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Social Media



  • IP Tweeters You Should Be Following on Twitter May 11, 2012 Those with Twitter accounts who are looking for some good folks to follow look no further. Likely everyone in the industry is already familiar with folks like Professor Dennis Crouch of PatentlyO, who tweets @patentlyo, so I tried to focus (for the most part) on some lesser known tweeters. Below are some of my favorites on Twitter; people who in my humble opinion are excellent to follow. Of course, you can follow me @ipwatchdog and Renee @ipwatchdog_too. See you on Twitter!
  • Beware Twitter's New Patent Agreement Scheme April 17, 2012 So Twitter can use the donated patents "defensively" to initiate a lawsuit if they feel threatened? If they deem it is otherwise necessary to deter a patent litigation? So Twitter can be the aggressor with the donated patents, and it seems like it is their sole discretion whether the threat or "otherwise" caveat are activated such as to allow them to go on the offensive. Incidentally, and interestingly, Twitter will have "all rights to recover damages for infringement..."
  • Goliath vs. Goliath: Yahoo and Facebook Sue Over Patents April 13, 2012 The meat of the litigation revolves around patents. For decades patents have been a significant part of intellectual property law, but in recent years they have proven problematic in the development of new software and the technological innovations. Patents will now be at the heart of a cold war between two of the biggest tech companies in the world. Yahoo, which owns about 1,000 patents, is suing Facebook over 10 patent infringements ranging from Internet advertising methods and privacy controls. One of the patents is described as “optimum placement of advertisements on a webpage.” Yahoo had warned Facebook that they would sue if the social network did not agree to license the patents in question, saying that multiple other major companies had complied. Yahoo was true to their word, and called Facebook's bluff.
  • USPTO Holds 2d Annual Women’s Entrepreneurship Symposium April 3, 2012 On Sunday March 25 and Monday March 26, 2012, I attended the Second Annual Women’s Entrepreneurship Symposium (WES) in Shreveport, LA. The event was hosted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in Honor of Women’s History Month and was put together in collaboration with U.S. Senator Mary L. Landrieu (D-LA) and the city of Shreveport, Louisiana. WES was held at the Shreveport Convention Center and focused primarily on women entrepreneurs, innovation and the importance of intellectual property to business. I was honored to accept an invitation to present at this year’s event on social media and the importance of developing and leveraging online business relationships.
  • 5 Simple Steps to Building A Personal Brand Using Social Media January 17, 2012 Just like people, all brands have their own personality. Brand personality is defined as a set of human characteristics that are associated with a brand name and is determined by consumer interactions with your brand. It is essentially, how your brand behaves in the public light. Your brand personality is determined mainly by your own personality and identity. There are many influences on brand personality including profession, industry, age, gender and emotional characteristics, to name a few. But your brand personality should also reflect what you want others to think of when they hear your name.
  • Top 10 Social Networking Resolutions for Business in 2012 December 30, 2011 One of the best things about social media is that you don't need to have a big marketing budget to benefit from the different ways that social media can propel your business, but you do need to be committed and have a strategy. If you are not going to hire a consultant to assist you then you are going to need to invest the time to do things yourself, which is fine so long as you actually do it! Here is a list of “Social Media Resolutions” that you should consider implementing in your 2012 Marketing and Brand Building Social Media campaigns.
  • Facial Recognition Technology Raising Privacy Concerns December 28, 2011 As I read through the patents and patent applications discussed below, and the many more I did not include, I started to wonder whether anyone has any reasonable expectation of privacy at all any more. I am a big fan of the CBS drama Person of Interest, and the surveillance system from that show that ferrets out dangerous on both macro and micro levels doesn't seem quite so far fetched. I suppose that is why the FTC is seeking comments on facial recognition technologies and the government is attempting to get its hands around the enormous issues and promulgate some rules or guidelines.
