Social networking is an effective marketing tool utilized by many B2B companies as a way to keep the customers updated on key business developments and periodical success stories. A closer and clearer look at social media as a marketing device reveals that it is more effective as a community than a mere communication idea. Most IT companies understand that the online community always begins as discussion threads and with the help of supportive forums. Real value from the customer rolls out from a deep engagement that is substantially relevant and inter-personal.
Recognition is valuable, and the capital that you have truly accrued to your online presence. Community building aspects of social media offer a powerful platform which provides real value to your customers and keeps them coming back for more. For building an effective online community your online experience must however include –
? Building Personal Profiles
This will give your customer a personal bonding and create a belonging with the community. His ability to project himself as he is will immediately help him connect with the surrounding. He will be able to find and communicate with like minded people, look around and desire to expand his horizons. He will be able to permanently retain his online ‘space’ in this gathering of people enriching the virtual space.
? Allow Creation of Different Groups
The community will be what you and the other members make of it. Being a part of it and involved in the growth process helps create strong bonds. These online groups have almost been useful ever since the birth of the internet. Over 270,000 distinct communities and forums were registered at the start of this decade. Different groups allow for the much required breathing space, and enable growth as communities within the community.
? Encourage and Allow Collaboration
Instead of building single communication threads which may collapse any moment without a trace, it would be meaningful to allow for collaboration among members at different levels. This inter-woven structure would withstand all kinds of virtual weather-storms that might affect the health and growth of the virtual community. Working together is not only easy, but it also enables build stronger and lasting platforms. Online saloons and discussion forums therefore must encourage and allow collaboration making inter-linking possible and gain on strength.
? A Rating System Encouraging Personal Recognition
Awarding has always been able to generate the requisite enthusiasm whenever effectively applied. An internal rating system among the members of groups will definitely boost and encourage wider participation.
Man has always been that social animal who has enjoyed meeting people, playing around, sharing jokes, stories, and has always been interested in one another. Online virtual communities will always prosper as an extension of this basic human nature.

What is social media?

Even your teenager would be able to answer this.

Face book, Orkut, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, MySpace, WordPress or LinkedIn.

The latest buzz is the Google Buzz, The Search Engine Master too has augmented in the Social Media Segment.

No one wants to lag behind. Microsoft’s Bing, Yahoo and Google all have a hand shake with twitter, to milk the enormous market share, the micro-blogger posses.

What’s that makes Social Media site, The Head turner?

Man is a social animal; this traditional adage explains the human urge for social interaction.

Social Media Sites blazes into the masses due to their high accessibility and scalable publishing techniques.  It is a platform that connects you to the entire world, through text, images or videos.

The traditional forms of social Interactions transferred the media from ‘one-to-many’. Today the social interaction sites makes media reach from’ many-to-many’.

How it becomes a Media for marketing?

Social Interaction sites or Social Media sites slip the messages in; subtly, through the back door, very elegantly and diplomatically. It creates a ‘pull effect’.

It transforms the ‘content consumers’ to ‘content producers’.

Such a site opens a doorway, to your product, business, weblog or website. Then you form relationships with those coming in contact, by interacting with them.  The relationships have ample scope to reach to new levels, when people start following you or your content.

It comprehensively and judiciously integrates analytics, SEO, Banner Advertising, Flash Games, Widgets, Rich Media and Mobile Communication. If you can tune in with the possibilities this immense integration provides, you can certainly create Brand awareness and generate ‘leads’ and ‘sales’.

The flavors of Social Media sites:

Blogging sites,

Social networking sites,

Micro blogging sites,

Image sharing sites and

Video sharing sites,

The platter has variations to match your needs and keep you socially involved.

How the www has webbed around it:

Many new concepts and services have come up with the advent of social Media Sites.

With the marketing tools and concepts like social Media optimization, social media marketing and others, web marketers are leaving no stones unturned, to reap the immense business possibilities associated with social Media and Interaction.

Every day, we find a new feature coming up in the online scene, which magnifies the scope of business through such social media sites even more.

To exemplify a few,

Micro Blogging phenomena has given rise to URL shortening, Celebrity Tweeting , Account verification and many more such concepts.

A host of interactive games flourish through the Social networking sites.

A crowd of business concepts like, Bookmarking, content writing and Link building revolves around Blogging.

What some might consider drawbacks:

Time consuming, privacy invading and wrought with annoying marketers, a critic might find these as show stoppers for Social media market.

But when introduced to the nostalgic experience one has when you reconnect to someone in the past, even a loner would start acknowledging the benefits that come along.

Its like a room full of people, enjoying each other’s company, sharing ideas and contacts, with each other, playing interactive games. So what are you waiting for…? Join the party!

Whenever Steve Ballmer talks, we all know it is Microsoft. The Microsoft CEO, will definitely not count his words while speaking about Microsoft.

So when Steve Ballmer, was questioned by Search Engine Land Editor in Chief,  Danny Sullivan, at the Search Marketing Expo in Santa Clara, California, on March 2, 2010 , let’s see what the CEO, Microsoft talked on Microsoft’s Bing, Windows Phone, Twitter and Google.

Let’s look at what the gentleman, who knows to play his cards right, said.

Bing!

He certainly binged on ‘Bing ‘, the Microsoft’s decision engine.

Ballmer did not deny the possibility of association with apple, just kept it slightly glanced off by mentioning, “A Bing for iPhone search deal is still possible”.

He mentioned that Windows Phone 7 series, unveiled on Feb 15^th in Barcelona, Spain, will definitely use only Bing as the Search engine. It was not made clear whether the smart-phones running windows mobile 6.x would be upgradable to the new operating system.

He also stated that,” Microsoft isn’t interested — at least for now — in releasing a Bing application for Android phones.”

Raw Twitter posts, buried in Bing, will they come up?

On Microsoft’s association with Twitter, he swerved the question by mentioning that though the partnership with Twitter is great, they are not sure about acquiring it. He said that as an independent company, Twitter has lot of value and creditability.” Would they have that same credibility with the user community, if they were captive?” he questioned back.

Has Bing been improving its offerings, in an attempt to eat away at Google’s share?

When queried about what future he sees for Bing against competition, the big wheel said, “There’s no good answer to this question. If you say ‘yes,’ you sound arrogant. If you say ‘no,’ you sound like you are happy with second place.  No one aims to be second, so the answer is ‘yes’”.

When asked whether he believed Microsoft would eventually overthrow Google in search, Mr. Ballmer said, “I don’t know how old I will be when that’ll happen”.

Looks like Mr. Ballmer admits that Google dominates the search engines.

Stirring up trouble for Google in Europe through third parties,

When Danny Sullivian confronted him on the article by the Wall street Journal on Microsoft steering third parties to push against Google in terms of antitrust issues, the suave entrepreneur handled the question with ease. He admitted that Microsoft had been in discussions with antitrust regulators over its search-engine rival being scrutinized by a number of government agencies, ranging from the Federal Trade Commission to the Department of Justice.

The CEO certainly knows to make hay while the sun shines.