Innovations in connectivity

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While we're on the topic of innovation, check out these articles on how innovations in technology are leading to greater connectivity

• Why Niche Social Networks Encourage More Meaningful Interaction

• Connected TV: The New Battle for Your Living Room

• Education Tech: Skype's Vision for a More Connected Classroom

• Connected Cars: The Fine Line Between Innovation & Distraction

• Ford Evos, the Social Networking Vehicle of the Future

 

 

See also: Are you a "connector?"

Social Media: Marketing your business with YouTube

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You may have heard about the viral success of videos from Old Spice, Gillette, Blendtec and IKEA on YouTube, each with millions of views to date.  More and more, companies are looking to online video as a way to market their goods and services while also providing entertaining and informative content to consumers that stands apart form their competition.  Posting videos to YouTube is ideal for businesses large and small. The service is free and your videos can live online as long as you'd like, so a small initial investment to produce a video can result in long term returns.  An additional benefit to posting videos to YouTube - you don't have to worry about bandwidth issues on your own website - you can simply embed the code for your desired YouTube video and it will play on your website!

Some tips to making YouTube videos work for your business:

• Investing in expensive equipment to produce a video is simply not necessary - YouTube videos are just 320 x 400 pixels.  We recommend that you invest in a user-friendly video camera for under $500.
• Proper lighting while recording is important and doesn't have to be expensive.  (Read Bill Moyer's video lighting secrets for your home studio.)
• Choose a descriptive user name - this will become the name of your YouTube channel and you will not be able to change it.
• Be sure to include your website URL in your video.
• Videos must be under 10 minutes in length - but your video does not have to be that long!
• Give a good deal of thought to your choice of video name, your video description and the keywords you associate with your video, you want search engines to be able to find your video so chose keywords that best fit your business offerings and niche.
• Let your contacts know about your YouTube channel, notify them via email or on a social network such as Facebook or Twitter and be sure to post the URL on all your marketing materials and include the link in your email signature.
• Interact with other YouTube users - comment on relevant videos and subscribe to other channels in order to drive some traffic to your channel.

For more tips on making your YouTube videos a success, check out Social Media Examiner's 16 Tips for Successful Online Video Marketing.

Let us know if you are using online video to market your business, leave us a comment below with the URL for your videos.
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See for yourself why the videos from Old Spice, Gillette, Blendtec and IKEA went viral!

Old Spice


Gillette


Blendtec


IKEA

Social Media: Twitter and "tweeting"

Tweet Twitter is a free micro-blogging service where users post notes or "tweets" in 140 characters or less. If you are new to Twitter or curious about how you can use it to share information and opinions with others or to market your business, take a look at Twitter 101: How should I get started using Twitter? to learn how to set-up an account, "tweet" and "re-tweet" and discover others users to "follow." [See our blog about shortening URL's, this is a great way to help you stay within Twitter's 140 character limit]

As mentioned in our post about using social media for business, many business have had success using Twitter to generate business, check out Twitter's case studies to learn how companies, large and small, are engaging with customers, gaining invaluable word-of-mouth advertising and growing their businesses using this service.

Follow NMC on Twitter, @nmc2004

For lists of celebrities, musicians, news outlets and other interesting Twitter users to follow, check out wefollow.com
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Check out Twitter's YouTube video: "Twitter: discover what's new in your world"

Social Media: Hongkiat.com's 20 Facebook Tips/Tricks You Might Not Know

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Check out Hongkiat.com's Facebook tips and tricks, including:

• Updating Facebook using sites like hellotxt and Ping.fm

• Downloading Facebook Photo Albums using FacePAD: Facebook Photo Album Downloader

• Scheduling your Facebook messages using Sendible

• Synchronizingphotos of your Facebook friends with your MS Outlook contacts

• Deleting, Canceling and Terminating your  Facebook Account and Profile

For the full list of tips and tricks, click here.

Social Networking beyond Facebook and Twitter

Tweet By now, many professionals are using of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to reach clients, network with industry peers and market their businesses. But they can also tap into many niche social networking sites that cater to individuals based on interest or profession.

Here is a list of just a few of the social networking sites specifically for real estate professionals:

* Real Town - For consumers looking for buyer and seller information and real estate professional seeking resources and networking opportunities
* Active Rain - A social network and marketing site
* RealEstateVoices - A social real estate news site
* Zolve - Connect buyers, sellers and owners with information provided by real estate professionals
* Broker Agent Social - "A peer to peer community open to real estate professionals of all types: Real Estate Sales, Mortgage, Title, and all those who provide support to the Real Estate Industry"

We found a list of many niche social networks broken down by industry/interest on Social Media Answers - many of the sites listed are built using Ning, a site that allows you to create your own social network.

Is Social Media right for your business?

Tweet 2.6 million users "checking in" on FourSquare

27.9 million+ bloggers in the US

Facebook has over 103+ million users (including 300,000+ business pages)

Nearly 106 million people "tweeting" on Twitter

143.2 million unique viewers on YouTube in June 2010 alone!

These numbers are staggering! More importantly, they represent the number of people that are a potential audience for your business if you use one of these sites. But is social media the right avenue to engage with your current clients and promote your brand to gain new clients?

While a social media strategy may not be right for every business, there are many that can positively measure the impact of a Facebook page or Twitter account on their bottom lines! Erik Qualman gives some great examples of businesses (large and small) that had great success using social media in his video Social Media ROI: Socialnomics. The New York Times also tells us some success stories of small businesses who saw a great return on investment from their Twitter marketing efforts.

If your company has a small (or non-existent) ad budget, social media may be the answer. Most social networking sites are free to use so for only the cost of your time, devoting a few minutes a day to "tweet" on Twitter, post an informative blog relevant to your product/service or share interesting links or photos on Facebook can result in increased exposure for your company and increased sales. So are you ready to embrace social media for your business?!

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