social network

Bottlenose Surfs the Stream for You

March 20, 2012 by basilpuglisi@aol.com Leave a Comment

For many with large social networks, reading through social feeds can begin to require the same time and energy as any other full-time job. This social media overload can be frustrating to those who are dependent upon their social networks for industry news, communication with friends and colleagues, or research purposes. How do you separate the videos from the web links? How do you filter through the spam, jokes, and memes to find the information you need.

Bottlenose may be a serious competitor in an industry that is filled with similar tools. Bottlenose allows you to filter your Facebook and Twitter streams by a specific set of criteria.

Bottlenose Custom Stream Filtering

bottlenose-beta-2-single-column — c/o http://www.vexite.com/

Bottlenose allows users to create their own custom streams by:

Media Types – Videos, Web links, Images
Mentions – Messages and their relevance to you and your industry
Popularity – Topics that have been made popular by user aggregation, retweets, and shares

Users can also select actions to add such as apps that will play sounds when the stream updates. Although actions are a bit limited at the moment, Bottlenose relays that they have many more action options coming soon.

Sonar Term Clouds

This may be one element that sets Bottlenose above and beyond its competition. When you use the single column view tab, you can click on or observe any stream topic and the Bottlenose sonar will display a term cloud. You can control your term cloud in a variety of ways.

Changing Time Periods
Changing Term Density
Toggling People, Messages, Hashtags, and Topics

Users can zoom on their term clouds to open it in a feed. Clicking on the users relative to your account can also show you terms that are associated with that person, or even just let you view their feed.

Although Bottlenose is clearly in its relatively early stages, it seems to be growing up to be a very functional and useful stream aggregation tool.

Author:

@BasilPuglisi is the Executive Director and Publisher for Digital Brand Marketing Education (dbmei.com). Basil C. Puglisi is also the President of Puglisi Consulting Group, Inc. A Digital Brand Marketing Consultancy that manages professional and personal branding for Fortune 500 CEOs, Hedge Fund Managers and Small Business Owners.

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Reference.me – A Unique Business Social Site

March 15, 2012 by basilpuglisi@aol.com Leave a Comment

Since almost every social site claims to be unique, yet there are several floating around that seem to mirror each other, we have come to understand that often ‘unique social site’ in reality means, social site with a unique name. So when I came across Reference.me, I gave it a shot, but without any genuine expectations for uncommon features.

referenceme_1naslovna — c/o www.domain.me

Trusted Networks

We have other social sites that rely on trusted networks. LinkedIn immediately comes to mind. Currently the largest business social network online, LinkedIn has over 120 million users. Many people use it to connect to business partners and other colleagues, or even employees and customers.

While most of us likely have a LinkedIn account and profile, accept or decline contacts on a daily basis, and even update our profiles when business opportunities change, we usually stop just short of using our LinkedIn profiles outside of a social bookmark on our website or link on our email signatures unless we are in the process of actively building on that network.

How Does Reference.Me Work?

Your trusted network on Reference.me actually comes with a very impressive visual reference of who your trusted network represents. It differs immediately from other social networks in one specific way. Log in is only integrated with Google + currently. However, once signed up, and logged in, you can still easily integrate your Facebook and LinkedIn accounts. Integration with LinkedIn will also fill out many of the details, work references, education, and skills on the Reference.me details tab.

There is no messaging on Reference.me, no activity streams, groups, or anything else you may be called to join in, or at least not yet. That doesn’t mean that Reference.me doesn’t have a shining quality or two at this stage in its development game.

Reference.me Pros

The site already has a great setup when it comes to a quick list and profile viewing opportunity with a few different filter options. Arranging your network by skills, location, companies, strongest connection, or even alphabetically supplies users with the ability to quickly locate members in their network that may not be so readily available on the top of your network. This layering feature is absolutely unique from any other social business network available on the net currently. It provides a more in-depth look at how the rest of your network functions with their own, giving potentially more elaborate insight if browsing the networks of perspective new hires, new colleagues, or even consumers.

