Information vs. Community: Determining the Direction of Your Social Media Presence

Do all these funny-sounding social media sites cross your eyes? You need help sorting the tweets from the buzzes! Spider Writers can develop a sound social media marketing plan that brings followers to your profiles, and your business. Contact us today at 757-499-1990, ext. 104 for a free consultation.

As long as marketing exists, so word of mouth will remain the most proven method for promoting products and services. With social networks, the odds of good buzz are amplified through tweets, Yelp reviews, Digg clicks, and even the simplest of social status updates. If you want people to talk about your business, you know your presence online has to give them something for discussion. Yet with the structure of some networks – some of which allow for message board style conversation – and the ability for companies to set up their own social hubs independent of major networks, there comes the question of how to approach your social activity. Do you maintain the lines of information and keep personal op/ed at a distance, using Twitter and Facebook for link sharing, or do you foster a full-blown community and give visitors a new place to call home?

It’s been said that the majority of Twitter users, for example, can be classified into two groups: the “me-formers” and the “informers.” Me-formers talk about themselves: what they watch, what they eat, what they listen to, and keep the focus on their own activity. A me-former interesting enough to attract a following beyond immediate friends and family can prove valuable for a marketer looking to nurture word of mouth. The Informer, by contrast, acts as a news wire, constantly tweeting links to other sites with news on anything relevant and timely. You might see the Informer’s timeline feature information on where to send donations for earthquake relief, or link to celebrity obits, or retweet breaking news from official media accounts. Why would anybody follow an impersonal Informer? If that person is prolific, it may beat following fifty different accounts when one does all the work.

As you build your online networks, it’s important to determine how to present yourself to a potential following. The nature of business may make this decision easier, whether you choose for your profiles to serve as a means of simply relaying sales information or events, or if you would prefer to engage others in conversation and obtain feedback for products and services. If the latter, there is the possibility MySpace, Facebook, or Twitter may not sustain what you wish to accomplish. It would seem logical to encourage greater participation through a message board, and free software is plentiful for that purpose, but a forum can limit how members wish to express themselves. For better control of the way you business socializes, you may wish to pursue customized networking.

Depending on your budget, there are options suited to the pricing you wish to pay. Ning.com is perhaps one of the better known DIY social networks, which allows you to set up your own page to your specifications. You can input RSS feeds and your YouTube Channel, and users can join your Ning channel while also setting up their own profile pages and moving elsewhere through Ning sites. Ning can be useful for those who wish to collect their minor social presences in one place for visitors to access, and discuss.

The developer-minded business may wish also to explore more advanced options in this realm. Social network development sites like KickApps and SocialGo offer paid solutions in this realm, which permit integration of other social sites. One advantage to the custom network is that you can actively track opt-in members and encourage the level of interaction you desire. While Facebook fan pages offer similar benefits of fan interaction through wall posts and photo sharing, that your page is but one of thousands on the network may dilute fan interaction due to the amount of competition for attention you face. With Ning and others, though there are other sites connected to Ning, the focus tends to remain on your site.

To maximize your social media presence, determine first how you intend to use your online networks, and build accordingly. Custom social networks may work if you wish to raise awareness of your products and services through active discussion.

Kathryn Lively is a social media specialist assisting clients with social media optimization and travel social media services. Clients include Gainesville hotels, European hotels, and Virginia web design
firms.

Variety in Social Media Marketing Keeps Followers Interested

Do all these funny-sounding social media sites cross your eyes? You need help sorting the tweets from the buzzes! Spider Writers can develop a sound social media marketing plan that brings followers to your profiles, and your business. Contact us today at 757-499-1990, ext. 104 for a free consultation.

I hadn’t intended to write yet another article weighing the pros and cons of tying all social networks together to distribute the same information to different channels, but after reading MediaBistro’s article on the why it’s better not to update networks via auto-feeds, I realize this is still a topic that needs to be addressed. If you are serious about social marketing, you have the Twitter feed, the Facebook fan page, and probably now the Google Buzz attached to your GMail. A click of the mouse will integrate each with the others, plus you can add all three RSS feeds into your FriendFeed account for added exposure.

