Tips on Integration: #1 Promoting Platforms

8 Ways to Promote a Better Social Network Platform-

1. Create a Home Base: Having a central go-to point for your followers to continue learning what you have to offer. This may be a Web Page or even a Blogger account, but it must have links and content promoting your use of other platforms. It may also give your audience a sense of security knowing you are not just a Twitter bot trying to spam, or in a worst case scenario hack them.
2. Consistency in content: Any random person can join a Social Media site and just follow everyone and everything that pops in their news feed. If you really want to stand out as a peer of insight who others want to follow, stick to topics in the area you’ve initially chosen. ie) IT Networking Students shouldn’t really be posting about their favorite Kardashian...
3. Dealing with the negative: You are going to get negative posts, there are accounts made just to do this, don’t stoop to their level. Its all about keeping your image professional, someone who bashes your credibility on a subject or is just ‘hating’ on you isn’t worth getting into a viral argument with. Use positive points and questions when replying to their concerns, find the root and solve any issues you can. By all means don’t make yourself look bad on the Internet, thats trouble beyond the scope most people can even imagine.
4. Know the platforms and their capabilities: So many to choose from so how do you decide what works best? Research the ones that interest you, find out features and test them out. Each social network has different pros and cons, thats precisely why there are so many out there. Consider the core content you intend to use, such as text, pictures, video posts, sharing and many more possibilities.
5. Decide how and what you are promoting: Why are you using the Social Network in the first place? Business, connecting with old classmates, or maybe you are just bored, whatever the case try not to take a shot in the dark. Remember anything you post share or reply to is pretty much public domain, anyone and everyone will see it. Keep it to the point and don’t lose sight of your goals.
6. Share relevant articles from others: This goes back to point number 2. keep you content consistent when sharing too. There is a plus to this though, if you share posts about relevant subjects more people will want to read them and comment, spending time on your page. Is this good? Of course, since more time on your page means they may stumble onto things you posted that promote you and your purpose.
7. Follow people in your target audience: Lets say you have nobody interested in your content, if you follow others you may get ideas of how to represent your information. Keep an open mind, everyone has a story to tell and some are really good at it, there is nothing wrong with getting a few pointers. ie) The many articles on using lists to split content, for an easier read!!
   
8. Have Fun: Don’t get me wrong here I am all about being professional and keeping on task, but not everyone wants to read your thesis on human agriculture. With lots of information, things tend to get a little congested, sentences become pages and who wants to read a wall of text, not I… Stay light in your content and love what you do or nobody will want to read it period.

Social Edge; Business

Growth is an underline factor in all businesses on a global scale. Successful companies are always improving their tactics in order to stay ahead of the game. Innovative technology, specifically social media has created new superior methods to improve business. Mainstream networks have created a new era of affordable, yet competitive marketing strategies.

The truth about professional companies, is the fact they all look for similar key ideas when trying to grow their "brand." Many search for ways to find target audiences, with means to communicate with them in a professional manner. Another main point for increasing business is the how, when it comes to creating profit margins. Bottom line, in today's world the answer to most of these problems would be to create a balanced and large social presence.

Opportunities are everywhere if you open a Internet browser, from video streams, all the way down to forum boards, there is no limit to how much you can spread your ideas. Now creating a social media strategy might require time and effort, so make sure you find the correct social media that fits your needs in marketing. With all the ways people can comment on your sites it can become very competitive, but that's business at its best.

I wanted to improve my own understanding of this popular issue so I conducted my own personal research and came across some very useful information. My best sources were personal stories in the form of articles, business owners of all kinds expressed their likes and dislikes of social media platforms. Most stated the benefits of how it can increase business exposure, generate leads, reduce market expenses, and even possibly create business partnerships. A much smaller community but not unheard group of business owners, expressed their dislike of negative comments and possible loss of business from these social media sites.

Statistically, businesses are using social media to gain an uphold in the virtual community. I took a peak at how the media sites were doing with businesses, and it turns out many use multiple platforms. 92% use Facebook, 82% use Twitter, 73% use LinkedIn, 61% use Blogger, 57% use Youtube, and about 40% use Google +. Most of these businesses using the media sites, about 89% say they use forms of social media to recruit new employees.

