Among the many things I learned from being an online entrepreneur is the fact that to make a name in this industry, one must have something to hold onto to set him or herself apart from the crowd. For me, it’s utilizing social media, branding through it.

The rising popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn is pretty obvious and how these sites have created impact on millions of users around the globe is outstanding. But how does social media bolster your business? Branding. To come up with a successful brand, treat it like you would a person or a friend in the sense that it must be something trustworthy and something you enjoy.

So here is how it works. Social media is an appealing and effective tool to boost your profit and enhance your career. It creates world-class brands. However, the toughest part in making a successful brand is to make people see your potentials, including that of your products and services.

Well, this may sound unrelated when it comes to branding but the initial step is to thoroughly educate yourself about your business and what you are offering to the market. Once people realize that you know very well what you’re talking about, it’s most likely that they will consider, trust, and will start taking in your offer. But take note, this is just half of the entire process.

How do you make people see your potentials?
This is where social media comes in. As I have said, learning the ropes of your business is just the beginning. Imagine having baked the best blueberry pie in the world. But it will not be appreciated until others have tasted it. This is just the same with building a business. How will you be able to reap the fruits of your labor and gain profits if people are not aware about you? Therefore, the next step is to make people aware of your existence online. Social media just happens to be very good in making this possible.

Steps 1, 2, 3
Register and open an account. Membership is free, and most of these social networking sites are customizable and easy to use. Indeed, this is a fun and engaging way to brand your business. Through this kind of medium, you will be able to impart what you have and at the same time, you earn in return. If people are attracted to you, they will become interested with your and products and services. Eventually, a lot of them will become your friends or fresh clients, or even both.

Post and update your profile every now and then. Let people know what you are up to or what new products or service you are offering. This manner allows your follower and or network friends to know you better and trust you even more.
Add more and more friends as you go along. This network of connection will grow and expand bigger in no time. Doing things well means tremendous success for you with little waste of effort and time, not to mention less expense in building your business niche.

Branding is created as social media paves the way between customers and marketer to engage and connect, allowing both parties to develop a personal relationship altogether. By the development of such relationship, a brand is formed. This is the befitting change brought upon by social media to modern day online marketing. Social media is “perfect” for marketers. In order to come up with strong brands, online entrepreneurs, like me, need a certain degree of scale and presence. And for that world-class brand, we need customers, lots of them, and a place to meet these customers. Nothing provides better these essentials than the social media platform.

For this, I am truly grateful. I am one of the many who’s reaping the boons of social media as I embrace it as a way to reach out to clients and targeted ones. Along the way, I gain friends and trusted clients, and I am enjoying every step of the way. Just be sincere and you’ll be part of the social media frenzy without nothing to lose. Rather, you’ll beat the odds and gain yourself the kind of “brand” that will set you apart from the rest.

Rumor has it that Google will soon unveil its newest product, the “Google Circles,” a new addition to social networking. According to reports, Google made the announcement at South by Southwest that they are cooking in some product for release anytime soon. However, Google denied having made such announcement.

The reports said Google Circles is a social product which integrates status updates, videos and photos, much like to what Facebook is about. But Google product imparts more privacy for its users, offering features such that users can send private messages to a particular group or in group. Sounds familiar? Yes, it does sound like similar with Beluga, a mobile project made by former Googlers.

But the real question remains: is the rumor true or will it just go in circles without definite answer? Will we ever get to see this “new product” anytime soon? The answer is with Google.

It was known that late last year, the Gawker website was hacked. Hackers got hold of the site’s database which contained both the usernames and the passwords of about 1.4 million individuals who have posted comments at the Gawker site and its popular affiliates including gizmodo.com, deadspin.com, lifehacker.com, kotaku.com, jalopnik.com, and jezebel.com among others.

Worst, the hackers didn’t keep the database all to themselves. Instead, they uploaded everything to thepiratebay.org, a public torrent tracker, including the database’s rough analysis, 200,000 decoded passwords, plaintext credentials for some Gawker employees, and the 1.4 million email addresses, encrypted usernames and encrypted passwords.

The technical details on how the hack was done are not yet entirely disclosed, but Gnosis, the hacking group accountable for such has taken responsibility for what happened. Together with the database uploaded at thepiratebay.org was what looked like an angry shout-out aimed at the company.

Based on the occurrences, it looked like Gnosis guessed or decoded Nick Denton’s, Gawker founder, password which he used for his Campfire team-collaboration portal account. This account is used for internal communications and chat among the staff. The moment Gnosis gained access to this, they’re able to get hold of valuable information from the 4-gig chat logs.

