Getting Value From Social Media

I had this article sent to me today and I thought I would share. It is origionaly from BCS I think

The market is ablaze with the latest form of buzzword bingo: social media. Everything and everyone has become social - social CRM, social business, social government. Some of the biggest software vendors from Microsoft to Oracle have a new focus on social software.

Get past all the noise, and you may start asking some of the more challenging questions. How is the social web, and my participation in it, impacting my business? Can I measure the impact? Should I be involved, or is this just a passing trend?

Peel off the shiny packaging and look deeper into what social media really means for you.

Collaboration is a much more accurate definition for the objective of most organisations: collaborating with customers, prospects, partners, employees, and colleagues. Social media tends to be a type of activity, but collaboration is an activity with a purpose.

Dell is a well-known success story of an organisation that has maximized the value of social media. Dell’s very specific business purpose? Increase sales revenue and decrease support costs. What makes Dell successful in its foray into social media is a clear strategy with measurable objectives.

While Dell views Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube as new communication channels, the team at Dell runs its own collaborative community (on Telligent’s platform) for blogs, forums, profiles, groups and more. Using these tools, Dell can lower support costs by leveraging peer-to-peer communication. Often, the best answers in Dell’s communities come from Dell customers.

EA uses collaboration platforms to enable publishing and viewing videos. Gamers can record short video clips from games and publish them to the community to share. While the benefit to the gamer might be bragging rights, the benefit to EA is free advertising. Customers become advocates and evangelists for the game; new customers are introduced to EA products through word-of-mouth social sharing. This translates into bottom-line revenue growth from net-new sales.

So other than research what other companies are doing well with their investments into social media and collaboration, what can you do to achieve success? Speak to a social media consultancy

Develop a clear strategy. First and foremost, that strategy should articulate a plan for what goals will be accomplished.

Find a platform to enable your strategy. You can start out simply by using a free service like Twitter, and graduate to an enterprise collaboration platform when you are ready.

Measure the results. This is the most important step, and one that is too often simply ignored. If the strategy is clearly defined, then there should also be measurable objectives.

Is there business value in social media? Yes, there is. But to extract that value you need a clear strategy, a platform to enable the strategy, and the tools to measure and analyse the results.

You are in business to make money, serve customers, and out-maneuver the competition. Don't jump in blindly. Clearly define your objectives and identify your sources. Then listen, engage and measure. Contact Blue Ethos for a clear outlay and to speak to a social media consultancy with real answers

Christmas Spirit

I did a 5k jog around the park dressed as Santa on Sunday with around 600 other people and had a great time. It was all in aid of Mary Stephens Hospice and helped raise money for their very good cause.

I'm the one on the right with the big belly (padded of course!!)

Any way as a result of doing this run, and running late for Christmas, I have decided to add up the total cost of sending out Christmas cards and donate that money to the Mary Stephens Hospice, and send e-cards to friends, family and customers this year instead of regular ones in the post. (At least it is one less chance of the royal mail messing up)

Any way on a work front, I will take this very quick opportunity to tell you about a new online marketing product we are launching in the new year that will take the SEO and online marketing world by storm!! I know we normally talk about social media consultancy here, but online marketing is also a very big part of what we do. This new product will change the face of online marketing for UK businesses. All these Mickey Mouse SEO firms will run and hide when they see the brute force of our online marketing product. All product updates and news will be posted here first so come back often for updates.

The Death of Sexy – Social Media, Integration and Real Business

I saw this on convince and convert and thought it would be good to share:

Maybe we’ve gotten a little ahead of ourselves?

In our zeal for YouTube videos, and Facebook apps, and iphone wizardry, and augmented reality we’ve in many cases neglected the many ways we can socially enable the marketing we’ve been doing all along to integrate social media?

Social Media as an Ingredient

‘Tis the season for people to make predictions and promises for next year. For me, I want to focus this blog in 2010 on social media convergence, and how social impacts other marketing and operational disciplines.

Sure, I could write about the new Twitter this or the new Facebook that, and I’m sure I’ll continue to cover that world at times.

But since I was a public relations professional first, a client-side marketer second, a digital marketing agency owner third, and a social media consultant fourth, what really interests me (and I hope you) is how social media is the new ligament of marketing – tying together disparate tactics with unified messaging and platforms.

In 2010, I want to focus on how we retrofit our email marketing, search marketing, banner advertising, even print and TV, to include social components universally.

How can your blog drive your search marketing? How can you test email newsletter content on Facebook? How can your mobile apps drive database marketing? How does social CRM impact downstream conversion rates?

Sure, social media has made incredible progress in a short period of time. But to reach its full potential – especially from an ROI perspective – social media needs to be a component in a larger marketing program. Yes, I believe all companies will “be” social eventually. But that’s not a marketing strategy, that’s a cultural initiative. We need to treat social media as a marketing ingredient, not a marketing cure-all.

The Next Big Thing is the Little Things

The social media baby has been birthed. The stories have been written about the “first to do this” and the “first to do that.” With your help and permission, I want to get beyond the excitement and focus on the business of social media.

At almost every social media speaking engagement, I’m asked what I think the next big thing will be. “What’s the next Twitter?” people want to know. This will be the year (I hope) when we stop asking that question. Instead of “what’s next?” we should be asking “what’s the best way to use what’s out there?”

