Google plus is the latest social media innovation for staying connected. Currently Google plus has 40 million users. Users spend their time connecting in multiple ways; Circles, Hangouts and Games. Google plus makes it easy to share your thoughts, links and photos. Video chat (hangouts) presents the ability for members to interact directly with businesses and vice versa. Take a look at these important considerations when using Google plus for business.

Setting up your Google Plus Business page

When setting up your Google plus business page, Google allows users to choose an accessible Gmail account. Google plus doesn’t currently allow for multiple accounts so you want to be sure everyone who will be using the account and monitoring the page has access to the e-mail account.

When it is time to setup your business page, follow the Google page wizard (similar to the Facebook wizard). It will help when setting up your profile. After selecting a category for your business page, you will then need to fill out all of the other pertinent information about your business. Next, you can customize your public profile. Since the default setting is public, you want to keep the information concise and descriptive.

Google recommends optimizing your business page and sharing links before beginning the promotion process. To further optimize your page, continually interact with other members on Google plus and keep the information you share up to date.

Optimize Profile

When it comes to optimizing your profile, it’s important to share links, photos and other information whenever you can. Google plus is designed for photo and content sharing, but when it comes to sharing you will want to select photos that will ignite conversations and increase viral spread of your content. When promoting your Google plus business page, you will want to link it to other pages to increase your ranking. Two places you might want to promote your page would be on your website and on your company blog. Having links on your blog and website will help increase your ranking in the Google plus algorithm which will help grow your fan base. As with any form of promotion you want to ensure that what you are doing is providing results!

How Google Plus Changes Search

Google plus changes search by improving Google intelligence. Google will soon be able to understand trends and how people interact within their circles. Google will be able to adjust rankings to reflect individual searchers interests based off of their Google plus accounts. Google is taking its improved search results quality and decreasing the amount of spammers by monitoring the behavior on the Google plus pages. This is changing how you they build the traffic based on the +1 button location. For example, the +1 button reflects the page where it sits. If you create a paid search campaign that directs searchers to several different pages, each +1 vote will be broken down by each individual page address. Since each +1 vote will be broken down by each page address it will affect quality score. Which means, every time a page is moved or the address is changed the +1 count will reset.

When it comes to click-through-rates, the Google plus button lets searchers know when other searchers have found a page they have viewed helpful. People are more inclined to click on pages with “good” reviews rather than a page with no reviews.

Direct Connect

When using a search engine, Google has added a “+” feature to make it easier to search for specifics on Google plus. By adding a “+” in front of a search, searchers will be taken directly to the appropriate Google plus page. Add the direct connect code to your company’s website in order to prove you are the “official page”. This can be done by clicking “connect your website” under the “Get started” tab on your Google plus business page. Google plus direct connect is determined by a direct connect algorithm which is influenced by promotion of Google plus within your site.

Interested in learning more about Social Media Marketing? The Net Impact can help!

Worth a Look

• Google+ shook up the social media world again this week as it launched brand pages on the social network. Interest in the Facebook competitor had cooled until Monday’s announcement that businesses would be allowed to create pages for fans to interact with. Creating a Google+ page for your organization? Check out Mashable’s Tips for Google+ Brand Pages for ideas.
• Adobe announced this week that it is ending support of Flash plugins for mobile browsers. This now makes HTML5 the de facto language for mobile websites. This marks a huge victory for Apple and the iPhone, which had taken an aggressive anti-Flash stance under Steve Jobs’ direction. Here’s what the end of mobile Flash means for Adobe.
• As we heard at last week’s Social IRL workshop, there are important legal ramifications to consider when using social media for both companies and individual users. While social media messages online are clearly written in ink for the public to see, a recent study found that 52 percent of Twitter users don’t consider legal implications of their tweets.

Google+ pages for brands launched this week.

Trending Searches

Find out the search terms that have been trending on Google during the past week. Data was gathered using Google’s Insights for Search tool.

The discovery of the Google Easter Egg “Do a Barrel Roll” went viral this week as searchers went to Google en masse to see the search engine results page do a trick!  Surprisingly (or perhaps not surprisingly), Black Friday 2011 has picked up search momentum in early November as shoppers look to be in the know for the year’s biggest “Shopping Holiday” on the 25^th.