Also, it seemed like the MySQL database password was divulged somewhere in the logs. It’s a petty issue for Gnosis to dump what they had gathered. Unfortunately for Gawker’s part, their passwords were encrypted using the criticized and ancient DES or Data Encryption Standard which made use of the 56-bit encryption key. With such poor encryption system, passwords with more than eight characters can be truncated to eight prior to storing in the database. Those users using more than eight characters
for the password will not be entirely compromised. However, account access is still possible once the first eight characters are cracked. Gnosis had successfully cracked about 200,000 passwords in the Gawker database, out of the 1.4 million passwords stored.

Analysis of the passwords hacked from the database were quite surprising and at the same time horrifying. Some highlights were the facts that 2,000 passwords used the word “password” as password; another 3,000 passwords used “123456;” 150,000 passwords consisted of all letters in lowercase; and Nick Denton used a password comprised of all the numbers. Pretty specific, huh?

Whoever had left a comment at any Gawker site may possibly be compromised. In addition, some individuals who used the same password for their different online accounts may likely be compromised too. Reports of social media accounts were uncovered such as Twitter accounts. Therefore, vary your passwords. Do not use only one password for all your online accounts.

Two social networking sites are in very close range with each other, vying for the most coveted spot as to which is better and who’s more popular. They’re two of the biggest names in social media, Facebook and Twitter.

Facebook comprises 78% of traffic among social networking websites, while micro blogging website, Twitter, is accountable for the 5%. However, Twitter’s “tweets” are favored with 19 clicks, as Facebook’s embedded links get three clicks only.

A marketing firm offering social media marketing campaigns had assessed over one million shared links using the Tell-a-Friend widget, which allows people to share any information on sites. SocialTwist determined success rate based on clickthrough rate; meaning, the total number of clicks a particular link gets to take the user to a particular destination. As the survey was conducted, more and more surprising outcome were uncovered. One of which is the fact that MySpace still acquire a 15% market share.

Any social media user must be aware of each site’s pros and cons. Both are highly favorable yet as a user, you should keep in mind your intent and objective for needing such medium. It helps to be aware the specifics of what the sites can and cannot provide to better attain the desired outcome. So here are the pros and cons of both Twitter and Facebook.

Twitter (Pros):

Bloomberg has reported that presently, Twitter has about 165 million users. And with the site’s improved layout, expect the number to rise. The new layout introduced a split-screen/view pane idea to allow users to share photos and videos conveniently. Clearly, Twitter is for the social media savvy. It can be used directly from its website or through a third-party application which offers features such as scheduled tweets, searches, retweets, paneled views or other similar Twitter metrics and identities.

Twitter (Cons):

On the other hand, the downside to Twitter is its similarity to a cocktail party wherein people momentarily gather around to have conversation, or to listen, or to partake any interesting find, and then wander off again not long after. There are also security issues with Twitter, albeit it has been minimized with the revamp. Sometimes, when users opened some unknown URL’s, malware may spread rapidly. This is a tactic planted to spread viruses or to download account data. Lastly, Twitter’s dependability is questionable specifically in reference to its Fail Whale application. Twitter’s Fail Whale icon is popular. Such icon appears to explain or to inform user that Twitter is over capacity or simply down. Although its dependability is now better compared to how it was before, still the site continues to experience hiccups and service outages.

Now let’s tackle Facebook’s cons and pros.

Pros:

Unlike Twitter, Facebook has become rapidly popular with about 600 million users to date. This is not altogether a surprise if you already know that people can do more than just add or search friends in Facebook. You can do more like play games or take quizzes. Certainly, there are lots to do with Facebook in which one can easily waste his or her time on.

Another of Facebook’s advantage is its being dependable. Yes, it experienced outage for 2 and a half hours sometime late last year but it’s really nothing compared to the frequent appearance of Fail Whale by Twitter. And more than anything, Facebook ha a variety of tools which users can access on. These tools include videos, news, quizzes, photos, and links; while Twitter just began offering photos and videos on its site.

Cons:

Admittedly, Facebook’s advantages are also its disadvantages. Like Twitter, it has numerous people from children to moms to grandparents, baby boomers and millennials even. For this reason, business entities may find it arduous to find the right target or market. Still, businesses can be noticed in Facebook but only after a broad campaign and connection through several users, different with Twitter in which it is undoubtedly a more focused medium.

Facebook is said to be more similar to a dormitory rather than a cocktail party. This is so since with twitter, people there are more likely to be interested in the “talk of the hour.” Granting this is true, Facebook may be likened to a college dormitory hallway or a cruise ship lobby where users see each other but don’t become friends instantly until days or weeks after, months even. Thus, Facebook may be a medium to bare one’s sentiments but not the place to make a hard sell, unless of course, your exemplary social media effort takes place.

Now, which one is best to use: Twitter or Facebook? Actually, it does not come as a surprise to find out that people opted for Twitter for their marketing choice since such has more return of investment to offer, other than its more savvy population, fast approach to conversation, less time more exposure approach, and few distractions from countless streams of flowing information.

