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What is Social Media and Social Media Marketing?

September 7, 2010 By InternetMarketingStrategyforMen Leave a Comment

The internet is where people now go to get information on products, services, businesses, locations, directions, etc.  The internet is also where people are talking to each other about all of these things.

Social media is the communication between both individuals and groups – in all kinds of ways – all over the world wide web. The social sites that we use to engage in conversations are our marketing tools.  Tools will come and go, but this advertising and marketing method is here to stay.  Remember that the internet is still very young, and every day new people are getting access.

Social media is an opportunity for people to talk directly with major brands in a way that was never available before.  And small businesses can use social media exactly the way much larger businesses are doing – right now there is nothing to hold any business back from participating.

The cost of social media is measured more in terms of time than it is in dollars.  In order to effectively join this new way to market a business, and have success with it, there has to be a consistent and sincere effort to engage on the popular social networking sites as well as industry specific locations.

Advertising and marketing is no longer about pushing out a message, in the form of an advertisement, to a general crowd or even a targeted market.  People do not want to be ‘sold to’ anymore.  Prospective buyers want information, referrals, testimonies, and conversation about a brand, service, or products.

Social media is about attracting a crowd, pulling them in to your message, by engaging them in conversation, posting valuable (helpful) content online, entertaining, educating, enlightening their market.

And it’s not only enough to provide this great content.  The other part of Social Media is the marketing of the message:  Social Media Marketing.  Helping the content to be seen to an even wider audience is achieved by consistent efforts to market the messages in strategic (non-selling) ways.

Promoting your business online using online social channels can include answering questions, listening to concerns, establishing relationships, asking for feedback, and building brand awareness.  The most effective way to utilize social media marketing is to constantly be in touch with the conversation that is already happening about your brand, and responding to it in a sincere way.

There are multiple returns for social media marketing efforts.  In addition to achieving a wider reach for your content that results in more visits to your website, there are search engine optimization benefits.  Social media sites are now receiving top search engine listings so that even more people find your business when going to Google and other search engines to find your product or service.

So there is a plan for Social Media and there is a plan for Social Media Marketing.  Both plans should be worked on a daily basis.  There are optimal ways to do each, and we plan to cover that here on this blog.

Takeaway:   Social Media is sharing information online.  A business can participate by posting content in all kinds of creative ways to engage new people to the product or service that is represented – not to sell, but to use the social space on the internet to facilitate communication that will lead to sales.

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Vicki Zerbee, Social Media Consultant and owner of YourWebSiteMarketingService.com & Wellness Coach and Owner of AntiAgingByDesign.com, is an internet Entrepreneur who specializes in personal contact and welcomes the opportunity to meet you.

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Facebook Opens Profiles to the Public!

September 7, 2010 By InternetMarketingStrategyforMen Leave a Comment

Facebook is transforming its social networking web site into something similar like the “White Pages” online. Following the trend of Spock.com and ZoomInfo. Not only has Facebook now opened users profiles to the public. A publicly available search functionality has been added, which allows anyone, Facebook member or not, to search for a specific person. In about one month time, people will also be able to track down Facebook members via search engines like Google, Yahoo, Msn or Ask.

What about the privacy?

People who are not registered can only see the picture of Facebook members from their profile image, But if you are or you wanted to be an user, you can add this person as your friend or send him a message and sometimes see its profile. The problem still remains the same: this site can be dangerous. Tetridia has reported on privacy issues of Facebook in the past – about Facebook members reveal their personal details too easily. Many have never modified their privacy settings, where you can restrict the information available. So if your profile is not private and can’t only be seen by your friend, anyone can have access to your mobile telephone, date of birth, interests or events you will attend.

This site is a goldmine to anyone who want to exploit people’s private information this to include identity thieves, hackers, cyber criminal and of course the all prominent advertisers. Indeed they will have all the information to target YOU. Considering that Facebook has 39million members it really is a great opportunity for marketeers. The new regulation will come into force in the beginning of October 2007 – so you still have one month to change your settings and protect your Facebook profile.

Anja Glauch is the co-founder and managing director of Tetridia Ltd. She began her career in Information Technology more than 11 years ago. She is leading the companies Online Marketing, Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation activities.

