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With some creativity, your business could capitalize off of social networking away from the Internet.

Best Mobile Contracts’ recent article, “New Microsoft Social Networking Phone: The Kin,” detailed how the computing giant’s phone competes with the iPhone, but its interesting twists can apply to non-tech businesses too. Microsoft not only built a phone, but angled its features to focus on younger users and making social networking easier with its applications. Social networking is becoming a booming business that doesn’t have to be limited to Facebook updates and Tweets. Attorneys are boning up on social media legalities, marketers are honing their social skills and, obviously, tech companies are adjusting.

The SSN Take: Social media is sprawling into offline sources and it could be a time for your business to capitalize.

Patrick Roland, April 29, 2010

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At the University of Liecester, Senior Lecturer Dr. Alan Cann uses social media to provide a forum for “discussion and feedback” from his students.

“Social networking utilised by academic to improve student satisfaction” discusses the positive response his students have given to the system, powered by the social aggregator site FriendFeed. Because FriendFeed allows a personalized homepage, it can act as a virtual portfolio, “storing all of their posts, forming reflection on what they are doing and explanations of what they do not understand.” Cann adds that it differs from the interaction that the students have on Facebook – the students are extremely social but “very professional.”

Even microblogging social sites have their place in academia. Chris Kobayashi, an English teacher at the University of Northern Colorado, decided to fully integrate Twitter into this curriculum by having his students tweet their progress on an upcoming research paper. “Social media sites like Twitter are finding new fans in academia” describes an entire class run through Twitter, with Kobayashi having students respond his Twitter questions via the site. When his e-mail account crashed one day, he used Twitter to communicate with the students.

Much like Facebook and Twitter’s use in the marketing world, the social media platform allows for a dialogue between a source of information (in this case, a teacher or lesson plan) and a group of users (students). This open discussion can now be fostered outside of the classroom in a medium that many college students are already quite familiar with.

Dr. Cann, using the ‘feed forward’ model, is making academics more accessible and allowing students to give easy and direct feedback through social networks. Kobayashi, too is harnessing the power of real-time interaction. Will we see a revolution in how changes, both academic and administrative, come about? Through social media it is quite possible.

The SSN Take: Integrating a social platform can go beyond the marketing and business realm.

Samuel Hartman, April 23, 2010

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Back in 2008, AOL’s $850 million purchase of the social networking site Bebo seemed like a good idea – it was huge in Britain and Australia, and part of AOL’s plan to gain “new users and advertisers.”

“AOL Plans to Sell or Shut Bebo Social Networking Site” cites May 31 as the date that AOL will decide whether to shut down or sell the site. In today’s market, AOL must continue to revise its business strategy – gone are the days of selling expensive internet plans – and social media seems to be the best option. But Bebo “has not been able to retain an audience” said a social media researcher in the article, with a 45% dip in February traffic compared to 2009. Facebook, on the other hand, had 68% more visitors. Competition like that makes the choice pretty clear for AOL.

The SSN Take: AOL should still investigate social media, but ditch Bebo.

Samuel Hartman, April 22, 2010

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Sure, social media marketing doesn’t cost as much as a minute of Super Bowl advertising, but marketers appear to be vastly underestimating its expense.

Econstituency vice president Rebecca Lieb says 32 percent of marketers who responded to the e-commerce advisory firm’s recent survey said they spend nothing on social media, according to “Live from SES NY: Marketers Claim Social Media Doesn’t Cost a Dime” by Tim Parry on Multichannel Merchant. Lieb theorizes that respondents consider dollar figures to equal the amount of money spent, and are not accounting for resources such as the manpower that go into having a social media presence.

And they are using social media. More than four-fifths – or 86 percent – report marketing on Facebook, while 77 percent are tweeting and 58 percent are using LinkedIn, says Leib.

The SSN take: Either the accounting departments have not caught up with the marketers, or someone is really trying to make social media use look cost efficient. Neither is good business.

John Sniffen, April 22, 2010

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As Spammers turn to social media to prey on users, it will become more and more important to differentiate yourself to succeed in business.

A recent Technology Review article, “Spammers Turn to Social Networks,” focused on the increasing threat of spam in the world of social media. The reason for the threat is an aura of trust, which makes people more apt to click on a strange link or befriend someone they don’t know. While it’s disappointing to see spam ruin the social media fun, it should also put honest social media marketers on alert. There is a thin line between you encouraging legitimate business through honest means and spammers using that mentality for bad.

The SSN Take: Build your marketing network slowly and avoid blindly attracting customers because you could be viewed as spam.

Patrick Roland, April 19, 2010

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You’re probably already using social media to tell customers about your goods and services, but a fan page could do even more.

The Nation recently said, in its article “Social Media Role Continues to Grow,” that fan pages have an increasingly strong impact on business. Twitter and regular Facebook pages are a great way to get your name out to the public, but they don’t offer the full spectrum of tools. Only with a fan page can you develop unique content like quizzes, games and contests in addition to spreading the word about your products. Fan pages also have a special spot on user profiles and will help differentiate your business from just being a friend.

The SSN Take: If you are already using Facebook, there is no reason not to start a fan page and reap all its benefits.

Patrick Roland, April 15, 2010

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When it comes to using social media for recruiting, Deloitte—which provides auditing, consulting, financial advisory, risk management, and tax services through independent firms worldwide—deploys a full-court press.

