Would you like to learn the tactics of social media from the comfort of your home or office? If so, keep reading.

When Michael Stelzner started Social Media Examiner in October 2009, he never dreamed it would become so successful so quickly.

As of March 2011, Social Media Examiner has 59,000 email subscribers, 33,000 Facebook fans, over 60 writers and half a million page views per month.

In addition, the site has generated almost $2 million in sales; ranks among the top 12 websites on two Technorati lists – business and small business; and ranks among the top 1,500 websites in the entire United States, according to Alexa.

Imagine how much it would cost you to attend a week-long conference with 24 different experts in a faraway city. The conference fee, airfare, hotel room, rental car and restaurants would set you back several thousand dollars.

But you can attend an online conference with 24 different social media pros like Stelzner for a fraction of that cost at the upcoming third-annual social media conference, Social Media Success Summit 2011.

“LinkedIn and Facebook have gone through many changes just in the last two months,” Stelzner said.

You may have read the following stories:

• 8 New Facebook Page Changes: What You Need to Know
• What the Facebook Message Platform Means for Business
• 8 New LinkedIn Features Worth Exploration
• How LinkedIn Apps Can Promote Your Business

All of these articles were published in the last two months.

Learn What Works in Social Media Marketing

“We have a whole new lineup this year,” Stelzner said. “And the major emphasis in this summit is monitoring and tracking your social media marketing results.”

Nearly all of the presenters have either authored a social media book or manage social media programs for well-known corporations.

You’ll hear from Boeing, Verizon, Intel, Citigroup and Cisco. Here’s a partial list of the 24 presenters:

• Jeremiah Owyang, Altimeter Group
• Brian Solis, author of Engage
• Mari Smith, co-author of Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day
• Frank Eliason, Citigroup
• Mario Sundar, LinkedIn
• David Meerman Scott, author of Real-Time Marketing and PR

And here’s a sample of what you’ll learn: Facebook news feed optimization, how big B2B brands are using social media, how to use LinkedIn to grow your business, how to attract local customers using Facebook Places and the 6-step process for measuring social media return on investment.

Already 2400+ have signed up , including General Mills, Microsoft, Honda, SAP, Tyco, 3M, Mayo Clinic, Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo, Disney, Visa, Intuit, Warner Music Group, Party City, Yahoo!, Kraft Foods, Autodesk, ConAgra Foods, Teradata, Four Seasons Hotels, Carnegie Mellon University, Cardinal Health, Comcast and hundreds of small businesses!

Click here to save 34% (expires Wed.), and get a FREE sample class.

Don't miss out on the web's largest social media conference! - Sessions start May 3rd

What does your profile photo say about you?

This is the first impression you make to many people. If someone you haven't yet met in person schedules a meeting with you at the local coffee shop, they are probably going to look you up online before the meeting. They want to find a little background info & they want to see your photo so they know who to look for. It needs to look like you!

You've seen them... the mug shot of someone standing against a wall, the profile pic where half the shot is missing, the (what are they trying to hide?) default image, the photo of someone in beachwear... these are not helping to create a professional image. Don't let it happen to you!

A picture is worth a thousand words. With social media being such an important part of doing business today, your business portrait is working overtime. A photo is necessary for your online profiles (LinkedIn, inSide919, Facebook, Twitter), your website, press releases, blogs, brochures, and more...

Make sure your business portrait is in line with the image you want to project. Take your marketing plan and branding into consideration when deciding what type of business portrait is best for you.

If you have visited LinkedIn today you may have noticed a new feature - Signal.

Signal allows you to see what your LinkedIn contacts are tweeting about, follow trends, search industry topics & then see how they relate to your LinkedIn network. Here's an overview of how it works:

As you can see this is a pretty powerful research tool. In order to take full advantage of it, make sure you include your Twitter id on your LinkedIn profile so your network can follow you. What will you search for? Visit your LinkedIn page & check it out!

