@BasilPuglisi

Content & Strategy, Powered by Factics & AI, Since 2009

Social Media Social Brand Visibility

Social Brand Visibility: Friendfeed

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A mix of bookmarking and social media site, Friendsfeed enables you to share and discuss interesting things you have found on the web.

Users post, with a few simple clicks, links they found interesting. They share them with their friends and are able to converse immediately about what they have posted.

What’s more, Friend feed is also a real-time feed aggregator that consolidates updates from social media and social networking websites, social bookmarking websites, blogs and micro-blogging.

Friendfeed addresses the shortcomings of social media sites which facilitate tracking of their own members’ social media activities only. Friendfeed provides the facility to track these activities across a broad range of different social networks in one place. Users set the networks they want to receive updates from.

Friendfeed currently supports the following social networks/services:

Blogs, Brightkite, del.icio.us, Diigo, Digg, Disqus, Facebook, Flickr, Furl, Gmail/Google Talk, Goodreads, Google Reader, Google Shared Stuff, iLike, Intense Debate, Jaiku, Last.fm, LibraryThing, LinkedIn, Ma.gnolia, Mister Wong, Mixx, Netflix, Netvibes, Pandora, Picasa Web Albums, Pownce, Reddit, Seesmic, SlideShare, SmugMug, StumbleUpon, Tipjoy, Tumblr, Twitter, Upcoming, Vimeo, Yelp, YouTube and Zooomr.

Friendfeed had on average one million monthly visitors. Users can be an individual, business or organization.

In August 2009 Friendfeed was bought by Facebook for $15 million in cash, and $32.5 million in Facebook stock. Bloggers complain that since the acquisition the site is not promoted as much as it did before.

Social Brand Visibility: Identi.ca

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Twitter or Identi.ca?

Micro-blogging has become a big thing when it comes to promoting your sites, network or keep in touch with your friends.

But which host do you prefer?

Identi.ca is a microblogging service where users post short (140 character) messages which are broadcast to their friends using the Web, RSS, or instant messages.  While similar than Twitter in both concept and operation, Identi.ca provides many features not currently implemented by Twitter, including XMPP support and personal tag clouds.

Identi.ca allows free export and exchange of personal and friend’s data based on the FOAF standard; therefore, notices can be fed into a Twitter account or other service.

Identi.ca is an Open Network Service. Their goal is to provide a fair and transparent service that preserves users’ autonomy. You deserve the right to manage your own on-line presence, they say. The service reached 1 million postings on November 4, 2008.

Users say it trumps Twitter by leaps and bounds in terms of features. But with these features comes an uncharted territory, much of which is sometimes getting abused.

Identi.ca is as close to Twitter as you can get. Instead of Tweets they call their massages ‘dents’. In fact it’s almost identical to Twitter….”almost” because Identi.ca was built with OpenMicroblogging in mind. This means that it is built on an open platform that can be shared with anyone who wants to host their own federated version of the software. So unlike Twitter, which hopes to monetize the service in order to turn a profit, you can host a Laconi.ca server, sharing ‘dents’ with any identi.ca accounts as well as with anyone else running the same software. This means no more down-time.

Twitter is close, and more popular, but identi.ca is robust, more reliable, and simply an ALTERNATIVE and a CHOICE.

Social Brand Visibility: Mister Wong

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Why call a service Mister Wong? It comes from the term “Wong the Web!” a reference to the practice of wonging, card counting strategy in Blackjack.

Mister Wong is a creation of a German company that initially wanted to take on Google. Started in 2006 the website allows customers to bookmark their favorite sites and use that list as a basic search engine. To find a site that is not on your list, you can search the bookmarks of other people. It is a peer recommended search engine that is meant to weed out the less interesting ones.

With their services users can:

  •       Search and find the best website of a certain category.
  •       Save and manage their sites.
  •       Access the bookmarks from any computer.
  •       Connect with Twitter and import links.

Management of the bookmarks can be done by accessing the website or by downloading a toolbar that allows you to bookmark without leaving the current page.

A relative newcomer, the service is available in German, French, Russian, Spanish, Chinese and English, and is the leading social bookmarking service in Europe with over 50 million users in 2009. They claim to be the second largest bookmarking service in the world.

Mister Wong has a different approach than Del.icio.us for example. Mister Wong’s variation is more to the point with users creating groups on top of the groups created by tags. Here, just like in Reddit, users can vote with thumbs up or thumbs down, and the recommended site will rise or fall from the top of the list. You can also make friends through the site, create user profiles and show your latest stream of bookmarks and links.

Mister Wong is another website that uses human recommendations to get a site ranked. Unlike Google for example, where new information is scanned and placed by machines, Mister Wong and other bookmarking sites concentrate on allowing you to search less cluttered result pages in an attempt to save you time and compete with the big search engines.

Their dream, to be an alternative search engine, is not yet fulfilled. With more users, and more recommendations they eventually might be able to do just that. Another great visibility opportunity.

Using Facebook Places to Promote Your Business

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Last week, Facebook entered the location services game with the release of Facebook Places. Places is very similar to Foursquare, in that the feature allows users to “check-in” to local businesses to alert friends of where they are at any given time.

For business owners, Facebook Places provides a means of promoting your business, increasing visibility and rewarding loyal customers.  Each customer that checks into your business is sharing the name and location of your company with hundreds or thousands of online friends.

To register your business on Facebook Places, search for your business on Facebook Places.  Click on the link that says “Is this your place of business?” and follow the verification prompts.  Once you have claimed your business, you can update the location’s contact information, hours and profile picture.

Once you have successfully registered your business on Facebook Places, consider using Places as an additional advertising platform.  Hang signage to encourage customers to check-in to the location.  Remember that every check-in spreads the word about your business.

You can also use Facebook Places to attract new customers.  Post a note on Facebook informing potential customers that they will receive a discount if they show that they have checked in to your business.  Not only does this technique bring in new clients, it also creates viral advertising as customers share the check-in with their friends.

Use Facebook Places to reward loyal customers.  Reach out to customers who frequently visit your business and offer coupons or promotions for additional visits or check-ins.  Keeping loyal customers happy is an easy way to gain repeat business and ensure positive word of mouth referrals.

Encourage your existing customers to post notes, photos and comments about your business online.  Perhaps reward customers who post feedback with special coupons or freebies.

Of course, any marketing plan needs to be tailored to the needs of your business.  Claim your business on Facebook Places today, and create a detailed plan that makes sense for your company and your customers. 

Need Help? Contact Visibility Acceleration by Puglisi Consulting Group, Inc. 631-932-0019