Location-based social networking site Foursquare, launched in March 2009 by Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai, has recently taken off and seems to be gaining in popularity exponentially.
At themonsterbusiness.com, we have frequently discussed the merits of social networking for businesses; however we have not yet covered Foursquare and its unique way of creating networking opportunities.
Two of the most popular and widely-used business networking sites, Twitter and LinkedIn have joined forces to add a greater level of functionality to the sites.
LinkedIn, which had already synced status updates with Twitter, has now fully integrated tweeting into its site, allowing you to tweet, and see who is following you and tweeting.
As part of LinkedIn’s ‘Tweets’ application, which received the major upgrade allowing this, you will be able to see all of your connected companies that use Twitter and whether or not you currently follow them. It also allows you to follow their stream straight from the site.
Recent reports have shown that more and more businesses are now turning to online social networking in a bid to get ahead of their competitors.
When questioned, many firms named Twitter as one of their most popular sites. Since it’s launch in 2006 the micro-blogging site has gone from strength to strength. It’s simple design and short “tweet” system makes it easy for SMEs to share business news and stay in touch with other important contacts. But it’s not without it’s risks. Because of the fast nature of Twitter, hackers, malware creators and spammers often have millions of opportunities everyday to hack into the system and commit fraud.
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Analyst Gartner has predicted that by 2014, 20% of all SMEs will use social networking as their main means of communication.
Recent research has shown that many SMEs use online networking as the primary means of networking and this popularity has led to more demand for systems such as Facebook and Twitter. It’s thought greater security and a wide choice of programmes have led to increased toleration from businesses for staff members to use personal accounts for networking purposes. Gartner doesn’t believe that e-mail will be wiped out completely though. (more…)
A new survey has revealed that two thirds of UK SMEs say they feel closer to their intended market via online networking.
WeCanDo.biz questioned 250 small businesses and found that SMEs were so impressed with online networking that 92% would recommend their contacts to network online professionally. And it seems this confidence in online networking is paying off. 59% of those surveyed admitted to securing a business deal via online networking, while half plan to increase their online networking in the next 12 months. (more…)