Oh, and while you are there... Have you visualized your LinkedIn Network with InMaps yet?
In case you missed it we posted about InMaps on our Facebook page last week. It's pretty neat. Here's the link: http://inmaps.linkedinlabs.com/

In case you missed the announcement, Joomla! 1.6 was released late Monday night. Hooray! Celebrations are being planned across the globe. Much of it has been rebuilt from the ground up and there are several noteworthy features added. It has been streamlined for better work-flow, categories have been restructured, modules can now be published with start & end times, and SEO has been improved. Highlights are in the graphic at the end of this post and you can read more about the incredible new Joomla! 1.6 at http://www.joomla.org/16/

You may be asking "What does this mean for my site?"
Here are my recommendations:

If you are preparing to build a new site start with Joomla! 1.6. This will save you the trouble of migrating later. There is no legacy mode (support for older version components), but they have made it easy for developers to upgrade their existing components. With the new ACL structure and new plugin format developers will be able to build, update, and deploy extensions faster. There are 108 Joomla! 1.6 native extensions available in the Joomla! Extensions Directory so far, and plenty more already underway.

If you currently have a Joomla! 1.5 site keep what you have for now unless your site is very basic or a major site overhaul is already planned. Joomla! 1.5 is still supported and if you have multiple extensions you may want to wait until they are released for 1.6 before migrating. Just keep up with security updates for the core and extensions in the meantime. If your site is very basic and your server meets the requirements, by all means go ahead and migrate. Your template will need a few code changes if there is not already a 1.6 version available. If you are planning a site rebuild anyway you might as well start out with everything shiny and new Joomla! 1.6 has to offer.

If you currently have a Joomla! 1.0 site what are you waiting for? Joomla 1.0 has not been supported since August 2009 and your site is at risk. RUN (don't walk) to connect with a Joomla professional who can help you build a new site! Server upgrade compatibility and security issues abound and updating your site is an urgent matter.

 

Here are the top ten improvements found in Joomla! 1.6 -

 

If you currently use a CMS (content management system) other than Joomla! no hard feelings, but you may want to take a second look before updatng your site. Also check out the very supportive and wonderful Joomla! community on the forums and at Joomla! People to add icing to the cake.

And if your company site is one your nephew built 3 years ago using html or a site builder you need better representation, we need to talk.

What is a browser?

A web browser is the software program that allows you to view information on the internet. Web browsers are free to download and fast to install.

Is your browser up to date?

You can check what browser you are using at http://www.whatbrowser.org/en/
(While you are there you can watch the short video to learn more about what a browser is)

Updating to the most current version of your browser will increase your online security, allow faster browsing & more features, and help keep technology moving forward. Current versions are Firefox 3.6.12, Chrome 7.0, Opera 10.63, Safari 5.0.3, IE 8.0 - Please make sure yours is up to date.

Browser History

The first web browser was introduced to the public in August 1991. I was working toward a degree in Advertising Design & Production at the time and 3.5" diskettes were the norm for sharing documents. It was called the World Wide Web (later renamed Nexus) and was created by Tim Berners-Lee. It was mainly used by scientists at the time. Wow have browsers come a long way since then!

Netscape Navigator was released in 1994. Internet Explorer was introduced in 1995, the year we moved to Raleigh. We were still using books to find information when we planned our move. Comercialization of WWW began in 1996 and the dotcom boom followed in 1999. Open Source Mozilla joined the scene in 1998 and eventually evolved into Firefox in 2004. The bubble burst in 2001, leaving dotcom companies to sink or swim. 2002 brought Web 2.0 and new forms of sharing information - blogs, social networks, and RSS feeds gained popularity. Safari was released in 2003. You Tube emerged in 2005 and popularity of online video grew quickly. Google Chrome is the newest browser, released in 2008.

I've just covered a few highlights here.
If you would like to see a cool timeline of browser history check out this one on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_web_browsers#Graphical_Timeline

Google has published "20 things I learned about browsers and the web" to help you learn more about browsers and the web. It has wonderful illustrations by Christoph Niemann: http://20thingsilearned.com/

Wikipedia has an in depth comparison of web browsers here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_web_browsers

Our browser of choice is Firefox, but if you're still using Internet Explorer because it came pre-loaded on your computer we won't hold it against you (as long as you upgrade to the current version).