About a year ago, I wrote an article with guidelines on writing a website design and development Request for Proposal (RFP), which received a great response. Now I think it’s high time to do the same thing for those wishing to engage an agency for Social Media Marketing and other Online Marketing and Advertising consultation and implementation.

Below are my suggestions of how to prepare an RFP for social media projects, retainers and campaigns. I also suggest doing research online and viewing other Request for Proposals to see what works best for your organization. Keep in mind that whatever format you choose will determine not only how long the responses are, but also what type of focus you are looking for from the respondents. Each section of the RFP is outlined below, along with some explanation and suggested questions. Have fun!

Information about your organization and project

Introduction

The purpose of this section is to give a brief overview of the company issuing the RFP and the social media project or desired work relationship between the company and the vendor. Provide as much information as you feel is necessary to allow vendors to prepare an accurate proposal. If you feel that there is certain proprietary or other information that you do not wish to make public, require a Non Disclosure Agreement be signed before receiving that information. This may limit the participation of vendors, but it is oftentimes necessary to protect private information.

1. Company Overview

• Organizational history
• Your business objectives
• Your company’s history using social media or reasons why your organization intends to begin to participate in social media

2. Overview of Project

• State the project objectives and how they relate to the business objectives stated above. Explain the type of vendor relationship desired i.e. Project-based, Agency of Record, etc. Explain the current involvement your organization has with social media channels and how they relate to both your organization’s primary presence and any related campaigns
• Explain the social media channels you wish the campaign to involve, unless you are looking for suggestions of which to use, then please specify that to the vendors
• Explain how the project fits into your overall marketing strategy (online and offline) and if there is another vendor involved in other aspects of your Advertising and Marketing initiatives
• Explain the measurable outcomes you would like to see
• Explain the duration of the work – is it a temporary campaign, or an ongoing organizational marketing platform?

3. Overview of Audiences and Stakeholders

• List primary audiences for the company, i.e. demographics, psychographics, etc
• List primary information needs of each audience group
• Identify if any market or audience research will be necessary in the execution of the campaign

4. Overview of Response

• Make it clear the type of response you are looking for:
• Are you looking for a hypothetical approach, or an explanation of the vendor’s process of how they will come to create your campaign. Many times a hypothetical approach is not the best way to approach an RFP process simply because a vendor will be missing several key pieces of information that might negatively affect their ability to propose a specific solution. We suggest looking for more general responses and weighing the effectiveness of past client work heavily

Guidelines for Proposal Preparation

• In order to give all qualified vendors a level playing field, it’s important to set up an easy to follow schedule for both when your RFP is issued, when and to whom questions are allowed, and when and in what format responses are required
• Specify the date the RFP was issued (Month, Day, Year). If your RFP is publicly listed, it will help those searching for RFPs on Google or by other methods to find relevant Request for Proposals
• An optional requirement is to specify that all interested vendors register their intent to submit a proposal by a certain date – usually within 1-2 weeks of the RFP issue. This is a good way to limit the potential number of vendors who respond if you anticipate a large volume of proposals and would rather receive a smaller amount
• We recommend allowing a question and answer period that ends at least 1 week before the proposal is due. It is up to you whether to allow questions by email, conference call or individual phone calls. We do recommend that you share all the questions (and answers) with all interested vendors in order to keep things as equal as possible. Always specify which format -phone call, email, and to whom these questions should be addressed. We recommend identifying a single person in your organization to be the point of contact. Just make sure vacation schedules, etc don’t interfere with this process, and if there is any other reason why the primary point of contact might need to be out of town during the process, specify a secondary point of contact
• Responses from issuer to be sent by 20XX in the following formats (specify whether electronic submissions, hard copies or both must be either emailed, mailed or hand-delivered)
• On the basis of the replies to the RFP document, a short list of potential vendors will be selected and this group will be asked to present demonstrations of their capabilities and vision for the project. These meetings will be completed by XXth, 20XX
• Awarding of the contract to selected Vendor by XXth, 20XX
• Work to commence by 20XX and to last until (if applicable)

Vendor Questions and Qualifications

The following is a series of questions that, if applicable, we suggest you ask the vendors submitting proposals. Some may not apply, but it is a great idea to get as much of an idea of the vendor’s approach and philosophy on social media as possible. Compare the responses both among each other, and to the research and reading that you have done to make sure that the vendor is up to date with the latest thinking and best practices.

COMPANY DETAILS

• Company name and parent company name
• Ownership structure
• Years in operation
• Mailing address (headquarters)
• Other office location(s)
• Primary phone
• Fax number
• Website and blog URL
• Primary point of contact (name, title, phone and email address)
• Total number of employees
• Number of vendor employees whose primary function is social media
• Current client list with those engaged in social media work identified
• Percentage of total revenue that is social-media related
• Three references for social media work including; company name, primary client name, contact details and brief explanation of services provided
• Any potential conflicts with existing vendor client base and this RFP
• Senior social media staff bios and links to social media profiles where applicable
• Please provide a complete list of relevant social media platform and technology partners
• References from clients currently engaged in social media work with the vendor

CAPABILITIES & EXPERIENCE

• List all social media and online marketing capabilities
• Do you have any proprietary tools or products related to social media?
• Please list any experience you have with integrating social, paid and/or earned media
• Is there a specific industry or type of work your firm specializes in?
• Please list and provide links to primary social media communication channels for your company (i.e.company blog,Twitter account, Facebook group, blogs authored by principals, etc.)