  • 14 Ways to Exploit the Power of Social Media for Business December 27, 2011 Thanks to social media everyone has the ability to connect with like-minded individuals all over the world. But if you want to exploit social media you need to have an effective strategy. It doesn't take an enormous amount of time each day. In fact with only 15 minutes a day, you can really make quite an impact. But like everything you hope to succeed with in life it does take planning and forethought. Here are suggestions on how you might be able to use social media to develop your brand, monitor quality, engage customers, expand upon ideas and connect with others within your industry.
  • Harness Social Media & Stop Losing Customers with Social Login December 9, 2011 Frustration with registration and login isn’t limited to mobile devices, of course. As the web has become more participatory and an integral component of our lives, the average web user has accumulated dozens of accounts at different websites — each with a distinct username and password to remember. Even more problematic, many people try to cope with this problem by recycling the same password across multiple sites, thereby jeopardizing their online security. Social login alleviates this “password fatigue” problem and offers up benefits both for online users and online businesses and other websites.
  • Top 5 Twitter Myths Busted: Twitter Demystified November 25, 2011 Once you understand what to tweet, how to tweet and how much to tweet, you are quickly able to make excellent connections, increase your website statistics and search engine ranking, find some of your best brand advocates, and benefit quickly and efficiently from word of mouth marketing. In fact, next to YouTube, micro-blogging on Twitter is one of the quickest ways for information about you, your brand, your business, your products and your services to go viral. Before one can feel comfortable on Twitter, they must first understand the purpose of Twitter, realize the potential of Twitter and learn how they can use Twitter to meet their overall marketing objectives. Following, I will discuss and demystify 5 of the top myths about Twitter use for business and give you pointers on how you can get the most out of your Twitter account.
  • Top 5 Myths About Social Media for Business November 19, 2011 Social media is quickly become THE way to market your business. In the US, more than two thirds of all adults who are active online are also actively using social media today, However, there is still a whopping 57% of businesses who, for one reason or another do not understand the real impact that social media can have on their businesses. Gaining new and retaining old customers, sharing your products and services to a broader audience and giving your customers a voice, are just a few of the many benefits that using social media can bring to your business. There are many myths and misconceptions that keep business owners and marketers from reaping the benefits that social media. If you are one of these businesses, let me “set you free” to explore all that social media has to offer.
  • Starbucks and Other Popular Restaurants Go Social November 2, 2011 It seems that no matter where you go these days, the likelihood is high that you will see a "Free Wi-Fi" sticker on the front door of the establishment. Whether you are going for coffee, meeting a colleague for lunch, stopping at a rest stop or waiting for an airplane, you can pretty much bet that you will be able to check your email and surf the web while you are there. It is clear that most restaurants are starting to realize the power and potential of social media, not only for the use of their clientele but also in getting their message out in new and innovative ways. They are seeing that building larger online communities equates to higher numbers of restaurant sales. For this reason, media outlet Nation's Restaurant News teamed up with an analytics and digital branding firm, DigitalCoCo to create the Restaurant Social Media Index (RSMI) highlighting the industry's Top 100.
  • AIPF 2011 Annual Meeting: A Recap of the Event September 30, 2011 Last week the Association for Intellectual Property Firms (AIPF) held its 2011 Annual Meeting at the W Chicago City Center Hotel. The theme for this years event was "Enhancing IP Rights in a Time of Erosion." The program covered topics and featured and a variety of professionals from across the IP spectrum and beyond, including Philip S Johnson, Chief IP Counsel for Johnson & Johnson, Kirk Goodwin, Senior Counsel for Whirlpool, Bruce Hendricks, Associate GC for The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and of course, yours truly, The Social Media Diva of IPWatchdog.com. You could say the program technically started Sunday evening when the Board of Directors and Speakers got together at Mike Ditka's in Chicago. The food and service were amazing, the company was friendly and conversations were stimulating. The only thing that could have made the night better was being able to stay and watch some football after the meeting. It was, after all, a sports bar. But I digress.
  • How Industry Giants Like Apple, Inc & Others Use Social Media September 24, 2011 Those of you who follow IPWatchdog, know that my passion is Brand Development, Brand Building, and Online Marketing using social media. I try to educate our readers on how they can use social media for their businesses regardless of size. However, I decided to take a different approach and compare the social media campaigns of Apple, Inc, Coca Cola, Nike and Dell Computers. Let's take a look at how these four industry giants use social media today.
  • Renee Quinn Presenting at AIPF Annual Meeting Sept. 20 September 6, 2011 In addition to a diverse international faculty focusing on “Enhancing IP Rights in a Time of Erosion” and other innovative IP topics, AIPF offers its Brand of Excellence programming which will include topics like eLawyering, Mentoring, Legal Project Management and Social Media for the Attorney. PWatchdog's own Renee Quinn, the Social Media Diva™, will present at 11:35am on Tuesday, September 20, 2011 on "Marketing, Brand Building and Social Media for the Attorney." Renee will also be covering the AIPF Annual Meeting for IPWatchdog.com.
  • Follow Friday: IP Tweeters You Should Follow on Twitter August 19, 2011 If you are a user of Twitter you have probably seen more than a few tweets using "#FF" followed by a number of names. #FF stands for "Follow Friday." On Fridays many Twitter users will suggest who others should follow by tweeting with the hashtag #FF. If this is gobbledygook to you where have you been? Twitter is a great way to stay up to day with news and information from the sources that you like the most. You need to get on the Twitter bandwagon and give it a try!
  • Turning Your Small Business Into Big Business August 17, 2011 Having a small business means having many challenges, especially in the earliest phases of development. Faced with challenges such as letting people know about your new business, establishing and augmenting your brand, creating a website, designing logos, developing and implementing marketing initiatives, creating and printing real world marketing materials, procuring new clients and customers, building and maintaining a blog, initiating and executing a social media campaign, acquiring followers within your social media platforms, securing office space at a reasonable cost, book keeping and everything else that must be done during the start-up process. This seemingly endless list of tasks seems to imply that starting a new business will most certainly be a stressful and very expensive endeavor. But starting and growing a small business, does not have to cost you an arm and a leg nor does having a small business mean that your business has to look “Small.”
  • Will Google+ Be the Next Facebook? July 17, 2011 Google, which is undoubtedly the most popular website in the world seems to constantly be challenging the domination of the second-most popular website, Facebook, which is the world’s largest online social network that currently boasts 750 million users. For this reason, Google has been trying to create a social platform of it’s own to rival the social media giant, not just once, but now for the fifth time. First there was Orkut, which was launched one month before Facebook in January of 2004, followed by Jaiku, which was founded in February of 2006, followed next by Wave which was released in September 2009 and is no longer being developed as a stand alone product, followed next by Buzz which was launched in February of 2010. But Google has not given up and last month unveiled its Google+ program as the newest attempt to trump Facebook’s popularity.
  • Facebook Fan Pages Vs. Groups, Which is Best for Your Business? July 14, 2011 You have a business, a website and a traditional marketing strategy. But now you have decide to give social media a try. You feel that Facebook would be a good place for you to reach many potential customers within your target audience. But when you go onto Facebook you notice that there are both fan pages and groups available for use by businesses. But how do you decide which is best for your business? In order to answer this question, you must first know what each each, what they offer and what the difference are between the two.
  • Looking at the Zynga IPO, A Patent and Business Perspective July 5, 2011 The question remains in the mind of many, however, whether Zynga is a company worth investing in given its near complete dependence on Facebook for revenue. If you actually read the Zynga S-1 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission you will likely be scared out of your wits by the risk the company lays out in exceptional detail. Facebook is the primary distribution, marketing, promotion and payment platform for Zynga games, and the company generates substantially all of its revenue and players through the Facebook platform. Not exactly the kind of diversification that one would wish for, making Zynga completely dependent upon existing Facebook agreements and the extension thereof. You will likely also be underwhelmed by their IP portfolio, particularly their patent portfolio.
  • Facebook Facial Recognition Tool Poses New Security Threats June 27, 2011 Although Facebook originally discussed the use of facial recognition technology in a small blog post on the site back in December, it was listed as unavailable until earlier this month. The social media giant released its new Autotag facial-recognition tool that will allow users to autotag photos of their friends based on what they look like. But what was most odd about this release is that they did so quietly and under the radar with little thought to the risks that could be associated with the tool. Rather than having the ability to opt-in to this new tool, you have to go into your settings and opt-out. With more than 500 million active users, even if you choose not to be tagged in photos, it is inevitable that you and perhaps even your small children are being tagged by others without your knowledge.
  • With Social Media, YOU Are Your Brand June 24, 2011 With social media, You Are Your Brand. But what exactly does that mean? If you are part of a larger firm or business, you may be using social media to promote the products and services your company/firm offers, but you are doing so as an individual. Social media is about sharing content and building relationships. The general voice of your company/firm would not work in social media, nor in face to face networking for that matter, without each individual representative of the company displaying their own personalities and adding unique insight which ultimately is what attracts new, potential clients.
  • Selecting a Business Name in a Social Media Crazy World June 3, 2011 What's in a name? Well likely far more than most businesses realize. Your business name is how people will identify with your goods and services, so you want to have one identity that is all your own. Simple enough really, at least in concept, but making a mistake at the selection stage will prove costly. You really need to be picking a business name that gives you the opportunity to create a unified Internet marketing and branding strategy, from the domain name you select to your usernames and identity on popular social media and social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
  • What Does the LinkedIn IPO Mean for Economy, Jobs? May 23, 2011 It is still early to know whether this is irrational exuberance or whether this is a meaningful event for the companies that follow LinkedIn to IPO. In all likelihood it is a little of both, namely a meaningful event that demonstrates at least some irrational exuberance. With the economy and the IPO market having been in the tank for so long a little zeal never hurt anyone, right? In any event, regardless of what LinkedIn does from here on out the fury of trading and interest suggests that good things are on the horizon for the economy and perhaps for job creation as well.
  • LinkedIn IPO Huge Success, Valuation of $8.79 Billion May 22, 2011 LinkedIn announced this week that the professional social networking giant is now valued at $8.79 Billion, roughly 38 times sales figures reported in 2010, after it's first day as a publicly traded company on May 18. This may be hard to believe by many because LinkedIn has never reported being profitable, nor have they ever made more than $250 million in any one year. However, within minutes of LinkedIn initially offering 7.84 million shares priced at $45, the shares doubled in price and at one point in the day LinkedIn's Initial Public Offering (IPO) peaked in excess of $122 per share.
  • Social Media Pitfalls - Common Yet Avoidable Mistakes May 14, 2011 Social media has taken the world by storm. Everyone from college students, to politicians, to news media outlets, to business professionals, to small and big businesses, to musicians and artists and other individual people both young and old have jumped on the social media bandwagon. When creating a marketing campaign, no matter what the business is, social media is an obvious choice for those who wish to expand their reach beyond that of the local phone book. Be that as it may, given that social media is still quite new to the business arena, there are still so many opportunities missed because of common yet avoidable mistakes.
  • Common Marketing Mistakes Attorneys Make, Part Deux April 24, 2011 Can you honestly say that your firm has more business than it can handle? I would venture a guess that no, it does not. Marketing is so often put on the back burner to everything else that needs to be done. This is especially the case for firms that need to cut their budget. If you cut marketing to save funds in your budget, you will likely need to cut more of your budget down the line. Even if the firm’s table is quite full right now, you must always seek to add new clients to make up for yearly attrition.
  • Ethical Issues: Staying in the Frying Pan and out of the Fire April 14, 2011 In the situation where there is a joint research collaboration everything is fine, people are happy and hope springs eternal right up until that moment when everything falls apart. Then you have issues associated with a law firm representing inventors of a joint collaboration might be conflicted out of the representation altogether because downstream patent applications filed by one or more of the collaborators creates a situation where the collaborators no longer have jointly aligned interests, perhaps as the result of double patenting issues. Ware explained several cases arising out of a common set of facts whereby multiple joint collaborators were not consulted on the filing of a joint application (or at least not enough to their liking), which created a double patenting issue for an after filed application. The law firm representing the collective was sued for malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty; the case settled.
  • Top 10 Mistakes Businesses Make with Social Media February 18, 2011 Social Media has quickly become the fastest growing online phenomenon. Originally Social networking was for college students and artists and musicians, but increasingly businesses of all sizes have jumped on the Social Media bus. Small, medium and large sized business, retail storeowners, politicians, journalistic publications, law firms, chain stores, restaurants and businesses from nearly every industry have chimed in. Whether you have a brick and mortar retail location or are solely online, Social Media can help. But as with any business strategy one can partake in, all of your efforts including, time and money are wasted if you do not know what mistakes you should avoid in order to get the most out of your online efforts.
  • Congress Meets the New Media: How Facebook, Twitter & Social Media are Changing Communications February 8, 2011 Over the last two election cycles it has become clear how important it is to have a social media strategy. President Obama masterfully used various Internet and social media communications to ride a wave into office, leaving the Republicans well behind. In the 2010 election cycle the Democrats tended to do quite well on Facebook, but the Republicans gained momentum and did much better on Twitter and enjoyed greater overall "digital energy," at least according to research conducted by the EmergingMedia Research Council. It is safe to assume that Members of Congress are getting more involved with Social Media, and that trend should only continue to grow in coming years.
  • Twelve Key Components to Building a Successful Website February 3, 2011 About ten months ago I wrote, The Importance of Having a Web Presence where I discussed why you should have a website, where you can buy your domain name and how to find webhosting services. No matter what type of business you have, whether it be a brick and mortar retail location, a consulting business, a law firm or any other type of business, large or small, you need to have a company website if you are to have any real chance of keeping up with the competition. But what makes a successful website? How can you get consumers past the home page? What do you feature on your website? How do you set it up? Whether you are starting from scratch or simply trying to improve the website that you already have, there are key components that every website should possess, eleven of which I will share with you today.
  • LinkedIn Continues to Add New Ways to Customize Profiles January 31, 2011 When asked to name the Social Media Site most widely used by the business community, (in your opinion), I would venture a guess that more often than not people think of LinkedIn. LinkedIn is one of the few non industry specific Social Media venues that is widely utilized by professionals. But there is so much more to LinkedIn than just housing your resume. Since I wrote my series about LinkedIn there has been new capabilities that have emerged and new ways to customize your LinkedIn Profile. You can now even add a list of patents!
  • The Business of Social Media: Protecting Trade Secrets & Trademarks in a Socially Networked World January 24, 2011 The demographics on users of social media can be surprising - a large percentage are over 35, and have six-figure incomes. These users have a lot of buying power and are often making the purchasing decisions for their households. Once they know this, clients can grasp the importance of both using social media proactively. But what is the risk? In the trade secret arena you could lose everything through inappropriate use by you or your employees, and the same is true in the trademark context as well.
  • Don’t Steal My Avatar! Challenges of Social Networking Patents January 23, 2011 What do you think of my jumping buddy over there? Let’s call him “George”. George is just one example of the enormous number of inventions being made to serve our newly emerging social networking economy. George was created using a patent pending process called Evolver. He’s an avatar that can be transported to any number of different full immersion virtual world networking sites. Many new companies are forming to commercialize these new social networking innovations. They are also filing patent applications. They have many challenges ahead of them to get those patents.
