I talked yesterday on my Email Marketing Journal about how you should use both a blog and a newsletter, and how they can work together to promote one another. Two things you should think of in regards to social marketing is how these tools can also apply.

First off, in reference to the entry title, MySpace gives you the ability to make “bulletins”. These are announcements that all of your friends can see on their main page and they can then opt to reply to you. It is certainly no guarantee that they will read them, but since it costs you nothing, you certainly won’t lose anything by pasting your newsletter in to a bulletin.

Secondly, just as important to making sure you include your blog address in every newsletter, make sure to show your most important social network links, such as Facebook and LinkedIn. You don’t want to go nuts and have a list of links a mile long at the bottom of the email, but two to three certainly won’t hurt.

The whole key is to making sure as much of your marketing plan works together harmoniously. There’s no reason one part shouldn’t feed, and help, the other.

Alright, so maybe there are some social networks you can skip.

I know I’ve preached about joining all the networks like MySpace, Hi5, Bebo and so on, and there is no denying that Facebook is getting huge, but did it really need a copy-cat already?

Hatebook.org is an exact duplicate of Facebook except for that it’s evil. That’s right… it’s evil. It’s even done all in red just to show how evil it is. While this is a cute satire, I would not recommend any businesses join it. I did a quick look over, and let’s just say it leaves a lot to be desired in the way of taste. Instead of “friends” you have “haters” and so on, and the language is fairly crude and rude.

My recommendation is to stay far away from this one since A) I don’t think it’ll last very long and B) you wouldn’t want your name associated with some of this stuff.

So, you’ve gone out and joined all the social networks (like I keep telling you to time and time again), but now, how can you leverage all of those “friends” you’ve added in to a marketing force?

The answer is fairly simple: Affiliate marketing.

We’ve all seen those Amazon ads on sites all over the web, and those are all affiliate ads. The concept is pretty easy in that a person places an ad on their site with a small piece of code in the background that identifies them. If someone clicks on it to go to the advertiser, and then in turn makes a purchase, the affiliate receives a small percentage of the sale. The beauty of the system is that you don’t pay for leads that don’t turn in to sales, only those that do. So while giving someone anywhere from 3 - 10% of a sale may seem extreme, it’s not when you figure in the number of impressions and click throughs it generated for you at no charge.

A lot of smaller merchants think they can’t pull off something as technologically advanced as running an affiliate program, but that hasn’t been the case for some time now. If you check out the services we offer, we can help you get started with your own affiliate program, and tell you how you can get all of those social networking friends working for you, spreading your name on sites everywhere, as soon as possible.

Yesterday I touched on what social bookmarking is, but now it’s time to discuss how you can write content that is worthy of someone saving you to one of the sites.

There are always a few types of posts that are certain to get you saved to the sites. And, again, this is worth your time and effort because the sites are social after all. If one person saves you to their bookmarks on a site like StumbleUpon, it can mean thousands of free hits to your site.

Write a tutorial/how-to guide - Try to come up with something useful. Something someone might want to come back to time and time again. Say, for instance, you own a bakery, why not post a somewhat complicate recipe once a week? Something that’s not easy to memorize, and it’s just easier for the reader to bookmark the page then copying it down for themselves. You kill two birds with one stone here: You get on a social bookmarking site, and you grow potential repeat visitors as they come back each week to see what you’ve posted.

Do the legwork for your users - Compile a lengthy and detailed post on one subject. Tell them everything you can about a “doo hickey”. Bring all the information in to one post, reviews, price comparisons, everything you can possibly think of, and put it all in one post. Your readers will love you for doing all the work for them, and, again, they’ll be likely to add you to their bookmarks so they don’t forget your post.

Make a handy guide - Do you run a blog about Texas Hold ‘Em poker? Why not create a post about betting strategies? A site about social marketing? Create a useful post about ways to market yourself. (Why does that sound so familiar…)

Make a directory - Do you run a a site about Sudoku? Compile a list of your favorite sites to play at, and any others you can find around the web. Collect any large group of resources together, and people will love it for the ease of having in one easy list.

There are numerous types of things you can write to try to get on the social sites, and these are just a few examples, just make sure whatever you write is useful!

