What Social Network sites do you belong on?
When deciding upon a Social Media campaign the most difficult task can be sorting through the plethora of networking sites available to you.  We all tend to believe we need a presence on Facebook, MySpace, YouTube.  The problem is that being everywhere or in the wrong place can do more harm than good. When making this decision, it’s important to match your site choices with your desired demographics.  Google Ad Planner offers a  demographic breakdown of the top social media sites.  When looking at the differences in sites its clear that sites differ greatly in demographics. Let’s look at the two big sites.  Facebook and MySpace.  Facebook’s largest demographic

Crafting Your Message to Reach Your Desired Audience
I could give you 20 different reasons why a Social Media campaign might fail, but instead, let’s focus on the most common reason why a Social Media campaign may fail.  The best way to sabotage a Social Media campaign is to not have a clear direction for your message. It’s a basic marketing principle, before you engage in any campaign, clearly define your target audience and the message you want them to receive.  Identify what your audience already knows and what you really want them to know.  Take into consideration whether they are unfamiliar with your company or if you are targeting people who you want to speak for your company. Once you have these clearly defined

Networking Your “Social Network”
Social networking is by no means a new concept.  People have been attending social functions to meet key contacts or handing out business cards at every occasion in hopes of trying to connect with the right person who can connect you with the right people. So I guess the natural question to ask is, “Why isn’t your social media network acting like your social network”? There’s a common myth going around that I like to call the “Twitterama”.  This is when people believe that they have a great social network simply by the amount of people they are connected to or the amount of people who are connected to them.  Take for example Ashton Kutcher.  His claim was th

Getting in the “Social Media” game
Social media is quickly becoming a staple in all business marketing strategies.  Everyone knows it’s something they need to be involved in.  They need to have a social media presence.  They need it to be effective.  They need it to be dynamic.  The problem is…very few companies really understand what social media is and how it can work for their business. Let’s start with the basics; what is social media? Social media is a collection of platforms and online communities that are in a constant state of conversational interaction.  These communities each have different cultures that govern the way people interact within them.  These communities can also be broken

How to Shorten a URL
What is URL Shortening? “Web applications often include lengthy descriptive attributes in their URLs which represent data hierarchies, command structures, transaction paths and session information. This practice results in a URL that is aesthetically unpleasant and difficult to remember, and which may not fit within the size limitations of microblogging sites. URL shortening services provide a solution to this problem by redirecting a user from a shorter URL to a longer one.” Source: Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URL_redirection Why Should I Shorten My Link URLs? URL shortening is extremely useful for Microblogging, due to the post s