As the Media Bistro article intimates, however, somebody who keeps track of you via all social outlets may tire of seeing the same information everywhere he goes. Of course, one must consider that one’s Twitter readership may sorely outnumber the Facebook, or vice versa, and therefore an important tidbit shared in one place could be missed by the larger audience.

Are auto-feeds worth the risk of losing readership, especially if one estimates a person willing to track all of your social profiles is apt to patronize your business? Do you risk less conversion, or even neglect of a particular profile, if you pull the system apart?

Adding Variety to Your Social Marketing

It’s said in advertising that a consumer usually sees a product or service 5-7 times before making a decision to buy. So it is with eCommerce, where people bounce off and on a site for days while they discern if the company is worth their spending dollar. As I peruse Twitter, I find it’s not uncommon to see the same tweets recycled by certain account every several days. In theory it is probably a good practice, as I find the Twitter clients I use don’t necessarily catch every post added to my follow feed. When marketing to especially busy people, too, it never hurts to send reminders.

If you are concerned about alienating current and potential fans, there are methods to market that can help retain your sanity without forcing you to log into every single profile you own to make updates. As you map out your strategy, you have the opportunity to present the variety multi-account followers crave without skimping on information that needs to be widely broadcast.

Limit what social networks are connected: rather than link your Twitter to everything, choose what feeds into it. If you want to emphasize your presence on Facebook more, connect those two and leave your blog/RSS free. For times you want to really promote a blog post, do occasional manual Twitter udpates.

Make use of widgets: Rather than blast the same information to all networks, create a home base for visitors to check all of your profiles. Set up your blog sidebar with various widgets for Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, etc. As you attract readers, you can keep them on longer with the different information you provide there.

Use different profiles to emphasize different aspects of your business: For the multi-faceted company, experiment by assigning different branches of the business their own social network. Build a focus that attracts visitors and gradually promote your other interests through occasional cross-promotion.

Connecting all of your profiles provides ease of use, but only you can determine its effectiveness. Don’t be afraid to unlink chains on occasion to test analytics, and watch activity across the board to see what visitors prefer.

Kathryn Lively is a social media specialist assisting clients with social media optimization and travel social media services. Clients include Gainesville hotels, European hotels, and Virginia web design firms.

In Social Media, Who Owns the Name?

Do all these funny-sounding social media sites cross your eyes? You need help sorting the tweets from the buzzes! Spider Writers can develop a sound social media marketing plan that brings followers to your profiles, and your business. Contact us today at 757-499-1990, ext. 104 for a free consultation.

If you follow Mashable on Google Buzz, you’ve already seen the note on the recent flap with restaurant chain Denny’s and Twitter. Due to a printing, or perhaps marketing, error, Denny’s dine-in menus nationwide have the incorrect Twitter address printed on them. Where the eatery chain currently manages two official accounts at DennysAllNightr and DennysGrandSlam, the Twitter account listed (@Dennys) belongs to somebody in Taiwan. While the account had been dormant for several months, its owner has recently started tweeting again, and the powers that be at Denny’s are hoping to claim the account from Twitter rather than spend the money to have thousands of menus reprinted.

Reading the train of comments in Mashable’s Buzz thread on this topic, one might wonder if it will cost more for Denny’s to get the prized Twitter handle. “He (@Dennys) should be able to sell it,” comments one follower, while others joke about the restaurant trading the account for free breakfast for life (for the record, Taiwan has no Denny’s locations; the closest this guy will have to travel is New Zealand for free pancakes).

This brings up an interesting point, and an inevitability a business may have to face with regards to social media. In years past people have debated over the purchasing of specific domain names and the legality and ethics of claiming a trademarked name – you might recall the row caused a decade ago when Archie Comics threatened to sue the parents of a young girl named Veronica, the subject of a site at  www.veronica.org. The suit was later dropped, and the site no longer exists. These days, “cybersquatting” is defined as the act of intentionally purchasing a domain name with a trademarked name in order to capitalize on its sale. While Veronica’s parents hadn’t set out to extort money (it’s said they didn’t realize Archie Comics had trademarked the name), this legislation has arguably discouraged mass spends on URLs.

