YouTube, iTunes and free education

Okay so here I am this past weekend, trying to get into the flow of Social Marketing and much to my surprise I am finding that I am learning about things I never knew existed on the internet!

Here I was at Digg and came across Top 10 Universities With the Best Free Online Courses. This sounds interesting so I check it out. And from there I find Free Online Courses from Great Universities which can be downloaded as podcasts through iTunes no less. It's getting even more interesting. From there I end up at YouTube where I find Berkeley University at California courses. By now I am hooked on all this free education!

Okay so these are courses you won't get any credits for and they probably are a bit lacking from the full classroom courses, but still, can one really complain? Everything from Anthropology to Physics. Most of the stuff comes from places we would only dream about attending: Stanford, UCLA, Yale etc. MIT was really most impressive at 1800 online courses as well as a nice variety of High School Student geared courses, geared toward Advanced Placement.

My son decided he is going to sign up for Japanese and Kitchen Chemisty.

As for me, I'm starting with the Search Engine Berkeley Courses at Youtube and The Future Of the Internet iTunes Podcast from Stanford.

Not bad for not having to step out of the house or open my wallet huh?

Social Networking for Your Business

First off, what is social networking? And how does it involve our business?

From wikipedia:
Social networks connect people at low cost; this can be beneficial for entrepreneurs and small businesses looking to expand their contact base. These networks often act as a customer relationship management tool for companies selling products and services. Companies can also use social networks for advertising in the form of banners and text ads. Since businesses operate globally, social networks can make it easier to keep in touch with contacts around the world.

This is easier said than done though. New social networking sites are popping up on a daily basis. Just this week, I was introduced to Qassia. But as many online small business sellers, I also battle with time contraints and the confusion as what sites are the best. Which ones will bring me not only the traffic but potential customers and sales?

I came across this link to the Top 100 Social Marketing Sites. I figure if I am going to create a worthwhile social marketing campaign, I should focus on the more popular sites and provide a quality effort instead of hundreds of thrown together social pages scattered throughout the web.

One of the easiest ones I have been able to create and keep up with on a regular base that has provided me with steady traffic and sales has been Squidoo. I only have three lenses and one group but I have found it very easy to go in and update the content and links each month.

Another good article that helped me prioritize and focus on social marketing was this article from SiteProNews, "How To Start A
Social Marketing Campaign" by Jack Humphrey. I also found the author's website, Friday Traffic Report, to be absolutely LOADED with important and useful information complete with video tutorials!

This is by no means a complete how-to on social networking and marketing your online business but visit the links and you'll be off to a good start.