While every business is realizing that Social Media is a powerful and dominating marketing channel, most fail to realize one of the basic, underlying principles of effective communication: trust. In order to effectively utilize social media to reach audiences, build relationships and grow your business you must understand the importance of trust.

Most business jump on Twitter and Facebook and start promoting their products and services without ever taking the time to learn about their followers. This is primarily where they fail. In order to build an online reputation you must gain their trust. The following are 5 simple tips to help you gain trust.

1. Meaningful and Relevant Content

Content is the most effectively way of attracting audiences. Blogging is the easiest way of developing content. Create posts and articles that are relevant to your industry and your clientele. More importantly, create useful content. If people find that your articles can help them conduct business than they are more likely to follow, engage and use your products/services.

2. Be Transparent

Most business feel that it is absolutely necessary to be 100% business online. This is a mistake. Nobody wants to follow bots online, we want real people to connect with. Be human. Interact with people, listen, speak, engage, and most of all, try to be a friend and not a sales man.

3. Say Thank You

Anytime somebody retweets one of my tweets I make it a point to thank them personally. This small touch is more effectively than you could ever imagine. This is the kind of act that enables a businesses to be more personal with customers.

4. Actively Engage With the Community

A lot of people like to tweet away without ever reading what others are tweeting. In order to gain trust, it’s importantly to actively engage with the community. Take some time to read what others are discussing and jump into the conversation. Remember that Twitter is public, and all those conversations are public, so why not jump in at any time and discuss…even if it’s not about your industry. People like diversity, and people trust people with diverse, intelligent backgrounds.

5. Become an Expert

In order to build trust in your industry, you need to be an expert. Blogging, link sharing, bookmarking, interacting and online engagements are the best way to accomplish this. If you read a great article you should share it on Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, Digg, etc. and let your customers know about it. Likewise, you should make it a point to write blog posts, tips and notes that expose your expertise in the industry. Don’t be afraid to give away some tips and advise for free.

5. Advise, Don’t Sell

When discussing industry relevant issues, make sure never to sell your product or services. It’s more important that you advise people. Once you’ve become an expert in your field you should strive to provide as much advise as possible, allowing people to decide for themselves. If they trust your brand than there is nothing you should worry about.

On the Previous Versions of the Web

Every time period in our history has been defined as a version, era or saga. If we think of the last millennium you’ll notice a variety of distinctively separate eras which defined our cultural, economic and regional differences. The second thousand years of our modern calendar was begun with the dark ages, moved into the crusades, the Renaissance, the enlightenment, the American and French revolutions and an array of scientific and technological discoveries.

Each of these “eras” in our history defines a period, or version, where there was a distinct social, economic and cultural pattern. The dark ages and crusades marked a gloomy era in our history while the Renaissance and Enlightenment represented historical points in our evolution as a species.

The very same can be said about the internet. The original era of the internet was static. There was no dynamic content, no applications, it was nothing more than a place to find and share information. Then along came AOL, IRC and some more “interactive” applications. The end of “Web 1.0″ marked a fundamental shift in the future of the web. The advent of AOL provided us with and understanding that the web could be social, personal and interactive.

Thus proverbial “Web 2.0″ was born and while most people have no idea what that means it actually quite simple: It is the birth of interactive applications and user-centered design. I’m not talking about those glossy buttons but the ability to design the information architecture and the User Interface specifically for the end user. The web became a place for people to interact with each other via email, Instant Messaging, and website. Web 2.0 was a place that businesses could sell goods online, charities could accept donations from around the world, and a little company like kohactive could show it’s kick ass work! Likewise, “Web 2.0″ was a shift from elitism to personal web. While domain acquisition and hosting was more expensive in Web 1.0, the second iteration provided an cheap and easy solution for anybody. If we think of the open source platforms like WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, etc. all of these open source platforms made it drop dead easy for even my mother to start a blog.

On the Current and Future Versions

“Web 2.0″ ended as interactive applications like Facebook, Delicious, Basecamp and many more began to redefine how we utilize the web as a tool. I believe we are currently in a new era of the web, “Web 3.0″ where interaction, social life and technology provide us with a new platform to observe and interact with the world. As a company we utilize numerous web applications that we have become dependent upon, i.e. Basecamp, Beanstalk, DropBox, Harvest, etc. And likewise, all business have found a variety of online tools the streamline and manage business routines. While “Web 1.0″ was static and “Web 2.0″ dynamic, “Web 3.0″ can be defined as a social and application based era in it’s history. Any business can find a solution to a problem online through some sort of web app. These young, amazing entrepreneurs across the globe have been able to build an app for anything.

The advent of the iPhone was the most technological revolution in the history of the web. We were no longer restricted to computers and bulky laptops. We now had the internet and applications in our hands, natively attached to a small device that we could fit in our pocket. The web suddenly became an indispensable tool that would define the future of our economic and social environment.