The Denny’s situation may give rise to a new breed of squatters, as people claim Twitter handles and Facebook vanity URLs of known brands. Could “social-squatting” become a new term and a new headache for companies to deal with? When somebody registers for a Twitter account, who ultimately has the right to decide if the owner should part with the name – the owner or Twitter? Can or should one be able to sell the rights to a Twitter handle?

When one considers the ease of which one can apply for a Twitter account, the ability to claim a trademarked name can happen in seconds. Presently, Twitter offers no alert system for refusing applicants who pick trademarks for their user names. Looking at my desk, I have products by Blue Diamond almonds, Revolution Tea, and Splenda. Checking @BlueDiamond reveals that handle is not being used, @splenda is taken, as is @revolutiontea, but apparently not by the company. Right here two companies are unable to tweet through their brands.

What does this mean for the small business integrating social media into marketing? For one, it’s important to lay claim to your brands in these networks before somebody else does. Especially if you have a recognizable name, people will search for you online, and with blended results Twitter account and other networks will show, so have your bases covered. If somebody has beaten you to the punch, it’s up to you to decide how badly you want your name, and hope the current owner isn’t wondering about the size of your wallet.

Kathryn Lively is a social media specialist assisting clients with social media optimization and travel social media services. Clients include Gainesville hotels, European hotels, and Virginia web design firms.

Is Your Social Media Agency Working For You?

Do all these funny-sounding social media sites cross your eyes? You need help sorting the tweets from the buzzes! Spider Writers can develop a sound social media marketing plan that brings followers to your profiles, and your business. Contact us today at 757-499-1990, ext. 104 for a free consultation.

The decision to hire a firm specializing in social media marketing, over handling your network profiles in-house, can prove beneficial depending on your budget and available manpower. While you are apt to promote your products and services through traditional means (print, radio/TV, and even pay per click models), social media engagement requires a level of communication that doesn’t always come naturally.

Some who are just learning their way around Twitter and Facebook may not feel comfortable taking on the challenge of attracting fans and followers, and as one hires an agency to handle print and broadcast campaigns, it’s natural to hand over social networking to a firm that better understands how it works. That said, you want to be certain the agency you hire is the best one to represent you and your brand.

If you choose to outsource people to monitor and update your network profiles, don’t hand them the keys to all the castle’s minor forts and assume all is well. For every post, tweet, and video upload made, visitors see only you, not the firm working in the background. Take the time to study your profiles as any visitor would view them, and put your firm to the test.

Facing Negative Feedback: Watch your Facebook fan page closely. Are fans allowed to post to the wall, and add photos and reviews? Has your agency restricted fan participation in any way? Do they delete negative remarks rather than leave them up for you to address?

If you plan a Facebook page for your brand, it’s vital to establish the page within your company first before handing the reins over to an SMO firm. When you set up the page, you are listed as the primary admin, meaning you have the ability to add and remove administrators and cancel the page altogether. Do not give this control to somebody outside your company, and as your Facebook presence grows be sure to monitor how your agents react to posts and represent you in updates they share.

Test Response Time: One aspect of social media businesses and others with products/service to promote find valuable is the ability to offer real-time commentary. With most social networks, response time is key in keeping readers updated and interested. As you monitor your brand name in social search, you might find Twitter users especially address you with an “@” reply. Note the timestamp of each missive sent to your account, then track how quickly your agency responds. Do questions, comments, and complaints go ignored? Is that fact noticed by other social users?

As quickly as people can access their accounts – laptops, smart phones, etc. – the manner in which your SMO agency should respond must reflect a timely presence. Otherwise, visitors are likely to accept your social networks as another means of distributing press releases.

