Posts tagged networking
Don’t Miss Networking with Your Marketing Peers at SMX West – Feb. 28-Mar. 1 in San Jose
Feb 6th
We’ve already highlighted the exceptional content and highly qualified presenters at SMX West. But there’s another aspect of the conference that is just as important and valuable – networking. And with well over 1000 companies sending delegates (so far), there are lots of people to…
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Pass Options for SMX West – Sessions, Networking and More
Jan 31st
Search Marketing Expo – SMX West kicks off February 28 at the San Jose Convention Center. With nearly 60 educational sessions and keynotes, multiple networking activities and presentations from leading solutions providers, you’ll leave a more informed, effective and inspired internet marketer. SMX…
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One More Smartphone Woe: Social Networking Stress [STUDY]
Jan 16th
Go ahead and check those work emails on your smartphone: a new study says it’s time spent checking Facebook and other “personal” social networks that is stressing you out.
It gets worse: the more times you check your smartphone, the higher your stress levels. The study also suggested people who are used to getting lots of text messages and push notifications on their phones will feel stress levels rise if they hit a stretch where their phones are silent. In the worst cases, study subjects experienced “phantom” vibrations when, in fact, they had not received an alert.
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Results of the study by University of Worcester psychologist Richard Balding were presented last week. The sample was relatively small – only 100 people, including students and employees in a wide range of occupations – but do demonstrate a link between compulsive behaviors and increased smartphone use.
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The problem is also a self-created one. Many people get smart phones to help manage workflow and not be tied to an office or a desk. But as they add apps like Facebook and FourSquare, they find they have an increased and more consuming virtual social life.
Balding, the study’s author, recommended that companies help employees address the problem.
“Smartphone use is increasing at a rapid rate and we are likely to see an associated increase in stress from social networking,” he told the British Psychological Society’s Division of Occupational Psychology Conference in Chester, England last week. “Organisations will not flourish if their employees are stressed, irrespective of the source of stress, so it is in their interest to encourage their employees to switch their phones off; cut the number of work emails sent out of hours, reduce people’s temptation to check their devices.”
While other researchers stressed more studies are needed, they agreed the advice that Balding and other experts give is reasonable.
“Now, certainly it’s good to keep connected,” Balding told USA Today. “But everyone needs a break. Some time on your own. Otherwise there’s a risk that the stress and tension that builds up from keeping engaged can end up having a negative impact on relationships.”
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Hitwise Pins Pinterest to Pinboard of Top Social Networking Sites
Dec 23rd
Heather Dougherty, the Director of Research at Experian Hitwise, has written about a “Pinteresting Trend in Social Media.” She says, “Pinterest, a site launched in March 2010 that describes itself as an online pinboard to organiz…
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ComScore: Mobile Social Networking App Audience Grows 126% In Past Year
Oct 20th
Analytics firm comScore released new data today showing that U.S. mobile social media audiences increased 37%, and more than half of social mobile audiences read a post from an organization, brand or event on their mobile device.
While the mobile browser accounted for more visits, research shows that the social networking app audience has grown five times faster in the past year. While the mobile browsing social networking audience has grown 24% to 42.3 million users, the mobile social networking app audience shot up 126% to 42.3 million users in the past year.
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Mobile Social Networks’ Audiences: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn Come Out on Top
The Facebook mobile audience is fast approaching 60 million users. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn grew their mobile audiences by at least 50 percent in the past year. Facebook’s numbers have risen 50% from the previous year to 57 million mobile users. Twitter’s audience jumped 75% to 13.4 million users, and LinkedIn’s mobile audience grew 69% to 5.5 million users.
What Does This Mean For Brands on Social Networks?
With the proliferation of daily deal sites, location-based social networks and sites like Groupon Now, which offer location-based deals-on-demand, it’s increasingly important for brands to engage with their customers on social media. According to the comScore report, in August 2011 a total of 80.3% read posts from people they know personally, while 69.5% posted status updates from their mobile devices.
People are increasingly checking social networks more from their mobile devices. More than half (52.9%) read posts from organizations/brands/events. One of three mobile social networkers snagged a coupon/offer/deal, and twenty-seven percent clicked on an ad while visiting a social networking site.
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Creating a Social Networking Site – Entrepreneurship Journey
Aug 29th
With keeping in mind the three key items used to create a successful start-up; a start-up venture like social-medicine.org is likely to succeed:
- A start-up requires good people and efforts taken to network,
- A start-up should fill a gap in the market that isn’t already filled and provide a niche service, to people knowing what they want, and make them aware of what they need
- A start-up requires as little money spent as possible
And that’s not to say that achieving all three key items isn’t challenging. It’s achievable but believe me it’s difficult.
