The reason most people fail on these sites, though, is that they never use them.  Weird, right?  They may set some up, add a couple of bits of data, or a link or comment, and they are done.  They just sit back and wait for the new contacts to come rolling in.  Wrong!

You really need to be commenting on, uploading and ranking different newsworthy articles. You can also create a member profile that directs traffic back to your company’s Web site. You need to ask people questions, respond to other people’s comments.  Social media branding is not about “set it and forget it.” So, If you are not going to put some time into these sites, don’t waste your time!  Hire someone to help you.  Better yet, let’s have a discussion about what my company can do to help you!

1. Reddit: Upload stories and articles on reddit to drive traffic to your site or blog. You will need to use this one often. Make the uploads relevant to your business. A great cupcake article won’t sell your power tools!
2. Digg: Digg has a huge following online because  it is really easy to use. Visitors can submit and browse articles in categories like technology, business, entertainment, sports and more. As a technology company, it is one my my favs.
3. Del.icio.us: Social bookmark your way to better business with sites here. This is always a good one to tag when you have added fresh content to your website.
4. StumbleUpon: You’ll really get some great mileage out of this site by adding the toolbar add on.  Then, you can mark great  info as you browse the web.  Don’t just use this one to mark your stuff.
5. Technorati: If you want to increase your blog’s readership, consider registering it with Technorati, a network of blogs and writers that lists top stories in categories like Business, Entertainment and Technology.
6. Ning: After hanging around the same social networks for a while, you may feel inspired to create your own, where you can bring together clients, vendors, customers and co-workers in a confidential, secure corner of the Web. Ning lets users design free social networks that they can share with anyone. You could very well build the next Facebook of your niche.
7. Squidoo: According to Squidoo, “everyone’s an expert on something. Share your knowledge!” This is the best site in the world for building pages about your business.
8. Furl: Make Furl “your personal Web file” by bookmarking great sites and sharing them with other users by recommending links, commenting on articles and utilizing other fantastic features.
9. Tubearoo: This video network works like other social-bookmarking sites, except that it focuses on uploaded videos. Businesses can create and upload tutorials, commentaries and interviews with industry insiders to promote their own services.
10. WikiHow: Create a how-to guide or tutorial on wikiHow to share your company’s services with the public for free. It makes you look like a mini encyclopedia.
11. YouTube: Video is getting watched more and more each day. You really need to be making videos and video blogs about your company. (called vlogs).
12. Ma.gnolia: Share your favorite sites with friends, colleagues and clients by organizing your bookmarks with Ma.gnolia. Clients will appreciate both your Internet-savviness and your ability to stay current and organized.

Professional-Networking Sites

Sign up with these online networking communities as a company or as an individual to take advantage of recruiting opportunities, cross-promotional events and more. These are the sites to really talk about business on. You’re not trying to be everybody’s friend.  Build some real business connections.

1. LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a popular networking site for professionals to meet and network around business.
2. Ecademy: Ecademy has one of the best chat rooms around for connecting with business. And, it will be more productive than just Facebook.
3. Focus: Focus is a business destination where business professionals can help each other with their purchase and other business decisions by accessing research and peer expertise. Most importantly, Focus provides open, quality information for all businesses that is freely available, easily accessible, and community powered.
4. YorZ: This networking site doubles as a job site. Members can post openings for free to attract quality candidates. In return, you can also look for work, if you are still working while building your fortune!
5. Xing: An account with networking site Xing can “open doors to thousands of companies.” Use the professional contact manager to organize your new friends and colleagues, and take advantage of the Business Accelerator application to “find experts at the click of a button, market yourself in a professional context [and] open up new sales channels.”
6. Facebook: is rapidly becoming one of the biggest sites in the world. Just be careful not to push business too quickly here. Give people some free help to establish yourself as an expert in your field. Also, build a business Fan Page.  Leave your personal page for your friends and family.
7. Care2: Care2 isn’t just a networking community for professionals: It’s touted as “the global network for organizations and people who Care2 make a difference.” If your business is making efforts to go green, let others know by becoming a presence on this site.
8. Gather: This networking community is made up of members who think. Browse categories concerning books, health, money, news and more to ignite discussions on politics, business and entertainment. This will help your company tap into its target audience and find out what they want.
9. MEETin.org: Once you’ve acquired a group of contacts in your city by networking on MEETin.org, organize an event so that you can meet face-to-face.
10. Tribe: Cities like Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, New York and Chicago have unique online communities on tribe. Users can search for favorite restaurants, events, clubs and more.
11. Ziggs: Ziggs is “organizing and connecting people in a professional way.” Join groups and make contacts through your Ziggs account to increase your company’s presence online and further your own personal career.
12. Plaxo: Join Plaxo to organize your contacts and stay updated with feeds from Digg, Amazon.com, del.icio.us and more.
13. NetParty: If you want to attract young professionals in cities like Boston, Dallas, Phoenix, Las Vegas and Orlando Fla., create an account with the networking site NetParty. You’ll be able to connect with qualified, up-and-coming professionals online, then meet them at a real-life happy-hour event where you can pass out business cards, pitch new job openings and more.
14. Networking For Professionals: Networking For Professionals is another online community that combines the Internet with special events in the real world. Post photos, videos, résumés and clips on your online profile while you meet new business contacts.

Niche Social-Media Sites

These are the sites you want to use to build a link to other professionals in your business.

1. Pixel Groovy: Web workers will love Pixel Groovy, an open-source site that lets members submit and rate tutorials for Web 2.0, email and online-marketing issues.
2. Mixx: Mixx prides itself on being “your link to the Web content that really matters.” Submit and rate stories, photos and news to drive traffic to your own site. You’ll also meet others with similar interests.
3. Tweako: Gadget-minded computer geeks can network with each other on Tweako, a site that promotes information sharing for the technologically savvy.
4. Small Business Brief: When members post entrepreneur-related articles, a photo and a link to their profile appear, gaining you valuable exposure and legitimacy online.
5. Sphinn: Sphinn is an online forum and networking site for the Internet marketing crowd. Upload articles and guides from your blog to create interest in your own company or connect with other professionals for form new contacts.
6. BuzzFlash.net: This one-stop news resource is great for businesses that want to contribute articles on a variety of subjects, from the environment to politics to health.
7. HubSpot: HubSpot is another news site aimed at connecting business professionals.
8. SEO TAGG: Stay on top of news from the Web marketing and SEO (search-engine optimization) industries by becoming an active member of this online community.

General Social-Media Sites

These are the great old standbys that have been helping people build an online presence for years.  Don’t leave them out of your portfolio.

1. Wikipedia: Besides creating your own business reference page on Wikipedia. You can also add expert articles on your subject matter.
2. Newsvine: Feature top employees by uploading their articles, studies or other news-related items to this site. A free account will also get you your own column and access to the Newsvine community. Kind of like a news press release.
3. 43 Things: This site bills itself as “the world’s most popular online goal setting community.” By publicizing your company’s goals and ambitions, you’ll gain a following of customers, investors and promoters who cheer you on as you achieve success. It is also a great site to help you build a folowing for your company. Hit this one around once a month.
4. Wetpaint: If you’re tired of blogs and generic Web sites, create your own wiki with Wetpaint to reach your audience and increase your company’s presence online. You can easily organize articles, contact information, photos and other information to promote your business.
5. Twitter: Is a social networking and microblogging service that allows you answer the question, “What are you doing?”  The secret to Twitter is adding personal stuff, as well as professional stuff.
6. Yahoo! Answers: Start fielding Yahoo! users’ questions with this social-media Q&A service. You can become an expert for the Yahoo gang.