Indeed, Twitter and Facebook are two different social websites. Therefore, businesses and anyone should be aware that they’ll have to adapt with each site and formulate campaigns fitting to each service’s strengths..

True enough, Facebook isn’t the only search item on the net, yet is surpassed Google as the most visited site in the United States last year, according to an Experian Hitwise report.

It’s the second year for Facebook to top in America’s Internet search list. The term “Facebook” covered 2.11% of the total searches, as Hitwise pointed out. More so, the popular social networking site had its 3 variations into the top 10, namely: www.facebook.com at #9, facebook.com at #6, and facebook login at #2. If combined, these terms accounted the 3.48% slot of all searches, which meant a whooping 207% increase since 2009.

Other search terms who made on the top list include Mapquest, YouTube, Yahoo, MySpace, Craigslist, and eBay. Companies like Netflix, Hulu, ESPN, and Verizon were some of the names that were responsible for the searches. Apart from all that has been mentioned, the term “games” was able to appear in Hitwise’s 50 search terms as well.

But even more surprising is the fast ascent to Hitwise’s number one list for being the most visited site. From January to November of 2010, Facebook was held responsible for 8.93% visits, beating Google at 7.19%; and following the lead were YouTube with 2.56%, Yahoo Mail at 3.52%, and Google at 7.19%. Nevertheless, with Google’s properties combined, Facebook was not able to beat the former’s traffic.

Apparently, only time can tell when Facebook overturns all of Google’s online empire. As per comScore, Facebook in the US increased traffic by 55% last year. Thus, Facebook is on its way to becoming an online magnate greater than Google.

Facebook is one of the social media websites which popularity has far exceeded other networking websites. With about 600 million users, Facebook is a name that’s yet to boot. If you plot the social connections of Facebook users based on their location, you will then unravel a world map of social inter-relationships, just as an engineer of Facebook did. Yet, the data was not gap-proof, but still the result was amazing, showing a picture of a socially connected world. And though the data which Paul Butler, an intern at Facebook, visualized has gaps at particular areas wherein the social networking site is blocked or wherein major competitors are in, such as China. But all in all, the picture was an amazing sight as you can see below.

Paul Butler’s interactive world map of Facebook’s social connections… View high-res (3.8MB)

Butler started with his discovery by taking samples of Facebook users from the site’s data warehouse. After which, he combined the gathered data with each user’s location, added the number of friends in between each cities and immersed with the latitude and longitude of each city. To come up with a more visible data, Butler “defined weights” for every coupled city which served as the Euclidean distance between each location and the number of friends in between.

Butler admitted to being surprised with what he saw. What started out as a mass of data eventually turned out to be an outstanding map of the world, to which, continents were not the only ones apparent but international borders were seen as well. On top of this all, what struck as marvelous to Paul Butler was the fact that the lines didn’t represent political borders, rivers or seas, but real social human relationships.

So where’s this data now? Deleted. Pretty much similar to what an outside programmer, Peter Warden, did before. Warden gathered millions of profiles and analyzed them to discern connections between states and countries, and from those connections, he was able to come up with interactive maps. However, Facebook denounced to file a lawsuit for scraping users’ profiles was a violation to their terms of service. Hence, Warden was left with no choice but to obliterate the data.

Social Media Marketing and Social Media have become renowned for the last couple of years.  Popular sites like Digg, Twitter and Facebook are all accountable for the growing fame of social media.

The social networking sites use contents produced by users, allowing the latter to establish networks.  Facebook and MySpace allow users to create their own profiles using embellishments like pictures and videos, and texts.  The users can then share or show their profiles to their network of friends or to their social network.  Meanwhile, Flickr, Digg, and YouTube let their users tender pictures, news articles and videos respectively, while at the same time, users can vote for the contents submitted by the other people from the network.  If content is liked by many, it gets to be featured on the sites’ homepage, an act which is likely to carry on a great number of visitors to your website.

Social marketing is characterized as making use of social networking sites to promote websites, products or services.  Permitting contents to be popular in social media sites attract two primary classifications of traffic: direct or primary traffic and indirect or secondary traffic.

Primary Traffic

Primary traffic refers to the traffic that is directly generated by the site.  Take note that once your content becomes overly popular on social site such as Digg, be prepared not to crash as you may probably take in a high surge of traffic flow.

Secondary Traffic

Secondary traffic is indirectly gained from individuals who read about your website from blogs or other social media site which bear links towards your site.  This kind of traffic is bound to last longer as compared to primary traffic.

These two classifications of online traffic are both beneficial, although indifferently.  The primary traffic paves way for people to know about your site.  Later on, these visitors are likely to become regulars if you can provide them with something admirable and inviting, and as long as you regularly update your contents.  On the other hand, secondary traffic provides links from people who have been discussing about your site.  Such natural links benefit your rankings from search engines and also develop organic traffic.

