Credits:growmap.com

The funnel is supposed to start below and work your way up making Twitter the top of the rank. Would you agree with the way these sites were ranked?

For sure, all these ‘top’ social media sites have their pros and cons. Is it safe to generalize this way? I think it really depends on what you are after accomplishing on these sites?

LinkedIn for example can be categorized as a more professional purpose. It would be far better than Facebook, Twitter and the rest if you were looking for a job or finding professional connections.

Twitter on the other hand makes it really easy to connect with people. In cases where embedding isn’t allowed, you can simply use the @username to recommend friends. This is a great advantage.

For attracting traffic to your site, you can make the most of Stumbleupon.That is off course IF you use it properly. Combining the power of this with Twitter can have a very effective result.

The bottom line is it all depends on the kind of business you have and your ability in using these social media sites. Mixing one or two of them is usually a good idea.

Read more on this here.

The major difference when it comes to grown ups vs. minors using social media is the responsibility they have online. Adults are usually aware of the dangers that cyberspace poses and have probably already set some personal security measures. This isn’t something minors aren’t fully aware of. So what are social media sites doing to ensure that minors are safe?

Only two social networking sites (Bebo and MySpace) tested on behalf of the European Commission have default settings to make minors’ profiles accessible only to their approved list of contacts and only four sites (Bebo, MySpace, Netlog and SchuelerVZ) ensure minors can be contacted by default by friends only, a European Commission media statement on June 21 2011 said.

How about the other sites like Facebook and Twitter? Well, these settings are there but they aren’t default for minors. In short, minors are ‘less safe’ on these sites. Is this something these other sites should be concerned about? Definitely yes! They should take some responsibility in protecting minor’s privacy.

Think of it, what would happen if these minors end up being the victims for cyberspace crimes? Or if some pedo or criminal got their info on one of these sites and they become the victims of a crime? These social networking sites won’t be looking very good then! In fact, this may be a huge factor in their popularity.

It will be in the best interests for both users and owners of social media sites to really do everything possible to keep people safe. Minors need to be protected and there is much they can do about it.

Read more here.

Tumblr is a social blogging platform that allows users to upload multimedia posts, follow other users, and engage in communities without some of the constraints found on Twitter or Facebook.

As a platform, Tumblr has been growing rapidly, and some retailers are now using the service as part of their social media marketing efforts. While there is certainly no shortage of social media sites that retailers can post to, there are five good reasons to invest resources in Tumblr.

If all you hear when it comes to social networking is Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, there is one major site that you are missing-Tumblr!

There are many advantages that Tumblr has over the common social media sites. Here are a few things that you should know:

• Rich media. Tumblr allows users to make use of all kinds of content from visual to video to audio. Name it and  you can post it here!This is a very valuable tool that businesses can make use of. You can share high quality pictures and videos about your products. There is no doubt that visually appealing content attracts a lot of attention.
• Customization. Unlike Twitter of Facebook who both have very limited provisions when it comes to customizing ones’ page, Tumblr allows  you much more freedom. You can buy or build your own unique theme just how you want it! For  a business, this is as good as having your own tailored site.

For businesses who are looking for the best onine networking sites, you should look into including Tumblr on the list.

Read more here.

There are three big differences between social networking and other forms of media: accessibility, participation, and live updates. These differences have led to many employees wasting time at work getting their latest fix.

In most companies, maybe even your own, social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are blocked. The basic reason being that employees performance and productivity was noticably dropping when these sites were open. True, blocking the sites may be the easy way out but the fact is nobody will like this decision! The company ends up with ‘higher’ productivity but ‘lower’ morale.

But then the latest phones have applications for these sites! What do companies do now? Prohibit the use of phones during working hours-something that many find extreme.

There is no doubt that if used properly, these social media sites can be very useful but the secret lies in being self diciplined. Here are a couple of tips to make sure that you don’t allow these sites to lower your productivity.

• Separate work from play. Have a different email address for your social media notifications. This will help you avoid getting distracted while you work.
• Go online with a purpose. Simply logging in for no particular reason will rob you a lot of time. You will find yourself spending hours browsing stuff that really isn’t useful.
• Don’t have these applications on your phone. It will be very hard to discipline yourself if you have access to Facebook or Twitter 24/7 on your phone.

You shouldn’t allow yourself to become an ‘addict’. Stay in control and keep your productivity up.

Read the original piece here.