Are you using social media in your advantage? We may feel a certain level of discomfort at first, but as we push through we will be able to get a lot of valuable comments and ideas on how to better ourselves and the product we are offering. People are going to write whatever they want on your “wall”, but, often rewards await those who push through the discomfort of the unknown. Push through the discomfort and use everything in your advantage. Building trust with your customer base doesn’t come easy – each day is a step forward towards a successful product.

It seems the creator of the Facebook is not a fan of the recently released movie “The Social Network”. Many were curious to know if the new social network movie was in fact reality, or “Hollywood”? According to the Yahoo movie blog, Mark Zuckerburg, does not agree with a lot of what the movie depicts about his famous social networking site. One major thing that seems to be depicted wrong was the fact that the movie inferred that Facebook was created out of anger for being dumped by a girl, and that was not in fact the case.
Seen the movie??? What do you think? Thumbs up, or thumbs down?

We have all spent a nice amount of time on YouTube enjoying some videos made by people like you and I. Somehow some of these videos make it into the spotlight and get national attention. The good news for these sorts of filmmakers is that they might be eligible to receive cash from the famous video site. News reports are stating there might be some monetary motivation to create some great videos for YouTube. It seems that if your video is “likable”, then the peeps over at YouTube could reach out to you to discuss being paid for your video. This is in an effort to help motivate video makers to create a better quality video for their website. Good move or something that will just create some craziness amongst video makers?

We know YouTube is a great place to market yourself, your company, or simply have fun. Enjoy Leadpile’s YouTube videos!

Many of us can’t wait to put our next Twitter update, Facebook status change, or access our email outside/inside of work. However, with this accessibility to our personal internet “pleasures”, IT managers are looking at potential problems with how our nation’s employees are creating “issues” with the company’s security. Does accessing our Facebook accounts and other social media put the company you are working for at jeopardy of bugs and viruses? Its seems the answer is yes.
Internetnews.com is reporting, “The security implications of these devices cannot be overstated. Between bugs in the operating system software for smartphones to complex phishing and malware scams birthed and proliferated on Facebook and Twitter, CIOs are constantly playing catch up as employees continue to bring more and more devices and risk into the enterprise. ”

So how does our IT departments manage all of their employees desire to “stay connected”? Sounds like a new project our IT managers might want to consider because it does not seem that this sort of thing is going to go away anytime soon.

Many companies use social media to generate more clients (consumers), however b2b companies are seeing that there might be some benefits with social media. Tweeting and posting status updates is a way of life with most consumers these days, however actual businesses online and “tweeting” is not necessarily as popular. Some are looking at maybe incorporating social media as a way to generate potential leads for their business. That being getting more consumers to their business or even trying to attract other businesses to their services. Companies like Dell target consumers, but now are looking at using social media to attract other businesses to utilize their products and services. This is something that many would not consider in previous years, however many are seeing that there could be some opportunity with social media. DMNews is reporting that places such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn can also be a source for business to generate leads. So I guess if you are a business looking for more clients you might want to look at setting up accounts with Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn soon, rather than later!

Leadpile is working with some b2b lead types and believes that there are ways that businesses can also look to the internet as a source of leads.

You would have to be in a hole if you did not hear the catastrophic disaster going on in the Gulf of Mexico. Two months ago an oil rig had an explosion that has since caused the worst oil spill ever! The company in the middle of this disaster is BP Global. BP is the third largest energy company, however it seems that this disaster has not prompted BP to turn to one of the biggest potential allies it could have: social networking sites. Why is that? With the number of people these social networking sites can reach, why would you not incorporate some sort of PR campaign through the internet?

Unfortunately, what seems to have happened is those on sites such as Twitter and Facebook have created BP bashing posts that have ultimately hurt BP even more that what this disaster has caused them financially. The question is should companies that are going through large “reputation killers” look to social media as a way to help their image? It seems that the public does think so because many appear to be upset that this company has not even made an effort to recover their image.
BP… might want to look to Facebook to help you put a happy “face” back on our nation’s
faces!

If you have been losing sleep over the thought that your cell phone may give you brain-cancer, you may rest a little bit easier( although your not completely off the hook yet) as the research is so far inconclusive.

There have been questions regarding if using a cell phone for more than 30 minutes each day could increase the risks of developing these cancers due to the radiation. A 10-year survey of almost 13,000 participants found most cell phone use did not increase the risk of meningioma or glioma two forms of cancer. The authors of the research report have stated that further investigation is needed before they can with certainty conclude there is no link between cell phone radiation and brain cancer. Changes in uses of the mobile devices and many factors including handsfree devices and having the cell phones close while not making calls (pocket, or night stand next to bed) were not included in the study and still need to be examined.