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STRATEGY

• Please outline your social media strategy process
• Which stakeholder groups do you typically include in a strategy engagement?
• Describe the final deliverable of a strategy engagement
• What is your approach to risk management in social media?
• How do you incorporate existing applications, websites, microsites and newsletter programs into your overall social media strategy?
• How do you ensure compliance with client legal requirements?
• Please describe your approach to integrating across client marketing, customer service and corporate communications departments. Please provide an example of your work in this area
• How do you approach adapting a traditional brand into a two-way dialogue?
• Please provide a case study of your strategy work that resulted in a social media initiative and the business results achieved

REPUTATION MANAGEMENT & SOCIAL MEDIA MONITORING

• What is your brand/reputation monitoring process (i.e. proprietary tools used, methodology, etc)?
• What is your opinion on automated sentiment analysis?
• What technology do you use to assist in online monitoring?
• How long (on average) between a potential issue being posted online and being flagged to the client?
• What volume of mentions has your organization handled in the past (e.g. 2,500 mentions per week)?
• What is your quality assurance process to ensure that the large volumes of data gathered in the monitoring process are handled efficiently and representative of the overall online conversation?
• Please detail your methodology for handling online crises
• What services do you provide in support of online crisis management?
• Please describe the structure of your crisis management team, including bios and relevant experience
• How do you assess which mentions require immediate responses and which do not?
• Please outline your general approach to sourcing and responding to comments
• Please provide a case study detailing your work for the purposes of managing reputation or online crisis management, including outcomes and lessons learned
• Please include a sample of your monitoring report format and/or a link to appropriate dashboards (specifics should be removed)

METRICS, MEASUREMENT & REPORTING

• What methodology do you use for measuring the success of your social media programs for clients?
• Please provide specific examples based on past work
• Have you developed any proprietary metrics? How have you applied these for clients?
• How have you defined Return on Investment (ROI) from a social media perspective in the past?
• How do you take data points generated from various social media channels and measurement tools and combine to give an objective/comprehensive view?
• What is your approach to server analytics and community analytics for program measurement?
• Do you have the capability to measure cost per lead or cost per acquisition? Please provide an example of a project on which you have done so
• What platforms are you unable to measure accurately, or able to provide only limited measurements from?
• Please provide a sample of a measurement document or final report (specifics should be removed)
• What percentage of the budget do you recommend be dedicated to metrics and measurement?

CLIENT EDUCATION & TRAINING

• Do you offer social media training services for clients? If yes, what formats are they available in?
• What internal processes do you have in place to ensure that your staff is kept current on social media innovations and best practices?
• How do you measure progress and evaluate training effectiveness?
• How do you recommend that clients keep up to date on the latest social media innovations and best practices?

SOCIAL MEDIA AND OTHER DIGITAL CHANNELS

• What are your design, creative and community management capabilities?
• What percentage of your staff is dedicated to building and deploying social media solutions versus management and consulting?
• Please describe your experience with the following platforms and tactics:

– YouTube or similar video sharing sites

– Blogs, Podcasts, Vodcasts, Forums

– Content Management System (CMS)

– Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

– E-mail Marketing

– Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing(SEM)

– Facebook Pages, Apps, API integration

– Mobile application development

– Twitter

– News sharing sites (i.e. Digg, Reddit, etc.)

– Virtual Worlds and Augmented reality

– Photo sharing (i.e. Flickr) and other content sharing sites (i.e. Scribd, Slideshare, Delicious, etc.)

– Social Media press releases(SMPRs)

– Crowdsourcing or Wikis

– Real world events organized via social media (e.g. Tweetups)

– Ratings/Customer service sites (i.e. Yelp, ePinions, etc.)

Please provide examples of social media channel development work completed within the last two years

COMMUNITY AND INFLUENCER OUTREACH (SOCIAL PR)

• What is your process for identifying influencers within various social media channels?
• How do you determine and define “influence?”
• What is your outreach process for communicating with identified online influencers?
• What tools and approaches do you use for Influencer Relationship Management? (Third-party, proprietary,etc.)
• How have you integrated Influencer Outreach with traditional communications and/or marketing campaigns?
• How do you approach seeding conversations within stakeholder groups?
• What is your exit strategy with influencers once the initiative is completed?
• How do you ensure authenticity and transparency when conducting outreach on behalf of a client?
• Please provide a case study of an online community outreach project

CLIENT SERVICES & PROJECT MANAGEMENT

• How is a typical client engagement with your firm structured?
• How do you structure your account teams?
• Please outline your internal communication structure. If your account staff is separate from your project management staff, please detail how these teams work together
• If you are selected to provide social media services, who will be assigned to our business (please provide names, titles and short biographical notes)
• What percentage of senior staff involvement is structured in to your projects? What role do they play?
• How are your projects priced? Using an hourly rate? Blended agency rate? If the former, please provide a rate card
• What change management practices does your agency employ?
• What reports will be provided to the client in order to communicate project milestones and overall project health?
• What is the frequency of these reports?
• What is your process for gathering business requirements?

Writing a Request for Proposal (RFP) is a good first step when considering Online Marketing and Social Media work as it takes thoughtful planning to specify and construct an effective, integrated campaign. A well thought-out, quality RFP is essential to a successful endeavor because it helps you to focus on your goals and exactly how to achieve them.

