HOW TO BUILD SOCIAL MEDIA SOCIAL NETWORKING WEBSITE WEBBIZIDEAS. Building Social Media. Get

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1 WEBBIZIDEAS HOW TO BUILD SOCIAL MEDIA SOCIAL NETWORKING WEBSITE INTO YOUR Building Social Media Interaction Within a Custom Social Network Get

2 This report will give you an overview of how social media plays a role in Social Networking Site Design. CONTENTS The Internet is social... 4 Isn t a social networking site social Enough?... 5 Login Opportunities... 6 Facebook Connect... 6 OpenID... 6 Facebook Connect VS OpenID... 6 Allow Easy of Sharing Content... 7 Create a Facebook Page... 7 Create a Twitter Account... 8 Other Networks... 8 In Conclusion... 9 Below are a few social networks we ve been honored to build for clients... 9 RivalryRage.com... 9 ImLeagues.com WhosMad.com Fast Track your Web Development Success Bibliography Social Media in Social Networking Design P a g e 2 WebBizIdeas.com (800)

3 About WebBizIdeas: Ideas Our MISSION is to help startup and established businesses build better websites, marketing online, and engage effectively in digital media. WebBizIdeas.com is a new media development firm based in Minneapolis Minnesota. We offer competency in multiple fields: Social Networking, Dating, Ecommerce, Content Management (CMS), SEO, Mobile Apps, Business Planning, Website Prototyping, and Business Consulting. Our consultants work with any business to develop an idea, create the blueprint, produce the code, and market the end result. A combination of waterfall and scrum methodology gives us an advantage when making custom websites from scratch. This proven methodology ensures you will get the website you envisioned every time. OUR PROCESS: Learn more about our web development process or learn how we can help you build a custom social network. To get started now fill out our Contact WebBizIdeas Form or give us a call directly: Toll Free: Social Media in Social Networking Design P a g e 3 WebBizIdeas.com (800)

4 THE INTERNET IS SOCIAL The internet exists mainly because we are social animals. Social media is just the latest form of groups of people sitting around the campfire. In the early days of social networking it was common for one user to select a network and stick around. This is no longer the case as these services have matured and people are using multiple services. The users you are looking to obtain are already using Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, or YouTube. That s the key when developing a social network you want to integrate as many other social services as possible. Tom Curley, Associated explained this to his people. The users are deciding what the point of their engagement will be what application, what device, what time, what place. CEO of the Press, Facebook has more than 400 million active users and 50% of them log onto Facebook in any given day. The backbone of Facebook is its pictures and videos but sharing of links is starting to become a bigger driver of traffic. Groupon a group buying servicee attributes much of its success and growth to the ability for users to easily share the daily deal with their social circle. has We see this happen often when we login into Facebook. Someone sharing the latest GroupOn or LivingSocial deal and enticing their friends to join them in purchasing. You could argue that GroupOn wouldn t even have had a chance if it wasn t for the popularity of social media. There Social Media in Social Networking Design P a g e 4 WebBizIdeas.com (800)

5 have been other attempts of similar services in the past but those have not grown as fast or as big. We ve watched the rise of GroupOn and would argue the main reason for this is the usage of social networks. ISN T A SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE SOCIAL ENOUGH Yes a social network is social; it contains all the elements of enhancing conversations and relationships. Typically friend lists, uploading of pictures and videos, and the ability to connect and interact with all this is what is deemed a social network. It used to be that social networks operated in walled gardens. This is no longer the case as many sites report that social media is now one of the biggest drivers of traffic. The graph below tells a big story it s also the reason why Google actively fears the power of Facebook: H? For the first time the weekly market share of visits to Facebook.com has surpassed Google.com. This real numbers behind this graph is more proof why if you are thinking about creating a new social network or even a social application that you integrate other social networks. Social Media in Social Networking Design P a g e 5 WebBizIdeas.com (800)

6 LOGIN OPPORTUNITIES People are getting sick of registering and declaring their friends on each and every site. Lost passwords, multiple logins, and entering the same information over and over is one of the reasons why new networks fail to grow to their full potential. FACEBOOK CONNECT Facebook Connect is Facebook's latest addition to its development platform. It enables developers to leverage the power of Facebook's social context in existing, third-party Web sites. The platform features seamless, one-click authentication, Facebook friend account linking, distribution back into Facebook streams, and the full power of the Facebook REST-like API and FQL. Utilizing Facebook Connect for authentication has proven to dramatically increase site exposure and new user registrations. With a one-click login to Facebook Connect, websites have access to an unprecedented amount of user data. Using this data, sites now have the ability to redefine the way they display user generated content. Gone are the days where all you will see is content from random avatars. Now sites can surface UGC from actual friends. (Pickard, 2009) Another important element of Facebook Connect is when a potential new user sees this on your site it gives you instant authority. While not a formal endorsement by Facebook it does tell a user Facebook trusts this site so can I. This shouldn t be overlooked when planning your social network. OPENID You may choose to associate information with your OpenID that can be shared with the websites you visit, such as a name or address. With OpenID, you control how much of that information is shared with the websites you visit. OpenID is rapidly gaining adoption on the web, with over one billion OpenID enabled user accounts and over 50,000 websites accepting OpenID for logins. Several large organizations either issue or accept OpenIDs, including Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, Microsoft, AOL, MySpace, Sears, Universal Music Group, France Telecom, Novell, Sun, Telecom Italia, and many more. FACEBOOK CONNECT VS OPENID Social Media in Social Networking Design P a g e 6 WebBizIdeas.com (800)

