Social media destinations today seem to be a what’s trending, what's fashionable media where Social Icons are losing ground and where smaller ones are constantly being replaced with the next technologically fad driven way to communicate and share with one another on the internet.

Facebook makes a weak showing when it comes to ad performance for direct response marketing (lead generation) and this month, during a quarterly earnings call, David A. Ebersman, Facebook's chief financial officer, made a startling acknowledgment that confirms what many had suspected but were never able to prove - that the service had become less appealing for at least some of its users. And though Facebook is still the default social network for many people, perhaps it is no longer as crucial as it once was for social survival.

There are also recent studies that are suggesting that people still prefer non-paid ads for search and show that the higher CTRs come from ads with a lower position that actually look likes an organic result, even though it’s often paid. This points to the fact that people are trying to skip the ads and failing.

Organic search has been and still is the search method of choice. There will always be a reason to reach out over social channels as part of your overall marketing mix but why dedicate more and more resources chasing the next hot social channel when that same technology that is changing the social media landscape on an almost daily basis can now benefit companies the most by originating the bulk of your social media initiatives from your own site.

It is time to look more within your organization to find better and more stable ways of attracting customers and communicating with your existing customer base. And this can be done by forming onsite communities, online events and classified marketing initiatives to organically grow your inbound traffic.
These integrated initiatives can effectively reduce the cost of your online marketing and provide a host of benefits that cannot be achieved or more effectively controlled in any other way.

One Big Broadcast has been pioneering these integrated technologies for years. We can show you how to effectively reduce costs and increase your ROI, Inbound marketing, Service, Sales and Customer retention.

In what direction do you feel this is all going? And what would your suggestions be?

William Cosgrove

 Nigel Hollis ,Executive Vice President and Chief Global Analyst at brand research consultancy Millward Brown, and author of two books on developing a meaningful brand tells us that Everything you do in business builds your brand for good or ill, as your actions generate feelings, associations, and ideas in the minds of your consumers.

 He goes on to say that the challenge is to make sure those actions create a meaningfully different experience that people want to repeat. This is because people are predisposed to choose things that stand out from the crowd. A brand’s difference gives consumers an easy rationale for choosing it, and a ready justification for paying a price premium.

Research done by Millward Brown finds that brands with a meaningful difference command a price premium 13 percent higher than weaker category alternatives.

For example, look at Lululemon. Founded in 1998, Lululemon produces sports apparel for women that is fashionable, environmentally friendly, and as technically advanced as sports apparel for men. The company spends virtually nothing on advertising. Instead, it concentrates on building an ardent consumer base by creating a unique customer experience. Instructors wear the clothing at in-store events like self-defense and goal-setting workshops, simultaneously building product awareness and forging ties with local communities. Through the community portal on its website, Lululemon invites customers to share their experiences via Instagram and Twitter.

They are encouraged to apply to become Lululemon ambassadors, “unique individuals … who embody the Lululemon lifestyle and live our culture.” The company now has over 200 stores, and sales soared from US $40 million to US $1.37 billion in eight years. In the US alone, sales grew 40 percent in 2012.

There is a saying that content is the fuel and social is the fire. And for businesses in today’s customer centric marketplace creating a private social networking platform connects your customer and potential customer base into a single-focus environment, enabling them to exchange ideas which will ultimately strengthen your brand and broaden your customer base.

In addition to your overall Digital marketing strategy social communities are a perfect branding platform to show your members your appreciation and dedication to serving them by offering member only specials on purchases and services all geared towards producing devoted customers who will ultimately become your brand ambassadors.

This sense of community creates a win, win relationship where both you and your members can communicate closely and collaborate on such things as events, volunteer efforts, etc which in turn is channeled through organic seo and social networks to generate goodwill across the internet from your website.

In today’s world of being relevant using content marketing in all its forms, what better way is there to be relevant than by creating your own brand ambassador community program.

The following video is a, Food for Thought, testimonial on how creating Brand Ambassadors can work for your business and create a low cost way to gain customers for  the long term.

