Social networks are essential for expanding your web presence —not only for creating social signals now a key component in search engine rankings, which makes your website and blog easier to find in search, but also by giving you more places to be found online. Creating your profile on each of the major social networks is a first step, but just that. As with most things in life, you’ll get out of social networks what you put into them. This is a level deeper than the majority of more superficial social networks. Interact (e.g., MORE >>

As social networking has evolved to encompass a significant amount of people’s time on the Internet, divergent approaches to friending and following, sharing publicly and sharing selectively have emerged. Some networks have a solely synchronous relationship, where the bond can be broken unilaterally by either individual, but must be initiated by one and accepted by another, while others are asynchronous, meaning one can follow the content you make available publicly, even if you don’t explicitly pass approval. LinkedIn connections are also mutual. Howdy, stranger. MORE >>

pamorama marketing, life, social media Home About Bookshelf Links Contact Women Dominate Social Networks by Pam Dyer on August 3, 2010 Share According to a new study from comScore , social networking sites reach a higher percentage of women than men. Women on the Web: How Women Are Shaping the Internet ”, found that 76% of women visit a social networking site compared to 70% of men. Globally, women demonstrate higher engagement levels with social networking sites than men. Men spend just 11.7% Latin America 94.1% MORE >>

So Google has launched its first foray into social networking with the launch of Google+. This may be somewhat of a conspiracy theory, but a few of us here at FreshNetworks were questioning whether Google+ is about social networking at all, or if it’s about something else…namely, changing the future of search engine marketing (SEM). If someone from your ‘Circles’ (connections) has shared a link the relates to your search term then the content they have shared comes up higher in the results, sometimes even at the top of the pile. MORE >>

Josh Mackey is General Manager at PeekAnalytics , a Social Audience Measurement Platform. There has been a lot of talk recently about social networking spam – inactive and bogus accounts on social platforms. Instead of admitting that this “social thing” is not as easy as all that, some are pointing fingers at the platforms, saying SPAM! That said, marketers who face pushback on social networking spam issues need to be prepared to respond head on. Social Networking Spam - You Are What You Tweet. Bad ROI…Spam! Mmm bacon! MORE >>