Enter The Net

I recently posted a status message on Facebook about needing to clean my house. One of the comments on the post pointed me to a site called FlyLady.net. FlyLady is a personal coach and resource for cleaning. Her motto is “You Can Do Anything For Fifteen Minutes.” The idea is that if you just take 15 minutes to straighten up the kitchen or clean a part of the bathroom, it will look nice and you have only spent 15 minutes doing it – not a whole day. Since I work from home, this bit of advice was immediately implemented to great success.

It got me to thinking about internet marketing and the swamped small business owner. A top complaint from the harried business owner revolves around finding the time to maintain a robust marketing presence. But what could you do to help get more traffic to your website in 15 minute blocks?

• You can go to a blog about your industry and leave a comment. The link back to your site will help you on the search engines. If you do not yet have a quality list of blogs related to your industry, spend your 15 minutes searching for them and saving them to your “favorites.”
• You can invite 5 new people to be friends on Facebook or LinkedIn.
• You can look for 5 new people or businesses to follow in Twitter (most of them will turn around and follow you right back.)
• You could write a quick entry on your blog .

Now, any one of these activities could easily distract you and take you beyond your 15 minute limit. That’s not good. But, if I can limit myself to 15 minutes of cleaning, you can do this! The end result of these small bursts of effort is that your internet marketing presence will be dynamic and growing.

This short article was originally featured in the Clackamas Small Business Development Center email newsletter.

Source: Pew Internet and American Life Research

People who use modern information and communication technologies have larger and more diverse social networks, according to new national survey findings that for the first time explore how people use the internet and mobile phones to interact with key family and friends.

These new finding challenge fears that use of new technologies has contributed to a long-term increase in social isolation in the United States.

The new findings show that, on average, the size of people’s discussion networks–those with whom people discuss important matters–is 12% larger amongst mobile phone users, 9% larger for those who share photos online, and 9% bigger for those who use instant messaging. The diversity of people’s core networks–their closest and most significant confidants–tends to be 25% larger for mobile phone users, 15% larger for basic internet users, and even larger for frequent internet users, those who use instant messaging, and those who share digital photos online.

“All the evidence points in one direction,” said Prof. Keith Hampton, lead author of the report. “People’s social worlds are enhanced by new communication technologies. It is a mistake to believe that internet use and mobile phones plunge people into a spiral of isolation.”

Read the full report. http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/18–Social-Isolation-and-New-Technology.aspx

Please leave your comments and thoughts below…

A recent study published by the Pew Internet & American Life Project suggests that the growth in adult use of social networking sites is even more staggering than most think.

A December 2008 tracking survey found that 35% of adults now have some sort of online profile on a social networking site, up from 8% in 2005.

Around 65% of teenagers use social networking sites, but the 35% of adults account for many more users because adults are a much bigger segment of the population than teens.

The percentage of adults aged 18-24 with social networking profiles is 75.

Here is the whole breakdown:

• 75% of online adults 18-24 have a profile on a social network site
• 57% of online adults 25-34 have a profile on a social network
• 30% of online adults 35-44 have one
• 19% of online 45 to 54 year olds have a profile
• 10% of online 55 to 64 year olds have a profile
• 7% of online adults 65 and older have a profile

Adults using social networking sites far prefer Facebook to all other sites.

• 73% have a Facebook account
• 48% have a MySpace profile
• 14% have an account on LinkedIn
• 1% each are on Yahoo, YouTube, Tagged, Flickr and Classmates.com
• 10-12% are on “other” sites such as Bebo, Last.FM, Digg, Blackplanet, Orkut, Hi5 and Match.com

Most are still using social networking sites for personal reasons (89%.)

To read the full report, click to:
http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/Adults-and-Social-Network-Websites.aspx

Women outnumber men using social networking sites 50% to 42%.

See more about that study here:
http://pewinternet.org/Media-Mentions/2009/Women-Outnumber-Men-on-Social-Networking-Sites.aspx

How do you use social networking sites? Do you see a business use for them? Please leave ANY comments you like in the space below…

(posted on October 14, 2009)