The Last Waffle - Return on Social Media

For any business, virtual or brick-and-mortar, ROI (return on investment) is of the utmost important. Some companies may have other goals, other mission statements or other priorities, but in order for the business to survive ROI must be positive. When measuring different business initiatives, it is easy to decide which ones to continue and which ones to end. Negative ROI means cut the project (or never start it in the first place).

When it comes to social media, how do we know a business initiative has become a success or failure? Is its ROI positive or negative? According to Aaron Uhrmacher, first you must pick out your variable. For social media initiatives, your return isn't always calculated in dollars. Do you want more clicks? Increase presence on Digg? Keep visitors for longer? Once you know what you want to achieve, you are much better able to A) achieve it and B) know how to measure it.

Innovative Marketing Strategy

In his new eBook, "Dandelion Marketing," Jeremy Epstein discusses the way that social networking and media are used to take advantage of Web 2.0 concepts in "going viral" in the modern virtual business world. A great read. Epstein really hones in on taking advantage of new marketing and business trends

Click here to learn how to "go viral" in today's dynamic business world!

Peaches - Predictions for the Future

Where is the future of social media headed. Will we forever rely on Facebook or Twitter, or will these sites slowly fade away as Myspace and Friendster have. There is a lot to consider including available technologies and consumer preferences.

Two online personalities have attempted to take a guess at what the future will hold. Jim Tobin puts his opinion down as a list of predictions for the future of social media, found here. He believes that sites must have ratings, that content aggregation will be kind, everything will be portable, new tools will replace the old ones and that virtual worlds are here to stay.

Another blogger at Exceed Sales wrote a blog about trends of social media in business, see here. This blogger sees companies expanding social media beyond sales and marketing, developing metrics to measure their success, companies finally figuring out what is working and what isn't and that more companies will jump into the social media ring.

Both bloggers bring up important points about the future of social media in our lives as both people and consumers. What do you all think? Feel free to put your own opinions about the future of social media in the comments.

Nutella - It's Not Quantity, but Quality

As search engines become more advanced, adding more content to search results, web analytics companies must get more creative. In this article, Laurie Sullivan talks about the changing landscape in online search. Furthermore, the introduction and outside the box thinking of Bing has added a new competitor to what was previously known as the Google vs Noone fight. Web analytics can't just count web clicks anymore, but instead must focus on more detailed (but better indicators) of web traffic. Hover-overs, bounces and a slew of other items, may give more info about how well your website is actually performing.

Unfortunately, for many of us (especially in the blogger community), we don't have the funds necessary to measure such fancy variables. Sure, we have google analytics, which is a great, easy-to-use and good program but wouldn't it be better if I could get a sense of which articles stay up on a viewer's screen? This way I could alter my articles to my reader's preferences.

Chocolate Covered - Job Search No 2 through ?

Many of us are college seniors and are working on obtaining that first job. While this may not be an easy task, there are many resources that we have available to us: the career center, careerweb, our professors, our classmates, our parents, etc. But what I always wonder is how would I go about getting a second, third, fourth or hundredth job once I've already left school.

Of course, you can post on sites like monster.com, but those always seem like your trying to find a needle in a haystack. WSJ blogger Henry Chalian talks about the methods that he is using to secure one of his subsequent jobs. Relying on financial recruiters, Chalian commenced is job search. However, as he found out, recruiters are not always as helpful as they lead on.

Whenever you may start looking for a second job it is important that you make as many bets as possible, hold on to those social networks and contacts, and cross your fingers for good luck.

Raspberry - Power of the Wiki-Masses

In an article by John Dvorak, he discusses the inherent issues with spreading knowledge through wiki sources. In a small environment with few contributors, wikis can have more accurate information but as wikis grow the information will eventually be skewed and have errors.

While this may be the case in an unregulated wiki, sites like Wikipedia that have a strong oversight committee tend to override the potential errors that come about. Wikipedia may not be the most trusted source for information, but I find it extremely useful to get background information on topics that I know very little about. Where else could you find summary information that is up to date, easy to access and well formatted?

Pecan - Virtual Teams

During one of my college internships, part of my work was conducted through a virtual team setting. My boss, as well as several team members, were located halfway across the country.

At first, the experience was very strange. You're not sure when it's appropriate to contact team members, you don't know how to contribute in team meetings, and worst of all you can't even put a face to the voice on the other end of the phone. It's extremely hard to be productive when you've never seen the people who count on you.

After reading this article by Jaclyn Kostner and understanding how to build trust in a virtual team, I realized that while there were some areas to improve, the team that I worked for excelled in most of these areas. Several weeks on the project proved that everyone was available, competent, consistent, fair and open to others. This created the ideal virtual team setting.

Bananas and Cream - iPad, the New Home for Second Lifers?

So, I must admit - I've never used Second Life. I know what it is and I equate it to a very large, involved game of The Sims. Whether my perception is right or wrong is beyond me, but what does interest me is how the iPad (or portable tablet PCs in general) could lead to Second Life becoming even more integrated into real life.

In a recent article, Lowell Cremorne touches on this very subject. The iPad would allow consumers to have the computing power necessary to run Second Life (or any other online worlds) but be completely mobile (and comfortable) doing so. If you could take your Second Life with you everywhere, wouldn't that make it more and more like your First Life?

Just to bring this situation back to something I can relate to - Before I had a Blackberry, I was your normal Facebook user. I'd check it 2-3 times a day. But since getting a Blackberry I constantly check Facebook posts, News Feed updates and all the other functions that Facebook offers. I definitely became more immersed. This likely could be the case with the iPad and Second Life.

