Social marketing seems to be on everyone’s lips these days although at times I wonder if people are confusing social bookmarking with social networking and social marketing.

Myspace has made it fairly easy to combine social networking with social marketing. After opening a Myspace account, you will need to complete a profile. Make sure your profile is written to attract those from your target groups. For example, if you are targeting 25 to 20 year old males, create a profile that is likely to appeal that age group.

Once you have established your profile, you can do a search to bring forward those who match your target profile. Once you have this list you can start to add these individuals. First invite them to be friends.

From that point on, communicate, socialize, network with who are on your list. Over time you will become accepted as a part of their online Myspace area. This way you have broadened your circle of online ‘friends’ and have which can be used to direct any marketing materials at in the future.

Social marketing can be a hit and miss affair at the best of times so for many businesses, trying to market their products and services through the various social sites had often met with failure. This is perhaps because they are trying the wrong approach.

Most people will not buy based on a marketing campaign. Social marketing campaigns should be about brand or product awareness rather than selling. If your approach is to inform rather than sell, then your message is more likely to get through. After all, if I am not trying to get you to buy, your natural defenses will not spring up automatically.

Where your social marketing can be effective and overtime convert quite well is by developing opt-in lists. Rather than selling products, sell information. Offer free newsletters with updates on products, how to use them and any other useful information. Once you have an opt-in list of subscribers, you can either use your newsletter to sell the products or use your newsletter to bring traffic to well designed landing pages.

If your social marketing campaign is designed to attract potential customers through opt-in lists, you will find you have far more success than by trying to sell direct. Offer them something of value and they will respond - give them the hard (or soft) sell and they will shut you out.

Yahoo! Mash. Nothing really sparkling springs to mind. If you haven’t heard of it, you haven’t missed anything. A day doesn’t go by where I don’t hear about a new social site opening its doors. This time, I read where one is closing its doors - before they opened.

Mash was supposed to be Yahoo!’s answer to all the other large social sites. The problem was, Yahoo! forgot to tell the rest of the world about, or at least, to keep promoting it. It seems that Yahoo! perhaps only played around with it to see what they could achieve. They didn’t like what they saw so they canned it.

Only those who had accounts with Mash received any notification about its demise. The email was brief and to the point. As of September 29, Mash will be closed down.

There is a simple lesson to Mash’s demise. If you intend starting a social site, you need to come up with a brandable name. Let’s face it, Mash? The second lesson is to promote. If you don’t promote, no one will pay any attention and you will fail to get the user stats required to make it popular. Yahoo! Mash - now Mush - for anyone who cared anyway!

Welcome to Facebook they say when you get to their website, more like welcome to jail. I have been building a Facebook account for a good year now, actively engaging in discussions, networking with individuals local to me, joining groups that pertain to my interests and Facebook has decided to shut my account down. I thought this was extremely strange since it is a “networking” website and it is a little difficult to network if you are not allowed to request people you don’t know. Facebook asks you to only requests people that you know. Yeah ok most people couldn’t even name off twenty people they know but they are supposed to only link to people they know on a website that unlocks them to thousands of people with just a few clicks away. Barack Obama’s Facebook account currently at this very moment 1,450,617 friends, wow he has a lot of real life friends because you can only connect with people you know in real life. I don’t’ see his account getting shut off.

Facebook has fallen and bumped their head if they think they can control this. I think they have commissioned the secret service to monitor everyone’s behavior because I read the other day that someone had gotten kicked off because they used the search function too many times in one day!! The search feature?? What’s next getting your profile booted for thinking about sending someone a friend request? How is using the search feature too many times in one day bothering anybody? I have spent an entire year networking on Facebook with many other young adults promoting their website and this is how they repay you. When you try to log into your account they say they can’t tell you specifically what you did wrong for “security reasons”. What security? Am I going to hire a lawyer because my Facebook account got shut off, probably not. You have to send 17 emails to Facebook in the hopes of prying a reason out of someone. Why they hiding it?