The problem with the micro-blogging platform Twitter is that it is deceivingly simple, and this is partly true because each tweet is only 140 characters or less. Thus, while it appears to take very little thought to tweet, in actuality it takes a planned strategy to be effective on Twitter.

But before you get deep into your strategy, you need to join Twitter if you haven’t already. And even this relatively simple step can be fraught with peril. (Some of you may already be on Twitter and not following one or more of the tips below.)

Thus these are my top Twitter tips for correctly starting on this social media platform:

Sign up for Twitter only when you are ready to do these steps:

1. Post a photo with your brief bio.

2. Choose a good Twitter username (can be your name or business name or brand but not something goofy – try to avoid using an underline and numbers; whatever capitalization you enter the username with is the way your username will show up although people can type it with or without the capitalization).

3. Put your real name in the NAME box in the settings/account info. (Your Twitter username goes in the username box.)

4. Start slowly watching what other people tweet instead of trying to amass 1,000 followers in one day and getting kicked off Twitter for “spamming.”

5. Include a URL if you have a website.

6. Write something interesting in your brief bio instead of something goofy.

7. Tweet at least two updates as soon as you upload your photo and write your brief bio (160 characters).

Of course there are lots more tips for using Twitter successively, but this will get you started. (If you’re a blogger, note that you can use third-party applications to automatically post your blog feeds to your Twitter account.)

And no matter what anybody says (and I’ve read the naysayers, too), if – and I mean if – you learn to use Twitter correctly and effectively, you’ll come to appreciate what a genius online tool it is.

Parents are God’s chosen vehicles to bring life into this world. Yet every parent has the potential to become a child abuser. In a world that has lost its soul and suffers from ‘poverty of humanism,’ it is no wonder that the incidence of child abuse is escalating, in spite of the fact that only a fraction of cases is reported.

Child abuse is the continuous maltreatment of a child by a parent or a caregiver, which results in physical, mental, emotional or psychological injury to the victim. Statistics show that about three million cases are reported annually worldwide, most of them being abused by their own parents. In USA, 2450 cases are reported daily, of which four meet their death.

Different Forms of Abuse:

o Physical, which involves beating, burning or starving the child.

o Verbal, when a child is continuously insulted, scolded, yelled at, or ridiculed.

o Emotional, by not providing love, security, and attention which a child craves for, or by starvation or neglect of his needs.

o Sexual, by incest, sodomy, oral and other abnormal sexual activity.

The perpetrators in most cases are one or more parent. It can happen in any home, rich or poor, educated or illiterate, in villages or cities. Relatives, neighbours, friends or strangers can also abuse children.

Potential Triggers of Abuse:

o Poverty and the immediate needs of a large family can drive a person to desperation. It finds expression in physical or verbal abuse. Harassed mothers have known to kill their children and then commit suicide.

o Hormonal fluctuations in pre-menstrual, post natal or peri-menopausal years cause unpredictable mood swings in women, sometimes leading to abuse of children.

o Drunken or drug addicted parents are easily provoked.

o Abnormal babies or those with disabilities are subjected to abuse by both parents and the general public.

o Sexual abuse within the home is a disturbing reality. The infamous case of Josef Fritzl who imprisoned his daughter for years and sexually abused her, is still fresh in our minds.

Reasons why parents abuse their children:

– Immaturity, unwanted pregnancies and single motherhood.

– Lack of parenting skills and ignorance about the needs of a developing child and inability to cope.

– Judging children by adult standards.

– Over burdened mothers with home, husband, family and children to care for.

– Financial problems, illness, insecurity.

– Conflict between parents.

– Poor childhood experiences.

Abuse is a vicious circle. What the person experiences in childhood is replicated in his family. In a survey of prison mates, 37% women and 14% of men said they were abused in childhood.

Methods of various forms of abuse:

Physical Abuse might lead to bruises, head injuries, fractured bones. Sometimes there might be no external signs and parents may not even recognize internal bleeding.

– Poisoning is a well known form of abuse. Baby sitters and harassed mothers sedate irritable babies with opium or other drugs. Excessive salt in the food can cause drowsiness or even convulsions, which the caregiver may not know how to handle.

– Smothering with a pillow or stuffing a child’s mouth with a cloth, or putting a plastic bag over the head, are ways of quietening a child.

– Corporal punishments in school even though it is against the law, tonsuring the head, blackening the face, are methods used by teachers.

– Mutilation of children for purposes of begging, by kidnappers. This is big business and is run by syndicates in India, or Gypsy mafia in Europe. Children are also sold to Arabs for camel racing or to pimps for prostitution.

– Child labour is another form of abuse. Children are put to long hours of work in sweat shops, factories, hotels or construction sites.

Emotional Abuse can be subtle and difficult to detect. It may take the form of name calling, continuous verbal insults, repeated criticism, threats to abandon the child in some boarding home. Some children are starved or locked in the house when parents go out. In 60% of cases however, signs of neglect can be detected. Certain general features must arouse suspicion.

The child may be dirty, unkempt and underfed. He may be irritable and ill at ease in company. He may have trouble communicating with others. He could also be a slow learner, stammer or even refuse to talk. Parents do not stimulate his potential for cognition.

The effects are tragic. There nothing so sad as parental rejection. The child has a poor self image and lacks self esteem. He may withdraw into himself or find it difficult to trust or love people.