Are you okay with this direction? Can we focus on social media integration and convergence together next year?

It all takes time...

Just a quick one today to put a few minds at rest. Brands have been advised that using social media as a promotional method for business is beneficial in the long run but return on investment might take time, as networking on pages such as Facebook is about establishing relationships.

Social media consultancy is about looking at the current trends and advising customers accordingly. Now relationship building takes time, it is no different online. I think businesses may be hesitant to direct large portions of their marketing budget toward social media consultancy or social media activities because the percieved ROI is not instant.

Those looking for "long-term, sustainable customer relationships can spend less per month/year/quarter using social media". According to clickthrough 64% of people marketing online have tried social media, but 31% of these have spent no money at all on it.

If you want to see what social media consultancy can do for your business, then call 0800 988 5722

Blue Ethos White Christmas...

...well blue actually. I've been accused of being a bit of an Ebenezer about the Christmas period, which in all fairness is probably not a million miles from the truth.

So in the Christmas spirit of things I have decided to add some snow to my website. Now considering that the back drop of my site is white, I have had to improvise and make the snow a blueish colour.

So If any one accuses me of being an Ebenezer from now on, I will point them in the direction of my semi Christmasy website. How many other social media consultancy companies have snow??

As a christmas gift to you all, if anyone wants the snow on their site let me know and I will do it for you for FREE. Just contact me through my site.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

Social MediaToolbox

Seeing as I have been a little quiet on the whole blog, twitter, linked in and any other platform latley, so I thought I better come back with a Christmas Cracker of a post. Here is a brief list of tools and sites you can use to make your social media experience a little less time consuming

1. Screenr is a nifty little twitter tool that lets you record up to 5 minutes worth of screen casting and then shares it amongst your Twitter friends, or you can embed it on your blog.

2. Topicfire is a simple news aggregator. You only need to select the topics you are interested in and scroll through the latest news on that topic. RECOMMENDED

3. Site Report offers you a nice overview of any domain including traffic, rank and various other site statistics. All you have to do to get the report is add your chosen domain to the search bar and hit enter!

4. Obsurvey is an easy to use way of creating your own surveys, collecting answers and analysing the results. You can embed the finished survey in your blog.

5. Mashlab is tool that allows you to create a visually interesting website without needing any web design knowledge. Unfortunately this is a paid-for service, but it is pretty cheap

Any way these are a couple of the tools when offering social media consultancy for our clients.

Netorking on and off line

I have just arrived back home after a fantastic networking meeting held by Ian at the best of Bromsgrove, and as I was driving home I was thinking about how these real word networking meetings are no different to how we network on-line using twitter or facebook etc.

There were about 80 businesses in the room tonight and only a hand full of them used social media for their business and had any sort of real return!

Why?

These people (myself included) get work from off line networking events, but they seem to struggle when faced with doing it on-line. You don't have to be a social media consultant to get work from on-line networking, Just ask Jason Addison at Addison Tyres. He tells me that he registered a Facebook account a couple of months ago, just for finding people he has lost touch with. But in that time he has had a raft of business come through the door from people who have connected with him on Facebook.

The reason he got the work? Because he did not sell to anyone. He just engaged them and communicated openly. The extra business he had was just a by-product of conversation and that is what we are supposed to do on social media sites such as twitter etc, have a conversation.

You don't have to sell, just communicate the sales will take care of themselves.

Who is going to follow Darlington?

No post yesterday!! Sorry all about not posting the promised quality post. My laptop had an unfortunate run in with a glass of Sprite. Let me tell you all now, if there is a glass of fizzy, sugary pop by your laptop, MOVE IT. It seems to be that you can throw a Toshiba laptop in the boot of a car, drop it from a great hight, even leave it in direct sunlight for 6 days straight, but it just simply won't tolerate a glass of ice cold Sprite being poured over it! Anyway thanks to a next day delivery from e-buyer, we are back and able to blog.

Any way on to the main reason for the bog, which I stumbled upon at itsopen.co.uk. It turns out that towns are now Twittering. If individuals and businesses can tweet, then why not towns too? Darlington in County Durham has appointed a “tweeter in residence” whose job it will be to alert citizen followers to what’s occurring in the area. Many towns and cities have artists and writers in residence, so why not a Twitterer, says the Darlington Partnership, the organisation behind it.

A non-essential service? A waste of taxpayers money? Perhaps, but this is a job for an enthusiast, and secondary teacher Mike McTimoney, who has taken the role, is only being paid £140 a year for what he clearly sees as a labour of love, rather than paying for a social media consultancy

It should be good for local arts, as well as for building crowds at events organised by charities and public organisations. If it takes off perhaps we’ll start seeing other local authorities following suit.

New Social Media Workshop Dates

OK so this blog post is a shameful pitch for the social media workshops I run. Being a social media consultancy we thought it would be a good idea to run interactive workshops and teach business owners how to make the most of social media platforms such as linkedin facebook, twitter etc.

Any way we ran an event last week that went down really well, as a result we have put another couple of dates in the diary. Check out the social media workshop dates here.

I promise there will be some value in tomorrows post, not just a blatant attempt to get you to sign up for the workshops.

If you can only do one!