The references system on Reference.me is impressive, as well it should be on a social site with such a URL. Grabbing a reference from their system is as easy as clicking on a name and choosing the big tab that pops up. Under the tab you may also see that the source is already a trusted one for you, or that you may need to request them to join your network so that they too receive trusted status on your Reference.me account.

online_business_networking — c/o www.growyourbusinessnetwork.com

Reference.me Cons

Reference.me cons are as mostly as listed above. There is no messaging on Reference.me, no activity streams, groups, or anything else you may be called to join in, and for this reason Reference.me may not be seen as a full-bodied network that promotes major interactivity.

Fortunately, this doesn’t seem to be what the team at Reference.me is going for. Reference.me seems like a great place to send a prospective client, employee, or consumer when they ask for references, whole references, and nothing but your references.

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A New Kraze has Arrived. Meet LifeKraze.

March 4, 2012 by basilpuglisi@aol.com 7 Comments

When Facebook and Twitter were first launched, it’s safe to say that a collective thought went through everyone’s mind: “Why didn’t I think of that?” As LifeKraze enters the realm of social media, I believe that question will be whispered once again by a majority of the population.
If you haven’t heard of LifeKraze yet, you will soon. The beta version was launched to the public in March 2011 and has since built a strong group of followers. Their current team consists of 10 employees and is based in Chattanooga, TN, surrounded by mountains and rivers, making it a perfect “active” base.
What is LifeKraze?
It begins with one simple question, “What have you done?”
I spoke with the co-founder and CTO of LifeKraze, Michael Brooks, Jr., in order to step into the mindset of LifeKraze: “If Facebook is what you are, Twitter is what you say, then LifeKraze is what you do.”
The idea is that people need motivation in order to lead an active and healthy lifestyle. “Our entire idea was based around encouraging others, because with a little motivation, and people cheering you on, you can achieve anything,” comments Brooks.
LifeKraze helps to create this motivation through a social media platform. It is a community of people that all have similar goals, whether it is losing 10 pounds or writing a chapter in that book you’ve always wanted to write, the goal of the community is also the slogan of LifeKraze, “Live like it counts”.
Not only does the community help to inspire you by giving words of encouragement and helping to hold you accountable for your goals, there are also reward points involved, which you can redeem for products. You receive 200 points daily, to be spread around to other people. For example, maybe someone posted that they helped a child in math today. If you like that action, you can reward them with some of those 200 points. In return, when you post an action that is admired by other users, they can reward you with points. Points can then be redeemed for various products from partners of LifeKraze, which so far include big names such as Reebok and PowerAde Zero.

Besides points, though, it really is the care and comments from other users that I believe is the gem of LifeKraze. The community really supports each other through comments. They really seem to care about each other. It’s what you need to keep yourself on track of your goals.
Where did the idea come from?
“Things really started to come together for us after we had our initial idea, but what drove us to really push to make this a business was providing a platform to encourage and motivate others to achieve their goals,” says Brooks. “We always had coaches and teammates to push us through our lives (through Sports) and when we graduated, we lost that.”
That is the power of LifeKraze. I asked Michael Brooks, Jr. about the response they’ve received from users since launching almost 2 years ago. One word he used to describe them was “unbelievable”. After reading them, I’d also add inspiring. One user signed up months ago and could barely make it around her neighborhood without being exhausted. She just ran her entire first half marathon. People have posted of losing 30-50 pounds since joining LifeKraze and using the platform to stay motivated. “People post about getting engaged, cleaning out their garages, and acing exams. The accomplishments are spread out from health, to fitness, to positive actions,” says Brooks.
In a world where healthy and active lifestyles are on the forefront of minds with shows like The Biggest Loser, a wide variety of health magazines, and an increasingly large amount of diet books on the shelves, LifeKraze seems to fill a gap. While we have all of the information and applications to be active, the motivational, community aspect was missing. Until LifeKraze.
“We care about what people are doing, and we want to provide a community and a platform that is always there for you, and we are always in season, encouraging and motivating you to do your best,” finishes Brooks.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypYm2HCj58E&feature=player_embedded]
Author:
Megan Campbell has a degree from Clemson University in Graphic Communications, and is currently living in Germany during a Gap Year abroad, working as an au pair and freelance writer. Her degree set her up for a great interest and knowledge of social media. You can find her on her blog, balancewithadashofcrazy, or contact her via email at meganecamp at gmail dot com.
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New Facebook Ads Platform Goes Live on February 29th

