Slideshare is the world’s largest community for sharing presentations, documents, and pdfs. Individuals and businesses can upload documents to SlideShare to share their ideas and also generate new contacts for their businesses. With over 25 million monthly 

Slideshare is the world’s largest community for sharing presentations, documents, and pdfs. Individuals and businesses can upload documents to SlideShare to share their ideas and also generate new contacts for their businesses. With over 25 million monthly visitors to their site, people are able to view presentations about topics that interest them.

How does this fit into social media? With the content that is uploaded, it gets spread into other social media sites, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. When the information gets spread to other social networking sites, it allows for the companies to get their products and ideas out to a broader market.

When uploading the information on SlideShare it also allows you to embed slideshows into your own blog or website, market your own event on SlideShare, and join groups on SlideShare who share your own interests. When used effectively, SlideShare can really help build your presence online.

When posting your presentation online through SlideShare, it is important you distinguish yourself and your company. MarketProfs lists the following four tips of effectively distinguishing yourself:

1.      Note Liberally

SlideShare allows users to upload any notes behind the slide, allowing you to put a one- sentence slide, but also gives notes to your users about the complete idea, not just an overall picture.

2.      Explain Eloquently

SlideShare transcribes presentations automatically, so you can benefit from an increase in SEO.

3.      Name Your SlideShare Account After Your Company

Add relevant tags to the topics of discussion for easier search optimization.

4.      Share Like Your Mama Taught You

Tweet the link to your presentation on Twitter, embed it in blogs, and post it on Facebook.

Implementing these four tips can really help to get you and your company noticed on SlideShare, which in turn will help to market your product or service.

What have you done on SlideShare to get yourself noticed?

Do you want to make your tweets more personalized? Wouldn’t social media be more fun if you could actually talk to other people rather than just type? Now there are five programs that can allow you to integrate 

Do you want to make your tweets more personalized? Wouldn’t social media be more fun if you could actually talk to other people rather than just type? Now there are five programs that can allow you to integrate your own recorded audio into Twitter. You can use this new-found power to sing someone a song, tell them a joke or tell them how much you miss them – whatever you can dream up!

1. Twaud.io: this service allows you to both record and upload files – you just need to sign in and approve your computer’s mic. You are allowed up to thirty minutes of recording! You can record and listen to the playback all on the same program.

2. Chirbit: has categories such as  is “audiobook,” “joke,” “pickup line” designed to help the Chirbit community find content more easily, but if you are just using it as a social media tool you only need to pay attention to the default “Chirbit” category.

3. Chir.ps: offers the same recording and playback process, as the others, but just know that there’s a slight delay before the tweet will hit your stream. When the Chir.ps is in your stream it will have a shortened URL attached to it to allow people to clickthrough and listen. One nice feature of this program is a “listen count” so you can see how many people have hit play.

4. AudioBoo: with this program you only have 5 minutes of recording time, but then you can choose to share your audio to Facebook, tweet it or get an embed code. AudioBoo has good sound recording quality.

5. Shoutomatic: one cool feature of Shoutomatic is people are able to reply directly on your message page directly within the program. Also, for a fee you can have “celebrities” record a message for you.

You have the power – now go shout it out!

(full article)

Don’t rush into the social media scene before you’ve done your research. Take it slow, play it smart and find long-term success!

First step to social media success is to make sure your offering is relevant to your audience. 

Don’t rush into the social media scene before you’ve done your research. Take it slow, play it smart and find long-term success!

First step to social media success is to make sure your offering is relevant to your audience. To do this, listen to the conversations that are already taking place involving your brands.

Second step: before creating or distributing any social object, ask yourself a few important questions:

• “What value am I introducing into the mix?”
• “What makes this object worthy of attention?”
• “What action do I want to inspire?”
• “How does this contribute to our standing within each community?”
• “How can I make this shareable?”

Third Step: Keep it Significant and Shareable – the easier your brand is to recognize in the social media world, the more it will resonate with consumers and the more likely they will be to pass on your message to all their connections.

Takehome: Relevance + Resonance = Significance: Consistently demonstrating relevance over time and continually striving to earn resonance will increase your significance as a company in the long run. It is the culmination of reputation, trust, influence, accessibility and value within each social network.

(source: Harvard Business Review Blog “The Conversation” http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/07/social_medias_critical_path_re.html)

According to comScore, Facebook hit a new record high in traffic for the month of June.  Facebook had more than 141 million unique visitors in the U.S. for the month of June, which put its 

According to comScore, Facebook hit a new record high in traffic for the month of June.  Facebook had more than 141 million unique visitors in the U.S. for the month of June, which put its unique visitor numbers next to that of Google, the leader in unique site visits.  Google is currently the most visited website in the U.S. right now and has pulled in a total of 179 million unique visitors across its sites in the month of May.  

Facebook, on the other hand, is currently a leader with its social networking competitors for total unique visitors, and it is still soaring past the competition.  Last year in the month of June, Facebook accounted for 77 million unique U.S. visitors, so their numbers from this year are nearly double the numbers from last year.

