A good example comes from a social media campaign Ford ran a few years ago. The car company promoted something called the Fiesta Movement that encouraged people online to promote their products on their behalf. They didn’t have to spend a dime on advertisements because regular people did the legwork for them. The effort netted the company 50,000 people interested in purchasing a Ford who didn’t already have a Ford.

Another benefit of having a thriving social network for your business is getting endorsements from a wide variety of people, in particular, those you might not have access to otherwise. Getting people with broad appeal, a receptive audience, and clout in their fields

Now, there are some drawbacks to utilizing social media for your business. The benefits far outweigh these drawbacks but it’s still important to note what you might be getting into. When you have a bunch of people online promoting your product or business for you–essentially representing you–there is room for trouble to arise. People could say something on your behalf that puts your business in a bad light. They may speak negatively about your company (in public). They may turn something positive into something negative. You just never know and that is the nature of using a social network.

Another potential drawback is a general lack of influence. Yes, you may be able to build up a lot of followers on Twitter or get a lot of likes on Facebook but what does that translate to specifically if you’re not creating useful content that can be shared widely? If it’s not influential? If it doesn’t truly speak to people?

Basically, it all comes down to this: leveraging a social network for your business is important. Vital, even. But you need to do it right and you need to be smart about it. If you’re not either of these things, you put yourself at risk for ruining your company’s reputation and actually damaging your brand instead of bolstering it. Be smart though and you stand to build up your business in some seriously significant ways. Good luck!

Picture credit: techweekeurope.co.uk

If your social network is large, it can be overwhelming. You may feel obligated to keep up with everyone’s statuses and photos and that can be a lot of information to take in every day. The more followers you have, the more complicated it gets.

You also run the risk of over sharing. If you post something online, it’s public. Whether you put it on Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr, it doesn’t matter. What does is that you shared that information and people are going to find it. If you don’t want your boss knowing something about you, don’t put it online–plain and simple.

Likewise, you run the risk of annoying people if you share too much information. Detailed information about your relationships or life drama can be unattractive and annoying for people to keep up with. You need to be especially careful when you’re angry. If you’re angry, you’re likely to post something you don’t mean and that’s dangerous. You could start drama and not really mean to.

Posting photos to your social network is a great way to share your life with those you love and care about. However, posting pictures of you getting drunk at a party could be a real turn off for a future employer and could even cost you a job. If you wouldn’t want your mom to see the photo, don’t put it online.

Many studies show that having a broader social network can actually increase the stress in your life. There may even be links to large networks and social anxiety, if you can believe it. For your own sanity, you may find it a better choice to keep your social media following list small. Include close friends and family, colleagues and acquaintances. There’s no need to follow everyone ever. Make lists of your followers as well and assign who gets to see what. This may save you the stress of having to explain  your posts to people later on.

Currency Amounts and Variations

Some people don’t think currency differences matter but in some cases they do. If you are selling an item at a certain price in one currency, but sell the same item cheaper or at a higher amount for other currencies, it doesn’t seem fair for the buyer.  Just keep in mind the currency rates; having a rate that is more balanced across the board (or for different countries for that matter), will make you more appealing no matter the currency.

Colors, Images and How They Can Affect Different Cultures

Pictures and colors displayed on your site may look the way you want it to look, but have you ever thought about how it may appear to someone in another country? Some colors have different meanings depending on the country in question.  Depending on what you are trying to display or sell, how it is displayed on the site could come across as offensive to someone in another country. If you use a picture to market a product to a certain culture, make sure it is relevant.

How Your Search is Played Out from a Technical Standpoint

Setting up your website is one thing with the use of tool setting, hosting and domains.  Yet, other countries may or may not have it as easy to connect to the internet.  Or, you may need a domain that is friendly toward the country or culture you are trying to market to.  Another aspect to consider is language; can content be accessed by a country in their respective language?

Finding Someone You Can Trust When Outsourcing Tasks

When seeking assistance, do you just translate what you need into another language and forward a bulletin to potential help?  Many won’t dare to use a source that may be working with their competitor but you may not be able to know if they are.  Using social networking sites and other social media such as Skype may help in the selection process but it may be a challenge to understand someone with an accent or broken English.

Translations Often Lack Accuracy

There are a slew of issues in regards to translating information.  For instance, there are words you may not be able to translate into a certain language.  Some translators have a hard time completing searches due to words being misspelled, missing dialect or accents and other issues.  When doing a search bases on language, it may be more of a challenge than just translating an article or a book.

The formal open session is scheduled for 8:00 AM EST on Monday

IBM is ranked #1 market share in Enterprise Social Software in 2012.

Lotusphere 2013 IBM Connect in Orlando

One site you should be aware of is called Viddy. This is a video app that allows you to share video clips that are 15 seconds along with anyone that follows you on Twitter. This is a quick and easy way to capture video and share it with millions of users. You can easily share your brand with people with just a few clicks.

Another social networking site you should be aware of is Google+. While this site had a difficult launch, it is actually very useful for businesses. It’s a great way to expand your visibility and reach out to potential customers. It’s not as effective as sites like Twitter but it is still a profile that you should set up and maintain as a part of your social media routine. Having a profile makes your business more visible in search results as well.

Another site you should keep an eye out for its Tumblr. This site has been popular for quite a while with the younger crowd but it is now expanding into the business realm. Ever since Tumblr started allowing people to pay to promote their blog posts, it has serious appeal for business owners. These promoted post expand your brand visibility across the platform.