February 26, 2012 by basilpuglisi@aol.com Leave a Comment

Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru... — Image via CrunchBase

Facebook plans to release a new ad platform on February 29th that may profoundly change the way business is done on this social media network. Peter Corbett of iStrategyLabs, a social media marketing firm, recently said the following,

“The company expects the new ads to perform 40 to 8o percent better than its previous product”

That is a serious and significant increase in ad performance. Peter also posted a helpful PDF and Slideshow that seem to have come from Facebook that introduces the new ad platform.

Facebook Premium Ads Overview

[scribd id=82289675 key=key-1labfziiyerffsz1rkus mode=slideshow]

Facebook Premium Ad Guide

[scribd id=82289681 key=key-ml1e2c124st5qe456l0 mode=list]

Expected to be released at the fMC Marketing Conference, both documents reveal that Facebook’s plans to provide advertisers the opportunity to take any type of content and turn it into an ad. The new system will replace many of the classic premium options as well.

Premium Events
Premium Likes
Premium Polls
Video Comments

However, Marketplace Ads and Premium Ads will still be available.

The new Premium Ad platform will make content that is posted viewable to your Fan pages fans and subscribers, as well as adding the ability to target any Facebook user, even non-fans.

The slide above shows us that Facebook is directly sharing with advertisers that they can expect at least a 40% increase in user engagement, while gaining 80% in branding, with 16% in fan rate increase from the soon-to-be released Premium Ad platform.

Ways to Use the New Ads

Advertisers will be able to do a few more vital tweaks on the new ad platform.

Event Advertisement – Advertisers will now be able to create hype around their upcoming business events.
Update Engagement – Any update will be capable of conversion to an ad. Questions, polls, and other media updates can be very engaging ways to improve your ad campaign.
YouTube Love – Video ads can have very positive results. Send extra traffic to videos by building a comment base.
90 Characters – Only the first 90 characters of the new ads will be visible to browsers. You will need to optimize on those as much as possible. Find a skilled copywriter if you are not sure how to do this.
Strategic Updates – Fashioning a fan page that helps to encourage followers to leave positive reviews on your products or services will enable advertisers to use those updates as ads. This provides a level of social proof in advertising.

It definitely looks like Facebook ads are going to undergo some improvements. DBMEi will stay current on the successes or failures that advertisers will experience once the new ads go live.

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How to Create a Social Network that isn’t Phony

February 15, 2012 by basilpuglisi@aol.com 1 Comment

Networking has undergone many transformations over the years, and has now reached a sort of zenith in tandem with the Web 2.0. Before, networking simply meant hobnobbing with industry insiders, perhaps at conferences, perchance over cocktails. Now, with the advent and burgeoning popularity of social media, networking is nothing short of an intricate science, one in which we add and quantify “friends” and “connections.” We hear tips on how to network ad nauseam on the Internet. Indeed, whole blogs are devoted entirely to this one subject. But since networking, at its most basic level, involves people–with all their unpredictability and personal quirks and emotions and passions–then surely networking is also an art.

Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, perhaps most cogently brings home the idea that networking is about people in a recent Fortune article. It may seem strange to remind ourselves that networking involves people. But at the same time, how easily is the fact forgotten, when we may have thousands of friends whom we hardly know, when these social networking sites form loci where other, non-social transactions occur, like buying furniture and finding jobs?