I don’t think Facebook is going anywhere but they are quickly infuriating many people with these new rules and regulations and I don’t think Facebook wants to face another class action lawsuit. Maybe they are doing it to get a buzz going? If you send a friend request to someone they have the option to deny it. Easy and simple, click no thank you, go about your day and the problem is solved. Did it ever occur to Facebook that for every ten people that might actually enjoy receiving that friend request that the one person that triggers an abuse flag might just be ruining a good thing for everyone else? I think the whole point that Facebook is missing here is that if you want to call it a social networking site but you are not allowed to meet people you don’t know than it is useless. The whole point of networking is so that you meet people you don’t already know! Isn’t the whole point of networking to meet other individuals whom you can communicate with and feed off each other’s knowledge and strengths?

I am not promoting spamming social networking websites but Facebook needs put in place some much more tasteful strategies for monitoring its members. Sending friend requests is not spam, accepting a friend and having them nonstop slander your wall with ads is and should not be tolerated. It is time for Facebook to rethink their ink or they might just be shopping around for a reputation management firm!

Do you socialize much? By socialize I mean go to dinners or parties or similar events where a large group of people meet to socialize. Social networking can often be a very similar experience.

I can remember where, in past years, a doctor would never reveal his/her occupation. If they did, they would spend the evening doing on the spot diagnosis of sore backs and aching legs and so on. Social networking can be a similar experience. If you were to reveal that you were a doctor, you know that someone is going to pop one of those questions at you.

It’s the different characters you find at parties that I find interesting and I find that with social networking, those same characters exist. You know the types. There are the quiet ones who sit back and watch. They don’t offer much unless you ask them, yet if you engage them in conversation they can generally be quite entertaining. They are the mixed bag. You just never know what to expect.

On the other end of the spectrum are the life of the party type people. You can’t keep them quiet. They come as a mixed bag as well. You have those that have been there, done that, expert on everything, qualified at nothing. They are just as likely to push a business card into your hand while passing a drink. The other talkers include the gossipers. If you want to know what’s going on in the world, go and listen to them.

In the middle of all this are your every day individuals who try and do the right thing by circulating, chatting and listening to everyone before moving on to the next little group. I have oversimplified things a little, but you get the idea. Which group do you fit into? Social networking on line is no different.

On line, you have the braggart who can answer all your questions, always has an opinion, and is always trying to get you to visit their website. The gossiper can tell you what is going on everywhere. Who is not talking to who, which products are out of flavor (and which are ones are in). And you have the quiet ones who sit in the corner and watch everything. Pick their brains and you often find pearls of wisdom.

Recognizing some of these traits in the social networking world can be invaluable. Who do you ask for advice? Not the braggart - 90% of the time they are wrong. No, you seek out the quiet ones and get in line to ask them. They don’t need to promote themselves, their actions speak for themselves.

Likewise, if you want to quickly get a message out, go to the loud gossipers and let them in on the ’secret’. As soon as it gets that confidential tone, you know the whole network will have heard about in with ten minutes. I must say, social networking reminds me of being at a party - there are just no drinks to consume - often the best part of any party.

LinkedIn is a social networking site dedicated to professionals and industry leaders. It is also a little slow in updating its services in comparison to many other social networking sites. There is nothing wrong with that of course. It is often said there are leaders and there are followers: LinkedIn is neither - LinkedIn is, well LinkedIn. It meanders along its own road.

LinkedIn has had the groups feature for some time now, however it is only just about to open it up with easier access and more functionality. Starting from this Friday, groups will have a forum function (which can be disabled by the group administrators), the ability to send out regular digests of forum conversations, a group homepage and a searchable list of group members.

They don’t sound like big changes; however, there is little purpose to groups if you cannot meet in your own forum to discuss various issues. The daily or weekly digest is handy function particularly for those not able to log in on a regular basis.

Likewise, home pages are an important part of groups, particularly when you want to promote your group and encourage new membership. Being able to search the list of members has two benefits, first, you can find ‘friends’ and secondly, you check to see if friends are members, if they aren’t, you can invite them.

LinkedIn is a little slow in the modernization processes; however, they seem to ensure that each new function works well and are going to be a benefit to all participants.