1. 1. barrel roll (Breakout)
2. 2. mariah yeater (Breakout)
3. 3. justin bieber baby (+2,800%)
4. 4. justin bieber (+350%)
5. 5. earthquake (+140%)
6. 6. modern warfare 3 (+140%)
7. 7. mw3 (+130%)
8. 8. black friday 2011 (+120%)
9. 9. skyrim (+90%)
10. 10. glee (+70%)

 TNI Partner Spotlight

• This Tuesday, November 8^th, was National Parents as Teachers Day! National PAT celebrated this week with thousands of other organizations around the world who offer Parents as Teachers services.
• In case you missed it, here’s the link to last week’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. This episode featured work from nonprofit Karla Smith Foundation to build a home for the Hill family. Gina and Allen Hill recently formed Silent Siren to help combat post-traumatic stress disorder.

Stay up to date on industry news and commentary, TNI happenings, and events with web experts. Sign up for The Impact Update today!

The shopping frenzy in brick and mortar retail stores, better known as Black Friday, is also rapidly becoming one of the landmark days in the E-commerce world. This holiday shopping season (defined as November and December), E-commerce spending will rise 14.3 percent to $38.5 billion as more shoppers stay home on Black Friday and make their purchases online. Shopping online during the holiday season is a convenient way for people who cannot get to the stores, do not want to fight the crowds (or the cold) or simply look forward to sleeping in the day after their Turkey Day feast – to get limited holidays deal from the convenience of their own living room.

Last year, E-commerce sales on Black Friday alone, hit a whopping $595 million, an 11 percent increase from 2008. According to eMarketer, 2010′s  anticipated acceleration in spending over holiday season, may also reflect the creative promotions and discounts of businesses that now encompass the use of social media networks (such as Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter) and other Internet marketing outlets. Many retailers are hitting the ground running with social media this year to promote upcoming Black Friday deals. Some are even posting deals that are exclusive to those who engage with their brand via their social media channels.

“The rules for Black Friday have changed significantly,” NRF CEO Matthew Shay said in a statement. “Instead of waiting until Thanksgiving Day to announce their promotions, many retailers are getting shoppers excited about Black Friday by offering sneak peeks of deals in advance, using social media to create buzz, or teasing upcoming deals on their websites.”

Recent results from the National Retail Federation Shop.org eHoliday survey found that more than half of the retailers polled will send out special emails to customers announcing Black Friday deals, while around 31 percent will use their company’s website to promote those deals, 39 percent will hit shoppers through their Facebook pages, and 21 percent will tap into their Twitter feeds.

This year, perhaps more than ever before, retailers are trying to attract customers through their mobile devices.They are creating Apps, teaming up with leading companies such as Facebook and Google, and using location-based services (such as Foursquare or Facebook Places) to serve up deals. Shoppers using smart phones will account for more than a quarter of the $447 billion that U.S. retailers expect to reap this holiday season. Retailers with superior mobile and social media strategies are likely to have an advantage in winning the business of the savvy mobile shoppers who are predicted to spend more than $127 billion, or 28 percent of overall sales, during this holiday season.

An excellent example of a strong retail marketing campaign leveraging web 2.0 this holiday season is the $500 gift card that is being given away by Sports Authority this coming Friday. The only way of getting a chance to win one of the 20 cards, is for shoppers to check in via Foursquare and tweet their check in through Twitter. However, they must do this while shopping in store during certain times.

“It’s a way of engaging with our customers, as well as a way of reaching out to a younger, more mobile-savvy customer base,” said Clay Cowen – Sports Authority’s Vice President of E-commerce.

With the explosion of Web 2.0 – retailers have an opportunity to boost revenues by taking advantage of online activities and social media outlets, which have changed the way consumers will shop, search and share this holiday season. Have you found any great Black Friday deals on social media sites? Will you look to the web to do your holiday shopping? We welcome your feedback!

Check out The Net Impact’s November Newsletter to learn more about preparing your E-commerce Holiday Marketing Strategy!