  • Top 10 Social Networking Resolutions for Business in 2011 December 26, 2010 Chances are you have already put some thought into Social media at some point over the course of 2010. And chances are you or your company is currently finalizing your advertising and marketing budgets for 2011. But how many have included Social Media as a part of your marketing and advertising campaign? Are you are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Plaxo, IP Alley and other social media sites pertinent to your industry or specialty with in your field? Those you have created profiles on different sites, how active are you in your social media marketing campaigns? How often do you update your work experience and other information? How often do you post content on your profile. How often do you tweet? This are all things you can and should do. And since we are nearing the end of 2010, I thought I would share with you a a list of "Social Media Resolutions" that you should add to your 2011 Marketing and brand building campaign.
  • Mobile Business Tools - Social Media Apps for Apple iPad, iPhone & iPod November 19, 2010 As I learn more about my new mobile business tools, I am amazed at how much I can do with them to enhance my business. According to Apple there are over 50,000 apps available for download on the iPhone alone. In fact, we often play a game in our family that I like to call, “Is there an app for that?” We have found some seriously odd applications. But with all of the apps that are available, how can you determine which apps are most suitable for you and your business? Following is a guide to some of my favorite and some of the more popular non-industry specific iPhone, iPad and iPod applications that you can use to keep up with your Social Media no matter where you go.
  • Beware of Third Party Facebook Application Security Risks October 19, 2010 You've seen it all over the place... Privacy Concerns, Security Issues, Identity Stolen, Dangers of Social Networking, Social Media Threats, Personal Information Sold. All too often Facebook is the culprit; notorious for breaching the confidences of the hundreds of millions of users who have profiles on the ever-popular Social Networking site. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that their own investigations into Facebook uncovered that many of the more popular third party applications being used on Facebook have been providing access of personal information to dozens of advertising companies.
  • Using Social Media to Show Expertise and Build Credibility October 19, 2010 One of the biggest myths surrounding Expertise is that in order to be considered an expert, you need to know more than everyone else about the topic at hand. In reality, you just need to know more than or at least be able to educate those within your target audience to be considered an "Expert" on the subject. The question becomes, with the vast number of businesses and attorneys turning to Social Media today, how does one stand out in the crowd? Perhaps the single most prominent way to stand out and Demonstrate Expertise and Build Credibility using Social Media, is through regular visibility while sharing your knowledge with others.
  • Increasing Web Site Traffic and Visibility September 24, 2010 In order to increase your company’s visibility, internet traffic and ultimately search engine ranking for your website you have to implement some relatively simple Search Engine Optimization or SEO techniques. These are techniques that you can utilize through the use social networking sites to draw people to your website as well as others you can put into place throughout the pages of your own website and blog. Following are some key techniques that when executed will improve your search engine ranking, help you drive more traffic to your website, increase visibility of the content within your website and expand the audience you can reach.
  • IPWatchdog Social Networking Diva Presents at Association of Patent Law Firms Annual Meeting September 22, 2010 The Association of Patent Law Firms (APLF) will present its 2010 Annual Meeting in Chicago from September 29 to October 1 at the Hyatt Regency. The event will bring together lawyers and professionals whose practices are dedicated to patent, trademark and copyright law. Renee C. Quinn, of IPWatchdog, Inc., will be one of the speakers on the program this year, discussing Social Networking for the IP Lawyer on Friday, October 1, 2010. In addition to discussing the Social Networking phenomenon, the APLF Annual Meeting program will addresses contemporary IP law firm management issues in addition to current substantive IP topics. IP experts from Whirlpool, INVISTA and Clorox will share their IP experiences and issues and how they relate to recent IP developments.
  • Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen Sues Apple, Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Others for Patent Infringement August 29, 2010 On Friday, August 27, 2010, Interval Research Corporation brought a patent infringement lawsuit against a who's who of tech companies in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington at Seattle, specifically suing AOL, Inc., ...
  • The Importance of Social Networking for Business Part III: LinkedIn Chapter 3 August 6, 2010 Social Networking has become the most widely accepted form of networking in recent years throughout all different industries and interest groups. The reason for this is that although Social Networking can be done in some forms in person, people increasingly turn to the Internet to meet many millions of other like-minded individuals that have also turned to the Internet to exchange first-hand experience, knowledge and expertise. Social networking websites function like a community, only online. Once you find the Social Networking site you wish to use, you can often find community members that share common interests in hobbies, industry or politics. These types of common interests often make for great icebreakers in making connections.