Click Here To Watch Video

William Cosgrove

Social Communities can redefine the customer experience and how businesses interact with their customer base by taking rewards programs, customer service and feedback to a whole new level. Onsite Social Communities shifts customer support and service to being part of the brand marketing mix.

Onsite Communities brings together the customer's voice with data from enterprise systems such as CRM. In addition to other benefits, engaging customers in community also drives transparency and openness - attributes that modern consumers increasingly expect. In these days of information overload, many people are simplifying their lives to focus on their particular interests.

Creating a private social networking platform connects your loyal like-minded customer base in a single-focus environment, enabling them to exchange ideas and develop groups and ultimately strengthen your customer base.

Social Communities are a perfect platform in which to show your members your appreciation and dedication to serving them by offering members specials on purchases, service and financing all geared toward customer retention and satisfaction.

Companies with private social networks can experience better customer service, reduced customer complaints and even higher brand loyalty due to brand ambassador programs. Think of having a central place in which to read and understand your customers’ concerns, wants, needs and expectations.

As your community strengthens, your brand’s momentum becomes energized, resulting in increased word-of-mouth marketing and increased sales. The result is a powerful onsite socialcasting platform disseminating these interactions across the social and search spectrum.

Social networks also connect to events marketing allowing businesses their customers and event sponsors to manage their own profiles – including creating their own content, updating their company news and social media – which can all be administered with specified permissions tools. This “conglomerate”-style online network harnesses the power of multiple content writers which acts like a magnet to attract search back to your site.

Although your social brand strategy is important, don’t overlook the potential of harnessing your own community in a niche social community network. An onsite social community offers many benefits for you as the business and the customer that cannot be duplicated elsewhere-providing a win-win situation for all.

One Big Broadcast is a pioneer in Social Community and Events marketing technology which is part of our Integrated Digital Marketing solutions.

Think about this. Do you want off the shelf Big Box technology powering your digital marketing campaigns or out of the box creative technology?

Walmart style web hosting companies that offer free or inexpensive websites with templates and a few plugins may get you in the game and make you like everyone else- but they are not going to take you to the top of it.

Your website and the technology that powers it is where it all starts. These are the building blocks that are going to mean the difference how effectively your marketing initiatives reach your audience.

Today Digital Marketing has the biggest impact of all your marketing initiatives. You need to have the latest technology from a company that is constantly creating better ways to keep your digital marketing effective.

We all want to think that we are going to create the next great marketing campaign that is going have  everyone hitting those rewets and like buttons and sharing it with all their friends. And when does happen, if it happens, you capitalize on it and think of ways to keep it going.

But great innovative technology is what is going to power your everyday “bread and butter” campaigns that will get you noticed - get your message out and keep it there.

OBB’s proprietary innovative technology is and has been doing this for our diverse client base and dealer clients. Our clients have experience up to a 400% increase in leads and up a 25% increase in profits. OBB is proving its value proposition on a daily basis.

 OBB has invested heavily in developing and continually innovating their proprietary technologies and it is paying off for our clients in a big way.

For the price of one employee you can climb out of the box and enjoy the same benefits One Big Broadcast clients are enjoying on a daily basis.

William Cosgrove

Sara Callahan recently posted a great piece entitled “Don’t Be afraid of Content” On Automotive Digital Marketing. She said that Content is life which is true.  If you think about it content originates through us and content defines us. Our social interactions and life experiences create the content that makes up and defines the society we live in. How we work, play and interact is all creating content which is how we learn and how we are influenced.

Content is the byproduct of all these diverse societal interactions and has been with us since the beginning. Content originally communicated through storing telling evolved to include written language. Fast forward into the electronic age from which emerged radio and TV; to the computer and internet as a means to collectively store, make available, and disseminate content efficiently to the masses.

Today Business refines this content into, what I’ll refer to here, as “niche content” and uses it to influence people to buy its goods and services based on trends and societal moods. Business takes into account cultural diversity and emotions such as fear, desire and vanity to influence our buying decisions.