Social media is a brilliant means to let people know and notice your site.  Social media marketing keeps you going especially in times of traffic humps.  Making use of such favors you with increased traffic all throughout without spending a dime.

Among the popular social online communities at present are Facebook and MySpace. Such are wonderful places to meet and make friends, as well as track and reconnect with the old ones. Also, a unanimous agreement has it that these social media websites have significant marketing value that’s influential enough to promote your business.

Majority of these social media sites are not into the conventional manner of advertising. Admit it, you too don’t like to be harassed by tile advertisements and pop up messages especially when you are chatting with some friends or checking your email. Generally, social media websites do not confer advertising spaces for they can’t risk losing visitors, the sure indicator of their popularity.

So what is really the key to winning the social media marathon? Well, be a member! Be part of the group. Interact. You share tips, give valuable feedbacks and take part in forums. You may as well post videos which you think will perk up the interests of other community members. And in all your postings, do not forget to include your name or your business’ name, event and a link to your site. Subtle advertisement is the key actually.

Instead of being too obvious or too loud, start telling your friends about the latest. And then, post related photos or write significant articles about your event, products or service. Before you know it, more and more people will be aware of your online venture as a friend relays the information to another. If the chain goes unbroken, then you are likely to get the publicity that you are aiming for to prosper in the field.

Theoretically though, it looks easy. The truth is, it can be quite a challenge. Breaking through a tight community can be tough without appearing like a salesperson or a spammer. But you have to believe that with the right approach, marketing through social media is inexpensive and efficient in winning your publicity needs.

Networking has become wildly popular in today’s time.  It is an impressive means for professionals to build relationships among each other with the core intention of growing their business, developing entrepreneurial skills, branding themselves in their profession or their field, and tapping resources.  Businessmen can conveniently network through their organizations, clubs, associations, jobs, and presently online.  Online networking or Internet networking is just as efficient as the typical networking approach.  In fact, the former proves to have more boons for both social and professional success.

With the extensive coverage of the Internet, networking online proves to be an outstanding means that entrepreneurs must take into account to uplift their business ventures.  There are few very good reasons why you should target and connect on the top business networking sites available.  For one, online networking diversifies and increases your network.  No question, it aids in making you highly accessible to anyone and everyone.  Without the need for any validation, networking online breaks any geographical and time boundaries, and it is not only effective but also a cost-friendly marketing tool.

However, when you take part in any network marketing scheme, it will do great for you if you know your market very well.  Therefore, you should know who your customers are or your target audience and clientele.  Like for instance, your products are suitable for the young group or the teenagers, so take the time to find out and locate where teenagers usually hang out.  This way, you will be guided where to go.  You are not necessarily asked to talk to each one of them.  Instead, observe and pay attention to them and see how they behave.  Also, try to be in their shoes to get a better idea on what they need and want.

Moreover, online interaction with your target market is another beneficial way to know more about them.  You may post some form of questionnaire for your readers to answer.  It may composed of questions about their likes or dislikes, or the things that interest them, or factors which they consider as their preferences in buying products such as yours.

So again, in online and network marketing, keep in mind that you are in search of individuals whom you can sell your products to.  Thus, it is essential that you know who and where to look for these people.  But it’s not enough to be able to classify them, but you have to reach out to them as well.  Make use of trustworthy networking sites on the web to accomplish you goal.  Connecting on such sites will prove to be a brilliant move for you as it paves the way to greater success for your business.

Establishing an online account on any social network is a big leap itself. The time alone allocated for this is no joke. You need to constantly update your account, as well as link it to the main site. But once you have it started, you will then be associated directly with the primary website utilized to offer the products and services. Hence, an unsuccessful social networking account is quite scary. But you have your options and there are ways to make it work.

To help you establish a social account for your business, you may take the honest shortcut. By this, you will need backlink companies and freelance writers. Both can create a fitting business account for you and regularly update it. Updates may be through articles, rss feeds, press releases, microblogs and blogs depending on what social network is used.

Several rules are to be observed when setting up a business account on a social network. If you are using a variety of social sites, each of the accounts must use only one name, or that each should be the same. Doing so helps putting a name of yourself or your business. In other words, it brands your business all through social channels. And do not forget to apply easy-to-remember account name. Also the kind that is easy to spell. Apparently, a less complicated name is easier to remember.

Moreover, smaller networks which center on similar niche as yours may also serve as excellent niche. Although most of these popular networks aren’t niche-related, there are indeed smaller social networks which offer traffic from individuals who are in search of a particular piece of information. Just browse through the web and you will find appropriate niche of social networks.

Social networks provide potential hits. A personal account is not a very good idea to promote your business. If you want a sure way to do it, go for social networks. You can take your pick from the plethora of choices. The most commonly heard these days are Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, to mention a few.