On Friday November 5th, I attended the Public Relations Society of St. Louis’ Technology Day at Maryville University. The sessions at this half-day workshop focused on how technology has impacted the changing landscape of the public relations industry and provided strategic views on how to leverage technology to boost your company’s public relations efforts.

With presentation topics ranging from social media marketing, blog marketing, web analytics, video production, email marketing and digital branding – it was tough to pick which three sessions I wanted to attend. Below is a quick rundown of the presentations I participated in and some useful tips and facts I acquired at PRSA Tech Day.

• “Leveraging Your Brand in a Digital World”- Michael Pranikoff ( @mpranikoff ) Global Director of Emerging Media for PR Newswire

With at least 72% of Internet users being a part of at least one social network and 57% of users sharing links to news stories via social channels; learning to leverage, monitor and measure social media to monitor your company’s brand is becoming vital. As learned in this very informational, and perhaps my favorite session of the conference, today in PR we are seeing a shift from brand voice to social voice (in other words, your brand is what others say it is). In using specific examples- such as Starbuck’s My Idea Campaign’s use of crowd sourcing, Pranikoff stressed the importance of PR, marketing and advertising working together to share one message. The most surprising fact I learned from this session was in 2010 there will be more content created than in the history of mankind! So how do you get your content found amongst the crowd online? Make sure your content is accessible, easy to view and easy to use – use social media to make your content directional!

Check out Pranikoff’s presentation on slideshare!

Presenter Michael Pranikoff of PR Newswire

• “Blogger Relations”-  Todd Jordan ( @Tojosan ), St. Louis Bloggers Guild

Creating quality relationships with bloggers is one of the most cost effective and beneficial Internet marketing strategies you can use in your public relations endeavors. So how do you find the right bloggers to connect with in the first place? On twitter and other social networks, google searches, blogging conferences, and through other sources. Make sure the selected bloggers are people who will care about your company and your news, or else you will just waste their time as well as your own. Don’t just pitch to bloggers like you would to a journalist – get in their inner circle by listening and participating. A great tip I learned to improve these relations: notify a blogger 24 hours before your news hits the wire. This is a great way to let the blogger know their opinion matters enough to you and your organization to notify them first. Remember – blogging is all about rewards, how will the blogger benefit from your relationship? Keep this important factor in mind when starting your outreach. The most impressive part of this presentation was Jordan’s evident passion for blogging. The tactics and strategies shared in this session to improve blogger relations came from an excellent source with a great deal of experience in the blogging world. As bloggers are becoming increasingly important influencers for brands all over the globe, maintaining good blogger relations can be critical to keeping your brand at the top of the mind of your consumers.

Check out some Tweets from Jordan’s audience at PRSA Tech Day!

• “Using Advanced Features of Facebook and Twitter”- Ed Mayuga ( @elmayuga ) AMM Communications

This informational session covered the less-known features of Social Networks. Mayuga opened the discussion with Facebook’s privacy settings. These settings are important to consistently check since Facebook changes them so frequently. Mayuga also went over how to add various groups to your Facebook account in order to share information with the correct audience, since in most cases – Facebook users want to direct their information to specific groups of people (such as  family, friends and work colleagues). Also covered in this session was FBML static pages. Mayuga suggested using @marismith as a good resource for FBML tip and other social media strategies. A few of the social media tools Mayuga suggested to test out are Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Listorious and PRlog. Learning more about this advanced features can help your business get ahead of the social media curve.

Thanks to sponsors PR Newswire and Maryville University for putting together this informative PRSA St. Louis event, looking forward to next year. In case you missed  PRSA- STL’s workshop on Friday – Check out the hashtag #PRSATECHDAY!

 “I see blogging and all social media as a way to extend our reach to people who might not get their news from more traditional sources and I look on it as a way to be more interactive with our residents,” said Florida Director of Public Affairs, Wayne Segal.

A 2009 report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that one in five Internet users searched for political information, posted their views about issues or engaged in another civic activity on a social network. Last year, Shark’s organization surveyed chief information officers of local governments about their social-media plans. Some 72 percent of those who responded said they were currently using Facebook or Twitter in outreach efforts, or planned to do so. There are other signs that the public sector is getting on these sites. GovTwit, a commonly used directory of government Twitter accounts, has close to 1,000 of them listed with the “state-local” tag.