The cell phone industry contributed almost a quarter of the $24 million required to fund the study.

For those of us who spend hours a day on our cell phones, we can take comfort in the fact that so far nothing has been proven to be harmful to our health, only to our wallets!

You better stay on your toes when it comes to keeping up with social media and it’s newest players.
This could be great for restaurants, stores, local hangouts and bars if this sort of next generation social media emerges successfully. Businessweek.com broke it down on what this new social media “service” is all about. “Foursquare, a 20-person company that operates out of a crowded loft in New York’s East Village, adds a game-like twist. Its 1 million-plus users earn badges by “checking in” at certain bars, restaurants, and other venues by pressing a button on the app upon arrival. A user can earn a “mayor” icon from a bar if he or she has checked in more than anyone else during the previous 60 days. The business model is simple: Generate as big a user base as possible and sell national brands and local merchants on the possibilities of marketing to people as they congregate—ready to eat, shop, or spend.”
The next thing we know we will have sales people cold calling to these establishments trying to get as many businesses on their “route” for people to go to. This is a great idea and I don’t think I have heard of anything else like it. Negatives to it? If you are someone that does not like people to track your every move…. IE things such as Twitter (as some call legalized stalking), this might not be the thing for you.
Pat on the back to those over at Foursquare for coming up with something truly innovative, and we will see what the next BIG THING will be in this wonderful internet world!

We are always keeping up on the social media industry, but the one thing that has stood out is how can you really make money with it? Interesting study out by social media management company Virtue, each Facebook fan is valued at $3.60. Those that are looking at utilizing social media need to be conscious of what the true value is of having these fans, and is it really worth the marketing effort to build your fans?

Here’s some interesting Facebook math:

So what this means is that the value of Facebook to companies can be enormous if built up correctly. Instead of thinking how many fans can I have on Facebook as just a competition thing, now maybe companies should start looking at the number of fans they have really equals revenue in their pockets.

Twitter has exploded over the past few years, empowering news to travel at nearly lightening speed.  Over 50 million people post on Twitter per day right now!  But this big question has always been, what are their plans for a business model?  Well, the latest news is that companies will now be able to advertise on Twitter.  This plan for advertising will start with 10 companies including Starbucks, Virgin America and Best Buy.

The advertising program will be called Promoted Tweets.  The ad-matching and pricing formula for this advertising has not been announced yet, but preliminary discussions indicate a CPM pricing model.  As they continue, Twitter will likely seek other alternative ways to charge advertisers.

In the new Promoted Tweets program, when a company pays for a tweet, the promoted message will appear at the top of the results, regardless of the time it was written.  Promoted Tweets will also appear in the organic Twitter stream rather than on the side like other social networks promote.  Additionally, they will also be highlighted so that companies have the capability to respond if conversations turn negative.  It is still unclear how these promoted posts should appear, but it may be based on topics, geographic locations or shared interests.

Much more to come on the Twitter Promoted Tweets program, but affiliate marketers all over are likely “tweeting” about how to capture this audience even more with this new program!

Leadpile is very much familiar with email marketing and works with a lot of publishers that are generating traffic through this source of marketing. Because it has become so popular with companies trying to monetize data, and publishers trying to have a less expensive way to generate traffic, reading up on any new email marketing trends is important. DMNews brought up some key points about email marketing:
1. Permission and privacy: Various states are making rulings on cases that involve consumer’s information, so keeping up with not only CAN-SPAM but other legislation involving consumers privacy, is key to keeping your nose clean with the law.

2. Video in email: The next biggest thing is utilizing video in emails. If you are not someone that is utilizing this yet, you better start reading up now.

3. Partnership of email marketing and social media: Incorporating links to social media in emails is something that marketers picked up on last year, however the future of these two is going to be big. Perfecting the use of social media in email is something that all emailers will have to learn more about, because this is going to be something that is going to continue to emerge and you will need to learn to keep up with it.

“Nineteen percent of online marketing budgets are now allocated to e-mail, according MarketingSherpa, and 54% of marketers plan to increase their e-mail budgets this year, based on research from Econsultancy and ExactTarget.” If you are not a company that is looking at increasing your email marketing budget, trends show you might want to reconsider this!

The last person I would have imagined who would be an advocate of social media is the Pope. I have to say hearing this on the news briefly made me want to know more. After searching the net, it seems this story is in fact true. The Pope thinks that Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube is a great way to spread a message. If you are maybe a company where there is some resistance to joining the social media buzz, you might want to reevaluate that decision. PCW Magazine is saying that in the Pope’s “message”, he acknowledges the new technologies our world is having available, so one must use these resources to spread the word. I guess religious or not, you might want to take the Pope’s advice, and that is utilize social media to spread “your” word.