The Idea
The idea for a start-up is only the beginning. The entrepreneur needs to have a passion for their start-up. Passion comes from the inside, something that is personal to the entrepreneur. Their passion needs to be strong enough knowing that other’s will be judgmental of their idea, and knowing to stand their ground when push comes to shove.
As a psoriasis sufferer I know first-hand how hard it can be to deal with an illness without that all-essential support from people who truly understand.
After spending years managing my condition alone, I turned to the Internet for help. The sheer number of forums, blogs, and communities out there in which psoriasis was discussed by fellow sufferers was astonishing, but I found that it wasn’t a personal experience.
The Gap
So I decided to create a site to personalise an individual’s experience and developed www.psoriasissocial.org. My simple goal was to give psoriasis sufferers a voice, a sounding-board, and a close-knit, supportive community of people who understood what it was like to live with the condition.
Psoriasissocial.org took off with a speed that surprised me – in a short period of time around 400 people registered and began to get to know each other. In fact, it’s been such a success that it was the main reason I created www.social-medicine.org. A site for those who suffer from a range of illnesses and conditions, a wonderful community driven support network, an avenue for not-for-profit organisations who may like to reach out to people via this forum or support its development.
The Technology
Every start-up should provide better technology than people currently know of. When people hear the words social networking, they think of Facebook, a site everyone knows how to use. For that reason I chose a Facebook style technology, a familiar social network for the medical community.
The Plan
The plan needs to be sticky. Changing the plan needs to be justifiable. A vision needs to be set as to where the start-up will end up. The initial plan is almost certain to be wrong in some way, and the first priority should be to figure out where it is wrong. The only way to find out where your plan is wrong is to implement the plan.
Like most start-ups, plans change on the fly. At first I expected the customers to be savvy internet users. Introducing a social network that is too difficult or too easy to use, would deter the users away.
The People
One startup, one person, was social-medicine.org’s plan. Having one moral weight was ideal to set the plan but difficult at the same time. Knowing who to talk to and where to source information from requires good people. The social-medicine.org start-up was through personal contacts that got most of the people interested. This is a crucial difference between start-ups and big companies. Knowing someone for a couple days will tell you more than companies would with greater budgets.
The Customer
With a technical and business background, I believe I had a good feel for what people want and how to derive to what they want through technology. The start-up requires being unique and in high demand not just another me-too solution.
So, how did I figure out what customers want? I watched them. One of the best places to do this was at medical forums.
The Expenses
The way to reduce expenses is to maximize the start-up’s chances of succeeding. During the seed stage, I think it’s wise to take money from investors, non-profit organisations advertising on the website. Investors don’t expect you to have an elaborate business plan. Seed money is known for emptying out a few tens of thousands of dollars to pay expenses, while developing a prototype.
When initialising the start-up, there are various cost categories to consider:
- Research fees
- Technology costs
- Administrative costs
- Marketing costs
Once the start-up is set, it may seem presumptuous to go knocking on the doors of potential investors and asking them to invest tens of thousands of dollars in something that is really just an idea. But when you look at it from the investor’s point of view, the picture shows more light. Investors look for good investments, and if you think you have a chance of succeeding, you’re doing them a favour by letting them invest.
The Funding
Many start-ups get big fast. When real money starts flooding in from investors, the questions lies with what to do with it? And the answer is not to spend it, or spend it very wisely.
The Success
The key to success is knowing your start-up inside and out. The most important factor is placing users before advertisers, even though the advertisers are paying clients. By understanding that getting all the users to the site, the advertisers will follow, will prove success.
By being professional in the start-up means doing good work, not elevators and glass walls. Everyone loves the underdog and look up to those who rose from rags to riches.
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Creating a Social Networking Site – Entrepreneurship Journey
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Half of U.S. Adults Use Social Networking Sites
Aug 26th
For the first time ever, 50% of all American adults are using social networking sites, according to new data from the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
Of active Internet users in particular, 65% are social networking users, a number that continues climb. To put things in perspective, only 29% of adult American Internet users reported using social networking tools in 2008.
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Unsurprisingly, social media usage is even higher among Americans under 30 years old, 61% of whom use sites like Facebook on a daily basis. It’s not just younger people are using the Internet to connect with friends, family and colleagues. The rate at which older people are using the social Web continues to grow as well.
Although the report doesn’t break down usage by site, it’s safe to assume that the majority of people are partial to Facbeook, which has 750 million users worldwide and recently surpassed 1 trillion pageviews in a single month. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said he expects the site to reach 1 billion users before long.
Not only do lots of people use social media, they have generally positive attitudes toward it. Reports Pew:
Overall, positive responses far outweighed the negative and neutral words that were associated with social networking sites (more than half of the respondents used positive terms). Users repeatedly described their experiences as “fun,” “great,” “interesting” and “convenient.” Less common were superlatives such as “astounding,” “necessity,” and “empowering.”
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