Socializing Outside the Box: Thanks to RSS capability, one can integrate social profiles into a number of places. A good SMO agency is always abreast of new developments in social media. You need to ask yourself: how proactive is my agency in getting my brand out there? Are they looking into new networks for possible integration, or are they wasting time signing you up for things you don’t really need? When it comes to analytics, is your agency more concerned about cramming as many bodies into a box as possible rather than concentrating on an audience that is actually interested in your services? It’s easy to get thousands of Twitter followers, if you track down people who auto-follow just for the purpose of being seen, but if you want to maintain genuine interest it’s better to grow an audience naturally. A reputable SMO firm will know this.

As you invest the time in building your social presence, spend some of it watching those who tweet and post on your behalf. The face you present to the world is one that can be shared easily and quickly now, make it a good one.

Kathryn Lively is a social media specialist assisting clients with social media optimization and travel social media services. Clients include Gainesville hotels, European hotels, and Virginia web design firms.

Breaking the Wall: Taking Social Engagement to New Levels

Do all these funny-sounding social media sites cross your eyes? You need help sorting the tweets from the buzzes! Spider Writers can develop a sound social media marketing plan that brings followers to your profiles, and your business. Contact us today at 757-499-1990, ext. 104 for a free consultation.

The challenge in making social networks like Twitter and Facebook useful in your marketing strategy is finding the audience you need for them to remain effective. One might wonder why it’s necessary to devote time tweeting links and information to a handful of followers, when their main website pulls in a healthy amount of traffic through organic or paid search. While it’s difficult to argue with hard numbers, you must also consider this: how much revenue is generated from the search traffic as opposed to referrals from social networks?

Say you were able to track fifty people coming in from search, all of whom stayed on your site for a few minutes to browse before jumping off without clicking through to a conversion. Now think about the ten or so people following your Twitter or Facebook page. If just four of them came to your site via a tweet or social post and went on to contact you or buy something, one can argue the social media is more effective. Four conversions among a small following could be far better than zero leads in a larger crowd elsewhere, and though it’s certain you have no plans to cast aside traditional SEO and PPC efforts in favor of courting this social minority, such a case study will undoubtedly encourage you to take your social marketing to another level.

Making the Breakthrough: Sorting Wheat From Chaff

The established business or organization with an existing opt-in mailing list or blog following may have it easy when it comes to encouraging the masses to move over to Twitter or Facebook. The more options you provide for obtaining information, the stronger your online presence grows. The start-up, however, may encounter roadblocks. What have you to offer anybody in terms of relevant, twittered news, and why should anybody become your fan on Facebook? Why does anybody need to add you to their already bulging list of auto-buys?

Incentive: Think of something you can offer strictly to those who obtain updates via social media. You could offer free samples or deep discounts to visitors who join, and regularly provide unique information not made available on site or in newsletters.

Interaction: With Facebook in particular, fans have the opportunity to share photos and wall conversations about your products, services, and events. One Southern US department of tourism, for example, holds monthly photo contests among its followers and encourages the participation.

Personalization: Because social media encourages real-time interaction, social users may be more inclined to follow a profile if they believe they will receive support in a timely fashion. All you need to do is provide it. Engage people through social networks, and you may find you attract genuine followers rather than SPAM accounts – as people respond via Twitter, their friends will see the replies, and Facebook users will see the notifications on their friends’ feeds. Increased participation makes for good viral promotion.

Kathryn Lively is a social media specialist assisting clients with social media optimization and travel social media services. Clients include Gainesville hotels, European hotels, and Virginia web design firms.

Choosing and Changing Social Media Handles: What is Best for Your Visibility?

Do all these funny-sounding social media sites cross your eyes? You need help sorting the tweets from the buzzes! Spider Writers can develop a sound social media marketing plan that brings followers to your profiles, and your business. Contact us today at 757-499-1990, ext. 104 for a free consultation.

In reading blogs by and interview transcripts with editors and literary agents, one thing I’ve learned about the submission process is that your immediate impression can truly affect the way somebody approaches your query, sometimes even before it’s read. These days, editors and publishers eschew physical mail, preferring to accept novels and non-fiction via e-mail attachments. If you are serious about pursuing a career in, say, penning volumes of academic criticism or political history, you may wish to think twice about sending it from an e-mail handle like “mewanttwinkies”.

