Socialmediacollege's Blog

Facebook Poses Biggest Security Risk from Cybercrooks

Mike Andrew — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:04:00 +0000

Cybercriminals are turning their attention to users of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, according to a new report [pdf] from IT security and data protection firm Sophos.

For more on this story please visit Social Media College

Digital Tools Help Moms Take Charge

Mike Andrew — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 04:51:20 +0000

US Moms use Technology to be better mothere

Technology usage is not immune to the lifestyle changes motherhood brings. Moms put the focus on simplicity, convenience and multiuse technologies as they look to keep their families closely linked, according to a report from BabyCenter.

More than four in 10 US online moms said they wanted technology that could help them be a better mother. Millennial respondents were much more likely than their Gen X counterparts to seek maternal empowerment through technology and more likely to say they had been helped by tech.

US Mothers on Technology

That help might be managing the family schedule, taking care of the family’s health and wellness, recording and sharing photos and videos, and making the most of mom’s time—all top objectives of mothers that dramatically increased in importance when they had children.

Smartphones and PDAs are a boon for mothers on the go, 69% of whom use them to coordinate and schedule family activities

US moms daily activities

Home networking and digital convergence are also helpful to moms. Forty percent told BabyCenter that technology convergence in the home makes technology more useful for mothers, and 72% said they are now more likely to use their laptop in the kitchen or living room so they can be around their children while they go online.

“Becoming technologically fluent is a must for moms juggling the ever-growing demands of household responsibilities,” said Tina Sharkey, BabyCenter chairman and global president, in a statement. “Tech brands who truly listen to moms and deliver products that empower them and make their lives a little easier will no doubt have the competitive edge in a very crowded marketplace.”

Social Media Advertising Budgets Get a Boost

socialmediacollege — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:33:12 +0000

The majority of companies in a recent survey are planning to invest more in social media next year but are struggling to find the time and resources to manage their activity, according to a report produced by Econsultancy and bigmouthmedia.

The “Social Media and Online PR Report” provides detailed information about how companies are using online PR tactics and social media sites – including Facebook and Twitter - for marketing and customer service.

The research found that an overwhelming majority of companies (86%) surveyed plan to spend more money on social media in 2010, and a further 13% are planning to keep the same level of budget.

Read the full story at www.socialmediacollege.com.au

Learn to Blog Courses

Mike Andrew — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:51:56 +0000

You’re probably hearing a lot about Social Media, Twitter and networks such as Facebook and MySpace for business lately. New media such as blogging and social networks are really changing the face of the Internet and the way both business and consumers share information. Blogging is not just a conversation between yourself and the Internet. Blogging is a personal conversation between you and your prospective customer. Blogging consists of getting your message out there in the most effective manner possible, Learning how to Blog is vitally important to your Business success.

To get more information on a Learn to Blog Course please visit www.socialmediacollege.com.au

Business Blogging Program

Mike Andrew — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:48:28 +0000

How can adding a blog to my website help my business? this is a great question to ask, and the answer is simple. Blogs allow you to communicate better with your target market and can build traffic to your web site, not to mention the fact that search engines such as Google really love blogs because of the frequently updated content they contain.

Get more information on the Business Blogging program from Social Media College

Business Blogging

Mike Andrew — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:44:10 +0000

So why should business blog? now there is a great question, and if you are a business owner and you haven’t yet considered adding a blog to your internet marketing strategy then you should and fast. Why? what is it about blogging that is so important that I would make a statement like that. First of all, one of the reasons you should add a blog is it provides a personal form of communication with your audience, or in your case as a business owner, your customer. It allows you to create the “expert” factor in your marketing and you can run it on your web site or alongside on a separate domain name, plus you’ll benefit from the increase in traffic or searches that you’ll receive. If that wasn’t enough to get you running out and starting up a blog, Google and search engines in general love blogs, this is because they provide frequently updated and valuable content, and for that reason they get indexed faster than a standard web site and will, as long as you publish good quality content, end up ranking on the first page of Google.

You can read more of this post at Social Media College Business Blogging

Social Media for Business

Mike Andrew — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 22:28:15 +0000

: Image via CrunchBase

The number of marketing professionals world wide now using social media for business purposes has grown in the last 12 months. In a new survey released in August over 86% of marketing professionals from all industries had adopted social media as a marketing and branding tool. Most of the usage of social media is for marketing at 57% with internal communication the next highest at 39%. Using social media as a customer service and support medium has also grown, with 30% of businesses now using it to communicate with their customers.

The other interesting trend that is starting to appear is the placement of staff to handle social media full time within these businesses, with over 57% now committing full time staff to monitor update and service their social media sites.

The top marketing professionals are now either integrating social media within their existing web site or using stand alone sites to maximise the SEO result of a social media strategy. The one area that still lags behind all other forms of advertising is interestingly enough, ROI or return on investment, only 16% of companies had a monitoring and measurement system in place and 4 out of 10 executives did not even know if the tools they were using had an ROI capability.

If your company is looking to integrate a social media strategy into your marketing plans, please let us know, social media is more than a Facebook page and/or a Twitter profile, let us design and manage your social media strategy so that you get the best ROI on your investment.

Mike Andrew is the CEO of Social Media Strategy Company Mike Andrew Consulting.

Social Media for Business

Mike Andrew — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 22:28:05 +0000

: Image via CrunchBase

Mike Andrew is the CEO of Social Media Strategy Company Mike Andrew Consulting.

Emails and Social Networks

Mike Andrew — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:36:55 +0000

With more than a third of Internet users now visiting social media networks each month, a lot of time is spent in gathering information, and now it appears that 40% of email users visit social media sites to gather information about products and recommendations from friends. A recent study called “Emails Gone Viral” by Silverpop found that shared emails delivered an average increase of reach of 24.3%, and that figure is due to increase as sharing becomes more mainstream in the future.

Social media sites do have an impact on the increase of opens for emails as well with at least an additional 1% of opens for emails when shared on network sites.

So when does your email have it’s biggest impact on social media users? the majority of opens and clicks on shared emails is within the first few days and the last click about 7 days after posting, although activity on an email was extended as long 44 days.

If you’d like to read the full article, please visit Social Media College

Executives and Social Media

Mike Andrew — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 22:04:41 +0000

US corporations have come to value social media network sites very highly over the past 12 months, particularly in building their company’s brand and enhancing the relationship with their clients.

According to research conducted for the “Social Media: Embracing the Opportunities, Averting the Risks” white paper in July,more than 8 out of 10 management,marketing and HR executives who responded to the survey claimed that brand building and relationships were the key advantages of a social media strategy in business. The other area that is considered a positive with social media, is recruitment, with 69% of company’s using networks and social media sites to recruit new staff.

An interesting sideline to the report is the fear that some US executives have over privacy issues with social media sites such as MySpace and Facebook, 40% of these executives expressed concern over security and 37% had concerns over employee productivity.

Security and confidentiality of information is by the far the biggest concern of top level managers, the very nature of social media is in itself about the sharing of information, and this is what most executives fear their staff will be doing, sharing personal and company information to the masses.

60% of companies studied in February 2009 by software company Sophos,had blocked access to social media sites due to fears of confidentiality, with 68% of the senior managers surveyed, believing employees were sharing to much information via social networks.

One of the areas we cover at Social Media College when creating a company social media strategy, is confidentiality, and when running workshop sessions with staff this is given a high priority.

If you or your company are considering a social media strategy, enrolling in our executive coaching courses is a must. The courses are designed for senior executives and provide a thorough background on all areas of social strategy.