Networking Begins at Home

Hoffman explains in his interview that networking starts essentially at home. If you are looking to build a truly genuine network, then log off from your Facebook profile and think about your closest ties—your friends, family, co-workers, or anybody you see on a daily basis. These ties are what Hoffman calls “alliances,” close collaborators for whom you would gladly do personal favors, and who would in turn, gladly “get your back” as well. It is from these alliances that a more extended network springs. Following alliances are the people with whom you have weaker ties, those who you are friendly with but see only on special occasions. These, too, have an important role to play.
Now of course, this isn’t to say that LinkedIn or Facebook are useless. They both provide springboards for genuine networking. But even the founder of LinkedIn emphasizes the importance of meeting people in person and learning to engage them with conversation that transcends shop talk.
In my own reading of Hoffman’s work, the most important lessons about genuine networking I’ve learned are these—you have to put yourself in other people’s shoes. You must start with the idea that you are going to help other people first. Of course, there will always be an aspect of self-interest in networking. But self-interest should never be your starting point. Secondly, you must realize that effective networking is more than just adding and liking. Networking, just like a garden, must be tended consistently if it is to grow and flourish.
Whether you are an entrepreneur seeking funding for your Big Idea, or you’re a freelance blogger looking for a gig, or you simply want to widen your reach socially and professionally, every minute of your day is a chance to further your influence. Call a family friend you haven’t talked to in awhile. Ask for an introduction to someone whose career choices you would like to pursue. Go out of your way to do a favor for someone else. Above all, put yourself out there, converse, shake hands, and, most importantly, mean it.
Author:
Katheryn Rivas often writes on the topic of online universities and welcomes any direct contact at her email address: Katherynrivas87@gmail.com
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How Fab.com Achieved Two Million Users in Seven Months with #SocialCommerce Marketing Strategies

February 14, 2012 by basilpuglisi@aol.com Leave a Comment

Although Fab.com was founded in early 2010 as a social network for gay and lesbian users, it has quickly turned into an e-commerce site with an incredible following. As their social network base grew it made the leap from networking site to high-end flash sales. This young endeavor is already making a huge impact in its industry.

Lessons from Social Commerce Summit 2012 #SCS

Sheezan Bakali, director of marketing for Fab, spoke at the recent Business Insiders’s Social Commerce Summit. She revealed the basic points behind the strategy that brought Fab.com over 2 million users in just seven months. Sheezan shared that Fab’s keys to success was based on three elements in their marketing strategy.

Product

Sheezan shared that they provided “virtual products and physical products that must delight every day.” She highlights that the product itself should never be skimped on. The consumers who purchase need to be provided with a quality, end product that will serve as its own selling point. Customers need to feel the satisfaction of purchasing a quality product along with the comfort of having a user-friendly front end.

Make sure the product that arrives on your customers doorstep speaks for itself.

Social Media

Fab was created to be social. To keep everyone on Fab in-the-know, they now have a calendar listed on site that displays products that are soon to go on sale or have just went up for a sale price. This means their consumers usually begins to post on Facebook or Twitter without needing additional prompting. No one likes hearing about a great sale after it ends, but Fab’s analytics show them that this particular strategy really gets their followers talking, or tweeting. Currently, every 30 seconds, someone is tweeting about a Fab.com deal.

In one great test of their marketing power and reach, Fab promoted a product known as Beardo. This unique product is a combination of a a stocking cap and a knit ‘beard’ to keep the face warm. This quirky product sold quickly and became a huge success on Fab.

Users are encouraged to invite their friends, earn credits, and engage with other Fab users.

Strategic Advertising

Fab didn’t come out of the gate with endless funds for costly worldwide advertising possibilities, but they also have full understanding that social media cannot do all of the work either. In order to find the perfect balance, they target their marketing as specifically as possible.

Just at launch time, out of the 175,000 members, over 50,000 of them arrived via ads. Those early influencers helped to fuel the pinwheel that helped to create such a significant jump in their user-base. During their advertising process, Fab goes out of their way to target brand new communities that they believe can appreciate what Fab has to offer. This strategy can also go a long way in feeding back into social media.

From Artfire to Etsy, Fab now joins a growing list of boutique and economy retail sites that are gaining ground by providing consumers with a level of customization that may not have been possible before, at least not when on a budget. The option for budget clothing is available in every Walmart across the country, the option for customized clothing that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg are only available on sites like Fab.

