Gina Bianchini, co-founder and former CEO of Ning, wrote a good post for Techcrunch about how to build a great social site. She boiled it down to seven principles from being unique and the best at one thing to creating a party and developing relationships.

You can read the full post here: The Seven Principles You Need To Know To Build A Great Social Product

You can create your own social network at Ning.

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Tweetups are great for networking, meeting like-minded local people and promoting your business. These valuable tools can help maximize the success and functionality of your Tweetup.

Manage your tweetup guest list with Twtvite. You can even use Twtvite to print out name tags with guests’ Twitter names, avatars and usernames.

Hosting a paid Tweetup? Collect Tweetup admission fees with Eventbrite. Eventbrite can collect money through secure credit card processing, PayPal or Google Checkout.

In addition to promoting your Tweetup through twitter, of course, you can promote your tweetup with Meetup.com and Upcoming.com

Use Twitterfall.com to create a Twitterwall. This is a real-time updated, animated list of everyone tweeting with your hashtag. Project your Twitterall on a wall so everyone at your Tweetup can see it and be movitated to add a tweet, further promoting your event successfully.

Record your Tweetup or stream it live with Usstream.tv

For WordPress users, Tweetuptheme.com makes it easy to promote your Tweetup website. Just upload the tweetUp theme into your WordPress themes folder, adjust a few simple settings and enter your Tweetup event just like you would enter a normal WordPress post.

One great feature of Tweetuptheme is the live RSVP system to help you see who’s coming. When users RSVP, they automatically send out tweets informing people that they’ve RSVPed for the event, with a link to your Tweetup Site where others can learn about your Tweetup and also RSVP.

The embedded Google map makes it easy for your Tweetup attendees to find your location.

Use any or all of these tools to make your next Tweetup a huge success!

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Groupon is a popular new website that sends subscribers in each city a daily e-mail that contains one heavily discounted bargain from a local business.

Launched in 2008, Groupon has more than 3.7 million subscribers who receive their daily e-mail offers. More than 3,000 businesses have signed on to offer these deals.

Groupon works a lot differently than just sending out your own coupons or putting your coupon in the newspaper.

1. Your business doesn’t send Groupon a dime. If Groupon subscribers want an offer, they must pay for it in advance on Groupon’s website. Groupon then takes a cut of this payment, typically 50% – and you get the other 50%.

2. The offer isn’t valid unless a predetermined number of coupons are sold in a 24-hour period. In addition to email, Groupon also uses social media like Twitter and Facebook to get the word out about your offer.

Businesses that have used Groupon have reported a very large influx of business, not only on the day of the offer, but with repeat business from Groupon offer redeemers who then come back.

Here is an example of a Groupon offer that ran in Tampa.

It shows you the deal, the discount, the savings, the time left to buy and how many people have bought it. It lists highlights of the offer and shows a photo of the business.

Groupon also writes a description of your business.

Some tips for using Groupon successfully and preventing the experience from becoming too costly or overwhelming.

Do the math. It’s typical for businesses to offer discounts of 50 percent or more to Groupon customers. Then Groupon takes about half of what you make from the offer. Can you afford to sell a product or service at this discount? (It can be worth it to get new customers to try out your business.)

Set a limit. You may want to specify the maximum number of coupons you want to sell. Your Groupon offer may lead to more business than you can handle.

Be careful about including your phone number. If you give a phone number in your Groupon offer, you may be swamped with phone calls. You might want to use an online reservation system instead.

Use sparingly. Offering coupons too often can cause customers to shop only when they have one.

Groupon has some informative videos about how your business can get more customers.

As of this writing, Groupon is in these cities

Albuquerque Atlanta Austin Baltimore Boston Charlotte Chicago Cincinnati Cleveland Columbus Dallas Denver Detroit Fort Worth Fresno Houston Indianapolis Jacksonville Kansas City Las Vegas LA LA-Inland LA-Orange County Louisville Memphis Miami Milwaukee Minneapolis / St Paul Nashville New York New Orleans Oklahoma City Omaha Orlando Philadelphia Phoenix Pittsburgh Portland Providence Raleigh/Durham Salt Lake City San Antonio San Diego San Francisco / East Bay San Jose Seattle Sioux Falls St. Louis Tacoma Tampa Toronto Tucson Virginia Beach/Norfolk Washington DC Washington DC- NoVa Washington DC- Montgomery County

credits:
inc.com
groupon.com

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Looking for new Twitter folks to follow who have a common interest? Want your business to connect with more customers?

There are paid services out there to achieve this, but there are a few free ones, too.

The first is tweepsearch.com, now in beta.

Just enter the keyword or keyword phrase you want to search.

If your search term is more than one word, put it in quotes to get an exact phrase match, like you would do for a Google search. You can also search location by putting “location: (city)” in the search box.

The returning results will show you the matching Twitter members avatars/photos, Twitter name, real name and Twitter bio with your search term highlighted in red.

It will also show you the number of followers, friends and updates each person has. If you wish to see their Twitter pages and perhaps follow them, just click on the hotlinked Twitter names.

