The Californian statute cited by the plaintiff states that a person’s name, voice, signature, photograph or likeness cannot be used for advertising without consent. These plaintiffs believe that they should get monetary compensation as their name and likeness was used in these sponsored ads. The judge said in a 38 page report that the plaintiffs have set up a sound argument and that Facebook may actually owe them some money.

Facebook however has stated that ‘Sponsored Stories’ ads do not need prior permission because they fall under an exemption of the above stated law which is for ‘newsworthiness’. The site claims that the plaintiff are already public figures to their friends on the site, and by liking a particular product they create newsworthy material that can be shared with their friends. This particular lawsuit poses a threat to the central method of revenue generation for Facebook as about 90% of Facebook’s revenue comes from ads. Social media marketing training can help you to learn more about sponsored stories on Facebook.

Videos and pictures help in explaining complex concepts. Pictorial depictions on how to use your product can lead to better comprehension than textual how to do manuals. Apart from capturing videos or pictures of your products, you can also post pictures of your company events. This helps in building trust in consumers.

Integrate online advertising with offline efforts. Include your Facebook or Twitter details in fliers or advertisements in newspapers. They help in inviting potential consumers to your online community and help your brand gain trust. Potential customers may join your online community and buy the products that are being marketed later.

Using social communities to develop customer base is the true power of online social media. You can keep the online community engaged by holding contests and giving discounts to the members of the online community. Organize contests when launching new products. Contests are an effective method of promoting your products. Effective online marketing contests involve some sort of ‘viral’ aspects.

Make use of these marketing strategies to build your online community, better advertise of your products and boost your sales. Social media marketing is a useful method for increasing traffic to your website. Use it effectively to have a strong online presence.

However, a recent study reveals how consumers use social media networks and technology today, as well as patterns of their growth.  Social network growth is now ‘plateauing’ among younger age groups, and user behavior is changing. Internet users are still big on social networking – but they are more realistic and restrained in their approval and adoption of brands. Competition for their attention is fiercer.

It is now obvious that a successful social media marketing campaign involves more than basic fan interaction, smart advertising campaigns, and adding share buttons. Engaging, adapting, learning and action grant social media campaigns more value and this is a never-ending cycle.

Markets look for information and entertainment in brands. Online consumers want brands to offer services that fit well into their lifestyles and want businesses to listen to their views and needs.

As a result, a brand must learn to listen effectively to users’ opinions and make informed decisions based on insights received, preferably with the help of a local search engine marketing agency. It must also keep tabs on how social media impacts the enterprise and, in turn, customer experiences. These changes indicate a new era in social media where relevance and consumer engagement claim priority.

Foursquaropoly is a social game inspired by classic board game Monopoly. Just as developers like Zynga have built products on Facebook, this game is being built on Foursquare’s API. Players will be awarded ‘money’ for checking in through Foursquare, which can then be used to purchase locations. Similar to the board game, the social game will allow players to buy and sell properties in the city. Going by the popularity that the classic board game still enjoys, Foursquaropoly seems like a great concept.

changed to avoid trademark issues. With studies suggesting that the branding messages advertised through social games receive more attention compared to other forms of online ads; this form of social media marketing has been rapidly gaining popularity among advertisers. The game developers, who work out of their apartments in Brooklyn and Manhattan, have been receiving inquiries about running promotions on the game from a number of ad agencies since their video went live. The growing interest among indicates that advertisers recognize the potential held by the concept.

For those who have SEO (search engine optimization) in mind, it is now obvious that Google is now combining relevance with relationships where search results are concerned. So the impact of Google’s Social Search on SEO is a game changer. As the search engine market leader continues to tweak these updates and algorithms, it is certain that SEO and the areas of content, social network building and participation will become increasingly important for businesses with an online presence.

Business enterprises that wish to make an impact online must utilize blogs and other digital real estate and create profiles on leading social media sites such as Twitter, Google+, Facebook and LinkedIn. Of course, standard SEO practices like relevant and quality content created around keywords and link building will remain crucial but participation in social networks is fast becoming a ranking factor.

There is time yet to adopt these requirements as it will probably take years for social search to become fully functional, but there is no denying the fact that network building and participation online must become a pivotal practice for businesses. Hire the services of a local search engine marketing agency to help you navigate the new SEO shoals.