Creating your own social media persona is becoming the norm within society, these technologies have created new and exciting ways to connect with people across great distances. Social media allows businesses the capability to market their products at low cost, high visibility, and consumer friendly sources they are already using. Deciding which one is right for your own business is up to how you want to target consumers, but to be honest you should really be using as many as you can if you want to optimize success rates. Research the features of each and follow through with them daily, or hire an employee well versed in using them, whatever you may decide their is no wrong answer besides none at all.

Cisco Basic Training

At this point of our spring semester at Milwaukee Area Technical College, downtown campus, about the fourth week in classes, things are starting to pick up the pace. Some students may even be falling behind in course work, I recommend not doing this though its hard enough to keep up, as for catching up, good luck I suppose. In any case learning is happening now, since topics are no longer introductory and the groundwork has been laid out for us students.

In the "IT Network Specialist" program things are getting very detailed and possibly very confusing especially if you are taking any of the Cisco classes. This isn't necessarily a bad situation, in fact this is, at least in my opinion, the best possible time to strap down and learn information that is valuable and exciting. Cisco 1 (Introduction to Networks) was a great place to start for IT Networking, since before this I have had no prior training in computer technology, basically a blank slate to write on. 

This image above pretty much outlines the core concepts of how and what data is transferred across media. This is what it means to start from the basics, and I really am grateful of the fact Cisco is taught in this manner. In our world of Smartphones and Terabyte hard-drives most people might not even know this exists, and some "techies" I have conversed with, know nothing but the name. I am by no means claiming vast knowledge about the subject, but in a few short weeks of reading and going to class I know what this OSI 7 Layer Model is used for and at least a basic understanding of the Physical and Data Link Layers. Learning doesn't happen over night, however I am optimistic and eager to learn this field, and I think if I keep working hard, one day down the road this will all seem like a foundation on which to build more complex ideas in networking.

I really enjoy all the classes I have taken this semester, and by working hard and studying the material I plan to get high marks on the assignments and exams. From learning all this Cisco technology, to the Social Media Networks and Business application in IT107, this is a very informative degree program. On a side ending note, Blogging was never something I thought about before this class, but I hope by practicing I will get much better, and I apologize if I sound a bit amateur in some of the Blog concepts. 

  

Social-ME-dia

Social media hasn't been around for that long, yet most people of today's world use it more than once a day. This phenomenon seemed to happen over night, and now its interconnected in most peoples lives. I myself have been using types of social networks since I was in sixth grade, mostly for chatting with friends and gaming, but not quite reaching the potential they have for information sharing today. While (AIM) and a game called "RuneScape" offered me a way to converse and play with friends over a computer server, it was just a basic way to use these Networks.

I have just started using Twitter, as an assignment for IT107(Social Networking and Business), since I have used Facebook and other earlier social networks this was not too challenging. The reason I never used Twitter before this class was mostly because it just seemed like another Facebook. Keeping an open mind I plugged into this new network to find any value I could,  Twitter proved to be more than worth while.

The assignment was to set up our professional Twitter account and explore the media for what it is, so I put my best effort forward. Unlike what I had normally seen this media used for, I followed a different formula from our teacher; Follow interests and information technology accounts first. Finding at least fifty "people" to follow was not hard since I have many interests. Then before I knew it Twitter became more than "social media" it became, easily accessible, current, and useful information personalized to me!

I started Twitter about 3 weeks ago and have followed about 250 people, all of which are interests I have and people from my classes. With my first exposure to Twitter I have already found more than enough reason to keep with it and continue learning from the world. By incorporating pictures, videos, articles, and the ability to Retweet at such a fast rate this has become my all source news media.

I am more than happy with my choice in the IT Networking field and can't wait to explore all the possibilities it may hold. My next challenge is to master LinkedIn and of course Cisco 1, I am looking forward to the positive results. I don't expect to ever stop learning new and exciting things in IT and if I keep an open mind nothing can stop my progress.