http://online-social-networking.com Thought-Provoking Articles on a Broad Range of Business and Social Strategies Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:54:31 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I've written quite a few articles about the Ning family of social networking sites focusing primarily on social marketing and business networking concepts. In this article I address every type of Ning user. By using Ning sites, not only can you transact business, you can also make new friends, discuss special interests, ... http://online-social-networking.com/introduction-to-using-ning-sites Nearly a year has passed since my first Ning article, Ning Social Networking Sites. Since then online social networking has taken some exciting twists and turns. MySpace has lost luster, while Facebook and Twitter have become social media darlings. Ning Still Facing Obstacles Ning seems to be in somewhat of a holding pattern. There ... http://online-social-networking.com/what-is-wrong-with-ning Social media sites are rapidly altering the web marketing landscape. Now you can use social media to drive targeted traffic to your websites. You may be trying to determine whether social media is a viable alternative to search engine optimization. After all, search engine optimization requires extensive keyword research and ongoing content ... http://online-social-networking.com/social-media-vs-search-engine-optimization A rose by another name might smell as sweet, but could a horrifically long string of gobbledygook ever smell as sweet as facebook.com/larrybrauner? Not by any stretch of the imagination. In case you haven't heard, Facebook started giving out real user names yesterday morning just past the stroke of midnight. To claim ... http://online-social-networking.com/claim-your-facebook-name Could it be that your website looks nice but fails to help you meet your web marketing objectives? Too often that is the case. Lots of effort and expense went into building your site, but your return on investment is marginal or non-existent. Here are possible reasons why your website isn't generating ... http://online-social-networking.com/why-doesnt-my-website-generate-sales You may have tried without success to use Twitter as a marketing channel. Many marketers struggle with Twitter for one reason or another. It’s often because of where their Twitter leads. Let me explain. Spamming Spammers often follow myriads of random people on Twitter hoping that enough of them will follow back like ... http://online-social-networking.com/where-does-your-twitter-lead-people The use of the word holistic is a bit problematic, although it did catch your attention. Holistic emphasizes the importance of the whole and the interdependence of the parts. But is not each whole a part of a greater whole? Web marketing is one part of the marketing function, as is offline ... http://online-social-networking.com/holistic-web-marketing As a top Twitter business user, I was sent an advance copy of the Twitter Power System for my review. Here are my observations. The Twitter Power System is a very comprehensive set of videos, e-books, resources and tools. New users learn how to set up an account and all the basics ... http://online-social-networking.com/twitter-power-system-review The long tail has recently become a major buzzword both in business and online. The long tail concept is rather abstract, so it can help to look at concrete examples. Let's look at examples from my blogging experience. The Long Tail of the Search I started publishing Online Social Networking in November 2007, ... http://online-social-networking.com/the-long-tail-and-social-media Let's face it. Few people are writers. Even fewer are thought leaders or guru types. What can a "regular" marketer do to stand out and make a strong impression in the social media space? What if You're Not a Thought Leader? Thought leadership is probably not as important in social marketing as is ... http://online-social-networking.com/social-marketing-for-non-gurus