Sometimes, in a last ditch effort to enlist help, he will exhibit signs of “touch hunger,” a desire to be cuddled and held. He craves for physical contact. But this craving may also make him a likely candidate for sexual abuse.

Sexual Abuse has become a major problem worldwide. It comprises a wide range of activities from rape to indecent gestures and exposure, touch, showing pornographic films and literature or masturbating in the child’s presence. In some cultures, fondling of a child’s genitalia is not wrong. In slums where there is overcrowding, sexual privacy and body concealment are not adhered to. As a result, children become sexually aware at an early age.

Sexual abuse is seriously engaging the minds of psychiatrists, pediatricians, sociologists and even the law. Delinquency, mood disorders, criminal tendencies, psychosis, school drop out, are all being traced to sexual abuse in childhood.

Intrafamilial abuse (fathers, brothers, cousins, uncles) is as high as 45% of all cases. Incest occurs even in the highest social strata and is often a well kept secret. When the wife is an invalid, a man seeks pleasure with his female child, as he cannot jeopardize his reputation by going to a prostitute. The wife covertly acquiesces, as she does not want to lose her husband. The victim is in a dilemma. She loves her father, but knows that what he is doing is wrong. Her guilt may lead to delusions, hallucinations, lying, or lesbianism, prostitution, alcohol or drug addiction in later life.

Time to Act:

Society must assume responsibility for the security of children. It has three obligations.

1. Be aware about various forms of child abuse.

2. Report any suspicious case to the police, child protection services or child welfare organizations. Doctors, pediatricians, neighbours or friends should not hesitate to take suitable action.

3. Help abused victims or their troubled parents in whatever way you can, either by providing useful information or resources.

Parents must provide a secure home where there is love, discipline and proper guidance. Children need a moral scaffolding on which to build their lives. Discipline should be through parental example.

Spending quality time and communicating freely with children, will create a close rapport with them. They will bring their problems home and advice and guidance. Parents should be involved in the lives of their children.

Parents who have abusive tendencies must seek the advice of counselors and make use of the many support services available. Both the child and parents may need extended counseling until the child feels protected, and the parents have been cured of their bad behaviour.

Cruelty leaves a mark on the chemistry of the brain. Continuous abuse may bring about permanent changes. This can turn them into violent and antisocial individuals in later life.

The chemical vasopressin increases aggression and serotonin suppresses it.

When children become secretive or have nightmares, or wet the bed or show sudden adult behaviour, prompt investigation should be done, and the cause eliminated.

Child abuse affects everybody. It is a social burden, and the responsibility of helping both the abusive parents and the abusive child to break the vicious circle, must rest with society.

Social Media. Yes, it’s all the rage at the moment. But could this just be (…gasp!) a fad? Will we still be tweeting in 2015? Will Facebook and LinkedIn still be popular five, four, or even two years from now? Or will we have moved on to something else altogether? Aside from the compromised security issues and other well-documented misuses associated with some of these sites, there are other problematic aspects to social media right now that no one seems to mention.

When you’re in business, it is expected that you must be outgoing, friendly, extroverted and socially well-connected. Hence, the success of social media sites.

However, not all of us in business are naturally that way. There are some of us who struggle with shyness, stage fright, fear of public speaking and the burden of contending with the competition. For those of us with such attributes, we too have social media sites, where we can pretend to be everything we are not. Outgoing, friendly, extroverted and socially well-connected.

The trouble erupts when we confront the inevitable, shall I call it, “insult” – the 50-50 chance that someone will reject our invitation to connect, ignore our request for a professional recommendation, or worse, say something negative about us in a tweet or blog comment.

Just as in life, normal thinking adults are supposed to have the ability to shrug off such incidents as meaningless and move on to more important things. Sticks and stones, etc.

I, unfortunately, happen to be a person who takes everything to heart. Ridiculous as it sounds, my “feelings” get hurt easily and I dwell on why someone wouldn’t want to be my “friend,” though I am naturally reclusive.

But I must admit, I am as guilty as the next guy in doling out my own social media insults. Every time someone with whom I have done business invites me to connect on LinkedIn, I have to weigh whether connecting is a smart move for my other business relationships. If the new invitation is from a vendor, I try to keep such sources more discreet in case my clients decide to shop around for better pricing while snooping around on my LinkedIn page. And, if I connect with one vendor, mustn’t I connect with all vendors, some of whom I may not choose to continue using for a variety of reasons?

I have noticed that there is an option on LinkedIn, as there is on Facebook and Twitter, where you can sever the ties of your connection, follower or “friendship” which I imagine must be the ultimate insult (having not yet borne that burden personally)!

I recently invited a client of mine to connect on LinkedIn only to immediately regret and agonize over what now seemed to be our questionable relationship for the eternally long week it took her to respond. While I was giddy with relief when she finally accepted, I re-examined the whole episode as possibly a risk to an otherwise stable business relationship. With that experience fresh in my mind, I wondered whether social media is all it’s cracked up to be. For me, in examining her other connections, many of whom are my competition, it becomes an issue of worrying about the permanence of my value to her…but I guess that’s a constant when you’re in business. It’s just so much more threatening when it is so blatantly visible. I suppose I should be honored to be in such impressive company.