Here are just  a few ways in which a city can successfully leverage social media:
• Receive valuable, honest feedback from city members
• Showcase success stories that might otherwise go unnoticed
• Help in organizing events, meetings and fundraisers
• Support reputation management and crisis management issues
• Promote your community’s event
• Community collaboration on documents, ideas, events for your city
• Make announcements, broadcast news
• Recruit new city employees

One of the most important benefits of using social media in your city’s Internet marketing strategy is driving traffic to your main website. Community websites are much more than a place to display basic information about a city. Today’s citizens want a more active, participatory relationship with their government and to have 24/7 access to reliable and valuable information that affects their everyday lives, and there is no better vehicle to reach a community than a city’s website. City websites serve as a platform to help maintain a direct line of communication between the city and its residents, visitors, businesses and community leaders. Implementing a web content management system, like TNI’s partner product Auctori:city, municipalities can make changes easily and quickly, ensuring their website visitors are accessing the most current information possible.  In addition, Auctori:city’s flexibility and robust, city-centric content management features allow cities to add character to their website.

In addition to Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare, another social media platform that will only continue to grow and become more useful to cities is mobile. A great example of how city’s can use mobile application is Boston’s Iphone App. This application allows for residents to snap photos of neighborhood nuisances – nasty potholes, graffiti-stained walls, blown street lights – and e-mail them to City Hall to be fixed. The application will allow residents to use the global positioning system function on their iPhones to pinpoint the precise location of the problem for City Hall. After submitting a complaint, users will get a tracking number, so they can pester city officials if the problem persists. The iPhone initiative is part of a push to make City Hall younger, hipper, and generally more user-friendly.

In conclusion, it is more important than ever that city government gets on board with social media, in order to grow communities and influence decisions that bring business to their local economy.  Social media marketing presents a comprehensive, integrated and innovative approach from which to manage municipal government resources.

When it comes to soccer, the goal of the game sounds pretty simple– you need to put the ball in the back of the net. When this happens it is usually the goal scorer who gets the most credit, but what about the defense who got the play rolling? In reality, there is far more to a soccer team’s scoring strategy than the person who gets the ball into the back of the net; in fact, a system has been devised to track the contribution of each individual player. Created by Paul Tomkins, this system creates a value of how each player contributes to the team over a number of games.

“When turning soccer into numbers, there will always be problems. And when it comes to assists, this is especially true. How can you reward someone who rolls the ball eight inches from an indirect free-kick as highly as someone who beats seven men and puts the ball in the striker’s path in the six-yard box?”

Those in the Internet marketing industry can relate Tomkins’ soccer player contribution strategy to their website conversion attribution. When it comes to website conversion, each keyword searched, link from Twitter or direct visit, which ultimately results in a conversion, is in most cases a hit from a repeat visitor or from a visitor who is familiar with your brand name. Each step of your search engine marketing strategy can be seen as an assist that kicked that conversion goal to your website, and that is why a web analytics strategy should be in place for all of your online marketing efforts. All marketing campaigns should be custom fit to your business objectives and consistently monitored, analyzed and adjusted to optimize revenue.

Looking at every step of your marketing strategy, rather than just the end result, will tell you which components of your overall efforts are effective and which ones could use some extra attention.

Keyword Research= Defensive Build Up: Who got the ball rolling in the first place? In the case of a soccer game, it may start with a key pass by the goalkeeper. When online, perhaps it was a particular keyword search at the early stage of the searching process. After this happens there is still a huge amount of work to do in order to grab that conversion, but you need to start somewhere!

Linking= Midfield Pass : In soccer, midfielders are the link between the defense and attack and must possess excellent passing skills. Just as it is difficult for forwards to have good shots on goal with having the ball being strategically set-up by the midfield, it is difficult for websites to ascend in search engines without substantial use of a linking program. Search engines consider quality linking to be one of the main criterions for website ranking on keyword searches.