Well, here are 40 sites that can help you ramp up your social presence.  Don’t forget, though ,that you will need to spend time each day on some of these sites.  My recommendation is that you do 30 min a day.  You’ll be happy with the results.

The new ap will still require you to have a Netflix account, but the ap itself will be free.  There is currently going to be no way to stream over the WiFi portion of the iPhone. The service will make exclusive use of the phone’s 3G network.

There is some technology that will be in place, however, that would let you move around networks, and still be able to pick your movie back up at the point you left. This is called “adaptive bit technology.”  The bottom line: you can take your movie with you anywhere.

The only downside is going to be that AT&T is doing away with the unlimited 3G data plan.  That hurts!  If you are currently on the plan, you can keep it. But new customers will have to choose between a 200MB and 2G plan. So, watch out if you go over that amount.  That will be easy, by the way, with the wide bandwidth required by Netflix movies.

We’ll talk to you later,

Ray Province

1. World Cup Countdown

We know you’ve been counting the days until the non-stop soccer action. This app counts down the excitement by the days, minutes, hours and seconds until it all begins on June 11th. The app also has an interactive photo slideshow with a series of cool pictures of South Africa. You can click on the photos to learn more about each scene. 

There are even interesting video and audio options, like a spectacular overview of the countryside and some local music and dance moves. It’s a great way to learn about the country hosting the games, especially if you are planning to attend in person. 

2. ESPN 2010 FIFA World Cup

This app has just about everything you need to prepare for the tournament. With a full schedule, you’ll never miss your team in action. The app allows you to select your favorite team or teams so you can easily keep track of all the news surrounding them. It also has full biographies and stats for each player for all 32 teams, so you’ll know exactly who is playing the game. 

Super-fans will appreciate the app for its extensive history of the tournament, which dates back to 1930, and includes an overview, trivia and controversies for each year. Sign in with your myESPN account to post comments about your team or participate in the “Fantasy Bracket Predictor,” where you can attempt to forecast the outcome of each World Cup match. 

3. World Football Live!

This app gives you the latest news about all things football/soccer from BBC Sports, Yahoo! Euro Sports, and ESPN. News() is updated in real-time and you can bookmark your favorite articles or e-mail them to your friends. The app also lets users browse offline. Once you’ve updated the latest news, you can read all the downloaded articles without a WiFi or 3G connection. 

4. AP 2010 World Cup Coverage

The Associated Press has been covering the games since the very beginning and is committed to giving fans full coverage. Once the games start, the app will provide up-to-the-minute news from more than 100 journalists in South Africa who will be covering the action. It has a multi-language platform and users can choose to get their soccer fix in English, Spanish, French or Portuguese. 

With customizable skins for each team, you can show everyone (at least everyone you show your phone to anyway) who you are rooting for. There is an easy to follow schedule feature that shows which teams are playing and at what time. Also, a photo and video feature will be updated once the tournament starts. The app also has a “venue” feature and lists a bit of history and interesting facts about all 10 stadiums where the games will be played. 

5. World Cup Factoids and History

If you really want to know what you’re talking about when you say that Germany is going to kick some butt, this is the app for you. With lists of every winner, host nation, defending champion and number of appearances since 1930, you’ll be able to make some informed predictions as to who will take home this year’s big title. 

History buffs will swoon for the detailed chronicles of pre-tournament dates, starting with the world’s first international soccer match between Scotland and England in 1872. The app also connects you to news from BBC, ESPN and the official FIFA site. You can help spread World Cup fever (not that it really needs the help) by pressing the button that lets you tweet about the application. 

6. World Cup Trivia Challenge Lite

Once you’ve brushed up on your facts and history, you’ll be ready for this game. Set on a soccer field, the lite version of this app has 50 questions that will test your soccer hooligan mettle. It’s a fast-paced game. With 90 seconds on the timer, you must answer questions like “How many nations appeared for the first time in 2006?” 