One of my attorney clients recently asked me to set him up on LinkedIn, which I had done for him on other professional networking sites. To start with, this involved uploading his properly sized and cropped photo, presenting his entire career of accomplishments in the appropriate category templates and choosing the correct preferences for his public persona. While the average person is expected to do these things for himself, someone with limited computer skills, awareness and time can find this to be a daunting challenge. Even for me, it sometimes takes a little trial and error to get things to display properly. In any case, I confirmed that the whole thing was set up, briefly explained what LinkedIn was all about and invited him to connect with me for his first connection. He sent me back an email which said “ok” and that was the last I’ve heard from him. I am not worried about our relationship which goes back some twenty years. Rather, I chalk this up to his not “getting” LinkedIn…as many of my other clients also don’t “get” Twitter or Facebook.

And I can’t say I blame them. I recently declined becoming friends with someone on Facebook, as I always do, for fear something we might say could end up tarnishing my personal Google results which I have worked so hard to keep positive in every way for business reasons. Since these Facebook invitations often end up in my Spam filter, if I weren’t such a vigilant email reviewer, I would otherwise miss them. So, I usually don’t go out of my way to respond, neither “accepting” nor “ignoring.” But if the invitation is from someone significant in my life, I try to send an email explaining my stance so there is no offense taken.

But what a world we now live in! Having to take precious time to politely decline or guiltily ignore invitations from any number of social websites where time spent usually ranks as time wasted for the most part. For all the hours I’ve spent crafting clever tweets on one of several Twitter accounts I started, the most I can show for it is a paltry number of “followers” who are obviously after me to buy something from them. Yes, I realize that many savvy Twitterers resort to purchasing programs or services which provide thousands of followers to avoid the embarrassment of having only 22 followers, for example, all of which are nothing more than spam or porn!

I do recognize the benefits of a good LinkedIn presence, however, which has served me well and is one of the strongest search results for my name on Google. That is a good thing, as are strong Twitter links as well, which I explain to my clients who may not understand SEO (search engine optimization) fully.

My attitude reminds me of something a fellow investor said to me during the dot.com boom at the turn of the century, that selling items from your sock drawer hardly constituted a good future for eBay. Here we are more than a decade later with eBay one of the major forces in the Internet universe. All that tells me is that anything is possible. “Hey, you never know!”

Yet, I still shun Facebook for my business entirely although I receive a constant barrage of invitations and reminders from them. And I realize the whole world is on Facebook and it is equally powerful in Google search results. I just don’t feel comfortable with it breathing down my neck, coveting my email accounts and trying to trick me into divulging some personal secret I may not care to share in my Google results for the remainder of my existence.

Okay, if it’s still around in a couple of years, there’s a good chance I will have joined the crowd by then. But until that happens…I will remain cautiously judicious. My time is too valuable at the moment.

Social media communicating can be instrumental in keeping us informed about the people that we have in our lives. It can enhance our lives through rapid information sharing, leading to new ideas and emotional stimulation. But social media communication will never provide what real life intimacy offers. If you become too satisfied with tweets, picture sharing, and posts, then you may become the pseudo person that no one really knows or misses.

Despite the benefits of convenience and immediacy, social media has, for many people, become a tool which limits, not enhances, intimacy within relationships. Answering someone’s Facebook post or acknowledging someone’s latest Instagram post has become confused with actually being engaged in a relationship. It is true that these more surface modes of social media communication have created more frequency of contact between people, but is it the kind of contact that really matters? Most people admit that they spend too much time managing and thinking about the influx of information online and in phone texts.

In the majority of cases, social media has not created connections between people that lead to deepening, growing or life enhancing experiences. The new norm of online communication saturation has replaced more personal forms of engaging with information sharing.

Transmitting a photo of the giant sized burger you are having for lunch, or sharing a quick opinion on the movie that you just saw can be fun and there is no downside to tweeting out an opinion or thought before you forget it. But there is a downside to these brief sound bites replacing more personal forms of contact that create more emotional, and expansive experiences between people.

The immediacy and ease that social media contact offers has become, for many, an addictive replacement for real connections, and has normalized the development of pseudo relationships, that is, a physical exchange of communication through technology that is lacking in in-depth, shared experiences between people.

Of course, we don’t need or desire intimacy with everyone that touches our lives in some incidental manner. These peripheral relationships lend themselves well to social media communicating. But when people who matter to us, or people who could potentially matter to us become relegated to our social media contact pattern, opportunities for a real connections are greatly diminished.

Common Problems That Are Part of the Pseudo-Relationship Syndrome

The fear of Intimacy is often behind why some people saturate themselves with social media communicating. Many say that there is less vulnerability online so the experience of rejection feels muted. The reality is that vulnerability online can pose an even greater risk to self esteem. The sharing of too much information online in words and pictures exposes one to excessive judgment and potential relationship rejection, conflict and embarrassment.

The idea of being shielded from rejection or pain by online vs real time experiences is not accurate as so many people are now learning through negative experiences of over exposure to the masses.

Many people experience tremendous shame, regret and anxiety regarding their excessive use of social media communicating, and yet continue doing so. Is it an addiction or just a normalized way of relating to people in modern times?

Is Self Esteem the Issue?

People with low self esteem indulge in social media contacts to boost their egos. It is easy to become dependent on getting large numbers of people giving feedback and attention to you on your social media. For many, these new personal media stats have become a measure of self worth within their social groups and business communities. This desire to manipulate people into developing positive perspectives of oneself creates a tendency, for many, to lie or embellish personal information or accomplishments. There is a risk online for people with shaky self esteem as the feedback can be brutally critical and make one feel excessive personal shame, anxiety and isolation. And the humiliation of being exposed for lying can be devastating to self esteem as well.