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Social Media Marketing Company: Maximizing the Opportunities Presented by Social Media Platforms

September 6, 2010 By InternetMarketingStrategyforMen Leave a Comment

Social media marketing is a whole new approach to market your products and promote your brand among the netizens. Although originally social media was started to promote unlimited information and knowledge sharing among the netizens, of late it has been transformed into a platform for marketing and promotion of activities. Social media internet marketing uses social media platforms such as social networking sites, internet forums, blogs and so on. The major advantage of social media marketing is that it is an economical yet effective way of taking your products to the targeted audience. When your products or brand becomes the cynosure in the social media circle, you can benefit from free publicity.

When used effectively, the social media can generate a strong amount of interest even for relatively unknown products and services. And such effects can be brought about by a social media marketing company . Such a company helps you in formulating a social marketing strategy with an aim to promote your brand, create loyalty, and expand your customer base. The focus is on minimizing the investment and maximizing the returns. Such a company first studies your business before creating the plan. Some notable areas where it helps you in your social media campaign are social networking profile selection and development, blog research, blog commenting, viral video promotional campaigns, online brand reputation building and management, community outreach programs etc.

As such, a social media marketing company gives direction to your campaign and makes sure that every available opportunities presented by the social media platforms is maximized. Sometimes, a campaign which stems from an amateur enthusiasm can do more harm than good to your reputation. If the social media platform presents opportunities, it also has a flip side to it. If you can use an internet forum to promote your brand the same forum can be utilized to attack your reputation. A professional approach takes care of all such possibilities and how to tackle such situations. You can also look out such professional service providers offshore. Outsourcing social media marketing requirements is not new anymore. Many companies in India offer such services.

This article is written by a technical writer, working at Synapse Interactive, a social media marketing company offering best SEO Services .We offer Social media internet marketing services at affordable rate to worldwide clients.For more details on SEO services Contact us .

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Facebook Marketing – Reaching Out Virally Using Facebook Applications

September 6, 2010 By InternetMarketingStrategyforMen Leave a Comment

Facebook, a social networking site which has recently shot to stardom on the Internet, is a great channel for marketers to leverage on. As of this writing, it has an Alexa ranking of 7 and a PageRank (PR) of 8. This shows that Facebook is one of the most popular sites, with tons of traffic and potential.


So what makes Facebook became one of the best places to market on the Internet? Facebook is very different from other social networking sites like MySpace or Friendster. One of the major differences is that it is an open platform for application developers to post their applications on it. The best part is that applications can viral easily on Facebook, reaching out to millions of members worldwide.


Initially when I just joined Facebook, I was quite irritated by the amount of “application spams” that I have received from my friends asking me to add the whole list of applications. But after sometime, I actually gave in and added the applications. To my surprise, some of these applications are really very interesting and prompted me to add more so as to explore them.


From this experience, I realised that Facebook has actually became one of the best platform for viral marketing, using applications such as games, quiz, groups, etc. When you are invited by your friends to join a certain group or add a certain games, you will be more receptive to do so. Although there will be rejections at the beginning, but after some persistent effort from your friends, you will eventually add them, because it is free after all!


One very interesting thing that I will like to share is that once you have added a certain application, it will be shown on your profile page. Do you know that marketers should take note of this opportunity to market their products or services? Take for example, there is a game called “PetrolHead”. It is a game whereby you can buy a car with points and race with your friends to earn more points. With more points, you will be able to get better cars. Eventually you will be able to get into the billionaire clubs and get cars like Ferrari, Lamborghini, etc.


Naturally a person will want things to look good on his or her profile page, just like putting up a nice photo. So by displaying the car on your profile page, you will at least try your best to get a better car every time. The key here is that if you want to get a better car, you need points. To get points, you can either race a limited 10 times per day, or to invite more friends to join this game too. Once you have finished up your races, do you think that you will invite some friends to join this game so as to earn more points to buy a Ferrari?


Facebook is a platform that is ideal for easy viral marketing. This explains why it is so valuable to businesses and marketers to leverage on it and marketing their products or services on it.

Cheow Yu Yuan is the co-founder of HomeBizGears.com, an online marketing and branding agency.

Check out more about Online Marketing and Branding at www.homebizgears.com

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Small business advantages of social media marketing

September 5, 2010 By InternetMarketingStrategyforMen Leave a Comment

We all are aware of the impact of social media websites. A huge amount of people have been participating in social media websites and this has resulted in increased investment in the growing field of social media marketing. A large number of small businesses today have started using social media ideas and strategies in their goals. This is because of a number of reasons.