Once you get three questions right, you score a “goal.” For every question you get wrong, your opponent (who isn’t actually answering any questions) scores a point. There are three stages to work through and it includes a penalty shoot-out for a tie game. You can even listen to the sounds of whistles, cheers and music from a real life game, or choose to turn them off. 

Once you’ve mastered all 50 questions, you can upgrade to the paid version for $1.99, where 600 more questions are ready to test your fandom.

The magic of Twitter is the way it can connect you with many people all over the world. It allows you to share personal or professional information in very short tweets.  Your information goes out to other Tweeters, and vice versa.

In a perfect world, the twitter follow ratio would be 1.0.  Everyone you follow follows you back. This is the perfect exchange rate.  In reality though, this seldom happens.

There are plenty of people who only want to share their ideas. Only want to have you read their tweets. They don’t know you, don’t care what’s on your mind, etc.  It’s like the Oprah saga. She has a million follower camgaign, and doesn’t know squat about how to tweet.  Get rid of those people. Unfollow them.

The savvy marketer will want to know what is on the minds of their followers.  This kind of information is invaluable. Why they would not want to tap into the market data makes know sense.  In that case, they just want to spam you with their stuff.  Unfollow them.  Even the big sites like CNN, The New York Times, etc. need to pay attention.  At the time of the writing of this article CNN was following 276 people, and had over 1.1 million followers.  The New York Times is following 190, and has over 2 million followers. 

So, I ask you: why is your opinion worth less?  Give them the boot!  Unfollow them!

Ray Province

Celtic Ozark Solutions

Now all that functionality is available to me on the iPhone.  And it works. I booked a hotel for an upcoming trip on the iPhone with no issues.  That’s a time saver.

The ap is free.  You have to have an account set up with http://concur.com .  Once that is done, there is a section in your profile that is called concur mobile. It will walk you through the steps of setting up your account info. You will also have to create a “PIN” for the mobile ap. You can use alphanumeric characters. Once this is done, you will use your email address UserID for Concur, and the pin, to activate the ap on your iPhone. The website also has a link to download the ap. For you Blackberry hounds, it can also link to your Blackberry.

Ray Province

The HootSuite ap for iPhone is one of those rare applications that I actually paid money to own. In my case, I bought it so that I could more easily manage the Twitter accounts of my clients, for which we do social media micro blogs.  It also lets me handle my own account.

The surprise is how well the ap works.  It has been flawless for me.  It also allows me to better manage “mentions” from people who follow me. That’s a chore, because I have over 5000 people I tweet with all the time.  I don’t like losing people in the Twitter Ocean.

There is a featured Section, so you can get tweets for HootSuite, and you can get their featured users. As to your own account, you can keep up with live stream, Mentions, DM’s in your inbox and outbox, Sent Tweets, and Favorite Tweets. So, it really has all my favorite features that I use on the big version on my laptop.

If you are serious about Twitter, or you manage multiple accounts, you need to look at the HootSuite Program.  If you are also an iPhone junkie,  the HootSuite Ap for iPhone is worth the couple of bucks you’ll pay. Enjoy your Twitter experience more.

We’ll talk again soon,

Ray Province

Celtic Ozark Solutions

Ray Province

The Godaddy.com people have published their own iPhone application. I have to tell you that I really like it.  It has really opened up some new possibilities for managing my account on Godaddy.com.

I realize that some of you may not be as excited about Godaddy.com as I am. You hear good and bad stories, though, about every Domain Hosting Company. I have just always had a good experience there. Granted, my need for technical service is minimal. I can usually handle my own issues. However, I have needed them at times, and I have always been able to get a live voice from Tech Support that speaks English as well as I. (or almost so!)

The new ap has components that will let you check your email. You can also handle Domain Management, and order new products. You can renew also. In the future, I expect to see total DNS managment as an option.

If you’re a fan of the commercials, there is also a link to that.  A Contact Us section will also allow you to communicate with the Godaddy people. There is also a WHOIS search feature.