Finally, there is Instagram. This photo sharing site allows users users to snap photos on their phones and share them instantly. They can also make some quick Photoshop-like adjustments with just a few clicks of a button. It’s especially popular for sharing photos of food, it seems, however it does have real appeal for businesses that offer very visual items like clothing or services like a hair salon.

It can seem difficult to keep up with social networking at first, but with a little research and commitment you can be certain to get your business a reputation on all of the important sites so you are viewed by your target audience as often as possible.

Doximity, for instance, is steadily getting more users and visitors. It was launched less than 2 years ago and already has doctors and surgeons who share reports through it. This helps medical experts to refer clients to other experts, receive reports exclusively from other medical practitioners, etc. If more doctors switch to social media there could be a vast community that would be virtually in front of the sufferers and patients at just click of a button.

Like Facebook or Google+ transformed the mode of informal communication, every major technology development firms has developed or is developing its social network to release it to small businesses. IBM, Oracle, SAP, SalesForce, etc. are just a few instances in this category. The annual turnover of social media is expected to reach $4.5 billion by 2016. Small and medium-sized businesses are expected to play major role in this incredible growth.

Business owners encourage the use of social media by their employees in order to make them more efficient and obtain maximum business through them. Self-employed businessmen are also readily making the switch. How much social media influences the businesses of present world is evident from the fact that Microsoft spent $1.2 billion to acquire general business communication network named Yammer.

Companies with 5 – 5000 employees are considered as small or medium-sized businesses. The evidence of how small businesses can grow can be found with numerous businesses in various countries that started with less than 10 employees and became a million-dollar apparels company around a year. The secrets were appreciably revealed by owners and had the utilization of social network in common. Similarly, restaurants, medical clinics and even NGOs have been able to reach to more people at lesser expenditure of resources.

Manufacturer or service provider firms are owned by people and people have friends and relatives too. Social media facilitate quick and feasible communication between various people. Thus, when an individual or a small of individuals start a venture, they can get noticed by thousands of people through their friend and relatives with the help of social media. Advertisements are but only for a locality. Widespread advertisement is too expensive for starters. On the other hand, promotion through a social network is feasible and transparent.

When a business owner claims something about its products or services it is supported or opposed by hundreds of comments by the users. More importantly, these commentators review under no influence of the business owner. Therefore, transparency and reliability is maintained through social media. Moreover, whether positive or negative, words spread like wildfire and are either ways beneficial for a business. Lastly, a social network may be free to use but entrepreneurs must spend respectable time to extract the best benefits out of social media.

CONTACT:
Igor Bubis
IB Systems
28870 US Hwy 19 North, Suite #336
Clearwater, FL 33761
(Tampa Bay): 727.938.8891
Tel (Orlando): 407.279.1368
http://www.ibsi-us.com

IB Systems Develops Social Network Website Design Service for Small and Medium Sized Businesses

October 08, 2012 – Tampa Bay, FL – Social media is an invaluable part of any business’s marketing strategy. At least, it should be. Unfortunately, a lot of businesses don’t invest the time or the effort necessary to build a truly competent social media campaign that ties directly into their website.

IB Systems is attempting to bridge the gap between brick and mortar businesses and a truly social online presence. Their services are targeted to small and medium-sized businesses and emphasize the importance of the social network websites. Instead of focusing on just a small aspect of an online presence, they believe a truly effective marketing campaign takes in the whole package.

This aforementioned whole package takes into consideration how potential customer will interact with the business. Sure, many companies have websites already but a few fully realize the social business components that are available to them this is emphasized through competent social network website design.

Unlike traditional social media social network web design allows potential customers to interact with the business directly on the website. There’s no need to leave the site and use a third-party network. All of the tools necessary for a well-rounded social business are included in the packages offered by IB Systems.

About IB Systems

IB Systems is a social network web design company that emphasizes customer connectivity. To find out more please visit www.ibsi-us.com.

It is quite important for a business to communicate effectively with its workforce that might be spread throughout different parts of the world. Apart from that it is necessary to increase contacts at high rate as it leads to new opportunities and opens new doors for business expansion. A social networking website opens up a new world of business contacts giving the company more access to the real world. For large organizations that are geographically dispersed, employ-only sites prove to be an excellent source of communication. Hot Topic which is a retail chain is planning to come up with an internal site powered by software vendor, Socialcast that will allow nearly six thousand employees to create ideas and share data. The developments of such type of technologies have allowed businesses to grow outside their physical borders.

Every business in the world expects to be able to communicate with their workers at a speed that was not possible previously. The social networking website allows quicker conversations that help businesses to move fast on opportunities and adjust their strategies accordingly. Corporate social networks help to cut down on unnecessary instant messages and email among co-workers. Recently LinkedIn came up with a new service known as ‘Company Groups’ where company’s employees can gather into a single web forum and share their ideas. Till now more than one thousand companies have subscribed for service offered by LinkedIn.

A business efficiency software maker known as Model N uses this technology to increase communication effectiveness among 160 of its employees throughout North America, India and Europe. A business that uses social networking website can expect to handle the advancements in business and technology in an effective way. The future of a business lies on effective communication and strategies so that it is quickly able to grasp the opportunities and make good use of it. With the help of social networks various companies can receive feedbacks from the customers and improve on the areas they are lacking. The cost of the services can be reduced as most of the problems faced by the customers can be immediately solved on the spot.

Shedding a little light on the state of the company’s social network, Google’s Vic Gundotra shared Monday that the social network now has 100 million monthly users.  Read more …