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What Klout is Doing with User Data and #SocialCommerce

February 13, 2012 by basilpuglisi@aol.com Leave a Comment

Over the last few years, we have all observed as friends and followers found themselves virtually up-in-arms about privacy issues on just about every social network. Each one seems to have gone through its own growing pains when it comes to sometimes questionable sources declaring user’s information is being utilized in a variety of suspicious manners. However, most have come to terms with the fact that data is not so often sold as it is aggregated and measured for many marketing purposes, includes those that benefit the user.

Now that we are using so many social networks simultaneously, we have not one profile, but a fine, long, and continuously growing, list of them.

Facebook
Twitter
Google +
Foursquare
Flickr
Yelp

As each of our most favored networks have grown, they have also steadily increased their focuses on the type of user data that is cultivated, and how it is shared.

Klout

Klout has been a terrific way to integrate our profiles, and then run them through an algorithm that will display the various details of your own social media influence. Klout currently supports 12 different networks and as their developers continue to add more, your social influence can continue to climb.

Using Klout can have more benefits than simply the benefit of having the most Klout. Users are treated to a wide variety of Perks that can be anything from several months of free trial on a notable website or service, to a free sample of the latest and greatest body wash. Sometimes a user can sign up for selected Perks, and just as often, Klout will extend exclusive offers to users based on their social influence rating and common topics.

12+ Networks and Growing – Where is my data being used?

Recently, a representative from Business Insider visited with Tim Mahlman, the Chief Revenue Officer for Klout. He wanted to share exactly what Klout does do and does not do with their user’s personal data.

Klout is not selling your data. Even though Klout does have a rather complete picture of you and your personal choices and preferences, this information is never sold to advertisers or brands.
Klout does leave the virtual door open to trying out new revenue models, they also plan to ‘keep their users first according to Mahlman.
There is only one element of Klout that any brands have access to and that is a user’s Klout score. Klout is the gatekeeper between their users and any influential brands.
Pinterest is one new network that Klout is highly interested in.

Since Klout already has 12 current networks and a list of networks that are in development, they are always in on the market for a new fast growing network to add to their social influence algorithms.

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Is Klout Crossing the Line When it Comes to Privacy?

What is Klout Doing with User Data?

Klout and Big Data

Empire Avenue Missions for Increased Social Engagement

February 8, 2012 by basilpuglisi@aol.com Leave a Comment

Empire Avenue is doing it again. They are mixing fun with social networking and engagement with impressive results. On Empire Avenue, users are encouraged to and rewarded for participating in social activities. In the past this has meant:

Sharing and trading ‘stocks’ on individual users
Participating in group discussions
Earning increased value through usage of your integrated social media networks

While we were all happy playing in the social network stock market, Empire Avenue developers were working hard to give us even more opportunities to create our own fun social engagement opportunities.

Empire Ave Missions

Empire Avenue has implemented Missions for their users. Stockholders can now create missions that require the user to carry out a social networking activity. So how exactly do you create an Empire Avenue mission?

Once you have the hang of creating missions, you may wonder what benefits you can enjoy by using them.

You can build brand loyalty among existing fans
You can drive web traffic to your website, Fan Page and more
You can attract new followers and increase your audience
You have a fun way to do all of the above

Currently, Missions are still in the beta testing phase. However, if you want to try out a mission of your own, simply request access to create your own mission.

Check out what some of Empire Avenue’s current users have to say about their mission system.

“Shareholder Missions increase engagement beyond what can be accomplished in even the most entertaining conversations over stock transactions… Very powerful and compelling new feature.” – Kevin Strehlo, (e)MARATHON

“I was honestly surprised that offering rewards yielded a far greater amount of engagement from the same audience.” – Chris Pirillo, (e)PIRILLO

Take the time to request and create a mission of your own and see for yourself how much fun you can have while increasing awareness and social engagement for your brand.