The internet has made it possible for companies to use Digital Marketing to get closer to its market and develop niche content to influence people on a much more personal level. 

Looking at it in this context, content is and has always been intended to be shared and used to inform and educate us as a society and as consumers. Most writers that publish their work on the internet encourage others to share their work with others. These writers understand that content is meant to be shared to educate and inform.

It is a compliment to the writer that someone thought enough of the content contained in their writing to pass it on and share it with others. Also, there is the conception that posting someone else’s work may in some way work against you.

I have personally and have seen others who have had first page rankings sharing and commenting on the work of others. Therefore relevance and interaction must be how search engines make their determination.  I write blogs but I also share posts written by others.

Sarah’s points of writing about personal and professional experiences are by far the best form of content sharing. This original content or storytelling in a traditional sort of way captures ones attention and also projects the human side of the business and lets people know that you are concerned about your customer’s experience. 

If the content is good and the message is clear, a few grammatical mistakes are not going to annoy most people. It is also true that a lot of writers use punctuation and structure that is not grammatically correct to highlight something or to make points.

In addition to Google Search, another resource is Google alerts. Google alerts is a great tool to search for content. You can create different searches based on a particular subject and Alerts will send you results on a daily basis directly to your inbox. How convenient is that?

Other great resources include subscribing to newsletters and joining groups. These provide a steady stream of updated and industry specific information to draw from. Then there is always the option of buying quality content from professionals.

Content in all its forms is king in media marketing and blogging helps to identify and personalize you as more than just another business but as a contributing part of your local community and a customer centric company.

“Don’t be afraid of content is so true” because we are content and content defines us- and content lives everywhere.

By William Cosgrove

You have a Digital Marketing initiative in place and you're measuring its effectiveness. Great. Now I would like point out a couple of tools you can put in your Organic SEO arsenal based on some telling statistics

Paid Search
With the incredible benefits of Organic SEO over Paid Search you might want to take a look at some other options that can be utilized using Organic Search. 

Organic SEO 

The importance of Organic SEO speaks for itself. Also you can see that Blogging is having a big impact. Blogging (Content) which is engaging and drawing visitors creates the type of inbound link that the search engines new algorithms reward and can lead to higher rankings.

Here are some  Statistics on Blogs:

Blog frequency impacts customer acquisition. 92% of companies who blogged multiple times a day acquired a customer through their blog (HubSpot State of Inbound Marketing, 2012)

The global population of blog readers keeps growing and 81% of marketers rated their blog as useful or better.  (HubSpot State of Inbound Marketing, 2012)

These other options I mentioned that use Organic SEO  can also play a big role in generating incoming leads. I will also point out that companies like One Big Broadcast, parent company of OBB Auto, (For One) has been in the forefront of Organic SEO Technology and is constantly pioneering technology to take full advantage of Organic SEO Marketing.

Online Classified ADS

Car dealers have been running ads in newspapers since day one and although it is less important today it is still a part of a dealerships marketing plan. One thing that remains constant is that in many cases the vehicle information is often outdated when the ad hits the street with no way to update. 

Classified Applications like OBB allow users to create an identical ad on the web site with the ultimate flexibility. Users choose vehicles by stock number(s) or by clicking on the vehicle image to create their online car ad

Once created each vehicle image is linked to the full inventory detail via the new online classified ad. Users can add a header, footer and any amount of information about the ad. They can change the color of the background and even the background image. Edits can be done via the CMS should further adjustments be required during the campaign. 
You can also create a link for printing in the newspaper and insert a QR coded for mobile access. Leads can also click through to the vehicle detail, chat live with someone  connect via trade in, credit approval, etc.
Once the newspaper campaign is complete the ad lives on your web site as yet another way to connect with local search. 

Social Communities

In our days of information overload, many people are simplifying their lives to focus on their particular interests.
 
Creating a private social networking platform on your website connects your loyal like-minded customer base in a single-focus environment, enabling them to exchange ideas and develop groups and ultimately strengthens your customer base.
 
