This week we’ve gone over the history of socialmedia and at times used the terms “social media” and “social networks/ing” interchangeably. This has caused some confusion – are they are the same thing? This post is intended to clarify the definition of social media to better understand this new and popular medium.
According to Wikipedia, social media first and foremost “depends on interactions between people as the discussion and integration of words builds shared-meaning, using technology as a conduit.”
In other words, social media is primarily about user-generated content (where the public become publishers) and the conversations that exist within the communities that flourish and thrive around that content, whether it’s video, audio or text.
As social media evolved, websites that focused on media sharing began incorporating social networking features, becoming Social Networking Sites (SNSs) themselves (e.g. Flickr and YouTube). This networking aspect was a major factor to the growth of social media. (Source: Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship).
In response to a successful organic SEO campaign with Apollo Media, we are pleased to announce one of the top cosmetic surgery clinics in Toronto and our esteemed client, LaFontaine Surgery, has decided to enhance their web marketing strategy. We are preparing to launch a Google pay-per-click (PPC) campaign next week in effort to further extend La Fontaine’s reach online.
For over 20 years, La Fontaine has been helping people look as good on the outside as they feel on the inside. They have constantly been at the forefront of the plastic surgery industry specializing in breast augmentation surgery, liposuction surgery, nose surgery, surgical hair transplants, and many more surgical and non-surgical cosmetic procedures.
A couple of months ago, we posted a definition of Web 2.0. Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of viewing “The Machine is Us/ing Us”. Released January 31, 2007, the first version of this video has over 5.3 million views while the final version has over 600,000 views. This phenomenal digital ethnography was produced by Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University.
If you haven’t yet watched it, here is the final version (4½ minutes):
At Apollo’s Blog, we are contemplating some changes and revisions to our content, design and general focus, as we try to draw in a more specific target market that is familiar to or at least interested in social media. One of the things we are debating is the issue of post frequency: are we going to be posting on a daily basis? What are the benefits and pitfalls of such an approach?
For both our own blog, and yours, we thought we would go over some of the pros and cons of frequent posting as a way to come to some sort of conclusion, giving our blog a new sense of direction.
Pros:
Posting daily or several times a week means your site will get more notice from search engine spiders looking for updates, so your ranking for keywords will go up. Read the rest of this entry »
Building trust with your readers is essential if you want them to keep coming back to your blog and sharing it with their peers. Establishing this relationship requires the blogger to write on a human level – meaning that they have to appeal to their audience’s senses and emotions to strike a chord in their memory.
Here are some emotional factors bloggers need to consider when writing:
Directly engage and interact with readers. This often requires you to write in a friendlier, conversational tone in order to invite discussion on your blog. Asking open-ended questions and sharing your own opinions are excellent means of appearing sociable and approachable with your blog.
If you’re thinking about taking the leap into blogging but don’t quite know where to start, good for you! You’ve already taken the first step by reading Apollo Media’s social media blog. But what next? With all this blogging information here and on the Net, where do you start?
We thought we’d help out a bit by simplifying the process and sharing our blog start-up formula. This way, blog newbies have a clear, step-by-step guide to starting a blog that they can follow. Here it is:
For five years in a row now, since getting my life priorities straight, I’ve taken a vacation every Spring. This year, however, several unexpected expenses have arisen and at this very moment, taking a vacation before the summer descends appears to be an unrealistic expectation.
So as I gaze longingly at a postcard of Mexico hanging next to my office computer, my mind wanders from the task at hand: brainstorming for blog ideas. Then it hits me – blogging is like taking a vacation! The following are a few ideas why bloggers don’t need a tropical paradise getaway to get away:
Surfing the Net is better than traveling. Why leave the comfort of your own home when you can travel the world through the Internet? Think about it: no line ups or waiting for hours. There’s no risk of plane crashes or car accidents. No fear of foreign microbes setting up camp in your body. You can’t get traveler’s diarrhea blogging! And forget about the time and stress that goes with travel planning. Did you forget to leave the oven on? No problem! Just head into the kitchen and check.Read the rest of this entry »
The other day we wrote a post about lowering your bounce rate. It explained how different blogs can have different rates according to the scope of their content and how it is displayed on the blog. Expanding on this topic, we thought we would introduce Google’s latest service that will help bloggers set realistic goals for themselves within their respective niche.
What is Benchmarking?
About a month ago, Google announced that they were introducing a “Benchmarking Service” into their Analytics program. Benchmarking essentially allows you to compare your blog’s stats (Visits, Pageviews, Pages per Visit, Bounce Rate, Average Time on Site, and New Visits data) with an aggregated report on blogs similar to yours in both size and category.
Daily Blog Tips had an interesting article last month about improving your readers’ experience on your blog. When the discussion centered on responding to comments, there was a brief mention of rewarding your readers with incentives for their words.
One of the key ways of doing so is to create a ‘Top Comments’ or ‘Top Commentators’ list that shows displays the names (and back links) of those who participate the most on your blog. There are several plug-ins available for Wordpress that allow you to create such a list. One of them is Show Top Commentators and is available for free download.
At Apollo Media’s Blog, we often post articles detailing blog building strategies that improve your blog gradually over time, stressing patience and perseverance as your content and readership expand. There are, however, several tactics that can be employed immediately and on a daily basis to improve your blog.
While the long term strategies are equally useful and important, you should also consider these blog habits if you want to truly make your blog effective:Read the rest of this entry »
This week we’ve gone over the history of social media and at times used the terms “social media” and “social networks/ing” interchangeably. This has caused some confusion – are they are the same thing? This post is intended to clarify the definition of social media to better understand this new and popular medium.