The Attraction of Drama

Using social media communicating as a primary form of communication tends to keep relationships superficial, but it can also create a great source of drama. People who crave conflict or chaos are particularly prone to social media obsessiveness, as their over involvement with what people are doing and saying can trigger the intense emotional responses that they crave. You cannot take a picture back once it’s been viewed. You cannot erase the words that may hurt someone or cause them to want to be hurtful towards you. The ease and immediacy of the technology creates an impulsivity that many people cannot control. It feels powerful in the moment to get into conflict with someone online, and yet it can become an obsessive dynamic with negative outcomes both personally and professionally.

Dealing with these emotional issues is an essential part of reducing the over use of social media communicating and its negative outcomes. Learning to properly use social media as a springboard to developing more meaningful relationships will preserve it as a positive medium for communication instead of it being a faulty replacement for healthy relatedness with the people in your life. A tweet will never feel as good as a smile, handshake, hug or kiss.

Social bookmarking and media sites have become so popular these days, and this is something that many businesses are taking advantage of, since these sites can be utilized to reach large groups of people with various interests for little or no cost.

Unlike the bookmarking sites of old, today’s sites allow people to openly share their bookmarks, which is the essence o how ‘social’ it gets. People can build their own lists that exist as a web page and others can come view the page. People can also discover Web sites without searching.

Searching as you well know is one of the most used methods for discovering information and Web sites but it does have it’s problems. For example, how would you know what words to search for when you’re don’t know what something is called? You may know it’s something you want but not know what the name or term for that item, problem or solution.

Relying Solely On Search Engines Is Not That Effective Anymore

Sometimes search engines aren’t accurate at all. There have been a lot of times when users searched for something, and the results were a list of commercial Web sites or somehow useless sites that are way of the ones you really wanted. Search engines may like you to think you cannot manipulate them but if that were 100% true, you’d always find what you want to look for every time you search.

The truth is, they will list sites according to what they think makes a good Web site. So a Web master only has to ‘play by their rules’ and get decent results. Besides, there are some really good sites that don’t make it to the top of search engines – maybe because their Web masters aren’t SEO savvy or just don’t have the time.

There Are Specific Bookmarking Sites That Help Businesses Grow

There are even topic-specific social bookmarking sites that can be used to promote your business to a more targeted audience. You can also write “article” type stories that promote your business without sounding too promotional. Then, potential customers are able to read your article and click through to your Web site.

Bookmarks Offer An Excellent Marketing Venue

Because of the fact that you can share your bookmarks with others with the same interests, social bookmarking can be an excellent marketing strategy. When you bookmark a site, like your business site, you are able to describe it with a “tag”. A tag is a keyword that is used to find bookmarks on a site. By associating the right tags with each of your bookmarks, you can get a steady stream of interested visitors to your site.

Social bookmarking, in a nutshell, is all about labeling the Web, making it easier to find the content that you’re looking for by passing on what you’ve found. The labels applied to web sites are generally called tags, and over time a kind of taxonomy grows, whereby persistent tags help information to be aggregated and mined for information. Where a taxonomy was, however, the product of specialists carefully categorizing items within their area of specialism, social bookmarking produces instead what has been termed a folksonomy.

http://wirefan.com – Wire Fan

We all know that social media marketing and internet marketing are two of the same as far as brand building and sharing goes. Creating a website, establishing a brand, building social media accounts to connect with a larger audience, is all marketing no matter what you call it. Here we take a look at some tips on not just sharing socially, but how to do it right and make viewers want to share your posts, videos, and articles.

Facebook is the Top Visited Social Network:

Most of the awesome Facebook posts or Ads that show up on our walls daily only excel at stimulating two types of reactions. You either want to click on the ad or ignore it. Whether you are creating a Facebook ad for yourself simply to promote a book or CD or you are working on behalf of a company want to target a larger audience and funnel more traffic to a website, the idea is the same.

Keep it Simple:

Keep it simple and go for one main type of reaction with each new Facebook Ad or post. If you get lots of click-throughs that is a bonus. Even if you have posted hundreds of times or put together many Facebook Ads, that doesn’t mean the next one will be successful.Sometimes it seems the harder you try, the less views or clicks you will get. There is science behind Facebook Ads or Google AdSense Ads for that matter, but no doubt a lot of luck and testing involved.

There is no magic potion to get Facebook viewers to click on your Ad. One thing is for sure, the more you post, the more experience you will get. Eventually it will become easier and you will begin to see your success rate go up.

Highly Sharable Posts:

What people really want to do is share! If a post, a joke, or video hits them in a funny or special way, then they will want to share it on Facebook.

Sharable and often viral posts do one of the following:

1. GIVE-AWAYS: They give away some type of discount, offer, coupon, eBook or contest that everyone wants to take part in.
2. ADVISORY TIPS: Ads or posts about tips, trade secrets, or problems that we can all identify with, are very sharable, like where to win a free car, or get free Facebook Fans
3. WARNINGS: Anything that heightens our senses and warns about danger are usually very popular on Facebook.
4. AMUSING: Some of the funniest videos, pictures or quotes are very sharable as long as they are in good taste and not too offensive to any religion, sect, or person in general. Make sure it appeals to a broad audience and has mass appeal, so keep it funny but light.
5. INSPIRING: Quotes that are inspirational can be the best way to make people feel good inside. They will then most likely want to share any post that has personal insight, a metaphor, or real meaning.
6. AMAZING: Pictures, videos and amazing facts are highly sharable. As soon as you look at an amazing video and you notice the “WOW” factor, the reach for the share button.

Social media is lauded as the one digital channel that truly revolves around the idea of bringing people together. While this is of course true, analysts and users are finding that its popularity can also be connected to a growing trend of alienation and loneliness. The fact that social media can be responsible for loneliness seems bizarre and counterintuitive at first, but a deeper understanding of the medium and the role it is playing in people’s lives makes this fact easier to believe. So, if online social networks are proving to be a negative influence in the lives of some people, how can and should the medium be used by people and brands, if at all?

Social media rising

Claiming that social media is the root cause of alienation experienced by millions of people can be a little misleading. However, there is certainly a trend that indicates that the epidemic of loneliness and the rise of social media correlate in chronological terms. As more and more people became part of ever-expanding social networks, so key elements of human interaction started to drop away. Personal interaction was traded for online, abstract interaction. Verbal communication continues to decrease as more people now communicate with shorter texts or even indirectly. In a way, it appears that the mere awareness of being super-connected to a social network at all times, made constant communication unnecessary. Because you are already aware of what is currently happening in the life of a friend, it seems redundant to contact that person in order to connect and find out more about their life.

Indirect communication and alienation

Social networking may have started out as an idea to connect people to each other, but its evolution has seen it become more of a broadcasting platform where direct interaction with others is not actually required. Instead of using online channels to actively build our social connections by talking to or making contact with people, many users now operate in isolation – merely publishing content and updates that reflect their current situation. While this kind of ‘posting’ often elicits some form of engagement such as a quick comment or the curt ‘like’ – this is meagre social exchange that could be likened to greeting a friend as he or she passes in the street.

Connections lost and gained

While social media alienation is certainly a troubling symptom of the digital age and its impact on human interaction and behaviour, it also boasts many stories that contradict the findings of lonely social media users. Social networking has helped many people connect to more people than they may have otherwise done, while also allowing people maintain contact with friends and family that live far away. All in all, much about the social media experience is what users make it. Those that are susceptible to social anxiety and isolation will probably experience an increase in these feelings through social media usage, while those who are naturally inclined to socialise will find the platform useful as a supplement to their social life.

Social media has changed the way people interact with each other and with brands, and companies that are aware of these subtle changes will fare better than their competitors. Understanding how to use social media as a tool rather than a substitute for human connection is the key to a positive experience that can be enriching, useful and fun.

The music industry has always been notoriously unpredictable, and the old A&R maxim that the cream always rises to the top is far from a given. For any one band that makes a living out of their music, there are at least a thousand that never will – and the proportion of musicians that actually become wealthy through their work is smaller still. There is, however, a general feeling (if not an actual consensus) that those musicians who do make it are there because they are in some way intrinsically better than the swathes of artists left in their wake.

This is reminiscent of Robert M. Pirsigs interrogation of quality – what makes something good, and is there really any objective standard by which such quality can be measured? Most people would say there is, as they can easily tell if a band is amazing or a bunch of talentless hacks – but when it comes down to it, this amounts to nothing more than personal taste and opinion. Although one can point to certain technical qualities like musicianship, structural complexity and production values, music is more than the sum of its parts – one cannot dismiss the Sex Pistols for not having the technical genius of Mozart, no more than one can effectively rank the music of Stockhausen above or below that of Willie Nelson. It seems that when it comes to music, it must be instilled with a Philosophik Mercury which is as intangible as it is unpredictable. The only barometer by which we can judge is whether we like it or not. Or is there something more?

Recent history is littered with examples of works and artists that are now considered classics (or have at least become enormously popular) which were at first rejected offhand by talent scouts, agents or industry executives. Harry Potter, Star Wars, the Beatles – all fall into this category, as does Pirsigs classic work Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which was rejected 121 times. If phenomena of this magnitude could be overlooked, then what chance do merely moderately talented artists have of ever being noticed? On the other hand, the entertainment sphere is packed full of artists who could never hope to be anything close to moderately talented. So does the entertainment industry really know what its doing, when so many of its predicted hits fail miserably and rejected unknowns keep popping up with chart-toppers? Recent research would seem to suggest not.

Now that Web 2.0 is in full flight, social media networks are changing the way we access and perceive content. The digital music age is upon us, and the ease with which new music from unsigned bands can be obtained has created a new economic model for distribution and promotion. Buzz itself is the latest buzz, and word-of-blog/IM/email has become a very powerful tool for aspiring artists. Combined with the fact that single downloads now count towards a songs official chart position, the promotion and distribution cycle for new music can take place entirely online. But does such bewebbed convenience make it easier to predict what will become a hit?

The standard approach of major labels is to emulate what is already successful. On the face of it, this seems a perfectly valid strategy – if you take a woman who looks sort of like Shania Twain, give her an album of songs that sound just-like, a similarly designed album cover, and spend the same amount of money promoting her, then surely this new album will also be successful. Often, however, this is not the case – instead, another woman who possesses all these characteristics (with music of a simlar quality) appears from nowhere and goes on to enjoy a spell of pop stardom.