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Timely the Talented Twitter Tool

February 2, 2012 by basilpuglisi@aol.com Leave a Comment

As Twitter continues to become a most popular source of networking, communication, and aggregation, the list of tools available to help fully manage one or more Twitter accounts continues to grow. Although there are several options available online that are very similar, Timely seems to have refined all of the best available options in social media management, and added them to this one smooth aggregation tool. Never fear, Facebook personal and Fan page integration is also available on Timely.

Timely Features

Timely is another tool on the growing list of tweet schedulers that assist users in setting their tweets to launch based on the time of day when the probability of a click or re-tweet is highest. Timely uses an algorithm that helps to determine the best time of the day or night where most of your followers will see the tweet. This not only increased the chance of clicks, but also helps encourage re-tweets.

Timely provides an easy user-interface that is minimalistic. Since many Twitter scheduler tools tend to be a bit chaotic, Timely’s smooth uncluttered face is a refreshing change.
Timely has a browser plug in that makes it even easier to grab content from the net and schedule it for Twitter.
Timely has a tab for Performance. Under this tab users can view their statistics on re-tweets, clicks, replies, and reach.
Timely’s scheduling algorithm automatically spaces your tweets apart to prevent your account being flooded too quickly.
Users can set up email alerts for Timely updates and Timely also sends friendly reminders to let you know you are running out, or are out of, scheduled tweets.
Automatic Bit.ly URL shortening tool.
Timely offers an unlimited amount of Twitter accounts, with unlimited tweet scheduling, to unlimited team members, for absolutely free.
Timely offers paid accounts for users who want 24/7 email support.

How Does Timely Stack Up?

Although Timely appears minimalistic, it is still a full-bodied and highly capable tool for scheduling post to Twitter, Facebook personal accounts,and Facebook Fan Pages. Account setup and additions are a matter of one click integration in all cases, and this tool requires zero getting used to since it is entirely self-explanatory for even the least savvy user.

Alexa does show a significant upswing in users in the past three months and demographics remain with a strongly Hispanic, educated, female user-base. Their US traffic ranking is currently at #5009 and their user’s onsite time shows that many are taking advantage of the zero-cost options that Timely freely provides.

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Scheduled Tweets with Timely

Crunchbase – Flowtown

Timely vs Buffer

Timely Video Review

LinkedIn Groups: Analytics, Stats, the data

November 28, 2011 by basilpuglisi@aol.com Leave a Comment

LinkedIn is by far the biggest professional social network and the second, after Facebook, in the total registered users in the social network world. 120 million register users as of August 2011 in about 200 countries and in 10 languages.

What started as a place to connect those who are hiring with those who are looking for work, and to do that based on personal contacts and recommendations, offers now much more than that. Users can upload photos to help in recognition, they can follow different companies and get notified when a job in one of those becomes available, and they can form a Group. As of 9 months ago, there were 870,612 groups, most of them employment and business related.

Group enables a limited discussion area and moderation by the owners and managers. It can be accessible to members only, or open to all. It is an effective way for B2B advertising, building leadership and driving traffic to your site. Groups draw users for a longer session, experts say, and thus enabling a person to introduce himself and become noticeable. This has become a way for a person to establish himself/herself as experts in their field, on top of being a wonderful way to target customers.

Up until now, users only knew the number of people in a certain group, but this month LinkedIn added Statistics to the Group function to show in a very visual way, the most important facts about the group; a summary, the demographics, the growth and the activity of the group.

Within those tabs you can see the information in greater detail; where, geographically, are most members located, how many active members the group has, the discussion rate and how many people joined recently.

This kind of information, LinkedIn thinks, will give new members more in depth information and make the decision process, whether to join or not, much easier. In marketing, this information gives the business owner information that he did not previously have. If you are a local business owner, the location of the people in the group you are targeting is an important factor.

The statistics shows the growth of the group, a great tool for the group manager, which enables him to see the daily activity and response to ad campaigns.

LinkedIn have been paying attention to its Group function in the past few months, unveiling new features. In November their numbers grew to 131 million members worldwide and 1 million groups.

Why data?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akLmMAnQDVk]

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