Companies with private social networks often experience better customer service, reduced customer complaints and even higher brand loyalty due to brand ambassador programs. As your community strengthens, your brand’s momentum becomes energized, resulting in increased word-of-mouth marketing and increased sales.
 
The Platform can allow for customers to manage their own profiles – including create their own content, update their company news and social media – which can all be administered from your end with specified permissions tools. This “conglomerate”-style online network harnesses the power of multiple content writers which acts like a magnet to attract search back to your site.

Although you’re Social brand strategies are important, don’t overlook the potential of harnessing your own community in a niche social network.
 
As always you must find what works best for you but Organic SEO should be a large part of your marketing initiatives. Just keep in mind if you have an outdated website or if you don’t have the proper technology whatever you do is not going to produce the results you could be enjoying.

By William Cosgrove

DealerNet Services

I recently read a posting someone made referring to an article at MSN Money reprinted from US NEWS entitled “5 sneaky car dealer sales tricks” they did not like saying that these types of articles confuse the public and asked why do they have to say that we are always on the bottom of the food chain. (Or top of the complaint chain)

 I started in the Automotive Industry in 1977 and the same things were being said then and here we are 36 years later and it hasn’t changed. The simple fact that nearly everyone owns an automobile makes the Automotive Industry a target of accusations of misdeeds and unethical conduct. And as in any business in many cases the shoe fits.

 Being one of the largest Industries in this country is why we hear more bad news about the car industry and don't hear as much about products like replacement windows, security systems or anything still sold door to door, or online scams where the most deceptive sales strategies and outright frauds are utilized.

Fortunately most People ultimately form their opinions and make their decisions based on their personal experiences. So safe to say with the number of sales made in the Automobile Industry people for the most part are satisfied customers.
The reach that multi-channel marketing provides today can work against a company or can give companies an opportunity to use this type of bad PR to their advantage by engaging people socially on how they conduct business.

 In this case a dealer might use this in some form of advertising: unfortunately these things happen in every industry sector and it is unfortunate, but we would like to let you know that we have been a member of this community  for over (15) years and have a track record of treating our customers fairly and honestly. Come and take a look and let us make you a satisfied customer.

The simple fact that the Dealer is talking about it gives them an air of credibility. By putting a positive spin on this negative press you just might turn the tide to your advantage and gain a few new customers.

Personally I would like to go on the list of complaints about the amount of lousy customer service being given by almost every large company today in order to add every cent of profit they can to their bottom line. The ironic part of this is, is that we keeping filling their coffers and letting them get away with it.

And this includes Airlines  (they out and out lie to you about delays and problems and then don’t want to help or what about that bag of peanuts and cup of coffee you get now on that 3 ½ hour flight. And in Retail (try finding someone to help you or what about standing in line forever to pay for your purchase or the terrible customer phone service (if you can find a number to call)- I feel better already.
The point here is that negative feedback and PR can offer an opportunity to engage and find of a way to turn those negative events into something positive and productive.
By Bill Cosgrove
DealerNet Services

Here are some statistics for your review:

“The complaints filed with BBB are not only a barometer of customer satisfaction, but the rise in complaints also shows that consumers are increasingly relying on BBB for assistance in resolving disputes with businesses,” said Stephen A. Cox, President and CEO of the Council of Better Business Bureaus. 

The cable and satellite TV industry received the largest number of complaints with 30,985, a 5 percent decrease over last year. The cell phone industry ranked second with 27,293 complaints but saw a 29.6 percent decrease over 2009. Rounding out the top three, new car auto dealers received 24,698 complaints, an 8.1 percent decrease over the previous year.

Following are the top 10 industries by volume of consumer complaints filed across North America with BBB in 2010:

Recently there have been several articles posted about outdated and/or less than effective or ineffective (quick fix and cheap) SEO and Social Media plans being marketed to unaware and uniformed clients.

