While a total boycott seems a tad extreme, there are some new precautions every Facebook user should take to ensure their personal safety and privacy.

Read this article, posted by Mashable and written by Adam Rosenberg of Salsa Labs and keep yourself protected!

Get Informed

“The Like button enables users to make connections to your pages and share content back to their friends on Facebook with one click. Since the content is hosted by Facebook, the button can display personalized content whether or not the user has logged into your site. For logged-in Facebook users, the button is personalized to highlight friends who have also liked the page.”

But, what does that really mean?

Simply stated, the “Like” button will allow a person to share their unlimited Web interests will their Facebook friends. By “liking” a website, photo, article, blog post – what have you – the website will be posted on their Facebook page, and will become visible to their friends.

“Liking” a website has transformed a website into a “social link.” The Internet is being reinvented into a gigantic social media network and this is the first step to connecting the myriad of links. Since its April 21^st introduction, more than 50,000 websites have joined Facebook’s new social plug in, including CNN.com, abc.com, Pandora, The New York Times, and Yelp.

Although Konopa has no official coding, designing, or SEO training, she has taken the blogging world by storm and offered up a few tips to help others start up their own blog based on her own experiences:

1. Blogging is a DIY labor of love. Read everything that you can on blogging—and on your niche. And when in doubt, look it up. When I ask him for advice, my coder friend usually says, “Google it. Someone’s already figured out how to do that.” You know what? He’s almost always right.

2. You gotta have the content. You don’t start blogging to get rich. Trust me. You do it because you have something to say. And, it has to be interesting. As Copyblogger’s Sonya Simone put it, “The first rule of Copyblogger is you do not publish content that sucks.”

3. Less is more. It’s cliché, but it’s true. Resist the urge to stuff your sidebar full of junk that’s not relevant to your readers.

4. Learn to love Twitter. If you’re blogging, you’ve just joined a big community of like-minded folks all connected by 1s and 0s. Creating quality content aside, being a blogger is also about reacting in real time as things happen in your little corner of the interwebs.

5. Be genuine. Your readers will know when you’re not. The internet has a pretty good built-in BS detector. The other day, Adii, co-founder of WooThemes, tweeted, “You can’t buy loyalty and awesomeness.” He’s dead on with that.

6. Have a point of view. It doesn’t necessarily have to be unique, but you should be able to get behind it 110%. Stay focused.

7. Your blog is about you. But it’s also about your readers. If your audience is interested in what you’re saying, your blog will naturally evolve into one big two-way conversation.

8. Give stuff away. Giveaways are fun and engaging. People like treats and a chance to win something just for joining a conversation.

9. Make friends. A lot of them. But you have to be for real. Five-thousand fans on Facebook don’t matter much if you don’t know who any of them are.

10. People click the flat belly ads. No really, they do. At least they do on my blog. Pay attention to which ads get clicked and get rid of the ones that aren’t working. Apply the same principle to your content.

10 Things I’ve Learned About Blogging

Here are 11 Predictions of how Marketers will be doing their business in 2012:

• Privacy expectations will (have to) change
• Complete decentralization of social networks
• Our interaction with search engines will be different
• Rise of the content aggregators
• Social media augmented reality
• Influencer marketing will be redefined
• Ratings everywhere
• Social media agents
• Riding the (Google) wave
• Thinking beyond “nowness”
• Social media everything and the return of digital media

Check out the explanations of these 11 predictions by Freddie Laker of Sapient.

The next twenty quotes of Buffett’s are interpreted by Tyler Banfield of www.seohosting.com in relation to Internet marketing:

1. “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

Quote #1 is so powerful that it requires no explanation.

2. “In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.”

Quote #2 addresses the fact that while anyone can look back and analyze what happened in the Internet marketing world during the last three years, it takes a lot more focus and work to gain any worthwhile insights into what is going to happen during the next three years.

3. “Never invest in a business you cannot understand.”