Belgian - LinkedIn: It Gets Better with Age

Business schools love to tout the power of LinkedIn. Anytime I meet with someone from the Career Center, one of the first questions they undoubtedly will ask is: "Are you on LinkedIn?" As a matter of fact, I am on LinkedIn - and let me tell you Mr. Career Center Man, it is not as magical as you make it out to be.

My profile is up-to-date. I've got 59 connections. My resume is uploaded....but yet no magical mystery job offer has ended up in my inbox.

This is not to say that I expected that to happen - but going off of some of the recent advice I've received, it made it seem like a reality.

Phone calls, networking, handshakes, being persistent but not pushy - these are the golden keys to networking. Especially when you're a college senior with no real work experience (outside of internships) to show for yourself.

Do I see LinkedIn as a useful networking site for people out of school? YES! You probably have connections to former co-workers, friends who actually have jobs - instead of undergrads, whose connections consist of other students and relatives (who you probably should be calling anyway).

Get out from behind your computer, don your nicest suit/skirt - and go get em the ole fashioned way. Save LinkedIn for a few years down the road because right now it'll just slow you down.

Bacon - GPS Phones: Not Just Helping Man In His Continued Quest to Not Ask For Directions

You remember that movie Minority Report with Tom Cruise? How this futuristic society would scan a person's eye to know their location, medical history, and strangely enough their shopping habits. Well, something similar could be on the way. At the end of Marc Cieslak's BBC Article about GPS capabilities in mobile phones, he mentions how companies are hard at work in an attempt to send advertisements to mobile phones based on location.

Are you in downtown DC on a cold chilly day, well you might just see a text message letting you know that their is a Starbucks around the corner serving up a nice, warm hot chocolate. Or a new sandwich joint just opened up that's got great soup - or at least that's what the GPS based advertisement just told you.

While this isn't as creepy as scanning your retna for your pants size or favorite beer, GPS advertising certainly sends chills up my spine. Let me know what you think in the comments section below.

And also, for those of you questioning my weekly Waffle Flavor, check this out. Bonus points for whoever brings these into class.

Chocolate Chip - O, Yelp!

Birthday's, Valentine's Day, Anniversaries - any celebration includes that special visit to a favorite restaurant. But, what if you want to try something new? What will ensure that the restaurant meets whatever needs you have? Well, the answer for me is always Yelp. When you read the reviews, you feel as if your friend is telling you their opinion of the restaurant. Is it romantic? Does it have good food? Is it family friendly? Yelp answers all these questions.

In an article written by Randall Stross, he talks about the way Yelp works, and how it is overtaking Zagat as the best source for reviews. In my personal experience, I not only use Yelp more, but I trust it more than Zagat. Instead of trusting ratings by so-called experts, I choose to trust Yelpers.

Similar to Yelp, TripAdvisor is another online review community that helps out with travel plans, hotels, and airfare. As sites like this continue to debut and provide free services, the need for pay services will continue to dwindle. Zagat, travel agents and many others might find themselves out of customers and out of a job.

Strawberry - Internet Make Me Dumb?

A couple of years ago Duncan Reily made mention of Doris Lessing's Nobel Prize acceptance speech (link). Lessing came out with some interesting remarks about how the internet is fragmenting our culture and knowledge and because of this, as a society we are less intelligent.

While it may be easy to sit here, bash her and assume that her opinion no longer matters - I'm not going to. I think I see where Doris is coming from, she may just have poorly phrased her remarks. The internet is not making us dumb, it's the choices that we have (and make) on the internet that make us dumb.

Think about what is available on the internet. Endless amounts of news, scholarly articles, well written editorials and countless other sources of knowledge and intelligence. Having that information can't possibly make us dumb, can it?

What can make us dumb is our choice to spend more time on Facebook, Twitter or something as ridiculous as lolcats than on Google Scholar.

I'm not saying Doris should have come out and said what she did - but it may hold more weight than we'd all like to think.

Buttermilk - The Evolution of Customer Service

Barney Beal wrote an article a couple of years ago that discusses the social media's role in customer service. Just hearing that phrase "customer service" raises my blood pressure. The countless hours spent on the phone with people who seem like they would rather complicate my problem instead of solve it. Could this all be fixed by social media?

The answer to this question is a resounding "no." The move to social media is not exactly geared towards customer service, but more towards improving customer relations. Blogging about new products, twittering about potential recalls and responding to widely publicized customer complaints does not constitute customer service. I'd rather avoid blogs that try and sell me their opinions (and products) more than Keith Olberman or Bill O'Reilly.

When Facebook can help honor the warranty on my Dell Notebook, then THAT would be a breakthrough.

Apple Cinnamon - Facebook vs. Real World

After reading Clive Thompson's Wired article about real life social networks, it got me thinking about my own social networks and the astounding differences that exist between my Facebook page and my real-life interactions. If one were to browse upon my Facebook page, they may be able to see a snapshot of my favorite books or movies, see some recent photos, or read my most recent updates. And all this information may provide a fair portrayal of who I am. BUT the conversations on my wall would be a very poor assessment of who I'm actually talking to and interacting with on a daily basis. The way I utilize my Facebook page is to keep connections with friends from years past, people that I wouldn't normally be able to interact with. I've always used Facebook this way because that is how it fits best into my life.

In line with Thompson's general conclusions about the differences between social networks and real-life networks, I can confirm that my activity in one is not indicative my activity in another.

It's likely that some of my extremely loyal readers may have a different view - so go ahead, feel free to express your thoughts in the comments below.

Blueberry - Blog Basics

Hey guys, this is my first blog post as a student in ITEC-335 (Social Networking in Business). Should be a lively and fun time - but first we need to address Academic Integrity. So, on my honor, all the posts in this blog are my own. Most of the posts will follow contemporary trends in internet use and how they can benefit businesses.