Social Media Marketing

As I've written before, everyone has an opinion about social media. I think it's captivating. Perhaps I feel this way because social media & networking is such a product of my generation; perhaps it's because I love the feeling of connectedness it brings; perhaps it's because I'm completely fascinated with how quickly it allows news and information to travel. No matter the reason I'm always looking to consume as much as I can about current and future social media.

MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube are unarguably the most well-known and most mainstream of the social networks. Yesterday I stumbled across a great site, educating online marketers the value of using these three sites. Aptly titled "MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube Marketing," Nick Jag offers-up some very valuable information about playing "smartly" on these sites. I'm definitely going to have to spend some time sorting through his site, and certainly take advantage of his "Resources."

I'm Powncing!

Social networking site Pownce has surfaced in various online media outlets over the past few weeks, so I'm eager to keep a close eye on it! Actually, the network is still in Beta and currently invite-only but The Wired Kayaker was kind enough to extend an invitation to me. Thanks, Drew!

As I mentioned, I'm keeping a close eye on Pownce to see how it grows, and also how its covered in the media. Like Twitter, Pownce offers functions like "notes" (i.e., personal messages) and friendship capabilities that help online users keep-in-touch with one another. One of the noticeable differences between Twitter and Pownce is the latter allows the profile owner to segment out the messages they send to their friends. For example, I recently requested one of my favorite vloggers to be a friend, so once she accepts my invitation I can send messages directly to her...that only she can see!

Here's a screenshot of my profile:


I'm looking forward to connecting with friends on Pownce!

It's All About Being Social

The more time I spend online--particularly in the blogosphere--the more opinions I hear about social networks and social media. Everyone has a take on what sites "work" and what sites "don't work," which ones are more reputable and such.

Honestly, I don't may too much attention to these "opinions." I'm going to be active on the sites I like and enjoy; not only that, I want to be where my friends and blog readers are. So I'm pretty active on the following social sites and directories:

- MySpace
- BlogCatalog
- MyBlogLog
- Twitter
- Wink
- more

I'm curious to know...what sites are you active on? And if you are active on various sites, why aren't we friends?!?!

Funny Facebook!

I stumbled across this hilarious video for Facebook. It's actually making fun of the eHarmony spots more than anything, but in thinking about things I realized it's a great testament to the power of social networking sites like Facebook.