After completing our successful Social Media For Business Growth and Profitability workshop on Thursday (Thanks to all those who attended) the one question that seemed to be the most popular was "What if I don't have time to take part in all these social media platforms?"

Well the answer I have to say is different depending on what business you are in. I know this may sound very simple, but if your target market likes video then do YouTube. If your market likes the social aspect then try Facebook or Twitter. If you have a very technical oriented client base then digg may be a good start for you.

But the one thing that is an absolute must for any business in the B2B market place is Linkedin. Not only is it a great place to store all your contacts and build up testimonials, it is also a great way to develop new business. As the people on the workshop on Thursday found out, Linked in can be so powerful you will want to spend more and more time there.

If you are looking at increasing the amount of new business you get from the internet and are looking for a social media consultancy then call us www.blueethos.co.uk

Two Main Elements to on-line Success

There is so much talk about how to make it on-line and what works and what doesn't.

Well there are only two elements that need to be considered when trying to build a profitable business on-line.

1. Traffic Generation

2. Converting traffic to business

Now this may seem a bit obvious to most of us. But why then in that case do people still spend £100's per month in SEO (search engine optimisation) when the traffic that does hit their site leaves within less than a second because the page is not hitting the right buttons with user?

Only last week I saw a business that had been spending £450 per month for the last 9 months with some mickey mouse SEO firm. They were page one on Google for their chosen search terms which is great, but 91% of all the traffic coming from the search engines was bouncing off the page without taking any further action or clicking deeper into the site. What is the point in paying all that money for traffic that is not interested???????

So here is my tip. Find out if your traffic is converting. You can do this by using google analytics . If it is drive more traffic to that site with a carefully blended mix of seo and social media platforms such as linkedin, twitter, facebook and however else you can. If it is not converting STOP using the firm you are using now, and call in in independent firm to have a look at what is going wrong. You will be far better off spending a few hundred quid having it looked at and a proper strategy put in place then keep spending all your hard earned money trying to beat the search engines.

If you need any help with this then give us shout on 01384 77364

The Power of Social Media

Now more than ever word-or-mouth is more important than ever. Unlike our parent’s generation, using social media we can now tell people in another country just what we think of their product or service. To that end, having great customer service is a must. It has become too easy to sour the opinions of hundreds with a simple 140 character tweet or, as United Airlines learned, a YouTube video.

A musician named Dave Carroll recently had difficulty with United Airlines. United apparently damaged his treasured Taylor guitar ($3500) during a flight. Dave spent over 9 months trying to get United to pay for damages caused by baggage handlers to his custom Taylor guitar. During his final exchange with the United Customer Relations Manager, he stated that he was left with no choice other than to create a music video for YouTube exposing their lack of cooperation. The Manager responded: “Good luck with that one, pal”.

So he posted a retaliatory video on YouTube. The video has since received over 5.5 million hits. United Airlines contacted the musician and attempted settlement in exchange for pulling the video… Naturally his response was: “Good luck with that one, pal”.

Taylor Guitars sent the musician 2 new custom guitars in appreciation for the product recognition from the video that has lead to a sharp increase in orders.

See the Dave Caroll’s video here.

Top 10 Abbreviations Explained for New Social Media Users

There are Acronym Dictionary’s available online that provide thousands of definitions but most users will only ever use a handful in day to day posts via social media. Here is a very basic top 10 list:

1. LOL: Laugh out loud: something you or someone else said that you find funny
2. ROFL: Rolling on floor laughing or LMAO: Laugh my arse off; Something you or someone else said is really funny. There are countless variations of this Tip: if there is an F included somewhere, it doesn’t stand for fridge.
3. FTW: For the win, use in praise of something. eg, Belly Beyond FTW!
4. IMO: In my opinion or IMHO: in my honest/humble opinion
5. IYKWIM: If you know what I mean
6. OMG: Oh my god/goodness or OMFG
7. WTF: What the f***
8. BTW: By the way
9. RT or PRT: Retweet or please retweet
10. Also worthy of a mention is the Twitter hashtag #fail – it’s not an acronym but represents the writers opinion of failure about something or someone. “Latest Hanover deal #fail” or “#epicfail (a failure of epic proportions)

Just a short one

Just a short one today, I saw this video earlier, and being a huge Jackson fan and a moderate fan of twitter, I found this hillarious. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gnyODNT11I

Facebook Invades Dictionary

The New Oxford Dictionary has named "unfriend" - which means deleting a 'friend' on a social networking site such as Facebook - as its 2009 Word of the Year.

Oxford senior lexicographer Christine Lindberg said the word had both currency and potential longevity.

"In the online social networking context, its meaning is understood, so its adoption as a modern verb form makes this an interesting choice for Word of the Year.

She said most prefixed words beginning with 'un' were adjectives, such as 'unacceptable' or 'unpleasant'.

"There are certainly some familiar 'un-' verbs (uncap, unpack), but 'unfriend' is different from the norm.

"It assumes a verb sense of 'friend' that is really not used (at least not since maybe the 17th century!). Unfriend has real lex-appeal."

Richard MacManus, editor of Readwriteweb, said it was an odd choice given the growth of websites like Facebook."All the trends indicate there has been more social networking activity this past year - not less (as 'unfriend' implies). Facebook and Twitter have rocketed in popularity."