First of all if you are not familiar with a product or a service you should be seeking information and advice from various knowledgeable sources in order to make the right decision for you and your business. If you don’t as in anything you open yourself up to subpar or ineffective results.

Digital Marketing is an ecosystem where the seamless integration of a systems components is essential for its functioning - a central point where all the elements converge.Today You must approach it holistically.

The complexities and constantly changing landscape of digital marketing takes the right tools, years of experience and constant study to be able to properly navigate and effectively  implement a truly effective marketing initiative.

To give you an idea of this complexity, I have brought up a few points here to convince you of the intricacies of Digital Marketing and its constant evolution.

Creating A Plan That Works

 Its location culture, ideals and its people make every business unique. Every marketing strategy, therefore, must also be unique and to do that you must understand your company and your local market.

You must have a strategy to generate interest for a specific product or idea. It’s an assessment of each individual company, and a constant work in progress in determining which forms of social media will work best for you.

1.Do you have a plan?

Website

 Did you know that now, thanks to Google’s Panda update bad web design and poor navigation will get you poor search rankings.  Google decided to start watching people’s habits in an effort to produce better search rankings.

So with that thought in mind Google rewards sites that have good navigation and design with higher organic search rankings because they stay longer and navigate deeper.

Compare that to a poorly designed web site that people simply land on the site and leave within seconds because of its look – Google in particular, but the others as well, will now penalize poor design by lowering its ranking on the organic search lists.

2. Is your website up to date technologically with website design that is easy to navigate?

SEO

3. Did you know that Organic SEO is more effective and will produce better results over the long term than Paid search?

Link Building

Did you know that it is becoming apparent that with the new algorithms used today, link building is something that can land you in trouble with search engines and possibly penalized you with lower page rankings and possibly being removed from other search engine listings .

On the other hand there are also articles out there advising businesses on how to increase their in links in order to improve their search rankings in Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

4. Do you want to take this chance?

If you want to improve your search engine rankings and attract new customers you might do better by creating good content to attract people with content that will engage them. This engagement will create the type of indirect links that the search engines are looking for today through comments and sharing-social interaction.

It can’t  be all about you anymore it also needs to be about what is important to them-How they feel about something and what is going to draw their interest. It is about bringing them to you not just you going to them.

And don’t confuse the word social as just sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus –to name a few - Because these are just a part of SEO as a whole as you will see.

A report released by Experian Marketing Services in mid January 2013 summarizing web trends of 2012 revealed that search engines are a key factor in web traffic sources.  Search won the web traffic race with a staggering 49% of traffic to web sites compared to 3.8% from Facebook and 1% from YouTube.

Citation Building

5. How many of you know this term? And are they up to date?

Citations are defined as references to your business name and address on other web pages, even if there is no link to your website.

Citations are a key component of the ranking algorithms of the major search engines. Businesses with a greater number of citations will probably rank higher than businesses with fewer citations.

Web Site Optimization

Today this could be defined as a seamless integration of system components which is essential to be able to function properly - a central point where all the elements converge. The coordination required to synchronize all the functions of a web site can be overwhelming.

6. Are you overwhelmed yet?

Web Page Optimization

“The web page is the most important social media development of all time. This is a weighty statement... but it’s also a true one.” Says  Steven Aresenault, CEO of One Big Broadcast.

“No other form of content sharing has had such a dramatic--and long-lasting--impact on companies. These pages serve to inform and attract. They are the first impressions and the final thoughts. And using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will reinforce what they do. Web page SEO is meant to increase a brand’s visibility.”

6. Do you know this?

Social Media Integration

The world of Digital Marketing has changed. Consumers are flocking to the Internet seeking information about their favorite brands and products. They want the immediacy of networking; they want the ease of web site posts; they want instant communication. And they’re willing to give their loyalties (as well as their dollars) to companies that offer these things through social integration.

Social integration is the process of linking media forms to the Internet. It’s meant to increase a brand’s reputation, as well as subtly promote specific products or events.
 
It’s also connected to the way individuals shop. 
 
