It’s no surprise that the internet is moving at a fast pace. Every day it seems like something new is out and about creating a buzz and attracting visitors. With all the vast amounts of information where do you go to just learn without all the distractions? A new Facebook application by the name of Super Cool School has been developed with the hopes of educating individuals looking to learn about business techniques ranging from offline to online with topics such as social marketing and to how to write a business plan.

Each class is interactive with video, audio, chat and a virtual blackboard so classmates can interact with each other and also learn from each other. Unlike other online classes you have to purchase this one is free, fun and is introduced on a social level. For many trying to take classes and actually have to travel to a physical location just might not work with many people’s schedules these days. This way you can interact just like in a class room but sitting in your living room. If you can’t find a topic that you want to learn about you can actually request a specific area you want more understanding on and Super Cool School will find an expert to teach the topic of your choice. The best part is it doesn’t cost you one red cent to use. This is a great place for you to meet others with same interests so that you can network and build good long lasting relationships with. Super Cool School brings the power of knowledge and social media networking to one location.

If you are like many people that want to learn something but really don’t have the time to go out and search for available classes come check out Super Cool on Facebook and find out for yourself just how easy it is to learn again.

With so many budget cuts that exist in today’s business world many different companies and organizations are constantly looking for ways to cut costs and trim their budgets. Recently I have been seeing many photographers that are pretty upset that the amount of work they have been getting is starting to trend downward and Flickr is partly to blame for this.

The world of social marketing has allowed those people who society would have never acknowledged in the past where alive to all of a sudden have a voice, and a loud one. Flickr has allowed many photographers to come out of the wood work and have their work showcased in front of millions of people for free. Many of these artists might have not been business savvy people in the past and have not had the knowledge on how to leverage themselves as photographers but Flickr has changed that. It has allowed these behind the scenes photographers to come out of the shadows of society and be heard loud and clear. Many of them are willing to give away their works of art for almost nothing which is working out wonderful for companies who need the photos. Why does a company now have to pay that photographer with “12” years of experience massive amounts of cash where they can now equally great work at a fraction of the cost if not free.

If you are a professional photographer you really can’t get mad at anyone because this is evolution of technology and you can kick and scream and say horrible things about Flickr but nothing will change. The internet has arrived you are not the only one out of a job. Your best bet is to adapt to the situation and find out exactly how you can tweak your business so you can continue to put food on the table.

Social marketing has gone through many changes and continues to go through changes as it is still a relatively new approach of online marketing. SpyFu will be able to help you gain a competitive advantage and really allow you to maximize your advertising spend and online marketing efforts by allowing you to research through a great deal of statistical information regarding your competitions every move along with who is targeting certain keywords for pay per click and research all the different niches that might have not been expanded upon.

SpyFu can really be used many different ways to help you have a very strong competitive edge with your search engine marketing campaign. If you want to find certain keywords your competitors are targeting even for a niche you might be trying to expand in. You can use SpyFu to find keywords so you can map out your plan of attack similar to your competition or even take your own path. SpyFu can help you narrow down your search for niches with high clicks and relatively low competitors. This website can be used as a very important research tool to grow your business. Online marketers are always looking for new and efficient ways to conduct research and SpyFu is a source that doesn’t get much easier. SpyFu shaves away wasted time doing brutal number crunching work by doing it for you. By landing on a website and typing in a keyword you can see who is targeting that keyword or keyword phrases. You can quickly find out if this is a keyword you want to target or simply move on and find one less bid on. SpyFu can also be used for keeping an eye on changing and evolving trends for certain keywords, niches and industries giving you a real competitive advantage over many others not participating in this type of information. SpyFu allows you to spy on your competitors easily and safely by downloading competitor’s keywords and adwords.

President and founder of SpyFu, Michael J. Roberts, has always been a number cruncher. He has spent many great years building and learning the fundamentals for the launch of this company and SpyFu continues to impress us all. SpyFu really takes the time to listen to their clients and that is why in June of 2008 SpyFu made the trek over to the UK and launched their services overseas. SpyFu is quickly becoming an industry leader in website analytic information. For all of those venturing into the world of online marketing SpyFu will help you keep your friends close and your enemies even closer.

Visit the SpyFu website for more product information.

Social marketing is all about finding like-minded people and sharing thoughts and experiences with them. Forums can be the most important and effective place to share those thoughts and experiences. Forums are online communities where people participate in different discussion groups. Due to the community nature of forums, they have become an effective tool for social marketing and can be quite effective vehicles to launch a viral marketing campaign.

Forums have, in the past, been recognized as the source of negative information that has gone viral, not just around the web, but out into the mainstream media as well. This same power can be used to send a positive message.

There are thousands of forums, perhaps tens of thousands, so the key is to find one or more forums that can benefit your business or website. A simple search on any of the search engines will provide a list of forums for consideration. To select a forum to work with, consider the following:

• Eliminate forums that do not have a close association with your niche
• If the forum doesn’t have a membership of several hundred, forget it – in fact a membership base of more than 1000 is even better
• Find a forum that has been around for several years and has a posts numbering in the high thousands
• Select a forum that has a wide range of thread topics that receive regular posts – the site should be receiving 30+ posts each day
• If the forum appears to have a lot of spam comments – ignore it
• Finally, check the forum rules and be sure you can have a link to your site embedded in your signature.

Participate – The key to success on forums is to participate and to do in a sensible manner. When writing a post, or commenting on someone elses post, do so intelligently and accurately. Don’t try to answer a question or provide a solution if you are unsure of the topic.

The best way to make an impression is by providing assistance to others – assistance that helps them solve their problems. Stay objective and on topic and your will earn respect. Once you have earned that respect, people will take what you say as an authority and it is that authority that lies at the heart of viral marketing campaign.

If you make a statement, a recommendation or provide an opinion, people will take that as a fact and pass it on to others – in essence the start of viral marketing campaign. Forums have long been used to get things started – you can to!

StumbleUpon is a social bookmarking site that can deliver a lot of traffic. Where StumbleUpon differs to a site like Digg is that the traffic generated can last two or three days, not a short 12-36 hours. However, like Digg, traffic from StumbleUpon tends to have a very high bounce rate and an extremely low conversion or purchase rate. You can however improve your conversion rate if you follow a few points.

StumbleUpon is meant to be ‘fun’ and ‘friendly’. It’s casual surfing when you have nothing better to do and by using the SU tool bar in your browser, the sites you visit are fairly random. Likewise, the visitors to your page have landed there randomly. They don’t know what they are going to see until your page loads – and there in lies the first clue – your page needs to grab their attention. Bright colorful, friendly, easy going – little in the way of ads – a first impression that sells I want to stay and see what this site has to offer.

Distinctive branding is going to be a big asset. If your branding stands out and is memorable, they will remember it. Part of your branding is going to flow from the content they read. Your visitor is going to be wowed by they page, hit by the brand and engaged by the content. When they leave you want them to remember you by your brand and content.

If you want your StumbleUpon visitors to return, then get their name and email address and the easiest way to do that is through a free giveaway like an ebook. Offer them something in return.

StumbleUpon visitors can be hard to please. They are after a good time so give it to them.