Social Media Efforts= Assist: If Liverpool scored a goal last season, there’s a good chance Xabi Alonso (player known for his high number of assist) was involved at some point during that move. This may not have a huge importance to the overall outcome, but if involved more often than not, then he is clearly having a positive impact on the team. This could relate to an email marketing campaign, social media campaign, a guest blog post on an industry related blog or an optimized press release. If you take these small efforts away, you may start to see a noticeable drop in conversions.

Website Conversion = Goal: You found a visitor who is interested enough in your well-designed and user-friendly website to complete a sale, give you a call or whatever your conversion goal may be. This is the same as giving a player a free shot with just the keeper to beat. You won’t always get a 100 percent conversion rate – but in both cases there is a very good chance it will end up with a goal.

So in which stage does the most importance lie? In tracking the performance at all stages you can really get a strong idea about how every aspect of an online marketing campaign (or soccer team) is performing. With this valuable feedback from web analytics, you can make an informative and successful decision – whether that decision is to change up your keywords, improve your email marketing efforts or to trade your center midfielder – based on the actual facts and figures.

Just like a winning soccer strategy, successful Internet marketing happens only with careful planning, timely execution, persistent monitoring and ongoing improvement of the results you achieve.  With each online solution completely customized to fit the specific needs of your individual company, The Net Impact combines web design, development, marketing and consulting to complete your online strategy. Based on your individual objectives, we develop a campaign plan that is designed from the ground up to not only drive your targeted audience to your site, but to score a conversion goal.

An excellent example of a non-profit organization that leveraged social media to enhance their marketing efforts is Epic Change. Have you heard of TweetsGiving? It was one of the first charity initiatives on Twitter. In November 2008, during the week of the Thanksgiving holiday, Epic Change leveraged Twitter to raise money ($10,000 goal) to help build a classroom in Tanzania. In 48 hours, that goal was met from 336 unique donors. Not only was money raised, Epic Change found a slew of new volunteers who were interested in the causes the organization seeks to support. Why did it work? It was more than just a sheer charity initiative. Using the holiday where most Americans express their thanks, a part of the TweetsGiving initiative was to act as a creativity catalyst, asking people to tweet what they were thankful for with the #tweetsgiving hashtag. All in all, there were over 3,500 tweets expressing gratitude for something in their lives.

Stacey  Monk, Founder and CEO of Epic Change says, “Social media is making change possible. With social media, we’re able to hear totally new voices, who might not have had access to mainstream channels, which represents a real shift in power, and where change can originate.”

From dipping their toes into the water with a low-investment campaign to diving off the cliff, today many nonprofits are actively exploring social media. But a common problem many non-profits face is that they blindly leap into social media without implementing a strategy. Without a well created Internet marketing strategy, there is no way to measure your online efforts. This leaves the non-profits at a loss to justify their investment of time, money and resources, or reap valuable insights to improve their efforts. Whether you measure social media success based on how many new volunteers you recruit, the number of sponsorships or donations, the dialogue shared among your online community, or the influx in web traffic, fans and followers, it is vital to measure your results against clear marketing objectives, just as you would with any marketing campaign.

When starting a social media campaign for you non-profit, remember: a simple, yet powerful mission and message can take a campaign far. Non-profits on social networking sites should set goals, update consistently, become a part of the conversation, build community and create value. Without a clear vision and well thought out strategy, it is difficult to encourage an audience to participate. If the time and energy are strategically spent to create a social community, others will help spread your message and your desired results will come.

Recently The Net impact teamed with St. Louis based non-profit, the Karla Smith Foundation to help build online aware for their campaign event with BringChange2Mind, a non-profit superheaded by award-winning actress Glenn Close that works to combat the stigma of mental illness. KSF and BringChange2Mind combined forces to host an unprecedented mental health awareness and anti-stigma event, “Change a Mind, Change a Life”, in St. Louis, Missouri.

