Showing posts with label social networking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social networking. Show all posts

Saturday, May 14, 2011

The Power of Social Media

Credit to Chris Spooner


I've always been impressed with the power of Social Media. But it has never made quite a personal impact on me like this week! This week has been especially hectic for me because I had the privilege of attending several fashion shows because of Philippine Fashion Week. I would have never gotten the opportunity to go if it were not for the power of Social Media!



I was able to get a ticket to the SM Department Store fashion show because of my sister and her line of work which allowed her access to some tickets to give to us. I was able to attend the same fashion show last year. Which is why I had wanted to attend more fashion shows but had no idea how. Until one of my cousins was able to get free tickets to the Cyber Shot Luxe Wear Collection Fashion show after reading a twitter post from one of her blogger friends! Then a day after that, my cousin (who is almost always online and checking out her favorite social networks) joined a contest on Twitter to get that much coveted Oxygen Clothing Fashion Show. We thought all would be lost but then, MAGIC HAPPENED.  @OxygenClothing set up a contest so that the first 50 people who retweets about this event gets an invite! And YES, we three got the invites! 

I'm really glad that I'm now living in this advance age of technology and communication. Who would have thought that Social Media would have this big of an impact on our society – that with just one click, you can access information and people and interact with them! And boy do we love to talk and make our "voices" heard! People are already recognizing the power of Social Media—its ability to make personal and direct contact AND initiate dialogues directly to their market. It’s all about knowing your competition, making the right connections and establishing a social presence.  


Flicker Photo: Laurel Papworth, Gary Hayes


By looking at this chart and relating it to my most recent experience on how Social Media got me, I now see how companies, businesses, and even aspiring bloggers like me can capture their “market.” They all use the social media and the social networking sites to involve and create meaningful connections to people. Once the connections have been made, you want to be talked about! Remember my fashion show story? That’s how they captured US—the market! They made all this buzz about how great their company was and invited people to watch the show – even giving access to the everyday ordinary masses! And see its effects on the online communities! People are now promoting this company, or this business, or this certain item or product  because of the impact that social media has made on them! There is no better advertisement than the word-of-mouth advertisement! And word-of-mouth now would mean this social media platforms that almost everyone has an account on and checks on an almost daily basis.

Now here is the tricky part, measuring and MONITORING your social market campaign. You can’t just create all those accounts all over the sites and leave it and cross your fingers and hope that it works. You have to take deliberate action if you want to manipulate social media to your advantage. This is where NETVANI comes in. Netvani is a social media monitoring and marketing tool that will help you to expand your social presence and do almost everything of what I just mentioned earlier. Its goal is to guide you into discovering your customer's or market's minds and make it easier for you to promote and campaign whatever you or your company is offering. 

Netvani is there to help you monitor your competition, research your market, engage your customers, build your community, and even manage your social web accounts! You can even set up a team who can visit, monitor, and manipulate the available tools on the site. Everyone in social network marketing knows that its all about knowing the right keywords then updating, connecting, and posting on those social web accounts that take up a lot of time (and for some, even money!) and effort. Through Netvani, it makes your life easier by giving you secure access to all of your accounts in one single and comprehensive view.  Also like what I mentioned earlier, its all about connecting so Netvani also provides customer feedback and a quicker way to engaging your customers through the social network accounts you have enrolled in Netvani. For me, one of the most important features of Netvani is that it allows you to view intelligent reports that will give you insight by pointing out areas where you need to improve in your social media campaign. Best of all, Netvani also gives you 30 day free trial account just so that you can have a taste and see how effective this tool can be for you! Social Media is a great tool if we know how to use it. So try this out and see how it will work for you. 

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Join BC Bloggers Links

Hey guys, here's a great new way to get connected! I read an article about this and I have decided to join. Its very easy! Here are the details:

Are you new to blogging and is finding it hard to gain links to your blog?
Are you tired of exchanging links one blog at a time?
Are you looking for friends in the blogosphere?