Social bookmarking has become all the rage over the past few years, and it can aid in all of your social marketing.

For those unfamiliar with the concept, social bookmarking is sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, del.icio.us and so on. A person finds interesting content on a site, and adds it to their social bookmarks that are, typically, open to the public so others using the site can see them and explore what you found worthy of your attention. In the case of a site like Digg, not only do you “digg” the article, others can vote on it, “or digg it” and it will climb up the ranks. Get enough votes and you end up on the front page and you could receive an amazing amount of traffic.

The whole concept started for a couple of reasons. Nothing is more annoying than having your bookmarks on one computer, and then you go to your friends office, you want to show them something… no access to your bookmarks. With a social bookmarking site, no matter what computer you’re at, if it has Internet access, you can get to your bookmarks. It also adds the ability to discover new sites you may have never known about by exploring the bookmarks other users have made public.

So how do you make sure you get on the social bookmarking sites? Most users will have something added to their browser to do the work, but for those who don’t you can add buttons to your sites. For instance, look at the bottom of this post and you’ll see links to add this very entry to del.icio.us or Digg. Look to the right, and the “Bookmark” button will add this site to just about every bookmarking site out there.

You need to write material that’s actually worth being bookmarked by someone, but the time you spend should be worth it in the attention it garners. Finding that “magical” subject can be the rough part, but we’ll cover that in another post.

The New York Times has an interview today with Dan Nye, CEO of LinkedIn, that is music to most people’s ears.

Yes, he’s rushing to copy the electronic underpinnings of Facebook’s elegant application programming interface, or A.P.I., that allows outside developers to weave their own programs into its site. But because his site is aimed at professionals seeking to network, he wants to keep these add-ons all business, unlike the unrestrained goofiness on Facebook, where programs let you turn your friends into vampires, draw graffiti on their pages, and challenge them to stimulating news quizzes.

Thank goodness. Facebook really damaged their reputation, I feel, with the never-ending silliness of their applications. LinkedIn is about professionalism, so I am glad they plan to keep the brand untainted, as it were.

So LinkedIn will have to approve any company that wants to tap into its system. Mr. Nye says he is looking for two kinds of applications. First, there are deals that enable LinkedIn members to tap into their connections in other places, for example, while using applications like Salesforce.com. Second, some applications will be allowed to add features to LinkedIn’s own site. Mr. Nye offered, as an example, a module connected to a trade show or conference that integrated travel planning and other features.

I am thrilled with this. As I wrote last week, I’ve felt Facebook was diluting their brand, LinkedIn should keep their site as pure as possible, and it sounds like they are on the right track to do just that.

Everyone should really check out this article to see where the business site is heading, and what it holds for all of us and our online reputations.

Mashable brought this to my attention today about how fast people can be to point out a bump in the road.

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly people can jump on something like this. Yes, Facebook declined in September, but it surely is not indicative of a “trend”. Also, keep in mind that September is when people are getting settled in to school for the year, they’re moving, they’re making new friends, they naturally spend less time online.

So, yes, there was a bump, but it doesn’t mean that Facebook has fallen out of favor. There is just too much going on over at the site to say it is dying, but there will always be naysayers who want to say “the King has no clothes”, when in reality, you can’t expect growth month after month. If we continue to see decline for say three months, then we can start talking about the fall off.

Upsrping may be just the thing you need to promote your business locally, while also having a presence on the web.

Just the other day I was talking about how you still need to promote yourself locally, and this new social network wants to help you do that very thing. The new site offers three levels of membership, and yes, one of them is free. While the page is very basic, it offers all the essential things you need to get across to your customers: Info on your business, your logo, your slogan, store hours, forms of payment taken, and professional organizations you belong to.

The second tier costs you $19.98 a month and allows you you to do all the things the basic can, but you can also add coupons, converse with customers, add “contact us” info and more. The third tier is $49.98 a month as in an actual online store that will allow you to have up to 500 items.

As with any social network, part of its job is “networking”, and this site will allow you to. Join with groups that are made up of business from your local area, or your same industry, and get to networking. Share information, get advice, and be there to support each other.

