July 25, 2008
It’s our last Friday Digg of July and we can hardly believe how fast the month has gone. Time flies when you’re busy, and as usual we’ve been busy around the Yovia network. Our latest buzz:
This week as I was surfing the net and working I learned about the website Ning.com. I crawled through the site for a while, trying to understand how it completely works and the advantages it has if any. As I was in class I pondered more on the whole concept of Ning. It blew me away as I thought about how useful a tool it is.
Currently as the internet is now and becoming more of a social place having user engagement is crucial to a site. Ning hits on this factor because as people surf a site where Ning is applied it makes a website more personal, adding to the equation of allowing the site to increase in their page views.
Imagine a store that used Ning were people who were interested and somewhat brand loyal in the product could comment on things and engage with other users who shared common interests. I know I often use a site that already has some value to me, but if Ning was applied the value might increase because I might be able to gain more information and see how other real people are interacting.
It will be interesting to see as the internet changes how the role of Ning and other social sites will play apart in the adaptation to the constantly changing realm of advertising and marketing. Is Ning just another social site or the future of social marketing?
Matt Hite
Intern
Yovia.com
There are thousands and thousands of social media sites, but the question for many is how to choose the best ones? Social media sites that are ranked the highest are where marketers should focus on social marketing. These crucial sites are the ones that will drive the most traffic to your site quickly and effectively. Your voice in these places will have the most impact as long as it its relevant. Don’t just promote your marketing message, actively participant in the community. With more people, more networks, and more options to choose from, the highest ranked social media sites will work the hardest for you. Websites like compete.com and alexa.com can provide you with this information to understand the possible volume of your voice. These sites are useful because they go into depth with analytics, but more importantly provide basic traffic ranking and numbers. This might seem like a basic topic, but it is crucial in the realm of social marketing and letting your voice be heard.
By: Matt Hite
Intern
Yovia.com
Should you control social marketing? This is a question for many today because of different issues at hand. The biggest issue within this is the spam and irrelevant information that are being posted. Users are getting tired of clicking on pages that bring them to something of complete irrelevance. For example, although Facebook might have slightly less traffic than Myspace, they have created more value in their network by reducing the irrelevant links. Facebook’s network can be seen to many more closely nit and organized. Although Myspace is trying to head in this direction and cut back on this factor, their system and customer base is now use to this spam that is sometimes present. Ebay is heading in this direction on controlling social marketing and someways people are saying this can be seen as bad, but in reality I believe it is helping to increase the relevant information within their site. More importantly, this is helping ebay’s well known image of a unique marketplace for everyone to buy and sell. Like with many social networks such as Ebay people want to interact, but if it is full of junk and irrelevant information this could cause its social network to be a river hazards and people might not put their boat in the water.
It will be intresting to see how Ebay does in the next few years with social marketing. Will increasing their control hurt them or will it help to stimulate a better social network. Linking is crucial in a social network, but will cutting back on the links hurt them. It will be interesting to see how controlling social marketing will play into effect.
By: Matt Hite
Intern
Yovia.com
This week I read a few articles about how people see social marketing. One article said, “Social marketing, as with any marketing , is always going to be trial and error. However, with social marketing you can be a little more proactive in your approach by being a part of the social scene that you are trying to engage.” Another article I read stated, “marketers just don’t get the new technologies and the fundamental changes in the ways people interact with brands.” This led me to think about how as social marketers relevance is huge. You can’t talk to a young kid about something that would go right over his head. The message on what your focusing on is king in this aspect. For social marketers to get things right they must realize this and concentrate on their target audience. To engage these people you must put them and the message at the forefront. Your content needs to connect with the right audience, community, network, or etcetera where they are at other wise you could be talking to no one. You could be just wasting your time and money.
By: Matt Hite
Intern
Yovia.com
http://thenextweb.org/2008/05/15/social-media-marketing-might-have-a-limited-future/
http://socialmarketingjournal.com/2008/05/15/should-you-spend-more-on-social-marketing/
April 4, 2008
We’re ending the week with this buzz around the Yovia network:
