Visit Our Official Blog

Our Official Blog is now located here:

http://www.thehob.biz/blog

Thanks for visiting us! If you want to read our latest posts, follow the link above.

2010: 12/23
CATEGORY: Uncategorized
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Enhanced Social Media Experience With Browser Flock

ince we all spend so much time using and enjoying Social Media, I would like to give those of you that haven’t seen it yet a tip: www.flock.com has enhanced it’s browser for optimum social media usage.

Up until now I’ve personally been using Google’s Chrome for it’s superior speed, but Flock’s features look very impressive.

You can clip content from the web and publish it to your favorite social media for example.

Their browser screen is sub-divided into three frames showing: the main window, a social list of Twitter or other contacts and a frame to search photo’s and video in.

A possible draw back may be that the main window gets a little small but they’ve done a great job of integrating MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Youtube and more, enhanced with easy publishing features for all kinds of content.

Downloading and installing the browser is easy and quick, but make sure to choose custom install to prevent making Flock your default browser if you don’t want to.

Impressions:

Flock Standard Social Media Options:

Quickly integrate social media into your browser interface

2010: 04/29
CATEGORY: Networks
Resources
Services
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Ping: A Minutes’ Work, A World Of Traffic!

Ping

One Minutes Work: A World Of Traffic

Blogging can be a very fulfilling activity: but what’s the point of laughing out loud at our own wit when no one else reads them? The sad reality of many blogs is that they are not read at all. So much for your hard work…

Now SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is an industry for a reason: it’s too boring and complicated for anyone to be interested in pursuing it seriously except SEO experts and nerds. So let’s look for a quick and easy fix for mere mortals!

There is a protocol called ping which sends messages between websites and can be used to alert relevant websites about updates on your blog.

You could integrate it into your site or blog or…

simply use this page.

1. Enter the name of your Blog
2. Enter your Blog’s URL
3. Click select all (Ping services)
4. Send and you’re done!

If you want to go further and autopost blogs and content to many sites you could use the Ping.fm service from the Social Media box on our network homepage.

You’re blog update has now been sent to numerous relevant sites and services: traffic to your blog’s latest jewel is now only a matter of time!

2010: 04/29
CATEGORY: Blogs
Forum
Network
Services
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It All Comes down To Ballistics

Slippery Slide

Trying to combine Business and Social Media can feel like a slippery slide as mixing friendship and business holds some risks: nobody wants to risk a friendship for a crappy product and nobody wants to offend their friends by saying no to them. So: what if we could reduce this risk? What would it take to make this risk into a negligable calculated risk? Basically it all comes down to ballistics:

Calculated Risk

Calculated risk can make you achieve the seemingly impossible: landing in a 6 foot pool two hundred yards from your launching point (as in the video) or even combining Business with Friendship. Social Media can help you combine the latter two more easily then you might think! Here are some ways in which you can use Social Media to further your business goals in a calculated almost risk free way:

-Find friends that are interested in doing business just like you.
-Represent products and services that are a reasonably priced quality solution to a real problem.
-Find Social Media Environments where the two are combined: business minded friends and quality solutions for a reasonable price.

Achieving Your Goals

One way to achieve these goals is to be an active member of The HOB.Biz and/or join our Ambassador program as the three principles mentioned above are what we are all about. Another way is to bring your own quality solution to our network by starting a Business Club, posting a Classified Add or listing your business in the Directory. Whichever you choose: your (business minded) friends are already here!

2010: 04/27
CATEGORY: Media
Network
Networks
Residents
Resources
Services
The HOB
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Widgets: Let’s Go Viral!

Viral Marketing

We’ve all heard of viral marketing. One of it’s main characteristics is that content is placed somewhere and distributed not by the author but by people who view it there and that this process can be unpredictably succesfull.So: why not help change your fortunes in the simplest of ways: with a widget!

Widgets

An excellent way to achieve viral distribution is through widgets. On our Widget Page that I’ve just created you can find some examples: from buttons to click on to Twitterfeeds to video. All kinds of content can go into a widget. These widgets are resizable, customizable and can be put on any social media platform, blog or site (Feel free to do so). With these widgets you could add some of the functionality you are familiar with from our site to your own.

Creating Your Own Widgets

If you would like to create your own widgets like the ones I’ve just made, I can recommend using http://www.widgetbox.com This is a professional platform where you can create all kinds of widgets and even applications.

Ambassador Program

If you would like to embed any number of banners, text adds etc. to monetize your site, you may want to consider our Ambassador program. You can earn a great commission on sales and choose between text-links, presentations and all kinds of banners.

Free Widgets

If you join our free network The HOB.Biz: Business & Social Media! you can choose from hundreds of widgets to try out on your free Personal Profile: from business news, to Twitter Feeds, games and more.
Anything is possible with widgets because they are containers that can be filled with whatever you come up with.

2010: 04/27
CATEGORY: Media
Resources
Services
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Social Media Obstacles

Frictionless Movement

Wouldn’t it be great if in whatever you planned or set your mind to, you could overcome all the obstacles you perceive to be blocking your achieving this goal with the greatest ease?

Here’s someone who doesn’t seem to even acknowledge obstacles in his path as such but rather as enablers of a better kind of movement: a frictionless movement no matter what the context…

(No) Obstacles

So let’s say that like the bicyclist in this video you want to be able to move through the world like there are no obstacles. So what are the obstacles in a Web 2.0 Social Media environment? These might be perceived as some of them:

-Financial: some Social Media environments are closed of by financial constraints such as admission fees that can be quite high.

-Social: Some networks or groups may be exclusive restricting access by selecting only the lucky few.

-Technological: New, better and sometimes expensive technologies are emerging all the time. You may not know about them, understand them or have access to them for some other reason.

Flexibility In All Contexts

We aim to offer you flexibility in all (Social Media) contexts:

-Financial: We offer free services to anyone, allowing you access to hundreds of networks from a single interface. We’ve done the work for you: your network is already in place. By joining our Ambassador program you could even make an easy additional income.

-Social: We are not an exclusive network but from our infrastructure you can access hundreds of free as well as exclusive environments, giving you an instant network wherever you go.

-Technological: We offer a host of free technologies right on this network from filesharing to a free online shopmanager, from a business directory to classified adds to name but a few. When new technologies emerge you can find information about this in thousands of Social Media bookmarks and news feeds. Where possible we will make them available to you for free. On top of this we offer member discounts on numerous technologies that will enable you to move through web 2.0 like the bicyclist in the video: frictionless!

2010: 04/27
CATEGORY: Blogs
Introduction
Media
Networks
Resources
Services
The HOB
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Micro-Blogging with Google: Create a Buzz!

Micro-Blogging With Google

Google has introduced it’s service Buzz to rival the success of Twitter, adding new ways of sharing content online.

Advantages:

Integrates with GMail: you can respond to Buzz from your GMail Inbox
Multi-media content loads fast
Integrates with Twitter, Picasa, Flickr, and more
Integrates with your Google Profile (to follow The HOB on Google and see an example of how Buzz integrates with it: here’s our Profile )