Google+ was launched on June 28 this year in a beta trial, but was open only to a very limited set of users and only by invitation. The service offers excellent features for content sharing among friends in your ’Circles’. However, the downside to Google’s new social network rolling out so late in the game has meant that very often the people users would like to add are quite content with Facebook and don’t want to join a new social media site.

However, it must be remembered that the new service is now in a restricted field trial phase, which means that it has not been opened up on demand globally to everyone who wishes to join, though over 10 million users globally have joined Google+ since it debuted in June. While early responses from users have been very positive, access being limited makes the overall user experience slightly difficult to assess.

Google+ has been working on tweaking its old features and adding new ones ever since launch. The new service has introduced games on its site with third-party developers like Zynga Inc. Local search engine marketing opportunities should take off in a big way once Google+ launches its Brands Pages, and this is scheduled for the near future.

A recent survey conducted by ‘Pew Internet & American Life Project’ discovered that 31% respondents frequent Facebook several times during the day and 21% use it once a day. 26% female users and 17% male users comment on Facebook once a day at least. The study reveals that female users outdo males in commenting on the posts. The study confirmed that Twitter ranks next to Facebook in popularity.

Opinions of friends on social media affect people much more than advertisements and endorsements by celebrities. A study conducted by ‘ROI Research’ reveals how online activities and opinions affect the offline behavior of people. The study titled ‘S-Net: The Impact of Social Media’ disclosed that 60% users take some kind of action when a friend posts something about a service, company, product or brand. They may either purchase the product of the company endorsed by a friend or recommend that particular product to others. These discussions and recommendations take place more on Twitter than on Facebook, with 61% people discussing a company or product, 51% recommending it and 58% purchasing the product.

It is clear from these studies that online social platforms have emerged as an effective forum for endorsement and promotion.

Google+ is steadily gaining popularity. Although it is not possible for people to join Google+ without being extended friendship requests for the time being, the community is gradually attracting many members.

The user interface of Google+ has just four key elements: Home, Profile, Circles and Photos, and it does not include any games. There are options to share, host videos and photos, and delete and edit them as well. The ‘Stream’ is similar to Facebook’s news feed and you also have the option to ‘mute’ conversations. The ‘Sparks’ component brings to you videos and articles that it thinks you may like.

What makes Google+ stand out is the ‘Circle’ concept. This enables you to create your own social spheres which would include your friends, colleagues, classmates, acquaintances and other contacts at different circles. If you want to share specific information with only a specific group, say to your colleagues, you can do that and the others may not be able to see the information you have shared. This would assure you more privacy and can save you from many troubles like mere acquaintances getting information you don’t want them to know.

Mobile Google+ is functional on Apple’s iOS and on Android platform but not yet on Symbian platform.

In this era of social networking sites, people often tend to share with others a particular piece of content, be it a video, an image, or an article, that has evoked some kind of emotional reaction or curiosity in them. Allow people to share the content rather than trying to gain control over it.

It is possible that while sharing content on a social platform, the name of the piece of content may be changed. The title of the content may be replaced with a slang or jargon which people find easy to associate. Openness to accept such changes will ensure that the content is frequently updated by people and that search engines locate this updated content. It is also important to make the content trendy and appealing. Trends keep changing and if the content is updated according to what’s hot currently, it is likely to gain more popularity.

It is not likely that the content will always go viral, as what might evoke feelings in the writer or creator may not always impress the viewer. But it is important to make all possible efforts in that direction. It is also important to create transcripts and provide tags for videos, photos and audio pieces to make it easy for people to share and classify such media.

Many reputed brands have been successful in attaining a fair amount of traffic to their pages on social network sites like Facebook and Twitter besides the traffic they get directly to their own websites.

It is extremely useful to integrate social media into the homepage of the company website. This will enable the company or brand to stay connected with the customers. Usually, those people who visit the website of a company are interested in the products of that company. Inviting such potential customers to stay connected by liking or following the company page would ensure that the updates of the company or brand reach potential customers through these social sites.

Regular updates and discussions on these social networks can be of great help in reaching out to people, in order to announce the latest products from the company or receiving their feedback for further improvement.

Using the company or brand name in the posts on social network sites is quote important. This will announce to search engines that your brand is popular on that site and this factor could have an impact on your search engine ranking. It will also ensure greater visibility for your brand.