Social media websites include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace etc. Many small businesses have become a part of these sites and have created their profile pages intending to get more traffic and new customers. It is important to remember that you cannot attract traffic just by creating a profile page; you have to actually be involved and participate in a community.

Social Media Marketing is the marketing strategy used to create content for your website and displaying it on Social News and Bookmark sites. The techniques of social media marketing can benefit websites and help them to grow very quickly. Here are some of the advantages of social media marketing for a small businesses:

1.    More awareness about your brand: If you are able to create a successful social media marketing campaign, there will be a lot more talk about your brand online. When users are appealed by your message, they will spread it across which will be more effective than traditional methods.

2.    Quick results: If your message is on the front page of a major news, social video and bookmark site, you will be able to drive large amounts of traffic instantly. It is not necessary that the traffic will result in conversations but momentum will be created in the right direction.

3.    Cheap prices: Social media marketing can be used as a replacement for conventional advertising and this is possible at a pretty lower price. With social media marketing, you do not need to spend huge amounts of money like you would have had to with the traditional mediums like newspapers, magazines, television, radio and many more.

4.    Improves ranking on search engines: Social media marketing campaigns have an effect on search engine rankings. A huge amount of back links can be attained which improve your ranking on search engines.

5.    Compatible with other mediums of advertising: If you start a social media marketing campaign, it does not mean that you need to stop you traditional methods of marketing. Social media marketing can be used along with traditional advertising and marketing.

6.    Role of influencers: Through social media marketing, initiators and influencers reach audiences and encourage them to choose your brand. A person will always prefer to buy something that people recommend rather than just blindly make purchase from a faceless company.

7.    Sidestepping and blindness: The age old methods of advertising online such as banner ads have almost lost their significance. Social media marketing has the capability to attract large amounts of traffic to your website without the help of traditional methods of advertising because of the increase in ad blindness.

Learn more about using social media marketing to help increase your business online visit RGV Computer Consulting they have a free report which outlines all the necessary steps you must take to make it online in today growing social media.

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Show the World Your Love of Mobile Phones, With the First Ever Mobileshop Facebook Application!

September 5, 2010 By InternetMarketingStrategyforMen Leave a Comment

Well, we’ve been working on it in secret for a while, and now it’s ready for everyone to get involved. That’s right, we have now gone live with the first ever Mobileshop Facebook Application!

Going all Web 2.0-ish

Ok, I should come clean here, and say I’m only a recent convert to the world of Facebook. I only actually signed up about 2 weeks ago, but in that time, I have come to the conclusion I love it. It’s brilliant, mainly because it’s let me catch up with people (well, girls) I haven’t spoken to in 15 years. But, I’m not the only one on there, because Mobileshop has actually got its own Facebook page. Not only that, but we’ve now got our very first mobile phone related application on there.

Now, you can shout out to the world which mobile phones you love, hate, want, think are brilliant, or whatever, with MyMobilePhones. It’s dead simple, as well. You get it, the same as you do any Facebook app, add it onto your account (more on that in a minute, because new Facebook ain’t the same as old Facebook…), pick from a drop-down list whether you want, have, hate, love or are obsessed by a particular mobile phone. Then you pick the manufacturer, choose from the list of mobile phones that comes up, and after that, you come to the crucial bit. YOU tell the world exactly why you feel like you do.

Show your love for your mobile phones!

So, if you love the iPhone because it’s pretty, say so. Or if you want the Sony Ericsson C905, because its camera kicks every other mobile phone into touch, then shout about it! Make some noise about your mobile phone and give it the attention it deserves (whether that’s good attention, or bad attention is up to you!) Oh, and one other thing about installing. New Facebook isn’t quite the same as old Facebook, when it comes to showing apps on your profile. Add it, and then you’ve got to go to edit apps, then click all applications on the left, click on the little pencil next to the MyMobilePhones app (or whichever app), click edit settings and then go to the profile tab and click add. And then, you can let the world know how you feel about your mobile phones! Get the Mobileshop Facebook Application, today!

Expert on mobiles phones, having worked in the industry for over 7 years.

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Tools to Include in Your Social Media Marketing Strategy

September 4, 2010 By InternetMarketingStrategyforMen Leave a Comment

You own your own business and you offer products and services. How do you get people to buy what you are selling? That’s easy. You create a buzz about your offerings and you communicate through your social media marketing strategy.