Social media consultant Simon Young also said he was surprised by the choice, as he didn't believe 'unfriending' was a significant part of social networking culture.

Recent words of the year have been mostly environment-related, including hypermiling (strategies to increase gas mileage such as removing roof racks or overinflating tyres, locavore (eating only locally produced food) and carbon neutral.

Mr Young said breaking the cycle by selecting a social media phrase could signal the start of a new trend.

"But I hope that goes together with environmentally friendly words into the public consciousness."

Other Word of the Year finalists

Hashtag - a # sign added to a word or phrase that enables Twitter users to search for tweets that contain similarly tagged items and view thematic sets

Intexticated - distracted because texting on a mobile phone while driving a vehicle

Sexting - the sending of sexually explicit texts and pictures by mobile phone

Article by www.nzherald.co.nz

Social media glossary

I found this at socialpoint.org and thought it would be handy for you all

The Top 100 words (roughly) in the social media dictionary

API

What is an API?

An API (a techie term for application programming interface) allows two applications to talk to each other. For example, Flickr’s API might allow you to display photos from the site on your blog. When sites like Twitter and Facebook “open up” their APIs, it means that developers can build applications that build new functionality on top of the underlying service. (See Wikipedia entry.)

app

What is an app?

Popularized in the general lexicon by the iPhone, an app is simply an application that performs a specific function on your computer or handheld device. Apps run the gamut from Web browsers and games to specialized programs like digital recorders, online chat or music players. (See Wikipedia entry.)

astroturfing

What is astroturfing?

Astroturfing is a fake grassroots campaign that seeks to create the impression of legitimate buzz or interest in a product, service or idea. Often this movement is motivated by a payment or gift to the writer of a post or comment or may be written under a pseudonym. (For more details, see Wikipedia.)

blog

What is a blog?

A blog is an online journal that’s updated on a regular basis with entries that appear in reverse chronological order. Blogs can be about any subject. They typically contain comments by other readers, links to other sites and permalinks. (See Wikipedia entry.)

campaign

What is a campaign?

An online campaign is a set of coordinated marketing messages, delivered at intervals, with a specific goal, such as raising funds for a cause or candidate or increasing sales of a product.

cause marketing

What is cause marketing?

Cause marketing is a business relationship in which a for-profit and a nonprofit form a partnership that results in increased business for the for-profit and a financial return for the nonprofit.

civic media

What is civic media?

Civic media is any form of communication that strengthens the social bonds within a community or creates a strong sense of civic engagement among its residents.

cloud computing

What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing (also called “the cloud”) refers to the growing phenomenon of users who can access their data from anywhere rather than being tied to a particular machine.

copyleft

What is copyleft?

A play on the word copyright, copyleft is the practice of using copyright law to remove restrictions on distributing copies and modified versions of a work for others and requiring that the same freedoms be preserved in modified versions. (See Trademarkedsentences definition or Wikipedia entry.)

Creative Commons

What is Creative Commons?

Creative Commons is a not-for-profit organization and licensing system that offers creators the ability to fine-tune their copyright, spelling out the ways in which others may use their works. See full entry on Socialbrite or on Wikipedia.

crowdsourcing

What is crowdsourcing?

Crowdsourcing refers to harnessing the skills and enthusiasm of those outside an organization who are prepared to volunteer their time contributing content or skills and solving problems. (See Wikipedia entry.)

Digg

What is Digg?

Digg is a popular social news site that lets people discover and share content from anywhere on the Web. Users submit links and stories and the community votes them up or down and comments on them. Users can “digg” stories they like or “bury” others they don’t. (Wikipedia offers a somewhat different definition.)

digital inclusion

What is digital inclusion?

Digital inclusion, or e-inclusion, is an effort to help people who are not online gain access with affordable hardware, software, tech support/information and broadband Internet service, so they can begin to use this technology to improve their lives. (Wikipedia offers a somewhat different definition.)

What is a digital story?

digital story

A digital story is a short personal nonfiction narrative that is composed on a computer, often for publishing online or publishing to a DVD. They are told from the narrator’s point of view and the subject is generally about something the maker experienced personally. Digital stories typically range from 2-5 minutes in length (though there are no strict rules) and can include music, art, photos, voiceover and video clips. They are also typically created by one person with little technical training, rather than by a team of professionals. (See Wikipedia entry.) You can see digital stories at these sites: • Center for Digital Storytelling • Creative Narrations

Drupal

What is Drupal?

Drupal is a free, open-source platform and content management system written in php. It is often used as a “back end” system that powers community features on many different types of sites, ranging from personal blogs to large corporate and political sites. (See Wikipedia entry.)

ebooks

What is an ebook?

An ebook (or e-book) is an electronic version of a traditional printed book that can be downloaded from the Internet and read on your computer or handheld device. Something as simple as a PDF document can be considered an ebook — and anyone can create one. (See Wikipedia entry.)

embedding

What is embedding?

The act of adding code to a website so that a video or photo can be displayed while it’s being hosed at another site. Many users now watch embedded YouTube videos or see Flickr photos on blogs rather than on the original site.

Facebook

What is Facebook?