If you said yes to all of the above then you have come to the right post. BC Bloggers will help your blog gain those precious inbound links in an easy and systematic way. It is also a cool way to meet friends in the blogosphere.

So what do you need to do? Just follow these simple steps and you’re in.

1. The success of BC Bloggers depend on the number of people joining. So please spread the word about BC Bloggers 4 and invite other bloggers to join.

2. Put the BC Bloggers badge shown below in your sidebar. You can find the code at Paula's site.

Want some links? Join BC Bloggers 4!

3. Make a page dedicated to BC Bloggers where you intend to post the links. It doesn’t matter if it’s in the navigation bar or at the sidebar as long as it is linked in the homepage.

4. Once you have done steps 1, 2, and 3 fill out the Application Form. One blog for each form. Deadline of application is on August 12.

That’s it. Spread the word everyone and let’s cross our fingers for the success of BC Bloggers 4!

Let's get all those links together, join the BC Bloggers 4 now! Get more information and the application form through Paula's blog. :) Join now!  More people means success! :) Visit Paula's blog now! :)


Monday, April 19, 2010

Social Networking Craze - a fad that stuck!




FACEBOOK has slowly taken over my net life. Seriously! My rare moments online are now being consumed by my fascination on my source of online relaxation, recreation, and socialization. The advent of social networking really has crossed over boundaries and society through leaps and bounds. Technology really grows and evolves so fast!

It was only 6-7 years ago when I opened my very first social network account while I was still in college. I was killing time during the hours in between classes. Ok so I don't kill time that often, I usually spend my "free time" either with my friends or at a library. But this was a rare semester where most of my friends had classes during my free time and well, I was fed up with the library (which was a rare occurrence being a bookworm and all!). So there I was surfing on the net huddled in my own little "space" in a dimly lit, poorly air conditioned, small room which was fitted with as many computers, tables, and chairs in what we call an internet shop/cafe. I had made my decision that I will succumb to the dictates of society.. yes, I will join the masses in their what I deemed as a "crazy fad" or the "in" thing to do which was to make a FRIENDSTER account. LOL. Yep, everyone that I knew (well most of my classmates anyway!) had or was in the process of making their own account. And being the dutiful social being that I was, I made one! And the rest is history!

It took time for the "fad" to become a normal part of our society. I knew that at that time, myspace was making waves around the world and was more widely known. But I decided that I would start with Friendster and probably branch out from there. During those times, just the fact that you have a place where you can show off your photos and message other people or friends were fine enough. Ha, I even remember the time when "comments" were called "testimonials." And like dutiful and obedient people, we really made honest to goodness testimonials about your friends--giving glowing and positive remarks about them. Then it evolved into a public inbox where people say stuff so that other people can see.

Then people wanted more "things" or "gadgets" to show off! Personalized layouts, widgets, music and video incorporated to their profiles. Myspace, Tagged, Multiply, Hi-5 (not the kid show! LOL), and eventually FACEBOOK surfaced to address the clamor, demand, and "needs" of users. And I'm just so much amazed with how things have changed and improved since that time.

The only problem now is how to STOP from visiting all these sites and maintaining all of them! I solved one of the problems by basically dropping all of the other accounts that I made and stuck to the one that served all my preferences. FACEBOOK. It has the works! It connects me to my friends, it has games that I enjoyed (I know that they started the trend which the others picked up!), and I can control my privacy and at the same time show my public photo albums. I'm pretty much sure most of you have found old old friends in one of the social network sites that you have an account with. Its one of the awesome benefits that I got because of Facebook and the like. Now I have also slowly adopted the strategy to reach out to my students using Facebook. I can get to them faster using this tool! The downside is, I find out a lot of things about them which sometimes I prefer NOT to. LOL.

Anyway, what I basically want to say is that I'm grateful for technology and the evolution of how people can communicate faster than before. And with this gratefulness also comes the awareness of the possible dangers people face while using networks such as this. So my advice is enjoy it but at the same time keep your eyes wide open and make sure that you know what you are doing before you post, say, or do something that you will later on regret or cause you trouble.

Now back to my Facebook games. :)