This approach is clearly flawed, but what is the problem? Its this – the assumption that the millions of people who buy a particular album do so independently of one another. This is not how people (in the collective sense) consume music. Music is a social entity, as are the people who listen to it – it helps to define social groups, creates a sense of belonging, identity and shared experience. Treating a group of such magnitude as if it were just a compilation of discrete units completely removes the social factors involved. Whilst a single individual, removed from social influences, might choose to listen to Artist A, the same person in real life is going to be introduced to artists through their friends, either locally or online, and will instead end up listening to Artists C and K, who may be of a similar (or even inferior) quality but that isn’t the real point. Music can be as much about image as about sound.

This raises further questions about quality – is a songs popularity predicated on some sort of Chaos Theory, all else being equal? There is certainly a cumulative advantage effect at work when promoting music – a song that is already popular has more chance of becoming more popular than a song that has never been heard before. This is clearly seen on social media sites such as Digg and Reddit, where an articles popularity can grow steadily until it reaches a certain critical mass of votes – at which point its readership suddenly explodes and it goes viral. Such snowball effects have been known to bring fairly robust servers to their knees with incoming traffic.

Duncan J. Watts and his colleagues recently conducted a fascinating study into the effects of social influence on an individuals perception and consumption of music. The process was described in an article in the NY Times. Using their own Music Lab website, they studied the behaviour of more than 14,000 participants to determine what factors influenced their selections.

participants were asked to listen to, rate and, if they chose, download songs by bands they had never heard of. Some of the participants saw only the names of the songs and bands, while others also saw how many times the songs had been downloaded by previous participants. This second group, in what we called the social influence condition , was further split into eight parallel worlds such that participants could see the prior downloads of people only in their own world. We didnt manipulate any of these rankings – all the artists in all the worlds started out identically, with zero downloads – but because the different worlds were kept separate, they subsequently evolved independently of one another.

Although the article gives no information about the demographic details of the sample audience, given the nature of the medium (an online music site assessing user behaviour on online music sites) and the size of the sample it is probably fair to assume that the results would be reasonably indicative. As it turns out, the study produced some very interesting revelations:

In all the social-influence worlds, the most popular songs were much more popular (and the least popular songs were less popular) than in the independent condition. At the same time, however, the particular songs that became hits were different in different worlds, just as cumulative-advantage theory would predict. Introducing social influence into human decision making, in other words, didnt just make the hits bigger; it also made them more unpredictable.

According to these results, an individuals independent assessment of a song is a far less significant factor in its success than the social influence factors. The intrinsic quality of a song if indeed measurable is overwhelmed by cumulative advantage, which means that a few key votes at an early stage can radically alter the course of the selection process overall. This has some significant implications for musicians, producers and promoters. Essentially, it means that no amount of market research can enable you to accurately predict which songs will become successful. The behaviour of a few randomly-chosen individuals at an early stage of the process, whose behaviour is itself arbitrary in nature, eventually becomes amplified by cumulative advantage to determine whether a song progresses to the next level. The randomness of such a process means that unpredictability is actually inherent to the

There is a group of who start using alcohol to drive away the sorrows and pains of life, whereas others turn to it because they know not any other way. Most alcohol addicts give the reason that alcohol gives them a power to face the challenges and difficulties of life. The practical theory behind this feeling is that alcohol can generate illusions and hallucinations in the minds of people and they are taken to another world where they forget the real world worries, and tensions. Sinking in this dream world, they start loving alcohol to an extent that they can’t even imagine being without alcohol.

The effects of alcohol addiction are long lasting. The harmful effects are never limited to the individual; rather the circle of society is forced to suffer the consequences. Alcohol addiction sends out a red signal by producing physical ailments and mental disturbances in the individual. Even then it is not the individual but the associated ones that realizes the danger and think of how to help the diseased stop drinking alcohol.

Harmful results of alcohol addiction start with physical damage to kidney, liver, heart and almost all internal organs. It starts carving the walls of intestine. Loss of appetite, vomiting, dizziness, nausea etc. are some among the numerous difficulties felt by the addict. He slowly starts losing memory and faint often due to lack of sleep. The physical appearance and facial appearance become too ugly.

Worst of all ill effects is the interference in his social and personal life. He fails to execute his duties and responsibilities. Instead of being a support, he becomes a burden to his family. Peace of the family is disturbed and they become the centre of criticism for the entire society. The place of his work is another area affected badly. You start to have serious backlogs at work and co-workers are humiliated. Everyone dependent on him will be forced to take the pains of suffering and obviously live through the aftermath.

Social peace is disturbed. When alcohol addiction haunts a person, he will start engaging in criminal activity. Slowly he changes into an anti-social element and none will dare to get acquainted with him. He is isolated and this adds up the fury. His evil behaviour shoots up and a criminal is born.

Several methods are available that will teach people how to stop drinking alcohol. De-addiction centres play a major role in bringing them back to life. Medicines that make them feel the taste of alcohol will inculcate a feeling of hesitance towards the drug. But the major problem in dealing with alcohol through medicine is that, their going be a drug dependency or the forceful withdrawal could lead to many related problems. These efforts of not carried out in a professional manner can cause more harm than good. This later addiction is a critical factor to be dealt with.

Hypnosis is the best method to slowly change the attitude of the individual towards liquor. The hypnosis therapy slowly operates on the minds of the addicts through relaxation devoid of medicines, thereby showing him the path of recovery. The thoughts are deviated to productive areas through hypnotherapy techniques and he is slowly brought back to normal life.