Facebook is the most popular social networking site in the world, with more than 200 million members. Members’ home page streams can now be seen in a wide range of applications and devices. (See Wikipedia entry.)

fair use

What is fair use?

Fair use is a doctrine in U.S. law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without obtaining the permission of the copyright holder, such as use for scholarship or review. Fair use is delineated in Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Code. (See Wikipedia entry.)

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feed

What is a feed?

A Web feed or RSS feed is a format that provides users with frequently updated content. Content distributors syndicate a Web feed, enabling users to subscribe to a site’s latest content. By using a news reader to subscribe to a feed, you can read the latest posts or watch the newest videos on your computer or portable device on your own schedule. (See Wikipedia entry.)

flash mob

What is a flash mob?

A flash mob is a group of individuals who gather and disperse with little notice for a specific purpose through text messages, social media or viral emails. It’s now generally considered a somewhat dated term (already!). (See Wikipedia entry.)

What is Flickr?

Flickr

Founded by two entrepreneurs and purchased by Yahoo! in 2005, Flickr is the world’s premier photo sharing and hosting site. Its members have uploaded more than 3 billion photos. (See Wikipedia entry.)

geotagging

What is geotagging?

Geotagging is the process of adding location-based metadata to media such as photos, video or online maps. Geotagging can help users find a wide variety of businesses and services based on location. (See Wikipedia entry.)

GPL

What is GPL?

GPL is short for GNU General Public License, often used with the release of open source software. An example of a copyleft license, it requires derived works to be made available under the same license. (See Wikipedia entry.)

GPS

What is GPS?

GPS is shorthand for Global Positioning System, a global navigation satellite system. GPS-enabled devices — most commonly mobile handhelds or a car’s navigation system — enable precise pinpointing of the location of people, buildings and objects. (See Wikipedia entry.)

hashtag

What is a hashtag?

A hashtag (or hash tag) is a community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets. Similar to tags on Flickr, you add them in-line to your Twitter posts by prefixing a word with a hash symbol (or number sign). Twitter users often use a hashtag like #followfriday to aggregate, organize and discover relevant posts.

hosting

What is hosting?

A blog, video or podcast needs a hosting service before it can appear online. Companies sometimes host their blogs on their own servers, but a better choice for video or audio is to use a host such as YouTube, Viddler or Magnify.net for video and a host such as Libsyn for podcasts. (See Wikipedia for different kinds of hosting.)

Internet newsroom

What is an Internet newsroom?

An Internet newsroom (sometimes called Internet pressroom or online media center) is an area of a corporate website that communicates corporate messages and makes content available to the news media and the public. Rather than just feature little-read press releases, a true Internet newsroom incorporates features such as videos, podcasts, high-resolution image galleries, surveys, forums, blogs and other online marketing communications materials. See an example.

lifecasting

What is lifecasting?

Lifecasting is an around-the-clock broadcast of events in a person’s life through digital media. Typically, lifecasting is transmitted over the Internet and can involve wearable technology. (See Wikipedia entry.)

lifestreaming

What is lifestreaming?

Lifestreaming is the practice of collecting an online user’s disjointed online presence in one central location or site. Lifestreaming services bring photos, videos, bookmarks, microblog posts and blog posts from a single user into one place using RSS. Friendfeed and Tumblr are examples of lifestreaming services.

mashup

What is a mashup?

Mashups (or mash-ups) have several meanings. A music mashup is a combination of two or more songs, generally the vocals of one song overlaid on top of the melody of another. A video mashup is the result of combining two or more pieces of video, such as news footage with original commentary. A Web mashup result when a programmer overlays information from a database or another source on top of an existing website, such as homes for sale taken from Craigslist plotted on a Google Map. (See Wikipedia entry.)

metadata

What is metadata?

Metadata refers to information — including titles, descriptions, tags and captions — that describes a media item such as a video, photo or blog post. Some kinds of metadata — for example, camera settings such as exposure, aperture, focal length and ISO speed — can be captured automatically from the device without needing a human to enter the data. (See Wikipedia entry.)

microblogging

What is microblogging?

Microblogging is the act of broadcasting short messages to other subscribers of a Web service. On Twitter, entries are limited to 140 characters, and applications like Plurk and Jaiku take a similar approach with sharing bite-size media. Probably a more apt term for this activity is “microsharing.” (See Wikipedia entry.)

moblog

What is a moblog?

A moblog is a blog published directly to the Web from a phone or other mobile device. Mobloggers may update their sites more frequently than other bloggers because they don’t need to be at their computers to post. (See Wikipedia entry.)

MySpace

What is MySpace?

An online social network similar to Facebook. MySpace caters to artists and bands, who enjoy the flexibility of creating an individual “look” for their page. As with Facebook, MySpace allows users to “friend” each other and create groups. (See Wikipedia entry.)

net neutrality

What is net neutrality?

Net neutrality is the principle requiring Internet providers to act as common carriers and not discriminate among content or users — for example, by providing degraded service to rich-media sites, by throttling file-sharing services, by penalizing customers who watch or download a lot of videos or by blocking Internet applications and content from competitors. (See Wikipedia entry.)

