Getting in Touch with Renowned Personalities through Social Media

Social media has become a major player in communication between people, both known and unknown. They have also become a popular platform for interacting with various famous personalities. There was a time when people used to wait for long hours to just get a glimpse of their favorite personalities but hardly had a chance to talk to them. That was the sole proprietorship of the journalists and their pen was the only source of knowing what the stars and important personalities feel and say.

The world has changed. The film stars, politicians, writers and sports personalities are now easily accessible as far as talking to them is concerned. Most of these people have got on to the social media platform to interact more with their fans as they need to know the pulse of the general masses. The ordinary people too have found it a good way to have their queries answered directly by the people whom they admire or long to hear from.

Sometimes people just post their comments and queries to get in touch with these people. The social media can also become a good place for conveying the concerns or seeking clarification on any ambiguity on gossips or rumours. Another purpose why people often get in touch with the renowned personalities is for their comments on some current events or activities going on in the world.

So if you are thinking of getting in touch with your favorite personality and have some questions for him or her, feel free to log on to the social networking site where you can find him or her and post your message. You will find the answer and also find that it might have been the query of thousands of people from around the world.

So go catch the stars!

5 Small Business Marketing Trends For 2010

The state of small business marketing at the end of 2009 is different from where it was at the beginning of the year.

Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, and the iPhone App Store have become more important tools for many companies.

At the OPEN Forum, marketing consultant John Jantsch discusses some of the ways these tools influenced business this year and predicts which trends will shape small business marketing in 2010:

Location as plumbing

Imagine standing on a hill overlooking the downtown skyline and pointing the camera on your phone in any direction and getting a full tour of what you are looking at, including restaurant recommendations from friends in your favorite social network.

Walk into a museum, plug in your headphones and point your phone at a painting or sculpture. Then, read about it while a video interview from an expert on the artist loads.

Augmented reality and location aware services have been around for a while. Now that Facebook and Twitter are starting to play with geo-location for tweets and update, enabled by the GPS technology on most every new phone, look out, it’s going to tip.

Location sharing services like Foursquare, Loopt and Google Latitude, are already receiving mainstream media mention. It won’t be long before every rating and review site, such as Yelp! and Insider Pages, build this into the foundation and push coupons and discounts out to you based on location.

Anywhere you go you will be able to locate friends nearby or the location of every Twitter follower in a city you are visiting.

Your location, or that of your customers and prospects, will become another data point in the marketing mix.

Kitchen sink on the cloud

Will desktop applications and computing become a thing of the past? While not completely, 2010 looks like the year that small businesses will truly embrace applications that exist online only.

Entire software suites such as Google Apps and Microsoft Office Live will finally allow document, spreadsheet, database, and presentation software to function as Internet applications at greatly reduced costs and ultimate real time collaboration.

File sharing and storage, including total file backup from tools like Dropbox and Mozy, will become standard in the small business toolbox.

Project, task, scheduling and collaboration of all manners have made a dramatic move to the web with tools like CentralDesktop and Backpack, as remote workers and a global supply chain have dictated. Look for these kinds of tools to be routinely used as client service tools that eliminate the need to drive a few blocks to consult.

Online meeting tools like GoToMeeting, WebEx and even Skype, with video, will continue to allow people to connect in richer ways online.

The sacred cow of the desktop, financial data will finally move online completely as QuickBooks Online. Tools like Freshbooks make it very easy to do bookkeeping online while providing secure access for financial employees and outside accounting resources.

Filtering gets social

Having access to vast amounts of information in real-time and the stores of data from throughout history are both a good thing and a bit of a curse. While we can now find the answer to just about any query, we are pummeled with so much information that we cannot sift through the good and bad and true and false.

Filtering and aggregating information became a valuable skill in the last few years as tools like RSS readers and search alerts allowed us to subscribe to and collect the information we wanted to read most.

I believe in the coming year another layer of filtering will become just as important as search engine optimization. Look to see search results peppered with recommendations from our social contacts.

When you search for the best attorney in town, a good movie or the best place to get some authentic TexMex, not only will you see the organic search results earned through Google’s algorithm, you’ll also see what your friend Jimmy had to say about such things.

Social search has the ability to eclipse the value of traditional SEO efforts. As more and more information is added to your social graph, I believe recommendations from trusted sources in your networks will carry significantly more impact in some cases than the results that reach the top spots in organic search.


Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/trends-that-will-shape-small-businesses-in-2010-2009-12

Effectiveness of Social Networking

Social networking is the grouping of individuals into specific groups, like small rural communities or a neighborhood subdivision, if you will. Although social networking is possible in person, especially in the workplace, universities, and high schools, it is most popular online. This is because unlike most high schools, colleges, or workplaces, the internet is filled with millions of individuals who are looking to meet other people, to gather and share first-hand information and experiences about any number of topics. . . from golfing, gardening, developing friendships and professional alliances.


The friends that you can make are just one of the many benefits to social networking online. Another one of those benefits includes diversity because the internet gives individuals from all around the world access to social networking sites. This means that although you are in the United States, you could develop an online friendship with someone in Denmark. Not only will you make new friends, but you just might learn a thing or two about new cultures or new languages and learning is always a good thing.

As mentioned, social networking often involves grouping specific individuals or organizations together. While there are a number of social networking websites that focus on particular interests, there are others that do not. The websites without a main focus are often referred to as "traditional" social networking websites and usually have open memberships. This means that anyone can become a member, no matter what their hobbies, beliefs, or views are. However, once you are inside this online community, you can begin to create your own network of friends and eliminate members that do not share common interests or goals.

Once you are well informed and comfortable with your findings, you can begin your search from hundreds of networking communities to join. This can easily be done by performing a standard internet search. Your search will likely return a number of results, including MySpace, FriendWise, FriendFinder, Yahoo! 360, Facebook, Orkut, and Classmates.



Source: http://www.whatissocialnetworking.com/