4. “It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction.”

Quotes #3-4 emphasis the importance of not only focusing on doing what you’re best at, but of also working with people who are as talented and passionate with their own specialized set of skills.

5. “Risk can be greatly reduced by concentrating on only a few holdings.”

6. “An investor should act as though he had a lifetime decision card with just twenty punches on it.”

7. “Much success can be attributed to inactivity. Most investors cannot resist the temptation to constantly buy and sell.”

Quotes #5-7 address a major issue within the Internet marketing community. While forums are filled with threads discussing how to make tons of money by creating a site that makes $1 a day, and then replicating the process thousands of times, the truth is that the people who are most successful online are those who focus all of their attention and effort on just a handful of sites.

8. “Always invest for the long term.”

9. “Does the business have favourable long term prospects?”

10. “Time is the friend of a good business but the enemy of a mediocre business.”

Quotes #8-10 are great reminders that while it may be tempting to focus your energy on a small project that will make you a quick buck, if you are serious about making as much money as possible from your Internet marketing activities, you are much better off keeping your focus on quality long-term projects.

11. “It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price, than a fair company at a wonderful price.”

12. “Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.”

Quotes #11-12 are proof that although it may be hard to let go of a client or a project that is draining all of your resources but not providing adequate compensation in return, you will do much better in the long-term if you make the decision to move on sooner than later.

13. “I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.”

14. “I like to go for cinches. I like to shoot fish in a barrel. But I like to do it after the water has run out.”

15. “We have embraced the 21st century by entering such cutting-edge industries as brick, carpet, insulation and paint. Try to control your excitement.”

Quotes #13-15 serve to drive home the point that there are always going to be new developments, like social media marketing, that are worth looking into. However, this doesn’t mean that you should forget about methods and techniques (like many basic methods of link building) that might not be exciting, but are still extremely effective.

16. “Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote.”

17. “Either they’re trying to con you or they’re trying to con themselves.”

18. “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.”

19. “A pin lies in wait for every bubble and when the two eventually meet, a new wave of investors learns some very old lessons.”

20. “You are neither right nor wrong because the crowd disagrees with you. You are right because your data and reasoning are right.”

Quotes #16-20 are extremely important for Internet marketers. Because of the nature of the job, most Internet marketers spend the majority of their time in front of the computer. This leads to spending a lot of time reading blogs and forums. While these can be great sources of information, they can also easily lead you astray. At the end of the day, it’s critical that you take the time to make your own decisions instead of blindly accepting what others say. While a new idea or technique may sound amazing, there’s a good chance that it’s nothing more than hype. Although it can be very tempting to jump on bandwagons, you will thank yourself down the road for avoiding the temptation when everyone else has to deal with the consequences of their blind excitement (such as getting slapped with a major search engine penalty).

Read the entire article.

This research will study how the general population is impacted by social media and will place segment titles based upon the type and frequency of usage of social media outlets.

The purpose is to assist CMOs and brand managers in social media networking and targeting decisions. Currently, marketers only have access to social media facts on the how-to’s and advice on utilizing social media. This new research will educate marketers on the needs and influences of social media and will help them make better strategic decisions.

Read the full article here.

With that said, there are still some factors to consider before heading full speed into social media marketing. BulletproofBlog explains the six questions any business should ask before taking the plunge.

1. What are your social media goals?

What do you want to accomplish with your social media involvement? Do you want to develop new business prospects? Build a network of online brand ambassadors? Strengthen your position as an industry thought leader? Your goals will help determine the best platforms and methods for effective social media engagement. For instance, if you want to demonstrate thought leadership, start with a company blog or a Twitter profile, as these platforms are best for showcasing knowledge and expertise. To strengthen relationships with customers and cultivate brand ambassadors, create a Facebook fan page, use Twitter to respond to customer concerns in real time, or provide content or prizes available only to your supporters. LinkedIn can be an important asset for identifying new business prospects, and simply engaging with others on any social network can reap rewards as well.

