Mediaboss Marketing

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MANILA, Philippines They come from different worlds but a common thread called social media somehow connects their lives, just like everybody elses.

On Thursday, two striking stories of how Filipinos are using social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter showed that just like in real life, whatever words or photos we put up online will always come with certain consequences.

One story involved Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Barako Bull player Don Allado, whose controversial tweets alleging game-fixing in the national league cost him, literally, half a million pesos.

Early Wednesday morning after his team narrowly lost to the Powerade Tigers, Allado fearlessly posted the following statement on his Twitter account: PBA games are fixed. They control who is in & who is out. Its a disgrace to be in this league.

Realizing his error in judgment, Allado deleted his rage-filled tweets several hours after, but not before setting into motion a controversy that rocked the world of Philippine professional basketball.

Despite apologizing and retracting his statements, the player was still slapped with a P500,000 fine by the PBA and was suspended for one conference.

Tonyo Cruz, one of the more prominent social media personalities and organizer of the recently concluded Social Media Day, told InterAksyon that the incident only showed how Filipinos must be prudent when using social media.

Cruz said Facebook and Twitter have become powerful tools that require its users to be responsible, both in the way they are used and in ensuring that they remain free and open.

Because if and when actual game-fixing happens and we hope not the whistleblower could use social media too, Cruz pointed out.

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In 'free' social media realm, every Twitter post, Facebook photo come with costs

Whether you work as a freelancer or part of a bigger studio, raising your profile is key to your long-term success. Once youve created a stunning website or online folio to showcase your work and skills, you need to make it easy for people to find you which is where social networking come in.

Web buttons (or social networking buttons) are little clickable icons on your site that can serve two purposes: the first is to help visitors share images, articles and so on from your website with other friends on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. The second lets you point users to other pages or sites of yours that they might be interested in. Web buttons are a great way to drive traffic to your main site and can increase the number of inbound links to your various sites and webpages two of the key components you need to push your page ranking up on search engines like Google.

Adding social buttons to your site is really easy to do. Many blog platforms and templates already offer built-in sharing support for things like RSS feeds, Facebook and Twitter, but you can easily add your choice of preferred web buttons with only a modicum of web know-how.

Most social networking portfolio sites have ready-made web buttons you can add to your website. All you have to do is pick the button style you want from the relevant resources page, choose the relevant web platform for your site (WordPress, say), add your username, and then copy and paste the auto-generated code into a relevant container in your websites content management system (CMS).

On WordPress or Blogger this usually entails pasting the code into a text-based widget that appears in your websites sidebar and you can usually add as many of these as you wish. The beauty of this approach is that the buttons are usually big enough for visitors to easily spot making it more likely that theyll head off to your Twitter, Flickr or Pinterest account, or share your content with their friends.

The other way to add social networking buttons is to sign up to a service like ShareThis or AddThis. These enable you to embed social networking buttons alongside individual articles, images and blog posts, making it even easier to share. And if you cant find the web button youre looking for, then why not create a custom one of your own?

Here are the top five web buttons and where to find them: Facebook, Flickr, Google+, Pinterest and Twitter.

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Social buttons made easy

The increasing popularity of social networking sites, especially in the Middle East, can be used to the advantage of businesses that wish to grow, which in turn can create economic value, a research conducted by Deloitte has revealed.

The fourth edition of the Arab Media Outlook, or AMO -- done in collaboration with Deloitte -- showed that social media has grown significantly across the Arab World, with Facebook along shooting up 80 per cent in 2011.

Furthermore, Facebook's impact on the global economy was also apparent in the Deloitte study entitled "Measuring Facebook's Economic Impact in Europe", where it was found to create economic value through enabling ecosystems.

According to the study, Facebook embodies a new generation of social media organisations that have a significant global impact.

As per Facebook's recently published figures, the Middle East and North Africa region has 45 million monthly active users and 20 million mobile monthly active users on the social network.

The AMO report showed that digital is in fact the fastest growing platform in the region and accounted for four per cent of the total advertising spend in 2011. However, it is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 35 per cent from 2011 to 2015, generating approximately $580 million by 2015 across the region. It will account for an estimated 10 per cent of the total advertising spend by 2015.

"Companies and advertisers are aware of the widespread use and importance of Facebook throughout the region, and have tailored their digital strategies to target Middle Eastern users through the platform," said Santino Saguto, partner in charge for the telecommunications, media and technology industry at Deloitte Middle East. "However, it is a tool that needs to be used properly. It is not just a matter of investing in advertising on Facebook. Rather, companies need to manage a social community."

Facebook penetration across most Arab countries reached double digit figures and there is still room for growth, given that female participation is relatively low in some countries such as Egypt, the AMO report found out.

Markets such as Egypt added close to two million new Facebook users in the first quarter of 2011 alone.

The AMO further indicates that over 90 per cent of all internet users in the UAE are on social networking sites like Facebook.

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Social Media Use Can Help Boost Business Growth

02-07-2012 04:40 The UK has found another way to snoop into its citizens' affairs. Internet and phone companies are set to install so-called 'black boxes', which will monitor e-mails, social networking activity and calls, and store data for a year. The authorities insist that only limited details will be kept, but activists are raising privacy concerns. RT's Sara Firth has the details. Subscribe to RT! Watch RT LIVE on our website Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Follow us on Google+ RT (Russia Today) is a global news network broadcasting from Moscow and Washington studios. RT is the first news channel to break the 500 million YouTube views benchmark.

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Big 'black box' bro to spy on UK mail

02-07-2012 07:42 As social media websites have grown as places for fun, games, and networking, they have also developed into valuable business platforms. In today's world, brands strive to get one more "like" on Facebook, retweet on Twitter, and +1 on Google+. The only problem with this interaction is figuring out what it means. Are consumers really engaging with the brand, and what is it that they want in return? These questions and others challenge brands everyday. According to Matt Warta, the CEO of GutCheck, companies shouldn't be bogged down with this worry. His company provides a platform that allows brands to really understand what their fans and followers are thinking. GutCheck has one tool that allows brands to get one-on-one with individuals and have in depth conversations to find out their exact needs. The company also rolled another tool earlier this year called Instant Research Communities that allows brands to communicate with groups of people in a social setting. "There's nobody else out there that can do what we do in the amount of time that we do it and at the price point that we have," said Warta. He went on to say that the company would continue to improve its platform to make sure that brands are getting the most relevant research through their social campaigns.

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GutCheck: Helping Brands Understand Social Signals in Real-Time - Video