Consumers are now spending their time--and their money--online. They’re seeking out company web sites, utilizing social media as a way to learn and buy. It’s estimated that:
 
71% of users rely on online information for all of their purchasing.
 
79% of users seek out company social accounts (like Facebook or Twitter, etc.) to receive updates and incentives.
 
81% of active social media users favor companies and products found in their networks.
 
70% of active social media users do the majority of their shopping online.
 
The statistics are startling--if only because they can no longer be ignored. 
 
Social integration is linked to consumer awareness. Companies that embrace networking, blogging and more become part of an ever-expanding circle of accounts. They are connected directly to the demographics they need, bringing traffic to their sites.
 
A business that isn’t integrated is a business that’s losing money.

7.Were you aware of this?

SEO and Social Automation Platforms

there are also SEO and Social automation platforms available that can save valuable time which translates into valuable resources. But the key to how they function is in their design and the team behind it who will be consulting on a consistent basis  on changes and new developments and strategies that will keep you at peak performance.

8. Do you know about SEO and Social Automation Platforms and how they function?

9. Did do you know they existed?

Analytics

Measure, measure, measure.  Analytics are an essential component required to measure the effectiveness of you marketing. You must be able to gauge where your marketing is being the most effective and adjust accordingly.

Your marketing company should be consulting you on a regular basis to help you understand the information contained in the analytics that they provided and work with you on adjusting to increase you marketing’s effectiveness.

One article I read this past week that made a good point that a company that does not offer analytics is a company be should avoided-. Good advice. And another pointed out that if they don’t want to do an audit of your current marketing platform before they start making suggestions or giving you prices-Walk away-More good advice.

10. Do you have SEO and Social Analytics?

There were 10 questions throughout this article. Did you answer them? How did you answer them?  Where you familiar with them? Or maybe you had just heard about or read a little about them.

If you are unsure or unaware of any of the questions posed throughout this article it may be time to have a SEO and Social Integration specialist audit your marketing initiatives effectiveness.

If you are a Dealer Principal or General Manager you must understand the enormous impact of all this is too great not to have some knowledge so you can at least ask the right questions and stay informed on a continual basis. This is not something that you just sign up for and forget-it is a process that must constantly be monitored and adjusted to maintain or improve its effectiveness.

To give you an idea of the impact of an ongoing, properly structured and executed plan- I can tell you that I am personally aware of a dealer client who holds the top spot in many high traffic search terms and has increased web traffic and visitors by 400% and sales by 25% by having the properly integrated platform in place supported by knowledgeable professionals.

11. Did that spark your interest?  

And as I stated at the beginning of this article these are only some of the components that are involved in structuring an effective Digital Marketing campaign. Content and strategies must be constantly changing and adjusted to keep up with new Technologies, Social Trends and Changes in search engines sophisticated algorithms.

This post is only to make you aware of the complexity of the rapidly changing Digital World of marketing with the hope that you will delve deeper and get specialized competent advice- and one more question- 12. Will you be rewarded for your efforts? I’ll answer this one-Yes.

Written by Bill Cosgrove

DealerNet Services

There have been a lot of postings and discussions over how best to improve a Sales Organizations performance. I personally have written many of them.

One thing that they all have in common is the need to have the right people in the right positions and the need for Leadership.

It all starts with Leadership because a true leader will posses all the qualities needed to do the things necessary to make a business successful. Because a true leader is always striving to hit that next level of success and surrounds himself with other leaders who have the same goals.

True leaders are the people who can leave the emotion out of the equation. All emotion stems from insecurity and has no place in running a business or in life in general for that matter. Insecurity gets in the way of truly clear thinking and objectiveness that is the benchmark of a true Leader.

And this is where we hit the first wall to climb because in my career I have not met many totally secure people who fit the true definition of a leader.

You can have all the systems in place that are designed for success but if you don’t have true leaders it won’t matter how well the system is designed it will not function properly.

One big reason that Businesses today lack the leadership needed to build a truly successful business is the lack of compensation. This for some reason lately has become a dirty word in some circles.