2. How much time can you devote to social media?

In many cases, individuals and companies dive into social media expecting to be able to write several blog posts a day, send hourly Twitter updates, and actively manage multiple Facebook Fan Pages. But then reality sets in. The workload elsewhere picks up and most of these accounts lay dormant. Needless to say, five sporadically updated accounts are not nearly as effective as one or two regularly maintained accounts. If time is a potential issue, don’t start a blog without dedicated assistance from co-workers, as blogs should be updated at least 2-3 times each week. Setting up a LinkedIn company profile requires the least amount of regular maintenance, and Twitter is also manageable.

3. Who is your target audience?

The audience that you are trying to reach is the most important consideration in determining which platforms to engage. After all, certain demographics tend to have higher adoption rates on particular social media platforms. For example, believe it or not, Facebook has higher adoption rates among those 35 and older, while MySpace is predominantly the realm of teenagers and young adults. LinkedIn is far and away the most professional network, used primarily for business purposes. By carefully considering who you want to reach through social media and by thoroughly researching the audiences of each platform (most social networks maintain blogs or media kits that outline the precise demographics of their members), you can ensure the greatest return on your social media investment.

4. How difficult is it to get approval for updates?

Frequent updates to your social media profiles are crucial to achieving success. With that in mind, it’s important to consider the approval process for content at your company or in your particular division. Do documents tend to get held up for months before being approved to send on to clients? If so, Facebook or YouTube, which offer content channels other than original thought leadership – such as photos and video – may be a possibility. On the other hand, if your team is frequently granted a certain level of autonomy or if items generally only need one level of approval, a blog or Twitter feed could be solid options. But be realistic, and be sure to have the conversation internally right from the start about expectations for review and approval of each update, whether you’re sharing blog posts, Facebook updates, or Tweets.

5. How can you manage risks?

Despite all of its opportunities, social media also presents companies with a potential minefield: every status update, blog post, and Tweet lasts forever, even if it’s deleted from your account. But the rewards are substantial. Just as in traditional media, interviews and placements in the online space can help demonstrate thought leadership and provide an easy entrance point into social media. If there are concerns about how social media accounts reflect the official corporate message, consider leveraging employees as brand ambassadors, and thus providing comfort room between the corporate mouthpiece and social media presences. Alternatively, set up a forum for customers to share their thoughts and opinions, and therefore serve as brand ambassadors. This option requires active monitoring to minimize slander or false accusations. If your company has adopted a robust employee social media policy and understands the changing dynamic of online content, your options grow exponentially.

6. Can you recruit others to contribute?

Maintenance of even one social media profile can be a daunting task for a professional with myriad responsibilities. However, a tried and true solution is to encourage coworkers to get involved and contribute anything from ideas for content to fully developed blog posts. Chances are there are others at your company already involved in social media for personal use that would be excited to help contribute to the company’s online updates. Invite team members to share articles that could be Tweeted out, draft blog posts to be published, or develop discussion questions to ask your fans and followers. By providing employees with a stake in your company’s online presence, you not only generate more and better content, you begin to leverage your team as brand ambassadors.

Read the entire article here.

The Marketing Dept, Inc is a team of highly trained marketing professionals who are determined to benefit your business by means of marketing. We offer personalized services to suit your specific business needs such as:

• Logo and Brand Creation
• Graphic Design
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The Marketing Dept, Inc combines all of these marketing services in order to maximize your business growth.

Located in Southern, NH (Stratham, NH), The Marketing Dept, Inc offers all of these services at an affordable and straight forward price.  We are currently helping clients in Southern, NH and the Boston area such as Travis Roy Foundation, Exeter Area Chamber of Commerce, StonehamBank and many more.

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Marketing is still the department that benefits most from social media, but as time progresses, we will see more and more social media within many other departments.

Read the full article at http://www.emarketer.com/blog/index.php/social-media-belong/