What is a news reader?

news reader

A news reader (sometimes called a feed reader, RSS reader or news aggregator) gathers the news from multiple blogs or news sites via RSS feeds selected by the user, allowing her to access all her news from a single site or program. Popular examples include Google Reader, NetVibes and Bloglines (all accessed through a Web browser) and FeedDemon or NetNewsWire (applications that runs on one machine). For a directory of news readers, see NewsReaders.com. (See Wikipedia entry.)

NGO

What is an NGO?

NGO stands for nongovernmental organization, an entity apart from the business and government sectors. (See Wikipedia entry.)

nptech

What is nptech?

nptech is shorthand for nonprofit technology. nptech encompasses a wide range of technologies that support the goals of nonprofit, NGO, grassroots and other cause organizations.

open media

What is open media?

In its most common usage, open media refers to video, audio, text and other media that can be freely shared, often by using Creative Commons or GPL licenses. More narrowly, open media refers to content that is both shareable and created with a free format, such as Theora (video), Vorbis (audio, lossy), FLAC (audio, lossless), Speex (audio, voice), XSPF (playlists), SVG (vector image), PNG (raster image, lossless), OpenDocument (office), SMIL (media presentations) and others.

open platform

What is an open platform?

Open platform refers to a software system that permits any device or application to connect to and operate on its network. See platform.

open source

What is open source?

In its strict sense, open source refers to software code that is free to build upon. But open source has taken on a broader meaning — such as open source journalism and open source politics — to refer to the practice of collaboration and free sharing of media and information to advance the public good. Well-known open-source projects include the Linux operating system, the Apache Web server and the Firefox browser. (See Wikipedia entry.)

open video

What is open video?

Open video refers to the movement to promote free expression and innovation in online video. With the release of HTML5, publishers will be able to publish video that can be viewed directly in Web browsers rather than through a proprietary player.

OpenID

What is OpenID?

OpenID is a single sign-on system that allows Internet users to log on to many different sites using a single digital identity, eliminating the need for a different user name and password for each site. (See Wikipedia entry.)

paid search marketing

What is paid search marketing?

Paid search marketing is the placement of paid ads for a business or service on a search engine results page. An advertiser pays the search engine if the visitor clicks on the ad (pay-per-click or PPC).

permalink

What is a permalink?

A permalink is the direct link to a blog entry. A blog contains multiple posts, and if you cite an entry you’ll want to link directly to that post. (This page’s permalink is http://www.socialbrite.org/sharing-center/glossary.)

personal media

What is personal media?

Personal media — user-created material — refers to grassroots works such as video, audio and text. When the works are shared in a social space, the works are more commonly referred to as social media. See UGC.

platform

What is a platform?

A platform is the framework or content management system that runs software and presents content. WordPress, for example, is a service that serves as a platform for a community of blogs. In a larger context, the Internet is becoming a platform for applications and capabilities, using cloud computing. See open platform. (See Wikipedia entry.)

podcast

What is a podcast?

A podcast is a digital file (usually audio but sometimes video) made available for download to a portable device or personal computer for later playback. A podcast also refers to the show that comprises several episodes. A podcast uses a feed that lets you subscribe to it so that when a new audio clip is published online, it arrives on your digital doorstep right away. (See Wikipedia entry.)

podsafe

What is podsafe?

Podsafe is a term created in the podcasting community to refer to any work that allows the legal use of the work in podcasting, regardless of restrictions the same work might have in other realms, such as radio or television use. (See Wikipedia entry.)

public domain

What is the public domain?

A work enters the public domain when it is donated by its creator or when its copyright expires. A work in the public domain can be freely used in any way, including commercial uses. (See Wikipedia entry.)

public media

What is public media?

Public media refers to any form of media that increase civic engagement and enhance the public good. The term often brings to mind public broadcasting such as PBS and NPR, but many initiatives and organizations that receive no public funding fall within the scope of public media. (The Wikipedia entry is confused and, in our judgment, off the mark.)

remix

What is a remix?

A remix is any work that takes elements from two or more media files and mashes them together to create a new piece of media. Often, these are called mashups.

RSS

What is RSS?

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) — sometimes called web feeds — is a Web standard for the delivery of content — blog entries, news stories, headlines, images, video — enabling readers to stay current with favorite publications or producers without having to browse from site to site. blogs and news content using a news reader. All blogs, podcasts and videoblogs contain an RSS feed, which lets users subscribe to content automatically and read or listen to the material on a computer or a portable device. Most people use an RSS reader, or news aggregator, to monitor updates. Socialbrite founder JD Lasica coined the term “news that comes to you” to refer to RSS. (See Wikipedia entry.)

screencast

What is a screencast?

A screencast is a video that captures what takes place on a computer screen, usually accompanied by audio narration. A screencast is often created to explain how a website or piece of software works, but it can be any piece of explanatory video that strings together images or visual elements. (See Wikipedia entry.)

search engine marketing

What is search engine marketing?

Search engine marketing (SEM) is a series of online tactics that, when combined with SEO, helps to attract customers, generate brand awareness and build trust. SEM (sometimes called search marketing) seeks to increase websites’ visibility chiefly through the purchase of pay-per-click ads and paid inclusion. (See Wikipedia entry.)

search engine optimization

What is search engine optimization?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of arranging your website to give it the best chance of appearing near the top of search engine rankings. As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content, identifying high-traffic keywords and improving the site’s layout and design. (See Wikipedia entry.)

smart phone

What is a smart phone?