Accomplishing this has absolutely nothing to do with magic. There is no fairy dust that you can sprinkle to cause the members of your target market to automatically start coming in droves to your website. In fact, what works well for one business may not necessarily work for another business. Creating a buzz involves social media and marketing that is spread by word of mouth.

When you first start designing your social media marketing strategy, there are several tools that you should include to make the strategy successful. In our article Developing Your Social Media Marketing Strategy, we discussed the importance of a strategy and how it is key to the success of your business. In this article, we are discussing the tools that you should consider using to implement the strategy.

The following is a list of some of the more useful and effective tools that will help you create a buzz for your business:

Social media networks: Social networks are an excellent way to offer and share your knowledge as well as to build and maintain relationships. There are many popular social media sites that you can take advantage of and at List of Social Networking Websites, you will find a list of some of the most popular.
 
Photos: Sharing photos as part of your social media marketing campaign has a similar, positive effect as videos with regard to the visual aspect of it. People like to be able to connect the name with the face. Some great photo sharing websites are Flickr, Memeo and Photobucket.
 
Videos: Online videos as part of your social media marketing campaign have become very important. Videos are an effective tool in a social media marketing strategy because many people react more favorably when they are able to see you and listen to what you have to say than merely reading what you have written. Also, a lot of people don’t have the patience or the time to read a lot but when they are watching a video that you have made, it is received more easily. Two of the more popular video-sharing sites are YouTube and Vimeo.
 
Blogging: Blogs are a wonderful tool when it comes to social media marketing. The reason that blogs are so effective is that, if they are optimized properly, they can drive a high volume of traffic to a website. An effective blog will be instrumental in creating internal links, content that is always fresh and appealing, active community, and website traffic that has nothing to do with the search engines. Always ensure that the content that you offer is enticing to your audience and that they find it helpful and informative. Some of the more popular and more widely used blogs are WordPress, Blogger and Typepad.
 
Microblogging: In the same manner that blogs allow huge opportunities to promote your business, microblogs do the same thing. Those opportunities are a result of both consistent content and good-quality optimization. Two popular microblogs are Twitter and Posterous.
 
Bookmarking: Social bookmarking is a social media marketing tool that allows online users to search, organize, share and manage bookmarks of resources on the web. Some of the more widely used bookmarking websites are: delicious.com, Digg, Diigo, Fark, Mixx, MyBlogLog, Newsvine, Reddit, Propeller, Slashdot.org, Yahoo!, StumbleUpon, and Buzz.
 
Presentations: Another excellent way to get your brand noticed is by offering presentations on interesting and informative topics in your niche or industry. Presentation-sharing websites are becoming more and more popular these days. Some of the best ones are: SlideShare, Scribd, MyPlick and AuthorSTREAM.
 
Forums: If you are looking for a new way to market your products and services, as well as a way to interact with other colleagues and customers/potential customers, use an online forum. You will see very valuable results if you engage your online audience for your brand and your business.
 
Podcasts: Podcasts are a social media marketing tool that is used to promote your brand and your products and/or services. If you are interested in podcasting, you should check out Blip or RadioPodcast.
 
Wikis: As I am sure you know, wikis are online encyclopedias. Wikipedia, AboutUs, Pbwiki (PBworks.com), Citizendium and Wetpaint are all informative and useful.
 
Monitoring your brand: It is extremely important for you to understand the positioning of your brand in the market. Some great websites that you can use for this are: Buzzlogic, ReputationDefender and Radian6.
 
Ratings and Reviews: One of the best ways for you to find out how your website is viewed by other people is through ratings and reviews. You can go to Yelp or GetSatisfaction to help you with this.
 
Widgets: If you are trying to promote your own brand, you can create personalized badges using unusual widgets on Twitter, Facebook and other social media channels by using SpringWidgets or WidgetBox.

Conclusion

The various tools that have been discussed are important for the success of your social media marketing campaign. Bear in mind that in order to really create a buzz around your brand and products and services, you also need to publish your content on business directories such as EzineArticles, eHow, Google Docs, IdeaMarketers and Yahoo Articles Group. If you do this, you will be gaining even wider exposure and creating even more buzz. Remember that it is important to choose the mix of social media channels and business directories that work the most effectively for you.

Always remember to be proactive in your marketing approach rather than reactive. It is important to constantly let people know that you are not just a brand and some products and services. You are a human being who has their best interest at heart and you have a solution to their problems.