The Karla Smith Foundation was in need of a strategy to build online buzz around the event and direct traffic to the event website. To quickly and effectively generate awareness around the campaign, The Net Impact worked closely with the Karla Smith Foundation to create the website, www.changeamind.org, for the highly anticipated event. In order to direct traffic to the website and create online awareness, The Net Impact implemented a social media marketing strategy for the campaign, which included a strong presence on Twitter and Facebook. The KSF social networking sites were updated daily with exciting news regarding the event, such as notices of upcoming media appearances, videos and pictures, and sponsorship information. The KSF Facebook and Twitter continued to see steady growth in fans and followers as well an increase in the level of fan engagement in the weeks leading up to the event.

As a result of the social media marketing campaign, KSF was provided with the opportunity to share valuable information with their existing community, increase interest around their event, catch the attention of local media, build their brand awareness and attract new fans and followers to get involved with their organization. Most importantly, the KSF Facebook page now serves as a platform for their online community to share personal experiences and give valuable feedback in real time.

In conclusion, while many non-profits still have a long way to go, the integration of social media in their marketing efforts can help these organizations meet and exceed many different goals. Social  media is a platform that allows people to participate in a conversation about what they think, feel and care about, making social media and excellent space for the non-profit sector to continue to explore.

Let’s admit it, as a startup you desire to compete with the big boys in your space. Let’s talk about how that applies to Internet assets. They have a 200 page website and so you think you should have a 200 page website. They are already positioned with online distribution partners and you feel the same need. The big boys do online seminars and great drip nurturing email marketing campaigns and you think you need to do the same. The problem is, they have a staff to handle all of this that includes C level management and legions of marketing folks. You have… yourself… and maybe a partner or two and a spouse who would prefer not to be involved, make that REALLY prefer not to be involved. How in the world can you compete? Truth is, you can’t. That is you can’t if you try to do combat with them head to head in web marketing or in other marketing and sales arenas where they have the advantages of cash and people.

So what alternatives can you apply to your approach that can come into play prior  to that big venture round? A place to start planning your online strategy may be by exposing your product or services to the masses thereby creating a loyal community of followers who will help you get the word out. How do you do that?

A good case study may be the launch Zhu Zhu Pets by Cepia LLC. This small firm cornered the “hot toy” market during Holiday sales for 2009 based upon some very fundamental execution of great marketing basics. I recently attended a presentation given by the Vice President of Marketing at Cepia, the company that makes the toy, 24-year-old Natalie Hornsby. She has been the driving force behind the marketing and branding of Zhu Zhu Pets. While she, too, is simply stunned by the meteoric rise of the toy, she has worked very hard over the last seven months to raise the visibility of the brand. While she led the campaign to market the toy by using traditional methods, she has also utilized more contemporary methods, like zeroing in on social media marketing, such as ”mommy-bloggers” online to promote the brand.

Their product launch included house parties directed by mommy-bloggers who were then encouraged to write about the product. They set up display tables at baseball parks all around America and let the electronic hamsters do their thing. They broadcasted all of this through less expensive social media marketing using Facebook, optimized press releases and Twitter. They leveraged the resulting groundswell into testimonials and product tests with major retailers. Then came the TV commercials and other traditional marketing. Today their concerns are not focused as much on customer acceptance as they are product line extension and production. That’s what you call a success!

The big expensive website, the huge marketing staff and the large traditional media budget can all wait! If you have the “better idea” in the marketplace, maybe you can build a community! Let these social  recruits be your marketing staff. After the results start coming in, you will have the big boys in your industry thinking they need a little of your magic.

 Online videos are an effective platform to share valuable information, while providing companies with the opportunity to create hype around their brand. For example, the King and Prince Beach and Golf Resort created a 3D flyover video of their popular Georgia golf course. This innovative video drives traffic to their website, markets their golf course and engages their online community. Check out the video here.   

Online videos are not only an effective marketing strategy; they are also an effective tool for search engine optimization. Search engines are showing videos in their search results, but what you may not be aware of is how many people actually go to YouTube, and other video sharing sites, and search for specific information as opposed to using a search engine. For this reason, it is just as important to stand out from the crowd on video channels as well as in the search engines. Video sharing web sites use tags for search engines to find them. You must include your main keywords in these tags if you want your video to be indexed by the search engines. 

