Tag social media

Here at Diamond Mind, we love The Oatmeal, NSFW words and all. Here’s a recent article that tickled our funny bone immensely, titled “8 Websites You Need To Stop Building“. We have thoughtfully excerpted #5 for you, as follows:

Funny stuff! Now excuse us – we have to go open a Twitter account so we can add “Social Media Expert” to our bio…

Seriously, go do it! You might be surprised about what you find, especially if you are someone concerned with your privacy. Or with your online reputation, which these days equates to your reputation, period. Remember to put your name in quotes for more accurate results, and log out of any Google account prior to searching.

Keep in mind that most of the information you find about yourself online was originally put there by Y-O-U, particularly if it was through one of the social media platforms like Facebook or LinkedIn. There are plenty of sites out there, though, that gather all that information together in one place for the entire world to see — Pipl, for example.

In any case, you do have some control over what is out there. You can change the privacy settings on your own social media accounts (or remove information entirely), though that won’t get rid of it elsewhere once it’s been collated. You may have to visit each “aggregate” site individually to request removal of unwanted public information.

If that seems like too big a chore, you can always hire someone proficient in online profile management (such as your friendly neighborhood web designer) to attempt a clean-up for you. And all of this holds true for businesses as well as for individuals. Check out this infographic from PR-Daily for some online reputation specifics.

And here we always thought that “Men are from Mars, women are from Venus”! Not according to this infographic from InternetServiceProviders.org, which breaks down social media usage by sex.   Most of the stats fall into the “expected” category, i.e. females make up the lion’s (or lioness’) share of Pinterest users, and so on.

Among some of the more surprising conclusions:

1) Pinterest drives more business referral traffic than Google+, LinkedIn, and YouTube combined.

2) Even though Google+ is dominated by male users (or maybe because of that), the average time spent PER MONTH on Google+ is only 3 minutes!

What stats from this graphic make you go hmmmm?

Okay, I know nothing about AI University, except this: They have a great marketing department! Check out this ad about bringing social media into the real world. You’ll “like” it!

Looks like Amazon is capitalizing (some might say “finally”) on the Social Media craze, by rolling out something new: Amazon Pages, which will allow companies set up their own pages on Amazon.com as “custom destinations,” in other words, landing pages.  These new pages will come with www.amazon.com/brandname URLs and dynamic designs with large photos and social media links.

So far, just an enhanced version of what is already available to businesses using Amazon for e-commerce.  The BIG news is that Amazon will be integrating what they call “Amazon Posts,” to allow companies to engage their audiences and market themselves across both Amazon AND Facebook.  And finally, they will offer Amazon Analytics as a way to track marketing efforts and sales results.  For more on the specifics, visit the Amazon page here.

One can assume that it’s only a matter of time before other social media sites like Twitter and Pinterest are added to the mix.  Even though the new Pages are as yet somewhat limited in what they offer, given Amazon’s huge stature in the online world, early adopters are likely to see a large (if temporary?) jump in their search engine rankings.  And it’s all free, so why not take advantage of the possibilities?  For a more detailed examination of this news, you can read the Telecrunch article here. Or to go ahead and get started, call Diamond Mind Web Design at 417.496-9905.

…so this is where I’ll begin:  Eight (8!) years ago this month, the metaphorical doors of Diamond Mind Web Design opened, and since we are still alive and kicking, I thought that maybe it was time to start my own blog.  Not my first, actually, as I’ve been blogging for about three and a half years over at Business Power Network, but for the first time I’ll be able to focus on topics specific to the web world.

What you will find here: Posts about the dos and don’ts of web design, posts about social media in general, Facebook and LinkedIn in particular, posts about SEO and profile management, and more.  Some will be more technical in nature, some will not; hopefully all will be useful, or at least interesting.  You’ll also find some humor, I hope, though the odds are it will be of a more Pythonesque nature than anything else.

What you won’t find here: Posts about finance, religion, or politics.  Not only did my momma tell me to avoid those subjects in polite conversation, as I have no expertise in any of those fields, I choose not to blather on about any of them.  You can find plenty of that elsewhere; you’ll find none of it here.

Wait, did I say “none”?  Oh, yes, well, one, anyway.  The candidate I endorse in this fall’s election is…

Yes, that’s right — Craig Ferguson for President!  I don’t care if he wasn’t born in this country.  He speaks with a Scottish accent, and that alone makes him trustworthy! 🙂  Okay, I’ll quit now while I’m still ahead.  Encourage your friends to sign up for the blog; we’ll have a kick-off contest soon.  Until next time!