It had to happen at some stage. Amazon has joined the social media set by acquiring Shelfari, a social network focused on books. It is a natural progression for a company the size of Amazon and I am a little surprised it has taken so long.

Shelfari is a blend of social bookmarking and forum that allows users to:

• Build virtual bookshelves - and fill them with books
• Discover books to add to their bookshelves, and share with friends
• Rate and discuss books with their peers
• Participate in online book groups
• Interact with authors

The announcement on Shelfari’s blog included:

We’ve got some big plans ahead. With more resources and Amazon’s expertise in building a platform where people come to share ideas, there are a lot of new opportunities in the future that will benefit each of you. In the meantime, you’ll continue to have access to the great community and tools that you’ve always known and used on the site.

One wonders how long it will be before the front page becomes an Amazon billboard for book sales or perhaps partner with Amazon to display ads on their profile page. Time will tell. The acquisition is a step in the right direction for Amazon - hopefully it will benefit Shelfari members as well.

Twitter is trying to battle spam for several different reasons. The obvious reason of course is that no one wants to receive constant streams of spam, even in sms type messages. Twitter is a little different as it hosts millions ‘conversations’ at once, a factor that has lead to numerous outages. Remove the spam and you may reduce activity by 10-25% - maybe more, I doubt less.

Spam has been the curse of internet since mailing lists and bulletin boards. As the title suggests, I doubt there is a social site anywhere that is spam free. Where I do see a problem is in the definition of the word spam. What is spam to you may be acceptable to me and vice-versa. You may block a site because you feel you are being spammed, I may find their activity fine or only bordering on spam.

A general definition for spam could be: sending unsolicited, unwanted, irrelevant, or inappropriate messages, particularly commercial advertising.

If you were to study that definition closely, we could all be accused of spamming at various times when using social marketing to promote ourselves, products or web sites. We all obviously draw a line somewhere and when someone crosses it we can them as spammers.

I accept there is obvious spam. Those that use robots to leave thousands of useless and meaningless comments on web sites, particularly to unrelated sites - that’s spam. Sending emails after being asked to be removed from the mailing list that is spam. Wanting to tell the world you have a great new post, or even a great new product, where is the line and when does it become spam?

This is one of the issues that every social media site has to deal with. How to determine if someone is spamming, borderline spamming, or just doing a little too much promoting. Every site has spam. Every day I receive spam both in my inbox and through the comments here.

I am certainly glad that I am not the one determining what is and isn’t spam. User flagged options can be used effectively although it is still open to abuse. Digg would be a good example of where a group can decide that anything you submit gets torpedoed straight away. Spam is here and we are probably all guilt of it at some time. However, if social media sites like Twitter can reduce the amount of spam, it would certainly make them more attractive.

Many business owners whether large or small who have not yet taken advantage of the internet to drive in fresh new business have been able to come to the conclusion that they have made themselves invisible to a great deal of potential business. As more and more shoppers venture online to do their research before making any purchase, large or small, having a presence online will be vital to the success of any growing business. Many of you have might have attempted to get the ball rolling in the past but might have hit hurdles which have discouraged you to move forward with your online marketing efforts. The eBusiness Symposium is a Boston internet marketing event geared towards helping those who are serious about having their local business stand out in the crowd online by helping attendees acquire the knowledge and expertise regarding search engine optimization and search engine marketing.

President of Brick Marketing, Nick Stamoulis will be hosting the search engine optimization portion of this event and creating separate discussion on how SEO and social media marketing can and will help your business. Nick Stamoulis brings 12 + years of online marketing experience to the table including custom onsite training where Nick will come out to your company or business and train your current in house staff. If you are looking to implement a full social marketing campaign for your company and not sure where to start Nick can help you. Nick Stamoulis is also a Google Adwords Qualified Professional for those of you who might seek guidance in pay per click as well.