If you are a local business with a storefront, you have to be crazy to not at least set up the free account, get your name out there, and get to networking with other businesses. It is currently limited to California, but it is sure to expand.

Though MySpace seems to be getting a bad rep as of late due to too much advertising, investigations of sexual predators (Facebook is also), and Facebook gaining market share constantly, you still can’t forget the old warhorse of social networks.

MySpace makes it a bit easier to find people than Facebook does, and it’s always easy to find people by their general area. If you’re a type of business that has local events, this is perfect for promoting your self.

Get people to join by offering them a small discount on tickets, a free drink, something that makes it worth their while to add you as a friend. Then you can release “bulletins” that show on all your friends homepages any time you are hosting an event. Maybe allow people who get the bulletin to have early access to the tickets, or get in the doors early. These are all things you can afford to do because being on MySpace costs you nothing except a little time and effort. Bulletins are completely free, mailing is free, it’s all free, so any discounts you give via this medium is really your advertising cost.

While Facebook is getting hugely popular, it doesn’t give you the means of mass announcing something the way MySpace does, same with LinkedIn. You still need profiles on those networks, but MySpace is best for promotion.

So, what are you waiting for? Why haven’t you started that MySpace account yet?

I mentioned briefly last week over at my Local Advertising Journal that online local search was expected to grow, and in turn, spending on local ads is expected to grow by 30%.

It is important to remember that while “WWW” stands for “World Wide Web”, and it is said time and time again that we should think globally, it’s important you don’t forget to also think locally. If your business is maintaining a local office or store front, it’s important you don’t forget that there will be local people looking for you also, and not just somebody half a world away.

Why not produce a low-budget video? It is incredibly cheap to pick up a video camera nowadays, and professional editing couldn’t be easier with the numerous software packages out there. Then getting it online? YouTube, MySpace, and more couldn’t make it easier if they tried. And with YouTube, you can embed the same video on pretty much every social network out there (remember how I said you should be on as many social networks as possible?) all from the same amount of work. And with the addition of “geo tagging”, if someone searches for your area, your video will pop up quickly for them to review.

So why not do a video? Introduce your company to the local market, and remind them that the money they spend with you is staying in the community, which will do nothing but build you a stronger reputation.

Have you ever wondered why some blogs, such as this one, are updated every day, 7 days a week? It’s an easy answer really: It’s the quickest and easiest path to reputation management.

When blogs first came about, it seemed to be a niche market for John Boy to keep Ma and Pa updated on what was happening in his life. It didn’t take long for companies to realize it could also be used as a powerful marketing tool, and a way to build a rapport with their customers. However, a infrequently updated blog can be as bad as having no blog at all.

The other benefit to a blog is it can aid in increasing your search engine rankings. Not only will you be cross linking to your website, increasing the linkback ranking, but you will also be getting search engine traffic just from it’s content. For the most part, a company website stays fairly static, sometimes for weeks or months, with nothing new being added. With a blog, especially updated daily, you are constantly adding fresh content to be indexed by the search engines.

Basically, as long as you have a well maintained blog, with enough updates, it is a win-win situation for you and your company. And while blogging daily may seem like quite a task, it’s necessary, and there are always services you can hire to do it for you.

So, if you’re not savvy in the ways of blogging, or just feel you wouldn’t have the time to maintain it, why not contact us to see if we could be a help to your organization?

(The Mash) Facebook is reportedly readying to launch an iTunes competitor and is actively pursuing deals with a number of record labels. All Facebook reports that the company is also looking to hire a CEO to head the new division, and has been working on the project since March.

On top of the possibility of adding an MP3 store, it was learned this week that Facebook is looking in to adding more advertising.

One of the things that has driven Facebook’s popularity since it opened to the general public was its clean interface. MySpace had gotten so over run with ads that you could barely navigate the site any more. Now Facebook wants to follow what could possibly be the same route, and not only that, but branch in to a market that doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense for a social network.

Facebook seems to be losing their way somewhat with their blinding success. While the developers platform was a nice concept, the site is completely over run with some of the silliest applications ever. This wouldn’t be such a problem if people weren’t adding so many to their accounts that you can barely scroll them any more. With the addition of an MP3 store, will this seal the fate of Facebook as having completely diluted their brand?