It’s not bad for a first edition of the iPhone application. Hang on. I’m sure there is more to come. Want to more more about Godaddy.com services, just click here.

We’ll talk again soon,

Ray Province, Celtic Ozark Solutons

The reasons behind why people want to jailbreak the iPhone are many. Some of the bigger reasons, though, involve the limited custimizability of the iPhone.  There are also been complaints about text messaging privacy on the iPhone, and a lack of ability to run background applications.  Personally, I would also add the limited ability to “tether” an iPhone, thus making it act like a “WiFi router.”

You need to know, though, that hacking your iPhone will void your warranty.  You also need to know that you open your iPhone up to some bad programming also.  If those risks are acceptable, then you may be able to gain some real functionality by jailbreaking your iPhone.

One easy place to get help with a clean, safe  jailbreak of your iPhone is Blackra1n.com .  The system is easy to follow, and works well. Make sure you also make a backup of your iPhone before trying the process. You will then have a way to reset your iPhone to earlier settings set in your iTunes configuration.

You may also want to check out Cydia and RockApp for a place to start getting aps.  The two sites are safe, and provide some real quality applications.  A lot of them are free.

Jailbreaking your iPhone may open up a lot of functionality for your phone.  It may also be a source of some problems. Just don’t be mad at the Apple folks!

We’ll talk again soon,

Ray Province, M.A.

Ray Province

The BlogPress iPhone ap makes blogging on your website a breeze.  I am always looking for iphone aps that help me be more productive, when I can’t be in front of a desktop or laptop computer.  The BlogPress ap has made it possible for me to blog whereever I am.

I have the ap set up to handle all my blogs on Blogger.com  It can do much more, though.  It also handles my blogging on WordPress and Joomla.  This includes my websites like this one, which are built on a WordPress theme.  There are setting for MSN Live Spaces, Movable Type, TypePad, Live Journal, and Drupal.  You can also hook in Youtube,  Twitter, and some other sites.

For my wordpress sites, I had to activate the XML-RPC settings in the Settings>Writing section of my admin console.  There is also a setting there to active Atom style protocols.  This allows the iPhone ap to publish to a private website.

In Joomla, you will have to download and install the MetaWeblog plugin for Joomla. It grabbed it from the Joomla extensions site.  You also have to enable web services in the Global Setting section of your admin console in Joomla.

You may also want to grab the free iPhone ap for Dragon dictation. You can then dictate your blog, and paste it into the page you set up in the BlogPress ap.  Pictures can also be added this way. 

The BlogPress iPhone ap makes blogging on your website a breeze. I hope you will give it a try. Then, the world can become your blogging office!

Ray Province

Tweeting hot topics can be one way to really help draw traffic to your website.  Simple connections to current topics of interest will help many people take the extra step to go ahead and visit your website. Then, it’s up to you to WOW them.  Here are some simple rules about tweeting hot topics.

Make sure the topic is relevant to your website.  On this website about social media marketing, website development, etc., I would be much better off talking about the new iPad than I would the one year birthday of the children of the “octamom.”  Doing otherwise will not give you favorable results, and it really cheapens your website content. So, what do these results look like?  That’s simple: you want people to re-tweet your work, comment on your post, etc.

Some of the overall best subject matter for tweeting hot topics comes from new technical innovations, the lifestyles of the rich and famous, what’s happening with celebrities, and my personal favorite, politics!  If you can find good topic matter in these areas, you will draw extra hits.

Images and videos are also a great way to bring extra hits to your website from tweeting.  Most of us have now grown up with television, so we love our videos. That is why Youtube is the number two website in the world.  The biggest mistake people make in tweeting video is getting too commercial with it.  Try to give people information, share some knowledge, help people. Then, after you have shared first, you can be justified in pointing people to products and services.

Tweeting hot topics can be a great way to draw traffic to your website. It can also be a way to stimulate conversation on your Twitter page.  Good luck.