A smart phone (or “smartphone”) is a handheld device capable of advanced tasks beyond those of a standard mobile phone. Capabilities might include email, chat, taking photos or video or hundreds of other tasks. See Wikipedia entry.

SMS

What is SMS?

SMS stands for Short Message Service, a system that allows the exchange of short text-based messages between mobile devices. See Wikipedia entry.

social bookmarking

What is social bookmarking?

Social bookmarking is a method by which users locate, store, organize, share and manage bookmarks of Web pages without being tied to a particular machine. Users store lists of personally interesting Internet resources and usually make these lists publicly accessible. Delicious is the best-known social bookmark site. See Wikipedia entry.

social capital

What is social capital?

Social capital is a concept used in business, nonprofits and other arenas that refers to the good will and positive reputation that flows to a person through his or her relationships with others in social networks. See Wikipedia entry.

social enterprise

What is a social enterprise?

A social enterprise is a social mission driven organization that trades in goods or services for a social purpose. See Wikipedia entry.

social entrepreneurship

What is social entrepreneurship?

Social entrepreneurship is the practice of simultaneously pursuing both a financial and a social return on investment (the “double bottom line”). A social entrepreneur is someone who runs a social enterprise (sometimes called a social purpose business venture), pursuing both a financial and social return on investment. Often, social entrepreneurs offer system-changing solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems.

social media

What is social media?

Social media are works of user-created video, audio, text or multimedia that are published and shared in a social environment, such as a blog, podcast, forum, wiki or video hosting site. More broadly, social media refers to any online technology that lets people publish, converse and share content online. (See Wikipedia entry.)

social media optimization

What is social media optimization?

Social Media Optimization (SMO) is a set of practices for generating publicity through social media, online communities and social networks. The focus is on driving traffic from sources other than search engines, though improved search ranking is also a benefit of successful SMO. (See Wikipedia entry.)

social networking

What is social networking?

Social networking is the act of socializing in an online community. A typical social network such as Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace or Bebo allows you to create a profile, add friends, communicate with other members and add your own media. (See Wikipedia entry.)

social news

What is social news?

Sometimes called social sites, social news sites encourage users to submit and vote on news stories or other links, thus determining which links are showcased. Social news was pioneered by community sites like Slashdot, Metafilter, Fark and Kuro5hin.org. It became more popular with the advent of Digg and similar sites such as Reddit, Newsvine and NewsTrust.

social return on investment

What is a social return on investment?

A social return on investment (SROI) refers to the non-financial returns sought by a social entrepreneur. (See Wikipedia entry.)

social tools

What are social tools?

Social tools (sometimes called social software) are software and platforms that enable participatory culture — for example, blogs, podcasts, forums, wikis and shared videos and presentations. (See Wikipedia entry.)

splogs

What are splogs?

Splogs is short for spam blogs — blogs not providing their own or real content. Unscrupulous publishers use automated tools to create fake blogs full of links or scraped content from other sites in order to boost search engine results. See Wikipedia entry.)

streaming media

What is streaming media?

Unlike downloadable podcasts or video, streaming media refers to video or audio that can be watched or listened to online but not stored permanently. Streamed audio is often called Webcasting. Traditional media companies like to stream their programs so that they can’t be distributed freely onto file-sharing networks. (See Wikipedia entry.)

sustainability

What is sustainability?

In the nonprofit sector, sustainability is the ability is to fund the future of a nonprofit through a combination of earned income, charitable contributions and public sector subsidies. (See Wikipedia entry.)

tag cloud

What is a tag cloud?

A tag cloud is a visual representation of the popularity of the tags or descriptions that people are using on a blog or website. Popular tags are often shown in a large type and less popular tags in smaller type. (See Wikipedia entry.)

tags

What are tags?

Tags are keywords added to a blog post, photo or video to help users find related topics or media, either through browsing on the site or as a term to make your entry more relevant to search engines. (See hashtag and Wikipedia entry.)

technology steward

What is a technology steward?

A technology steward is someone who can facilitate community and network development. Nancy White offers the definition: “Technology stewards are people with enough experience of the workings of a community to understand its technology needs, and enough experience with technology to take leadership in addressing those needs. Stewardship typically includes selecting and configuring technology, as well as supporting its use in the practice of the community.” (Source: Social media wiki.)

terms of service

What are terms of service?

Terms of service (TOS) are the legal basis upon which you agree to use a website, video hosting site or other place for creating or sharing content. Check before agreeing to concede the rights the site owners may claim over your content. (See Wikipedia entry.)

What is a troll?

troll

In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion. (See Wikipedia entry.)

tweet

What is a tweet?

A post on Twitter, a real-time social messaging system. While all agree on usage of tweet as a noun, people disagree on whether you “tweet” or “twitter” as a verb. RT stands for retweet: Users add RT in a tweet if they are reposting something from another person’s tweet.

tweetup

What is a tweetup?

An organized or impromptu gathering of people who use Twitter. Users often include a hashtag, such as #tweetup or #sftweetup, when publicizing a local tweetup.

