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

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

Ok – so Google has certainly done its fair share of helping the world of social media (or hindering it, according to your viewpoint). Taking tools such as You Tube, Blogger and Google Reader and making them accessible to millions has certainly been a major boost to each of these burgeoning areas. There have of course also been a few less than stellar steps including most recently Gooogle Buzz.

However, with its latest revision of its search engine homepage, I have to say that I feel it has given social media a real leg-up in the world of search and perhaps delivered a timely reminder that the worlds of social media and online search are …

Article Categories:	Business Blogging, Social Media News, Social Networking, Twitter, Video & YouTube
Article Tags:	Blog Search Engine, Facebook, Google Search Results, Social Media, Social Search, Twitter

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

We use technology to react to things in interesting ways … well, I think so. For me, a case in point happened yesterday when certain members of the national press turned on Nick Clegg ahead of the 2nd Leaders Debate and an unexpected reply came in the form of  #nickcleggsfault over on Twitter.

Essentially, a number of stories appeared in the newspapers blaming UK Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg for a whole host of different things. Rather than leap to his defence, one Twitter user took a far more creative approach and started a hashtag named #nickcleggsfault to encourage people to come up with their own suggestions! A classic viral situation if every if  saw one!! …

Article Categories:	Social Media News, Twitter
Article Tags:	hashtags, Social Media in General Election, Twitter

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