What Is Social Networking? | Web 2.0

		What is Social Networking ? How Can I Use Web 2.0 Today ?

Here are some statistics I found when looking over the Renegade Marketer and Ann Sieg's 7 Great Lies To Network Marketing:

1.Between 70-80% of distributors will "throw in the towel" in the first three months
-Over 95% never make it past the 12 month mark
-Almost 80% will not know the feeling of sponsoring someone into their business.

The Solution?

My Business

Social Networking sites have been nothing short of a phenomenon in the past couple of years. Sites like MySpace and Facebook have revolutionised the way people connect online. With the ability to connect with anyone from anywhere in the world at any time of day at the touch of a button is truly amazing. These services offer you the ability to advertise what you are selling, meet and network with people all around the world, promote something your doing, make a name for yourself and many more functions. With millions of hits a month to these websites and millions of new registrations the sky really is the limit. I personally use these services to increase my PR and reputation in the online community and meet some new people. Whatever your use is you will be glad to know there are thousands of people waiting to connect with you at any one time.

What is Social Networking?

A social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Most social network services are web based and provide a variety of ways for users to interact, such as e-mail and instant messaging services.

Social networking has encouraged new ways to communicate and share information. Social networking websites are being used regularly by millions of people.

The social networking crowd is very giving and supportive. There are many reasons why businesses and marketers should use social media, but let's focus on the individual for the moment. Why are you getting involved in Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/blogging? Is it just to chat with friends, or to promote yourself, or to create an Opportunity Network? Are your trying to connect with the past, build for the future, or some combination of both? Your main goal(s) will determine how - and where - you get started.

What Social Networking Sites Exist?

Here are some of the most popular Social Networking sites out there today and what they are supposed to do.

MySpace is a social networking website with an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music, and videos for teenagers and adults internationally. MySpace is a great way to meet new people from all around the world. Make new friends, adverise your business or just getting yourself out there! It is very easy to use and customise.

DirectMatches is a large group of communities where members can network with other. Promote your Business Opportunity Web site to free members, business customers, and managing and executive business builders. Direct Matches is a FUN and NEW way to network with fellow business people or advertise your business. This service is the #1 Social Business Networking site on the internet. I use it on a daily basis.

Facebook is a free-access social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people. People can also add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves.

Me2Everyone is one of the ONLY social networking site which allows its members to become free shareholders in the company. You can chat, network, sell, meet new friends in a 2D 3D Environment. It is in prelaunch at the moment and is close to full launch. By joining you can receive 2000 FREE company shares/stocks (& 5000 BONUS when you refer a friend), which means your shares could be worth $$$ in the not too distant future.

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters, displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers). Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications. The service is free to use over the Internet, but using SMS may incur phone service provider fees.

What is Web 2.0 ?

There are many definitions going around about what Web 2.0 is. I found Wiki to be the best definition. "Web 2.0" refers to what is perceived as a second generation of web development and web design. It is characterized as facilitating communication, information sharing, interoperability, and collaboration on the World Wide Web. It has led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and web applications. Examples include social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, mashups and folksonomies.

The term "Web 2.0" was coined by Darcy DiNucci in 1999. In her article "Fragmented Future," she writes

The Web we know now, which loads into a browser window in essentially static screenfuls, is only an embryo of the Web to come. The first glimmerings of Web 2.0 are beginning to appear, and we are just starting to see how that embryo might develop. ... The Web will be understood not as screenfuls of text and graphics but as a transport mechanism, the ether through which interactivity happens. It will [...] appear on your computer screen, [...] on your TV set [...] your car dashboard [...] your cell phone [...] hand-held game machines [...] and maybe even your microwave.

How Can I Use Web 2.0 ?

One of the main reasons for the success of Web 2.0 is that all of these tactics are loved by the search engines, because you will be getting relevant, targeted traffic to your site. This will lead to your website's rankings skyrocketing in no time at all, and with very little effort on your part as the good news for you is... you don't need to be a Web 2.0 expert to do this.

Why Use Yesterday's Tactics When You Don't Have To ?...

Promoting a website can often be a laborious and arduous task. It can take a lot of time and it can also cost you a lot of money. Some of the options available today are listed below, but each have their own pitfalls...

Pay Per Click (PPC) is widely regarded as one of the most instant methods of driving traffic to your site. It's going to cost you though and not doing it correctly can turn out to be an extremely expensive operation. Look on any internet forum and you will see dozens of stories of people who have wasted literally thousands of dollars on PPC.
With Search Engine Optimization (SEO), you have to know exactly what you are doing, because if you do not, you'll be wasting a lot of valuable time. If you do not want to do it yourself, you could pay someone else to do it for you. Either way, you will not see instant results overnight and you'll have to invest either your time or money.
Blog and Ping was a popular and effective method until the search engines changed their algorithms. Now it is very difficult to achieve any success in driving traffic to your site using Blog and Ping, plus its time consuming.
Writing articles is still a widely used tactic and it can be extremely effective. It is however, reliant on you doing a lot of work to submit original, relevant content and is therefore a very time consuming exercise. Not recommended unless you have hours and hours of free time to spare.

It's Not Impossible To Succeed With These Techniques, But ...

The one thing that the methods above all have in common, is that you'll need to be an expert in order to succeed with them. It's no different to any other area of expertise really, where becoming an expert can mean weeks if not months of time and effort on your part. Plus, in this particular area... the internet, you can also throw creative thinking and weeks of testing into the mix too. So becoming an expert in any of the above disciplines is going to take you a lot of time, or a great deal of money... or more than likely both.

The good news for you however, is that there is an alternative...

For completely free training on how to use Web 2.0 and Social Networking to your advantage fill in your details below. On offer is step by step, mouse click by mouse click video tutorials to get you online and creating thousands of your own prospects while generating cash flow to support your online career. The secrets of Web 2.0, My Story marketing and how to monetize your efforts will be revealed to you.

Attraction Marketing coupled with Social Networking could see a huge increase in your online income in a matter of days.

I teach these skills to hundreds of people per year and alot of people have seen SUBSTANTIAL increases in all types of industries and at all levels. Anyone can benefit.