The beauty of signing up for e-mail, Twitter, and even social networks like MySpace and Facebook is that you have the opportunity to sign off under a name different from yours. Some of us may not be pleased with being named for a dead uncle or a long-lost high school BFF, but in the Internet world you can create your own personality through your chosen handle. Depending on your industry, you can incorporate your line of work into your nicknames (VirginiaRoofer, InjuryLawyer, etc.), giving visitors a better idea of who you are and what to expect if your handle is found in search.

However, talking with other professionals about social media handles has brought up more than once the question of which names to use to promote products and services. If your brand is not as recognizable as that of a national fast food chain or global insurance or banking corporation, is it more valuable to use the brand name in vanity URLs and handles for Google Buzz and elsewhere, or should one maintain a personal profile and integrate your company’s PR with a more “human” touch?

One example where the face of the CEO is put before the company on social media is growing digital publisher/distribution hub Smashwords. Where Smashwords does have a Twitter account under its own name, it is largely inactive, and visitors are encouraged to follow the company’s founder, Mark Coker. Through his personal account, Coker hypes new innovations at Smashwords while also providing commentary and updates on the publishing industry as they relate to eBooks, digital rights management, and other topics. In a way, one can argue Coker has set himself up as a brand, close enough to Smashwords to build the company, yet far enough away to establish himself independently as an expert in the field. That Coker keeps the inactive @Smashwords account up, with a prominent note to join him at @MarkCoker, connects himself with the brand, while also keeping Smashwords visible in Twitter search.

Now, let’s say you have an established Twitter account, a good number of followers, and an informative feed worthy of archive. Perhaps, you feel, you’ve initially chosen the wrong handle for your network profile’s purpose, and wish to change. If you do so, you won’t lose the followers you have, but the handle switch will require you to edit inbound links to your account, and if others have you listed they will need to do the same. You run the risk, too, of alienating present followers who might not be aware of the switch and wonder how they came to follow this “strange” account.

On the other hand, if you choose to change your Twitter handle to something more relevant to your work you might find followers sign up to read your feed at a greater pace than before because they recognize the brand you now display.

If you are serious about integrating social into your marketing strategy, it’s wise to decide on user names before signing on to anything. The less changes you need to make in your campaigns mean less headaches down the road.

Kathryn Lively is a social media specialist assisting clients with social media optimization and travel social media services. Clients include Gainesville hotels, European hotels, and Virginia web design firms.

Four Niche Networks You Aren’t Using for Promotion, But Should

Do all these funny-sounding social media sites cross your eyes? You need help sorting the tweets from the buzzes! Spider Writers can develop a sound social media marketing plan that brings followers to your profiles, and your business. Contact us today at 757-499-1990, ext. 104 for a free consultation.

It’s easy to get sucked into a new site or game – it’s one reason many people I know (including me) avoid Farmville and Mafia Wars on Facebook. While the temptation to play along with friends and have a bit of fun appeals to the procrastinating child in me, the idea of succumbing to a game and thinking of nothing else will hardly do wonders for my word count, and my paycheck. Other social network sites, while equally addictive, do stand to offer some benefit in the way of promotion and actual networking with interested connections, and some provide enough entertainment that one might forget his true purpose for signing on

One can use Facebook and Twitter and know that micro-blog posts on products and services should be made, and that the fan pages need updating, but what about lesser known sites where you have accounts, or should have a presence? On the outset, many social media sites may not appear to have potential for marketing, but if you know how to approach people who find you online, you may find you can have your fun and guide others toward what you have to offer without coming on like a hard sell. Depending on your industry – retail or B2B, hospitality and travel or other professional services – you can provide valuable information to those who seek it.

Let’s take a look at four social sites, each used for a different purpose, to see how they can assist in your online marketing.