 In order for your videos to be found by the right audience, be sure to research your top keyword phrases and use these in your upload descriptions and titles. Find out what your targeted audience is searching for and then use a keyword tool to identify keywords and phrases that you can really dominate. Keyword research is critical because it will help people find your content and over time will mean increase your rankings. Doing this crucial research and tracking click-thrus and website conversions will only help you to secure your most cost-effective keywords and phrases and boost the visibility of your videos. 

Blendtec, a company that produces blenders. The company received millions of YouTube views and great press for blending objects like iPhones and wood blocks, proving its product was durable. Not a bad way to establish your product’s credibility and get some attention, right? 

But don’t worry, you don’t have to blend objects or perform insane stunts to create an effective video. You just have to build compelling content and use your videos to spread the word to the community you want to target. If your content is compelling, and you promote your videos through social media channels and other marketing and public relations efforts, you can increase your product’s visibility and influence. 

Just remember, the goal of video marketing is to create short, attractive, effective videos based on solid keywords that convert viewers into customers and stand the test of time.  

 Has your company incorportated video marketing into your online marketing strategy? 

If you think online social networking is solely for the younger demographic, think again. Thanks to new social networking sites that enable professionals in a wide variety of industries, such as marketing, finance and even medicine, to build meaningful business relationships, social media is now flourishing in the business world.

The Institute for Corporate Productivity recently held a survey and found 65% of business professionals are connecting to social networking websites. Business executives also have turned to online forums, email lists and message boards to sound off on information related to their industries. Of those respondents who do not currently utilize social networks, the top reason (37%) is simply that they don’t know what networks to use. The majority of respondents (59%) said they would likely use social networks if they knew that such use would assist their professional development (31% say they already do), and a full 77% would welcome using them if they though the networks could aid organizational efficiency.

Millions of professionals already turn to broad-based networking sites like LinkedIn to swap job details and contact information, often for job seeking purposes. Recently, LinkedIn reached 43 million active users, with the average age of its members being 41 years. With the growing use of social networking by business professionals, there is a growing number of social networking sites popping up that focus on business users and meeting their needs, that go beyond the broad-based networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn. There are also many niche social networking sites for specific industries, such as legal and medical.

For example: When radiation oncologist Michael Tomblyn recently saw a 21-year-old patient whose eye was protruding from its socket, he turned to his fellow physicians for help. Dozens of doctors offered suggestions, HIV-associated lymphoma or a cocaine-associated sinus problem, eventually steering him toward the correct answer: rhabdomyosarcoma, a fast-growing cancer most often observed in young children. Surprisingly, this diagnosis didn’t take place in a doctor’s lounge. It happened on Sermo.com, the largest online physician community in the US, where practicing US physicians collaborate on difficult cases and exchange observations about drugs, devices and clinical issues., which Dr. Tomblyn and 25,000 doctors like him visit regularly to consult with colleagues specializing in areas from dermatology to psychiatry.

Sermo.com is just one of many targeted social networking sites for professionals. Another example is, Nexly.com, a web-based community designed for the B2B marketplace that provides access to tools and information businesses need in order to better connect. While community tools, like LinkedIn are useful for recruiting purposes, Tom Carlock, CEO of Nexly saw the need for a community created specifically for finding service providers. Nexly.com was created to simplify the process in finding qualified outsourcing services that will results in better buying results.

Nexly is currently in the Beta testing process, and on February 16, 2010, they held a focus group at The Net Impact’s office, in order to validate assumptions and biases in the Beta phase.Check out TNI’s Interview with CEO of Nexly.com, Tim Carlock, on TNI’s YouTube Channel!

Even in the midst of the social media revolution, the behaviors and networking needs of business professionals have not changed, the media simply has. In other words, business professionals are meeting age-old networking needs in new ways. Given the new functions, features and real-time access of social media, social networks have transformed the way  professionals establish and maintain their business relationships.

As more and more business professionals turn to social networks to meet their business objectives, we can only expect to see more targeted social networking sites for professionals continue to pop up on the web. While nothing replaces the quality of face-to-face meetings, social media is a new way to initiate and build relationships and thus, continue to grow one’s professional network.

Do you have any other social networking sites for business that you use?

Which one has worked the best for your business?