Twitter

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a popular social network, unveiled to the public in July 2006, that lets members post updates of no more than 140 characters. People have begun using Twitter in interesting ways to point to news stories, to raise funds for charity, and other unexpected uses.

Twitterverse

What is the Twitterverse?

Akin to blogs and the blogosphere, the Twitterverse is simply the universe of people who use Twitter and the conversations taking place within that sphere.

UGC

What is UGC?

UGC stands for user-generated content, an industry term that refers to all forms of user-created materials such as blog posts, reviews, podcasts, videos, comments and more. (See personal media or see the Wikipedia entry.)

What is an unconference?

unconference

An unconference is collaborative learning event organized and created for its participants by its participants. BarCamp is an example of a well-known unconference. (See Wikipedia entry.)

What is a videoblog?

videoblog

A videoblog, or vlog, is simply a blog that contains video entries. Some people call it video podcasting, vodcasting or vlogging. (See Wikipedia entry.)

What is a virtual world?

virtual world

A virtual world is an online computer-simulated space like Second Life that mixex aspects of real life with fantasy elements. Typically, you can create a representation of yourself (an avatar) and socialize with other residents for free, though you can also buy currency (using real money) to purchase land and trade with other residents. Second Life is being used by some nonprofits and businesses to run discussions, virtual events and fundraising. (See Wikipedia entry.)

Web 2.0

What is Web 2.0?

Web 2.0 refers to the second generation of the Web, which enables people with no specialized technical knowledge to create their own websites to self-publish, create and upload audio and video files, share photos and information and complete a variety of other tasks. In this new world, the Internet becomes a platform for self-expression, education and advocacy that “regular people” can use on their own without having to go to an expert to do it for them in contrast to the less interactive publishing sites of Web 1.0. Some of the best-known Web 2.0 websites include Wikipedia, MySpace, Digg, Flickr and YouTube. (For more, see Wikipedia, TechSoup’s What Is Web 2.0 Anyway? and publisher Tim O’Reilly’s essay, What is Web 2.0.)

web analytics

What is web analytics?

Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of Internet data for the purpose of understanding who your visitors are and optimizing your website. (See Wikipedia entry.)

Web conferencing

What is Web conferencing?

Web conferencing is used to conduct live meetings or presentations over the Internet. In a web conference, each participant sits at his or her own computer and is connected to other participants via the Internet. This can be either a downloaded application on each of the attendees computers or a web-based application where the attendees will simply enter a URL (website address) to enter the conference. (See Wikipedia entry.)

webcasting

What is webcasting?

Webcasting refers to the ability to use the Web to deliver live or delayed versions of audio or video broadcasts. The chief distinctions between webcasting and traditional radio broadcasting include the following: Listeners can tune into webcasts from anywhere in the world, whereas radio broadcasting is generally local; webcasts may be “interactive” (for example, users may rewind the show) whereas radio broadcasting generally is not; listeners may receive textual or visual data (artist and song titles, ads, album artwork, etc.) during a webcast; if music is included, a “copy” is stored in the memory of the listener’s computer and thus webcasters are required to obtain a license from and make payments to a licensing agency such as BMI, ASCAP or SESAC. (See Wikipedia entry.)

webinar

What is a webinar?

Short for Web-based seminar, a webinar is a presentation, lecture, workshop or seminar that is transmitted over the Web. In general, participants register in advance and access the presentation in real time over the Internet and listen to the presenter either through computer speakers or a telephone connection. Webinars are generally one-way and can involve chat or polls. There are a large number of companies that offer webinar services. (See Wikipedia entry.)

wi-fi

What is wi-fi?

Wi-fi (or wifi) stands for wireless fidelity, a simple system allowing enabled devices to connect to the Internet within short range of any access point without cables or adaptors. A more powerful wireless technology, WiMAX, is not yet deployed as widely as wi-fi. (See Wikipedia entry.)

widget

What is a widget?

A widget, sometimes called a gadget, badge or applet, is a small block of content, typically displayed in a small box, with a specific purpose, such as providing weather forecasts or news, that is constantly updating itself (typically via RSS). Widgets make it easy to add dynamic content to your site or blog. (See Wikipedia entry.)

wiki

What is a wiki?

A wiki is a collaborative website that can be directly edited by anyone with access to it. Small teams often find that they can accomplish a task easier by creating a collaborative online workspace using wiki software such as pbworks, Socialtext or mediawiki. (See Wikipedia entry or compare wiki services at WikiMatrix.)

Wikipedia

What is Wikipedia?

Wikipedia is a Web-based, multi-language, free-content encyclopedia written collaboratively by volunteers. Sponsored by the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation, it has editions in about 200 different languages. (See Wikipedia entry.)

word-of-mouth marketing

What is word-of-mouth marketing?

Word-of-mouth marketing, sometimes called grassroots marketing or conversational marketing, is an umbrella term for dozens of techniques that can be used to engage and energize customers. By building relationships with influencers through WOM, marketers can get people to become so enthusiastic about a cause, product or service that they drive sales through conversations. (See Wikipedia entry.)

WordPress

What is WordPress?

WordPress is a popular open source blog publishing application. (See Wikipedia entry.)

YouTube

What is YouTube?

YouTube is the world’s most popular video hosting site, making up 10 percent of all bits that travel across the entire Internet. (See Wikipedia entry.)