Foodbuzz: For close to four years, chefs and foodies alike have used this tasty social network to share recipes and recommend meat and veg pairings, as well as recommend favorite restaurants. For those working in the food/hospitality industry, a profile on Foodbuzz presents a great opportunity to share house recipes and interact with people who have reviewed your establishment. Foodbuzz puts you in touch with some of the more prolific food bloggers around, allowing for possible further promotion. Posts to Foodbuzz may also integrate with Twitter to increase marketing potential and bring food-serious folks to your Foodbuzz profile, and consequently to your main site.

43 Things: Made your bucket list yet? 43 Things makes it a bit more manageable for you. Not only can you list the requisite number of things you want to accomplish in a year, or within your lifetime, you can connect with people who have either done it or want to. If you’re an editor, you might wish to look for people who dream of writing that novel, while those in the travel/tourism industry may be able to guide wannabe world travelers to good discounts on hotels and airfare to kickstart their dreams. Include your own goal list and get to know the people you can help, and who can help you in return.

43 Places: From the people who brought you 43 Things, this network narrows the niche even further by focusing solely on travel and information/photo sharing. A site like this can prove beneficial for anybody who thrives on tourist business – the beachside cafe, the bed and breakfast inn, the specialized tour operator. Research people interested in your area and act as the local expert – provide suggested itineraries and tips for travel to your region while reminding them of what you offer.

Yelp: Yelp is perhaps the best known of these listed here, and likely one you might have on your smart phone for instant consultation. While one vaguely familiar with the site might think it’s solely dedicated to restaurant reviews, Yelp actually provided customer-based opinions on a variety of businesses, everything from retail boutiques to hotels. If you own a business, chances are you have a listing here you need to unlock and enhance. Take the initiative to add photos to your listing and respond to reviews, good or bad. Also, say you operate a hotel or B&B, you can use Yelp to create a database of recommended services around you, then use Yelp’s widget function to keep the information on your main site. Visitors will then see you have more to offer them when they come to your town.

Above all else when entering the social media fray: be courteous and knowledgeable, and don’t allow hard advertisement of your business overshadow the social nature of these sites. Let your personality shine through these social networks to attract followers, and business.

Kathryn Lively is a social media specialist assisting clients with social media optimization and travel social media services. Clients include Gainesville hotels, European hotels, and Virginia web design firms.

Breaking Down the (Google) Buzz, or Do I Really Need This?

Need help taking the guesswork out of Google Buzz and other social sites? SpiderWriters assists businesses and non-profits with proper social media marketing via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and now Google Buzz. Contact us today at 757-499-1990, ext. 104 for a free consultation.

What’s the best way to annoy a novice social media marketer? Introduce one more thing for them to master. In this line of work, one may spend hours upon hours training an entrepreneur or marketing manager to learn the finer points of building and maintaining social profiles in order to achieve high online visibility and, one hopes, an increased customer/client base. With many business owners we encounter, many are peripheral users of Facebook and Twitter – they know these sites exist, and maybe have logged once or twice, but they do understand their importance in new media marketing and work to utilize them correctly.

Of course, in the Internet world, things move forward. Just when you think you’ve learned everything you need to know, along comes something like Google Buzz and you’re a student all over again. If you missed all the “buzz”, for lack of a more original term, about Google’s latest social networking venture, Google Buzz is poised to compete with the likes of Twitter and similar micro-blogging platforms while allowing for integration. Right now, it appears Buzz is designed to accept feeds from your Twitter, Flickr, and blog accounts, and tech folks are working furiously to add Google Buzz buttons and tools to their blogs (ClickOnf5.org has a Wordpress plug-in ready to go) while everybody else settles in to determine if signing on to one more social network is worth the time invested.

If you already use GMail for business or personal correspondence, you have the advantage of a quicker setup than others who aren’t registered. As you initialize activity and explore your options with Buzz, you may find you aren’t immediately deluged with followers. That’s okay – very likely when you signed on to Twitter and Facebook that wasn’t the case either – but with Buzz you do have the added advantage of possible connections with your current Google mail contacts. As each of them sign on to Buzz, you stand a chance of building a following in a more timely fashion.