The ABC’s of SEO is designed to teach SEO techniques to those who are looking to increase sales, leads and visitors through all the major search engines including Google, Yahoo and MSN. This event is really catered towards anybody that is interested in growing their business online through various online marketing strategies. For all those local business owners that do not have anywhere to turn for help this Boston Internet marketing event will help them learn different online strategies that will help them grow their online business. This event will also train you on pay per click and social media marketing so your online marketing approach can be a well rounded approach with various avenues of online streaming directly to your website. The ABC’s of search engine optimization at the eBusiness Symposium Internet marketing event will help attendees grasp the basics of search engine optimization so that they can take a step out of the darkness and into the light of the internet.

Don’t wait until the last minute, early bird registrations going through September 12th. Save $25 per registration by doing it now. For more information on how to register please visit the website today and pre-register for your space.

As the internet expands and as more people turn to the internet for information, the options to find that information expands - and it’s not just in the search engines. In fact, a reliance on the search engines for traffic alone is going to be a big mistake.

The newest group to start taking to the e-waves are those in retirement, or semi-retirement. Where in the past the older generation were reluctant to access technology, around the world there are movement encouraging the reverse. Computers and the internet can now be found in many retirement centers - they even provide tutors to help them access the services.

Search engines are not their major source of information. Those in this older age group often join one of the social groups designed for retired computer novices. There they can learn the how, when and where of the internet including using social sites to find information. They are not alone.

Our youth are just as likely to use a social site to find information about products prior to spending. Both the elderly and our youth do use search engines - but they use it to find non commercial information. For our youth, it is likely to be research for school projects. For the elderly, it is likely to be medical based. For both groups, it is not related to purchasing power.

If you are in business and looking to attract visitors ready to buy, social media will, over the next couple of years, become the major source of traffic when it comes to sales. Social marketing now will enable you to gain a presence whilst learning how best to market your products or services. If you wait one or two years for the trends to consolidate, it may be too late. Everyone else will have a huge head start.

Viral marketing is one of the flavors of the month at SES San Jose. The subject has been covered on many blogs over the last twelve months or more with many ‘how to’ type posts. When it comes to viral marketing, however, it is not all rosy; there are several negatives.

Viral Marketing Is Hit and Miss:
You can put a lot of time an effort into planning a viral marketing campaign only to see it fail and not cause a whimper let alone a storm.

Viral Marketing Has No Control Measures:
Once a viral marketing campaign takes off there is no control. Generally speaking, you cannot control which direction it goes, what people are going to say and what ultimate effect it has on your business.

Viral Marketing Can Go Negative:
As you have no control over the direction and discussions that may take place, you need a good reputation management program in place. Google Alerts may not be enough as these often arrive too late. With a good reputation management strategy in place you can defuse any issues before they get out of hand.

Viral marketing, when it works, can be a real bonus to any business. When it goes wrong, it can cause a lot of stress and much longer to reverse. Before planning to start a viral marketing campaign, be sure you have plans in place to handle the negatives as well.

Back in May Microsoft reported on a new social bookmarking application that was going into closed beta. In early September they will open their doors to the general community to try out. John Martin on his TechNet blog reported:

Microsoft is opening up the MSDN, TechNet, and Expression sites to the community, so that technical professionals can better connect with each other, share knowledge, and succeed. Tagging - and especially social bookmarking - are essential ingredients for making this happen.

Back in May, just before TechEd North America, we released a preview version of our new social bookmarking app for MSDN, for TechNet, and for Expression. Since then, thousands of technical professionals from around the world have begun using it to save their web favorites online, share them with others, see what other technical pros are favoring, and connect with others.

With the new app you can:

• Subscribe to tags or people
• Browse and find users
• Import tools
• Incorporate bookmarking widget on your blog

I wonder how long it will be before readers become a little blind, or perhaps sick of seeing, all these social bookmarking widgets. I come across some sites that have two or three dozen widgets below each and every post.

It is important to note that this is devoted to the technical professional niche so for the majority of bloggers, submitting content will most likely see it sent to the trash can. If you do write material that is of a technical nature then this will suit your niche.

Social marketing seems to be the ‘in’ thing at present. Whether you are reading a post on SEO, marketing or ‘how to increase traffic’, the one common theme is going to be ‘you need to engage in social marketing’. With so many different social sites around, many web owners feel totally overwhelmed by thought of participating. If you are one of them, don’t worry, you’re not alone.