What are they now? A social network? An online retailer? A programmer’s haven for anyone who wants to tinker? An untapped advertiser’s paradise with a ripe marketplace? Facebook could quickly be sending their burgeoning user base to another social site if they make it too hard for their users to find their way around, which was one of the reasons we all went there in the first place.

(from WWD.com)Questions are being raised around the halls of 4 Times Square about Flip.com, Condé Nast’s new teen networking site. Pointing to small traffic numbers and a whispered lack of enthusiasm from higher ups about the project, despite a heavy financial investment in the site’s technology, naysayers believe Flip has so far been a bit of a flop. “Thank God it wasn’t my idea,” said one insider. Meanwhile, Flip just lost one of its editors, Holly Siegel, to Ellegirl.com.

You would think with the number of generic social networks out there, one with a clear niche, and well reviewed technology, would be in huge demand. Apparently though, if you can’t get people excited enough, it just won’t matter. This appears to be the problem for Flip.com.

It doesn’t matter how innovative you are, if you can’t generate a buzz around yourself, you won’t get very far in this day-and-age. And considering that with Flip you have the ability to embed your flash-based flipbooks in to other places like MySpace, hi5, Facebook, and personal blogs, you would seem to think it would be a no-brainer. Apparently not.

There is a lesson in here somewhere for future social networks to study, just because you build it, it doesn’t always mean they will come.

(the mash)AIM also plans to soon add a feature called “AIM Profiles,” which will include social networking features and the ability to share photos. Other new features include an enhanced text messaging mode, the ability to keep “notes” on each of your buddies, and AOL launching its own short code to allow users to perform IM functions over SMS.

One has to wonder when there are finally just going to be too many social networking systems. Will we finally reach a time where we have to go to work an hour earlier each day just to check all of our social accounts? Sure, you can opt to pass on setting one up, but if you’re anything like me, there is always that ONE person in your life who insists you must be on MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, or whatever the hot network of the moment is.

Like I said, you could always choose to bypass one, or any, of the networks, but since we’re all using AIM already, we might as well have the AIM Profile while we’re at it… and MySpace… and Facebook… oh fine, we’ll just have them all, and work on setting them all up and maintaining them!

(Source) What happens when your social network begins to gain on MySpace? Attorneys start to gain on you. New Jersey’s State Attorney General Anne Milgram has subpoenaed Facebook in order to find any sex offenders from the state that may have profiles on the social network. The subpoena was sent to Facebook along with letters to 11 other social networking sites requesting for cooperation.

This may sound alarming, but Facebook shouldn’t have anything to worry about. Its built in privacy features are good protection against these kinds of people. Of course, there is no perfect way to protect from the ne’er-do-wells. Still, it is difficult on Facebook to do a random search and find someone to stalk.

Don’t believe me? Try it. I just tried looking for a friend of mine that I know uses Facebook, and she tried looking for me. We know each other’s profile names and e-mail addresses and neither one of us found the other. One reason is because you can only search for friends on Facebook through certain avenues and if your friends don’t exist in those circles you won’t find them. Even if it’s your mother!

Here are the ways Facebook currently lets you look for friends:

• Through your existing networks
• By e-mail address
• AIM profile
• Former high school classmates
• College buddies
• Coworkers

In order to find a friend on Facebook, you must first have known this person someone else. You have to either have their e-mail address in your address book at one of the web-based e-mail clients, or you can upload your address book from Outlook, Apple Mail, or another proprietary e-mail solution, or they have to be an AIM buddy of yours, or they had to have included information in their profile that coincides with yours regarding where they went to high school or college or where they worked. You can’t just go up and look for names and find your friends.

That’s frustrating if you are really trying to add a friend to your friends list, but it’s comforting when you think that someone might be out to get you or a loved one. Facebook also goes through the trouble of protecting the identity of minors. If you are over 18 then you can protect yourself on Facebook by not giving out your personal information to anyone until you get to know them better. It’s a good tool for business networking, but just like in real life, you have to be careful.