All this touchy feely talk about remembering someone’s birthday, giving extra time of and pats on the back in lieu of compensation is just placating the powers that be. Anyone who talks like this is either doing it so as not to upset clients or have never been in the trenches in commission sales trying to make a living-or both.

All this is good stuff but if it isn’t backed up with proper pay for performance you will never attracted the true Leaders that can get the job done.

And other members of these circles are comprised Darryl, Darryl and Darryl (For those of you who remember) who are quarterly driven publicly owned companies that will do anything for a buck for Top Line and Bottom line growth. Doing more with less for the Bottom line and ethically questionable things to grow the Top Line. We have all seen it.

Unfortunately a lot of private companies have adopted the same kind of practices to their own peril which brings me to to “WHERE’S THE BEEF”

You can have all the proven systems in place that you want if you don’t pay for performance the true Leaders will find another home in the same or different Industry. Because the real talent in sales can perform anywhere.

If you think about it and have studied or have been in the Automotive Industry long enough the forerunner of the 4 square, the track system, came along in the late seventies, early eighties.

This system owners thought, would give them the ability to hire any sales clerk off the street at lower compensation and get the same results as the real talent.

This didn’t last very long and I know because I was one of the salespeople who left when they lowered commissions. On top of that, in the early eighties, I was making much more money as a Manager “then” than is being offered today. Add the rise cost of living into that and it gets ridiculous.

Before I went back on my own in 2010 I was making much more as a salesperson than most managers without all the responsibility.

The Commission Sales Industry is a unique Industry in the fact that commissioned sales is one rung below being self-employed. There are a very limited number of truly talented professionals in management or sales who can make it happen consistently.

DealerNet Services

Human beings are social creatures and our lives depend on other humans. We are born unable to care for ourselves. We develop and learn about the world around us through others. Our connections to others are key not only our survival, but also to our happiness and the success of our careers.

And being social creatures comes the need to interact with others to reassure ourselves that we are liked, admired, respected; and noticed.

Then on April, 30th, 1993, it was announced that the World Wide Web would be free to everyone and the rest is history. Since then, the introduction of social network sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and even AOL in the beginning, to name a few, has transformed the way we communicate.

Along with the Internet Social media will probably go down as one of the major influencers of every generation since the Baby Boom generation and take its place as one of the wonders of modern time.

Between 2000 and 2002 the number of users on the internet grew a staggering 566.4% Nowhere else nor at any time in history has there been a forum even close to the scale of the World Wide Web.

With all this connectivity we are now being faced with the loss of our privacy being subjected to Government agencies and even Employers spying on us and collecting information. By putting it all out there for everyone to see one should expect and understand that they are relinquishing their right to privacy to a large extent.

We use all this technology to interact with friends and family, to get the latest news and entertainment, and to research things we want to know about. It was only a matter of time before business saw the opportunities that Social Media offered.

Business saw the opportunity that getting involved with social Media would open up a huge potential resource. Social Media presented Business with ways to reach people in ways that were never possible with other forms of media. It allowed them to put a face to their business and to identify them in new ways.
But this new social medium also comes with risks that if they are not socially responsible in their advertising and communications or have any kind of misstep the consequences could be very costly.

It is all boils down to how you use it to your advantage or disadvantage. We are influenced by, and we are able to influence, people who we know as well as people we never met. We need to look at what social networks hold our interests and decided if the people we are interacting with are the people we want shaping our lives and careers.

We can influence others and gain recognition by posting blogs, getting involved in discussions, participate in forums and even help people by being a tutor online at a language site or any of the many sites available on the World wide Web.
Social interaction can open doors to job or other opportunities. You can meet like-minded people and have discussions with people who can give you new perspectives. The possibilities for whatever we are looking for or want to accomplish socially are limitless.

In the end, we need to take responsibility for how we act socially on the internet because in the end the internet as a social whole will make the final judgment on how it reacts to, responds to and accepts to what it is being disseminated.

DealerNet Services