How does Google Buzz work? Basically, once configured a colorful icon appears under your Inbox link in GMail. Clicking through takes you to a feed of posts by the people you follow, with a status box above for you to post news, links, etc. Clicking on the Connected Sites option allows you to integrate your Twitter, Picasa, and other select accounts into Buzz, so every time you tweet or post a photo it shows in your feed. If you have not already configured your Google profile, it’s best to do so now if you want to maximize the benefits of Google Buzz.

In your profile, you can offer as much information about yourself as you wish, everything from a spiffy avatar to work contact information to little known revelations about yourself like your personal “superpower” (mine is thinking of a particular song, then turning on the radio to hear it playing). You can also add links to every single website and social profile you own, and truly create the virtual calling card. Once that’s complete, you will have another URL to display with the rest of your social profiles (marked as http://www.google.com/profiles/[your GMail ID here]) and since it’s also available in a feed you can implement the RSS into a blog, your Twitter account, or create a handy widget for display online.

Do you need Google Buzz? Will it become a force in social interaction, or just one more thing that spikes in the first month of use before the novelty fades? Critics have already said their peace on the platform, calling it “too little too late” when Yahoo has had something similar out for a while. Nonetheless, as Google shows no signs of fading there may be something in Buzz that’s of use to your social marketing strategy. Depending on your existing number of contacts through mail or Google Friend Connect, Buzz may make updating to this set audience easier, and in turn go viral to bring more followers.

For now, integrate what you have active into the system. The more you “buzz” around, especially as the overall network of users grows, you might find it’s worth adding to your marketing schedules.

Kathryn Lively is a social media specialist assisting clients with social media writing and travel social media services. Clients include Gainesville hotels, European hotels, and Virginia web design firms.

The Buzz on Google Buzz

Google makes headlines once again with the rollout of Google Buzz, a social platform design to integrate various networks like Picasa and Twitter into your GMail account for easier data sharing. Apparently some accounts are already cleared for takeoff, but if you don’t see it available yet when you log on, have patience. Google certainly won’t leave you out.

Naturally, the Internet world is “abuzz.” Here are a few links with all the details.

Twitter: Google Buzz trending

Mashable: Google Goes Social with Google Buzz

PCWorld: GMail Goes Social with Google Buzz

What’s It Worth to You? The Free Model Versus Subscriptions

Miss the sixth season premiere of Lost? No worries, you can still go to Hulu and download parts one and two for free. For now, anyway. Recent news of Hulu’s contemplation of a paid subscription model has viewers wondering how much longer the free ride will last. While nothing is set in stone yet, the move to pay-per-play may allow Hulu to expand its reach and functionality even more than is presently enjoys. While Hulu reports more than a billion views of videos they house in December, 2009, visitors are limited to how they can be watched. YouTube offers applications for smart phones, and video rental giant Netflix permits streams downloaded only to play on televisions, while Hulu offers neither amenity. Speculation remains that revenue from paid subscriptions will change that, but it also begs the question: is it worth paying for?

Where free content versus paid is concerned, you’re likely to hear two schools of thought: 1) What you have to offer isn’t worth anything unless you charge for it; and 2) If you expect to make money in any business, you have to “give it away.” I know authors who devote time to crafting sample stories for distribution to entice readers to buy their backlists, and it’s common for ministries to offer gifts like rosaries, books and calendars in the hope that the investment will return with donations. One might look at such small tokens as promotional material that can’t compare to, say, free unlimited streaming of movies or entire digital novels to download, and therefore conclude “freebies” aren’t very profitable.

However, assuming sites like Hulu move to a pay model, will it inspire greater piracy of data? With the rise in Kindle and eBook reader usage, it appears book piracy has risen steadily along with it, leaving some publishers skittish about releasing digital formats for fear of losing royalties (not that it really matters, for it’s been proven that solely print books have made it to the Web for eager hands to grab).

Is there value in giving away information as opposed to charging it? Would you be tempted to go elsewhere for content to avoid a monthly subscription? Would you prefer to subscribe to a trusted brand with mediocre content rather than a little-known entity with a better offering? Has there been an instance where offering free content has boosted your revenue? We’d like to hear about it!