7 Which one is better? Both have their champions, pros, and cons. The great thing for you is that you don t have to decide. When building a social network or other website you can easily plug- in to both of these sign on platforms. In fact that is what we suggest allow you users to decide which one they prefer. ALLOW EASY OF SHARING CONTENT One key element you want to design within a social network is the ability for content to be shared with other social platforms. A great example of this is a recent change by YouTube. You ll notice that when you watch a video from YouTube you get these options: As you can see from above YouTube embraces other social networks. From Facebook, Twitter, to SumbleUpon understanding that people spend time in networks where they have connections and friends. It s more important that you connect to these services than ignore them. CREATE A FACEBOOK PAGE You should look at your social network as its own brand or company. That means that your social network should have its own Facebook page. You should integrate this page into as many elements of your own network as you possibly can. This page will help with not only acquisition of new users but has the potential to drive engagement as well. For an overview of social media engagement see our report Social Media Strategy 3 Main Principals. Social Media in Social Networking Design P a g e 7 WebBizIdeas.com (800)

8 CREATE A TWITTER ACCOUNT Along the same lines as creating a Facebook page you want to also create a Twitter account for you network. This gives you the ability to use Twitter to find users for you network. Another great option is the ability to showcase content on your social network. For instance you could have a leader board on your network then send out an update on Twitter commending your top users. OTHER NETWORKS You should also participate in other social networks that your target market might be part of. For instance, if you have a subset of users that have an affinity for music you would want to participate in MySpace, where the users tend to be younger and more musically focused. The more places you can find to connect with people the better. You should also see if there are niche networks or forums that you can participate within. If you have a auto focused network what are the active forums that you should participate within. Building a following and trust within these communities can be big drivers to new users and awareness. Social Media in Social Networking Design P a g e 8 WebBizIdeas.com (800)

9 IN CONCLUSION When building a social network it s imperative that you embrace other social networks. This not only helps give you authority but it also will drive to more users and interaction for your network. Social media is proving to be a major driver of traffic and this has to be taken into consideration during the design phase of any customized social network. LOOKING TO BUILD A SOCIAL NETWORK? At WebBizIdeas, we ve concentrated our expertise in the area of online community development, a service proven to be a hugely successful resource to internet business owners. If you are a Small Businesses attempting to increase the visibility of your business, attract more advertisers, or boost sales a social network can help. Learn more how we can help you with Social Networking Web Design. BELOW ARE A FEW SOCIAL NETWORKS WE VE BEEN HONORED TO BUILD FOR CLIENTS RIVALRYRAGE.COM When Tim first came to WebBizIdeas all he had was an idea for a trash talking social network. We worked with him to plan out a unique website that will keep members coming back. First we laid out a full website prototype before any of the coders started. This Website Blueprint gave us a clear direction so we could create the website correctly the first time. Rivalry Rage needed to have an aggressive identity since it was all about trash talking. This caused us to go with the red and black accent colors. Keeping the main body of the website white gave the website a clean simple feeling. Social Media in Social Networking Design P a g e 9 WebBizIdeas.com (800)

10 IMLEAGUES.COM The main point of this website social networking atmosphere. was to allow colleges to manage their intramural sports in a Colleges would have a master profile and students with approved s could join their college profile. Once inside their college page, register for intramurals would register and pay their fees. The colleges would also have an automated and manual scheduling tool giving them the ability to auto populate their intramural schedule with games. The system would automatically notify the teams and all its students. The scheduler would even setup playoffs in a round robin format. WHOSMAD.COM, schedules and options to appear. As students would We created a content management system where the admin can control everything on the homepage. The admin could upload a video to the top section or pick from all the videos uploaded to the website from a secure online administration area. The admin could even select what complaint categories he wanted on the homepage and the system would automatically populate the categories with complaints or gossip within that category. We did this so the client could keep the site looking fresh and as long as he drove traffic to the site it would rotate on refreshes. FAST TRACK YOUR WEB DEVELOPMENT SUCCESS One of the other things WebBizIdeas can help you with is coming up with a rock solid development and engagement plan that gets to the heart of your target market. Not only do we help you with ideation and creative concepts we also know how to implement and put into practice all the step necessary to have a successful web development and social engagement strategy. Social Media in Social Networking Design P a g e 10 WebBizIdeas.com (800)

11 We focus on results and what is going to make a difference for your business. Learn more about our web development process. We follow and have created a four phase process to social engagement. Learn about Social Networking Web Design.. To Get Started Contact WebBizIdeas: To get started now fill out our Contact WebBizIdeas Form Or give us a call directly: Toll Free: BIBLIOGRAPHY Pickard, J. (2009, 02 03). What Does Facebook Connect Mean for Agencies? Retrieved 06 26, 2010, from Inside Facebook: Social Media in Social Networking Design P a g e 11 WebBizIdeas.com (800)