Michael Cohn is the founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of CompuKol Communications, a consulting company specializing in developing communication strategies for small businesses that require expertise in promoting a unique business voice and vision on the Internet.

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Facebook Marketing Basics

September 4, 2010 By InternetMarketingStrategyforMen Leave a Comment

10 Steps to Get Started with this Social Media Superstar

So the high school and college kids I know have been talking about Facebook for several years now. And like most mature, responsible adults, I pigeonholed it as being a place where kids put incriminating pictures out for the whole world to see and is just a more modern version of the chatrooms they talked on in middle school.

Call me officially wrong! About a month ago, I joined the Facebook community (that’s me joining the over 150 million other people worldwide – seriously!) I thought it could serve some good business purposes and that I would “dink around” with it.

Wow, was I surprised. 6 hours later, I had already connected with 48 friends. (I didn’t think that many people liked me!!!) Two days later, a high school friend of mine sent me an email through Facebook asking me about my consulting business. We met a few days later and identified several projects I could do for her. Probably the easiest client I have ever found! (Not to mention I connected – and get to work – with an old friend!)

So should you be on Facebook? If you target people under age 30, I think the answer is easy (its yes!). If you target people 30 – 40, you will start seeing more and more people in this age group on this site, and the 50 year olds are not far behind. (People are talking about Facebook!) If you are a local business, it is a great chance to stand out in the vastness of the web. I think the fit for retail is huge. And if you market to a group where there is a likelihood that they will get together in discussion forums, then you will find a place here.

Sure, there may be a few types of business that don’t fit, but for most, the answer is probably, “yes.” The cost is right (free) – so you will just be investing your time. (Warning, it can be addictive. My 8th grade girlfriend – yes, you really will connect with people you have not seen in 30 years – told me her husband calls it FaceCrack!)

OK, so you are curious. Here are 10 very simple steps to get started:

1. Set up a personal account – just go to www.facebook.com and enter your name and email. It will quiz you about your background data. The more you give, the more it will help you find friends and speed start your networking.

2. Connect with personal friends and family to learn the lay of the land. Get accustomed to sending a “friend request” and replying to friend requests. Write a few “wall” posts, and do a few status updates, and comment on others. Build a group of people you are genuinely interested in connecting with. I would suggest starting with friends, then you can move into business contacts.

3. Get active with it – there is a flow to Facebook. It has its own tone (a little more sarcastic and fun than traditional communications) and lingo. It is not complex to get the hang of it, but it worth giving yourself a little time to explore and understand the overall vibe.

4. Join a few groups – search for groups related to your business and sign up for some. See how groups and related discussion boards work. If your prospective clients will be on a group discussing, then join. Focus first on having real conversations and creating value, not just on selling. (That’s true overall!) Within the first week, I made friend in Singapore (of all places) from a group discussion, which could lead to some interesting things down the road.

5. View some of the business / brand pages. Do you like the rock group Coldplay? Are you a diet coke addict? Do you have a favorite local business who has a business FB page? (Or become a “fan” of The FAMEE Foundation.) Just go to that page and become a fan. It’s fun!

6. Set up a business page for yourself – so once you get comfortable with viewing a few other business pages, set up one for yourself. A note here, I found it VERY weird how to set these up. Go to a business page (like Coke, ColdPlay, of FAMEE), and at the bottom, there is a “set up your own brand” page. It is kind of buried, but set one up. And don’t stress if you don’t have 4,000 fans overnight, let it build.

7. Start a group related to your business – Think this one through and set up a group to discuss things related to your business. Look for ways you can create value.

8. Promote it – start to let your customers know that you have a Facebook page. Put it on your website. Put it on your business card. Weave it into articles and blogs (ie: this article!!!)

9. Seek out people who would make great customers or partners – then send them a friend request.

10. Then work it. Like any marketing tool, it does not grow itself. Put a little energy into this over the course of time. Likely you will find it fun. Log on and spend a few minutes each day.

Social marketing is a key trend. Facebook is one of many tools, but certainly has a lot of momentum right now and represents a significant opportunity for those companies who see a good fit and are willing to put a little energy into the process. Lots of people find it easier and more comfortable to network online than they do in person.

Probably the best advice is have fun. If you can enjoy how you market your business, then you will do it a lot more and you will get a lot better at it. See you online!

Curt Clinkinbeard, is the Executive Director of The FAMEE Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping entrepreneurs “advance marketing excellence” and build profitable revenue streams. More information on their free marketing programs can be found at http://www.famee.org.