What does this mean for social media? With Facebook growing so quickly, it opens up the opportunity to use it as a marketing and advertising platform for many companies.  With so many unique site visits and return visits, this allows companies to have the opportunity to advertise and reach a larger and more specific audience.  So using Facebook as an avenue for marketing and advertising may be something to consider.

Do you know of any other sites that rank as high as Google and Facebook?

Did you know that Farmville (a game that allows players to tend to a virtual farm with their friends in Facebook) is currently played by 70 million people per month? That’s 1 in 4 Americans! Sure, you may hide 

Did you know that Farmville (a game that allows players to tend to a virtual farm with their friends in Facebook) is currently played by 70 million people per month? That’s 1 in 4 Americans! Sure, you may hide your friend’s game results in your news feed, but did you stop to think what a powerful marketing tool online games can be?

Behavioral psychologists have studied what motivates people to perform specific actions – specifically the impulse to purchase. Online game designers have transformed this theory into the rules and rewards of their games. Farmville and other social games combine highly addictive positive feedback loops with viral social play. Gamers are able to interact with other people on line while they play, ask their friends for resources and post their achievements for all their followers to see. Users compete with each other for status, measured in “levels,” while paying real money for virtual items that enhance their gameplay. Incorporating rewards points and loyalty programs between an online game and your brand can be a powerful marketing tool.

How can you use this captive audience to benefit your company? Check out a couple real-world examples:

1. Farmville just launched a massive in-store campaign with 7-Eleven that includes broad in-store co-branding while rewarding cash purchases of hot dogs and Slurpees with Farmville currency.
2. Bunchball is a San Jose-based start-up whose technology allows brands to integrate challenges, leaderboards and virtual rewards into their website. Their customers, which range from NBC to Victoria’s Secret, are excited to be able to map any activity to a reward. For example, a user might be given 500 points to visit a particular page on the site or 1000 points for joining the brand’s Facebook group.

(Smartbrief “Why Marketers Should Pay Attention to Booming Gaming Trend” by Reuben Steiger)

With the many online social communities on the web, marketing and managing your brand can create some challenges. Here is a list of common challenges that can arise, and some ways to address the challenges.

1. Transparency 

With the many online social communities on the web, marketing and managing your brand can create some challenges. Here is a list of common challenges that can arise, and some ways to address the challenges.

1. Transparency

If your company fails, you have to be the first one to call yourself on it. If you succeed, you have to message that in a way to get people’s attention.

2. Scale

A successful brand will have more customers than employees, which in turn will create more conversations about your brand than you’ll be able to participate in.  Exercise judgment when deciding which discussions are worth spending time on, such as publicly handling a customer complaint, or giving fans special access to events.

3. Tool Belt

There are many tools that are available and they all vary in quality. The difficult part is determining which tools should be used from the hundreds of tools that could be used. The right tools will be able to save a lot of time, money, and hassle.

4. Revenue

It is difficult to convince managers that it’s not about cool, but about revenue. If what you’re doing does not increase revenue in some way, then it doesn’t matter how cool it is.

5. Relationships

Companies need to make the mental switch from seizing every opportunity to sell their market to instead look for ways to engage with the customer. Listen to what your customer is saying and make every effort to develop an ongoing communicative relationship. The relationship will be more valuable than a one-time sale.

6. The Future

A culture shift is required to not only support engagement in social media but also to adapt to become an authority within each network. Businesses need to listen to their communities and embrace new ideas while having the administrative structure and openness to convert those ideas into practicable services.

What challenges have you faced with your brand in social media?

Many in the crowd had a pretty good feel for social media, and together we shared ideas for how businesses and 
Fluid Studio presented to a large group at the Box Elder Employer Committee on April 29th.

Many in the crowd had a pretty good feel for social media, and together we shared ideas for how businesses and employers can use Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to create buzz and interest for their respective organizations online.

Below is a copy of the presentation. Enjoy!

We admit it.

No one can guarantee that people will pick up on a video and pass it on to others.

But there are basic principles, that, if followed, will help move it in that direction.

Consider these ideas  OK.

We admit it.

No one can guarantee that people will pick up on a video and pass it on to others.

But there are basic principles, that, if followed, will help move it in that direction.

Consider these ideas . . .

SIMPLE: Keep it short and to the point.

Two minutes or less; the shorter the better. Most people don’t have long attention spans.

ENTERTAIN or EDUCATE: Most people will share if it does one of these two things.

KEEP IT VISUAL: After all, it is a medium that uses audio and video. Offer transitions often to break up the monotony, and do not employ a “talking head” that can bore people.

SHARE: Make sure you share your video. Tell others to forward it to their friends. Upload it to as many social networking sites as possible.

See the video below for some additional ideas.

Have any other tips and tricks? Feel free to share them in the comments section below.

15 Tips for Viral Video Marketing