Business has always been a personal experience as it is people selling, buying, dealing with people. Social media has helped business hugely to connect on that personal level with the investment now being time rather than money. If business need a reason to invest in social networking then look at this fact “According to Brand Reputation, 84% of the consumers they surveyed are more likely to look for online product reviews than they were just a year ago” That fact is powerful enough as you realise that Google is your primary advertising tool but then if you add “And those who have had a negative experience are five times as likely to tell their friends” I often come across people who believe that investment in social... [Read more]

I have always thought that the internet was the ultimate source of The World Being Flat….I have enver thought about barriers to trade. Therefore I was intrigued to see a Europa press release regarding the trading between EU nations. Just look at this phrase “only 7% of people shop online cross border. Although 50 percent of European retailers are online, only 21% sell in other Member States.” The online tests showed that “the transaction was blocked 6 times out of 10. In the case of some computer and electronic equipment the failure rate reached 8 times out of 10. Only two countries (Spain and Austria) exhibited success rates slightly above 50%. Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia and Belgium are the countries where attempts at... [Read more]

A recent survey highlighted by the Telegraph shows that Twitter may be costing UK business £1.38bn!  The survey shows that More than half of office workers use sites like Twitter and Facebook for personal use during the working day, and admit wasting an average of 40 minutes a week each. One in three of the 1,460 office workers surveyed also said they had seen sensitive company information posted on social networking sites, leading to fears about how workers use the internet. Philip Wicks, consultant at Morse, the IT services and technology company who commissioned the survey, said the true cost to the economy could be substantially higher than the £1.38bn estimate. What makes me smile about surveys like that, is... [Read more]

Here are this weeks articles which you have sent BuzzNetworker to help the community with their social media and social networking Jason Small presents Top Facebook Fan Pages: 25 Most Fanned Pages posted at Social Media and The Big W, saying, “A review of the top 25 Facebook Fan Pages produced by businesses with insight into the best practices used.” Anna presents Who is at the centre of your world? posted at The Engaging Brand Rick Sincere presents Exposing the ‘Twitter Gap’ posted at Rick Sincere News and Thoughts. Madeleine Begun Kane presents The Price Of Facebook Friendship posted at Mad Kane’s Humor Blog. Neal Schaffer presents 25 LinkedIn Etiquette Tips to Ponder ? Revisiting ?What is Your Favorite LinkedIn... [Read more]

Trust is a key ingredient in successful networking, it is the oil in the friendship process and without it then ….well, strong networks will struggle to be formed. But what is trust? What gives people the trustability factor? I have often thought it is almost intangible…..something that you can feel in their presence and yet you couldn’t describe in its entirety. I was lucky enough to speak to Vanessa Hall about trust and The Truth About Trust in Business on the latest Engaging Brand podcast and it is worth checking out her thoughts on how to become that trusted person…… Trust for me is about seeing the world from other people’s eyes……and looking not what they can do for you, but what you can do... [Read more]