You can also sort your returned results by last update, screen name, number of followers and number of friends. Click on the Twitter avatar to limit your search to that persons followers.

Logging in from Twitter allows you to follow and unfollow people directly from the site.

While the site is free, you can opt to pay to have your Twitter profile put at the top of the results for a keyword of your choice for $10 for 30 days, or share with five others for $5.

Another choice: followerwonk.com

Another option is followerwonk.com. This site is also free and shows you Twitter names, real names, number of followers, number of friends and the bios.

In addition, it has a feature that lets you compare two or three Tweeters. It will compare stats such as number of followers, common followers, who they follow, days on Twitter, average new followers per day, number of tweets and average tweets per week.

So feel free to use these tools to build your network and your business.

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Foursquare has attracted more than 400,000 users in less than a year. It’s time for your business to jump on this bandwagon.

Foursquare can help your business promote deals, get new customers and increase loyalty and patronage among your existing customers.

Foursquare lets users check in at retail stores, restaurants, bars and other places when they arrive, then find recommendations for what to do while there and the surrounding neighborhood. When a user checks in at a nearby business, they will be alerted to your special offer, too.

Foursquare users publicly share recommendations of the businesses they visit. Foursquare uses this data to recommend local businesses based on targeted geolocation.

Businesses can link a discount to a check-in listing and reward users who check in repeatedly by giving points and titles such as ‘mayor’ and ‘deputy mayor.’

Your “mayor” is a regular customer whose loyalty you’ll want to keep. You can see who that person is on the Foursquare site. Businesses often offer VIP perks to their mayor, from a discount to a free beer.

Other businesses promote mayor’s specials. Anything goes – show your mayor that he or she matters to you in a way that reflects the personality of your business.

Read more in the informative article, How to Make Money on Foursquare from inc.com

See a list of businesses currently offering promotions on Foursquare’s webpage for businesses

Foursquare is available in these cities:

North America: US: Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Charlotte, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Detroit, Honolulu, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City (MO), Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Louisville, Memphis, Miami, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Nashville, New Haven, New York City, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Orlando, Park City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, Providence, Raleigh-Durham, Richmond, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa, Tucson, Washington D.C. Canada: Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver. Mexico: Mexico City

Europe: Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, Birmingham (UK), Bristol, Brighton, Brussels, Cologne, Copenhagen, Dublin, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hamburg, Helsinki, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Manchester, Milan, Munich, Oslo, Paris, Prague, Reykjavik, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna, Zurich

South America: Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo

Africa: Johannesburg

Middle East: Dubai, Tel Aviv

Asia: Beijing, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo

Australia: Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney

New Zealand: Wellington

A link for updates on Foursquare’s city list or to request that your city is added.

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This informative e-book, compiled by successful affiliate marketer Jonathon Volk, has 17 valuable sections that cover subjects such as social media, pay-per-click (PPC), pay-per-view (PPV) and media buys.

It is great for people who are new to affiliate marketing or just want to learn something new.

Get your free Affiliate Marketing 101 Guide

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Rice University Jones Graduate School of Business recently conducted a case study and discovered that using a Facebook fan page increases sales and customer loyalty.

The study was done on a retail business in Houston called Dessert Gallery Bakery & Cafe. Using a Facebook fan page increased store visits 36 percent, increased customer expenditures 45 percent and increased customer loyalty 41 percent.

As a caveat, only approximately five percent of Dessert Gallery’s 13,000 customers became Facebook fans within three months. This may indicate that Facebook fan pages work best as niche marketing programs targeted to customers using Facebook and should be used together with other marketing programs.

See the Facebook Fan Page for Dessert Gallery Bakery & Cafe

See an article about this Facebook fan page study published in the Harvard Business Review

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Based on a new user sample by online ad network Chitika, Twitter users choose current events most while Facebook and Digg users choose technology.

Twitter clicked-links:
• Current events/news: 28.49%
• Movies: 22.56%
• Technology: 13.39%
• Medical: 7.98%
• Video games: 4.64%
• Celebrity: 3.94%
• How To: 2.88%

Facebook clicked-links:
• Technology: 33%
• Lifestyle: 18.29%
• News: 18.25%
• How To: 4.55%
• Movies: 2.96%
• Medical: 2.62%

Digg clicked-links
• Technology: 57.38%
• Celebrity: 12.39 %
• Lifestyle: 8.96%
• News: 4.92%
• Movies 1.08%

More about what links get clicked on Twitter, Facebook and Digg via adweek.com

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This is just one of the revelations in Reuter’s article about the state of job searching methods.

Others include:

• job search apps on your iPhone or other smart phones
• ‘job wanted’ campaigns on Twitter and Facebook
• online support groups for job seekers like LayoffsCafe and LaidOff Camp

Seems like the old days of faxing your resume are going away.

See more in the article from Reuters

Sign up for LinkedIn (it’s free)

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More and more companies and executives now have a presence on Facebook.

For a small amount of money (say, less than ten bucks), you can put your face and resume in front of your highly targeted list of companies or industries.

See the details including a step-by-step guide in the article, Use Facebook Ads to Make Employers Hunt You Down.

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