“Deloitte is taking a multifaceted digital approach to recruiting by using a blend of social networking resources and multimedia elements. A versatile introduction to their company is available at the click of a button,” reports the T+D Blog in “Deloitte: The Future of Recruiting is Social Media.” Deloitte’s program integrates several interactive media outlets, including a micro-site, a Twitter feed, a Facebook page, a LinkedIn group and a YouTube channel.

The micro-site provides an in-depth look into the lives of the firm’s Gen Y workers through a series of profiles and short films. The Twitter feed, “Life at Deloitte,”features daily tweets designed to provide insight into the company’s different practice areas and the latest hot topics from a variety of business leaders. The “Your Future at Deloitte (U.S.)” Facebook page also has interactive message boards where potential job candidates can join the discussion. A campus-focused LinkedIn group helps connect college students with employees and recruiters.

Deloitte’s YouTube channel, “Your Future at Deloitte,” features video testimonies from employees about why they chose the company and what the work means to them.

Deloitte, which has about 169,000 employees worldwide, estimates it will hire about 4,800 full- and part-time employees during 2010.

Sodexo USA, the global food and facilities management services provider which was recently awarded ERE’s 2010 excellence in recruiting award, also makes use of a full social media arsenal. “Sodexo’s social media initiative is on the leading edge of best practices,” writes John Sullivan in “Best Practices in Recruiting” on ERE.net. “Its web presence effectively communicates Sodexo’s company culture, and opportunities across a Careers blog, Facebook page, LinkedIn group, YouTube channel, Twitter and Flickr.” The Society for New Communications Research has recognized Sodexo for its pioneering work in microblogging.

Employing a more one-dimensional social media recruiting campaign, Sears Holding Corp., recently posted 7,000 positions with TweetMyJOBS, a Twitter-based job board service. Writing for ReadWriteWeb , Sarah Perez says TweetMyJOBS president and founder Gary Zukowski claims the partnership makes Sears, which also includes the Kmart chain, one of the largest brands to embrace mobile recruiting. The service lets job seekers receive instant notification on their cell phones via Twitter when new jobs are posted online.

The partnership has a large potential to grow as Sears posted more than 500,000 job openings last year via traditional recruiting channels.

Another social media recruiting partnership features CareerBuilder.com and Facebook.

In “It’s time to update your Facebook status—recruitment strategies move toward social media in 2010” on examiner.com, Megan Munch notes that job postings from CareerBuilder now also post directly to Facebook. “The best matched candidates will be able to see the company’s job advertisement on the side of their Facebook page.”

Careerbuilder and Facebook also cooperate in helping the more than 700,000 local companies that have Facebook pages improve their image. CareerBuilder consultants work with clients, checking their Facebook pages weekly—blogging, posting updates, new hires and accomplishments—as well as monitoring site activity.

Munch offers one bit of advice to potential job seekers using social media, especially those fresh out of college. “I would advise taking down [photo] albums titled ‘The Hangover Album.’ Inappropriate behavior can and will affect job and internship opportunities.”

John Sniffen, April 14, 2010

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With all the media about the dangers of social media to your personal identity and safety, it is refreshing to read how Facebook actually assisted in an arrest of a thief.

After being betrayed by a thief who presented himself as a friend, one lady took it upon herself to warn others and eventually help in the arrest of the 20 year criminal. WAVE-3 news reported about this heroic success in their article, “Women team up to track down theft suspect.” Feeling like the police weren’t doing enough and surely seeking a little retribution of her own, this victim turned investigator used Facebook to contact other “friends” of this thief after he stole cash, checks and credit cards from her home. After making contact with the thief’s next target, together they worked with the police to locate the con artist and an arrest was made.

“They did a great job using social networking sites,” said Trooper Ron Turley of the Kentucky State Police Frankfort post. “They actually turned the tables on the individual and they ought to be commended for that.”

The SSN Take: Social media has once again proved itself useful. It is also a reminder that everything out “there” is trackable. Good thing to remember for job seekers and sales staff.

Melody K. Smith, April 10, 2010

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With the rise of social media as a marketing force for small businesses, many are wondering if it’s time to send their email marketing campaign to the graveyard.

A recent Post-Bulletin article, “Email Marketing is Changing with the Market” showcased the results of an Adestra email marketing survey. Surprisingly, while more and more companies are attracting business using Twitter and Facebook, well-planned email marketing campaigns are still popular. The study found more companies than ever using electronic direct marketing via email. Statistics showed users were not abandoning ship with this possibly outdated form of marketing, but are melding it with social media, search engine optimization and other forms of communicating their message. Time will tell how successful this transition will be.

The SSN Take: Don’t scrap an effective email marketing campaign, but begin integrating it with other tools.

Patrick Roland, April 10, 2010

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Social media outlets, like Facebook and Twitter, seem to be losing a little marketing steam thanks to a lack of trust.

Media.Asia’s recent report, “Will Too Many Facebook Friends be the Downfall of Social Media?” claims it’s no coincidence that consumer trust, according to an Edleman report, is sinking while companies are spending more  social media marketing cash.  “Part of the problem,” it says, “is that too many brands are treating social media like old media, resulting in a loss of credibility.” If this oversaturation continues, businesses and marketers will need to get creative. “What we’re finding with the social web is that the bigger networks get, the less trust there is in the individuals in them.”

The SSN Take: Focus less on contacting massive number of potential clients via social media and instead foster the growth of those few friends you have to grow naturally and build trust.

Patrick Roland, April 8, 2010

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