  • The Importance of Social Networking for Business Part III: LinkedIn Chapter 2 May 26, 2010 In The Importance of Social Networking for Business Part III: LinkedIn Chapter 1, I gave you the first 7 steps to using LinkedIn as a tool for growing your business. The first 7 steps focused on getting your LinkedIn account set up and making connections. Now that you have set up your LinkedIn profile, it is time to start using the tool available to you through this social network. In this Chapter I will cover steps 8-15 on how to continue to use LinkedIn to not only grow your business but to Start Building Your Brand.
  • Facebook Privacy Concerns Continue May 19, 2010 In response to the privacy concerns being raised against Facebook, four United States Senators, Charles Schumer of NY, Michael Bennet of CO, Mark Begich of Alaska and Al Franken of MI, joined forces and on April 27th wrote a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg requesting that Facebook alter its policies on privacy. Currently Facebook information is available on third party websites without user permission. However, the Senators want Facebook to change its provisions so that Facebook user information is kept private and can only be shared with the user’s explicit permission blocking non-Facebook websites from accessing this information.
  • The Importance of Social Networking for Business Part III: LinkedIn Chapter 1 May 13, 2010 Each and every day IPWatchdog.com generates many page views as a result of our social networking through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and others as well as our own IPWatchdog Social Network. We can state with certainty that as traffic to our site increases so do the number of inquiries for our services. Increased traffic and increased sales DO go hand in hand. Increased visibility for little to no cost is an invaluable tool for any businesses, let alone small business, start up companies and entrepreneurs alike. In this series I have covered Facebook as Part 1 and Twitter as Part 2. Now I will focus on LinkedIn. Because there is so much information to share on LinkedIn, I have decided to split this into multiple posts I will call Chapters. In this first Chapter, I will give you the first 7 steps that you can use to get started and the most out of your LinkedIn account and how you can use this tool to help build your brand and grow your business.
  • The Importance of Using Social Networking for Business; Part II - Twitter April 4, 2010 One alternative that has taken America by storm and is widely used by politicians, most media outlets, authors and musicians alike is Twitter. And Twitter is not just for fun, but it is an important business tool as well. Twitter reports that Dell Outlet has generated more than $3 million in revenues as a result of it's Twitter posts. While you might not be as big as Dell, if you have a product you can't ignore free resources such as Twitter. Twitter allows your business to partake in real-time communication, connecting you with your followers and other potential customers "Right now" which is of the utmost importance in today's competitive driven business.
  • The Importance of Using Social Networking for Business; Part I - Facebook March 19, 2010 Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.  These are a few of the more popular Social Networking sites that you have probably already heard of and may already be using.  But Social Networking platforms such as these are not just for playing online social games, taking...
  • Facebook Gets US Patent on Social Network News Feeds February 26, 2010 Earlier this week, on February 23, 2010, Facebook was granted US Patent No. 7,669,123, which covers a patent on a method for dynamically providing a news feed about a user of a social network. While this may have been new to social networking sites in December 2005 through August 2006, automatically updating news feeds were hardly new even then.
  • Twitter Faces Security Issues Again and Again November 12, 2009 Essentially what it sounds like is that by getting you to sign into your twitter account, the scammers are able to look for patterns between the accounts you sign into using a form of spyware. If you use the same or similar passwords on websites of different kinds, chances are you are using the same or similar login for all of your accounts.
  • Microsoft Seeks Patent for Graphical Representation of Social Network Vitality October 24, 2009 The Redmond Giant, Microsoft Corporation, had US Patent Application 20090265604 publish, which seeks to protect a method for displaying a graphical representation of the vitality of a social network. This patent application was filed on April 21, 2008, and is one of many related to social networking that Microsoft has pending presently.