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Social Media Marketing-Carrollton Online Marketing-Find Best

September 3, 2010 By InternetMarketingStrategyforMen Leave a Comment

Title: Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing is the process of promoting your website and/or business by using social media channels. It is a powerful strategy that will get you massive amounts of traffic. Social media marketing will make your business more profitable by getting more traffic and becoming more known.
Most people do not know about social media marketing, do not know how to use it or do not believe in the value that social media marketing can bring to any site or business.
Local Search Texas uses social media marketing to help companies dominate their local competition. With Social Media Marketing, a company can receive large amounts of visitors and those visitors will continue to come back if you have good products or information. Social Media Marketing can also create secondary traffic which is like a referral base. Websites have your links, people see them, click on them and you have a new visitor.
When you have your links in the Social Media Marketing Networks, you will develop an authority by having a large number of natural and permanent links from a trusted domain. Search engines trust these and they dominate in the search engines.
If a link remains on the homepage of a Social Media Marketing site, or the first page of a search engine, people will usually think that this site is worth checking out and they will go to this site.
When you are entering your information into these Social Media Marketing Sites, you need to make sure that the information is interesting and that people will have interest to keep coming back or to take a further look into what you are all about.
Social Media Marketing gives you natural links, your website is exposed to large groups of people and it is different from paid advertising. It does not interfere with other methods of getting traffic to your website and it fits perfectly with any advertising campaign.
Social Media Marketing depends upon the correct information being given to the people that are searching for it. You want to have information that interests people and continue to put out information that is of interest and that will bring people back for more.
You may not get immediate exposure overnight, but within a short amount of time, you can have unique links everywhere. The world cannot get enough information to satisfy them. They always want more, especially when it is a subject that they can relate to or know of someone that can relate to it. We are always hungry for more knowledge and information. Depending on your users, you can have a significant increase in sales.
By using videos, blogging, articles and so forth through your Social Media Marketing, you can advance and see a whole new avenue that you never imagined.
The old ways of selling on the internet are long behind us, we are moving on to a new way and anybody that does not follow will eventually fall behind. Social Media Marketing is the new path to sales and enhancing a business. For more information, go to www.localbusinesssearchtexas.com.

Local Search Texas uses Social Media Marketing to help local businesses dominate over their local competition.

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How the Facebook Phenomenon Affects your Business

September 3, 2010 By InternetMarketingStrategyforMen Leave a Comment

What is Facebook?

Facebook was started in 2004 by two students, as an online alternative to the traditional yearbook and it has quickly become a classic example of the latest online craze called social networking.

Currently, Facebook has an estimated 31 million subscribers from around the world and last year it turned down a US$2.3 billion offer to purchase from Google!

Negative influence of Facebook

The impact this seemingly innocuous site is having on South African businesses is growing. There are over 170,000 South Africans registered and Facebook is costing business owners time and money (bandwidth) that they can’t afford.

Time per day, spent on Facebook ranges from twenty minutes to an hour and a half a day, and during that time pictures, movies, text and increased personal email are being downloaded constantly, using up company bandwidth and eating into company productivity.

Privacy is a high-risk issue

If security settings are not adequately set up there is a risk of identity theft – by viewing your Facebook entry a thief might have enough information and access to an identity photograph, to open an account in your name or even obtain a credit card. Alternatively, a competitor may find out that you’re planning the introduction of a new product simply because one of your staff members mentioned it online!

As an individual, the easiest way to safeguard your security is to ensure that the privacy settings on your profile only allow friends access.

Options for company security

The first is to simply block access by configuring your internet firewall or router, which can easily be set up by your IT department or a support company like Dial a Nerd. Another, softer approach is to only allow access during lunch breaks.

Positive uses for Facebook

Facebook can be used in a variety of ways to actually improve productivity and even boost company morale. Companies can set up Groups within Facebook which only employees can join, therefore acting as a teambuilding exercise. It’s like an online Intranet which your Human Resources department will love – and it’s free!

Employers and recruiters are also getting clever and searching for candidates or verifying their profiles on line. An invasion of privacy? Not if they’ve published it themselves!

Colin Thornton is the Managing Director of Dial a Nerd, a computer support company dedicated to homes and small businesses with a team of qualified, friendly technicians who come to you. Dial a Nerd can be reached at +27 (0)861 4 NERDS or +27 (0)861 4 63737 or info@dialanerd.co.za.

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