success, Social Media Tools, Video Marketing, YouTube |
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