Enough talk about business!  Social networking was made for FUN and I want in on that, too.

Seriously.  We get all wrapped up in the business side of networking, building our client bases, and communicating with the masses…but what about YOU?

It’s time for a well-deserved break…on a budget.  Because you know you’re on one.  We all are.

Check out these places for social-networking deals.  Each one works similarly- they negotiate great deals from local companies (you can sign up for your specific city), offer them to thousands of people, and the businesses in turn get a bunch of new customers.  Everybody wins!

1. Center’d: This sites says it helps you plan the activities in your life.  Center’d is featured in most major cities and has an extensive online networking system that feature tweets (with lots of daily deal mentions of local businesses of all types), Facebook, a blog and emails.  It’s newest feature is Sentimentanalysis where they make an analyze of online reviews to let you know if an endeavor is worth your energy at that moment.  This new element is limited to certain cities.
2. Groupon: Hopefully you’ve heard of this one.  Groupon’s become a regular fixture in inboxes everywhere.  They offer great deals on everything from brow waxing to weekend get-aways.
3. LivingSocial.com: This is the same idea, but you also have the option of sharing the deal with friends.  If three friends buy the deal using your link, then you get it for free!
4. TIPPR: Limited cities available, but check them out, because they have some great deals if you happen to live in one of them!
5. DailyDibs.com: Pick your city, and Daily Dibs will condense all the deals from various different companies into one email for you.  It’s a daily one-stop shop for all the Groupon-esque offers.

A 2009 study by Expedia found that the United States ranks last with an average of 10 days of vacation a year. But studies also show that people in other countries who are nearly as productive as we are take more vacation days than we do- to the tune of 35 to 40 vacation days per year.

So do yourself and your business a favor and take advantage of one of the deals- whether it is a weekend vacation in Gatlinburg or two hours of housecleaning service at 50% off.  Give yourself a break, time to recharge, and return to work refreshed and ready to do all sorts of serious stuff.

For those of you thinking of creating a mobile app ( definition of app or application – A computer program with a user interface. Of or being a computer program designed for a specific task or use: applications software for a mobile devices).  For those of you thinking of creating an app, make sure you have a real reason and use for an app.   Don’t have one developed just to be trendy.  Apps can be expensive, $2000 – $10,000 and there are a number to compete against.  Make sure your company really needs one. That the use of it is going to enhance the user experience with your service or product.

If you cannot afford the app as part of your marketing budget, do research to insure you will be able to make your investment back through sales of the app.  Do this by studying your target market to know if there is enough people that could desire your app enough to buy it.

If you want to be savvy and mobile make sure your website or online presences have mobile ability.  This is a simple area that many companies are missing, not having mobile plugins in their websites that can detect if the site visitor is using a mobile device. Once this is determined by the site it will  direct the user to a mobile template or area of your website.  This allows users using mobile devices to browse your site, gather the information and /or make a purchase with ease. This capability is normally very reasonably priced.

Need help with the whole mobile app or website?  Contact us by email or call 813-421-1292.

I spoke with a group of students today and a number of them told me they did not need my presentation on Texting Safely.  I asked them to please listen if only to be able to share with a friend.  But I know parents needs some help!  Here is the help and it is only a few clickx away.

Click here to learn what the latest text codes mean. But if you need the whole dictionary click here!

The text messages you should fear, click here.

Scare your kids from texting and driving by clicking on  the picture below!

We feel that we are a great business that offers fantastic, Social Media Networking Consulting, Client Training and Content Management. Our results are impressive and our customer service is stellar. We updated our website. What else can we employ to get our message out?  We need your help to update our byline.  We need three  words to describe our business that would be appealing and fresh.  Look through our website and come up with just three little words…X.Y.Z.  That would communicate what we do.

What do you win?  We will develop a FaceBook Fan Page for your business, church, or group of choice with 4 custom links and give that organization 30 day ad space on our website for FREE!

Details

• Contest runs today through February 1, 2010
• You must be a FAN of our Fan Page at the time of the announcement
• FaceBook Fan Page will be developed in English
• Information, pictures, logos, must be provided by winner
• FaceBook Fan Page must not be of an inappropriate nature (offensive behaviors, involve links to inappropriate websites or businesses or violate FaceBook’s code of ethics)
• This prize is for the development of a FaceBook Fan Page not for content management, training, maintenance.
• Ad picture to appear on Strategic Online Networking website must be appropriate.
• The FaceBook Fan Page will be complete within 2 business weeks of information being turned over to Strategic Online Networking.  It will include a small “powered by Strategic Online Networking”  banner that needs to stay on the page for the 30 days that the ad is on the SON website.
• Fill out the form it should be below….