The most basic of questions is always the stumbling block: Where do I start? Do you engage in social bookmarking, do you set up a page on Facebook or Myspace, or do you join a forum? There are so many bookmarking and forum sites around, jut picking one can be hard. Social marketing need not be difficult not overwhelming. There are many options available.

One option is to employ a professional social marketer who can do the job for you. When I suggest this people often shy away. I am not sure why. In a bricks and mortar world, if they wanted to promote themselves or a product they would head off to a marketing expert straight away. Why is the online world any different?

If that option is out of the question, then you will need to do things yourself. The easiest option is to start your social marketing through a niche friendly forum. Your approach should be low key and the emphasis should be on the social. By all means include links to your web pages in your profile and signature, otherwise, forget your links.

Another option is to create a blog and optimize it for both the search engines and your potential customers. Encourage visitors to leave comments and respond to each comment once it has been left. Blogs are one of the easiest first steps into being social. Joining blog communities like MyBlogLog and BlogCatalog can also provide opportunities for interacting.

Social marketing need not be overwhelming if you are prepared to start slowly and maintain the emphasis on social. Overtime, as you build a reputation and gain more confidence, you can start to spread your wings and tackle more social media outlets.

I was discussing customer relations with a few individuals recently and one comment caught my attention. Having purchased an item from a web site, they tried to engage the site owner in conversation about the product. Despite having only positive comments to make about the product, the owner really did not engage and left pretty quickly.

The reason I found it interesting was, first the public nature of the conversation and the lack of engagement, the second and more important, was the closing comment from the customer, which effectively was, “I won’t bother buying from them again”.

Online reputations can be severely damaged from a simple act like this. The customer felt brushed off, everyone else who witnessed the conversation felt the same. Being a forum, this conversation is similar to a permanent record. It is still there for people to read today and will no doubt appear in search results at some time into the future.

Has the site owner come back and made amends. They have come back, but not to make amends, only to continue to promote them. Where they had been included in a lot of conversations, they now find themselves ignored. Over time, people will forget. Some people will leave and new people will arrive. However, for many online businesses, time is not a luxury. Lost sales now can make a big difference, particularly if you were building momentum.

Reputations can be won and lost when engaging an online community. Every care needs to be taken to ensure that customers and customers are not treated poorly. We cannot spend 24 hours a day promoting ourselves. There are times when you have to leave a site, however, when that happens it only takes a moment to thank people and give a brief goodbye. If someone has tried to engage you, let them know when you will be back so you can pick up the conversation.

One simple act of rudeness, probably unintentional, may have caused a great deal of damage to this person’s reputation. If you are going to engage in social networking, make sure you do engage - don’t do it halfhearted or with purely selfish interests.

Social bookmarking now has a new player, at least for the general public it is a new player. Yahoo! Buzz has been closed to all but a select few; now it is open to all. I have read reports that it is limited to the US, however nothing in their TOS or pages seem to indicate this.

What is Buzz. Really it is just another bookmarking site, similar to Digg, Sphinn and many others. You can get a widget to put on your site that has vote buttons and vote counts. It is still fairly rudimentary in comparison to the others. You have to manually enter the page’s URL every time you include the widget.

Where Buzz is a little different is in the traffic that may generate from popular articles. According to Yahoo!, top stories ‘may’ be featured on the Yahoo.com home page. Whilst Google may be the number one search engine, Yahoo.com still ranks as the number one site for traffic. Having your story featured there could potentially lead to millions of viewers - I hope your site is prepared for it when it happens.

You will need to have a Yahoo! account to use Buzz, however, in this day and age nearly everyone has one, even if it’s been sitting the corner gathering dust for a few years. Will Buzz help with your social bookmarking? Time will tell. It will depend on what sort of user interaction there is and whether or not is gets abused like many of the other sites. The rewards for artificially inflating a Buzz rank could be huge.

It will be interesting to see if individuals set themselves up as Buzz voters (setting up several hundred artificial accounts) as they do with StumbleUpon and then offer to vote up your content, for a price! Yahoo! Buzz is certainly worth checking out.