Conclusion

Did you know that the web was originally “social”, developed to allows university professors to share data across the country. Web 1.0 lost that meaning and it wasn’t until now that we’ve begun to truly understand the importance of social communications through the web. In a hundred years we will look back on the history of the web in order to define the future. We will study the “social and application” era of Web 3.0 and use it to define Web 4.0, Web 5.0 and so forth.

Most of the time people just don’t have the time to find these resources that can truly help their business grow through social media. Therefore, we’ve put together this comprehensive list of great article that should help your business understand and utilize social media more effectively. I’m sure there will be more of these lists in the future. For now, enjoy!

21 Essential Social Media Resources You May Have Missed
Social Networking for Business: 8 Tips on How to Relate and Communicate
The Business of B2B Social Media
HOW TO: Create a Successful Company Blog
16 Interesting Wordpress Plugins to maximize Traffic and Followers from Social Networks
Which Social Network Is Right For You?
21 Tips for Using Twitter and Facebook for Business
16 social media guidelines used by real companies
How Starbucks Builds Meaninful Customer Engagements via Social Media
ROI: How to Measure Return on Investment in Social Media
Four Ways to Find Out if Your Customers Are Active With Social Media
9 Ways to Enhance Your Facebook Fan Page
Report: Top 20 Brands on Twitter – April 2010
3 Simple Steps for Creating Social Media Visibility

Let us know what you think about these resources. Did we miss something? Is there something else you’d like for us to share? Please use the comments below to make any request for future lists.

Blogging is one of the most important social media channels available to any business. It’s great because it’s free and it’s easy to do. The only problem is that most people have no idea what to blog about. My response to all clients is the same: Blog about your industry and what you know about it.  Here at kohactive we have two separate blogs: Think is our philosophical approach to social media, web design and anything digital; Labs is our creative playground where we test and share stuff. Note that we blog about what we know and do. And not only that, but blogging has made us money and it can absolutely do the same for you.

Calm down, I know you’re getting excited but I need to set up the situation. A few months ago I was looking for a solution to a problem with regards to Flash Web Development and MailChimp Integration and when I couldn’t find the answer I decided to develop my own. After a few hours of hard work I solved my problem and then wrote a blog about it. I didn’t just write about the problem, I provided a solution and source code available for download.

At the time, I didn’t realize how many other people were looking for the same solution. Without knowing this I went ahead and notified MailChimp about my supreme accomplishment and then immediately posted a link to the article on their website. That was HUGE! One of the largest and most popular Email Marketing company in the world had posted a link to our blog on their website. They did it because it provided solutions for their clients and it was resourceful. It was mutually beneficial.

Over the course of a few months I saw thousands of visitors searching and finding that article. We had thousands of hits and everyone seemed happy. One day a London based company approached us about the code. They thanked us and asked if we were “experts in flash”. Consequently, they hired us for a project, which will inevitably lead to future projects. We plan on maintaining a close and personal relationship with this company.

This is just a small example of many companies and bloggers who have gained business leads and clients through blogging. How does this effect you? it’s quite simple. If you want a blog that matters than you should follow these simple rules:

1. Blog about what you know and do
2. Don’t just talk, provide solutions or answers
3. Provide insight and knowledge to beginners or other industry professionals
4. Always maintain professionalism and integrity
5. Always site sources (if applicable)
6. Use Twitter and Facebook to spread the word
7. Share with our industry professionals or related businesses

Now these simple rules are not going to help every business succeed, but I believe that giving will always provide a return of some sort. Don’t be hesitant to give out “secrets”, unless that secret makes billions of dollars.

If blogging has ever earned you business let us know in the comments below!

Social media has emerged as one of the most important forms of communication for businesses and consumers alike. In the past year that I’ve been actively engaged in Twitter, Facebook, Diggs, Stumble Upon and so forth, I’ve found a new world of resources, experts and friends. But it wasn’t until the day my mom asked me how to join Twitter that I actually realized the value of these networks.

Over the past few months every single business imaginable has created an account for all social networks. While some business are doing an amazing job marketing and connecting with their customers, other are doing the exact opposite. Although there is not right way for every business to utilize social media successfully, this article should help you understand social media and build a strategy for your marketing plans.

1. Know your audience

The first step for any marketing plan is knowing your audience. You should clearly identify who you are trying to communicate with by creating a detailed list that includes age group, gender, location, etc. You don’t want to be selling meat to a vegetarian, do you? Every brand should, in essence, be a solution to a customer’s needs. Although you should already know this, it is important to stay focused throughout your social media experience.

Define the conversation by knowing what your customers are talking about. If you are a local Salon/Spa then you should be talking about beauty, hair, style, fashion and anything related to the customers needs. Don’t try to sell them anything and definitely don’t stalk them to come by your products, just be social, personal and conversational. That is what these “social” networks are all about.

2. Build a reputation of expertise

If you’ve clearly identified your customers and their needs then you should become an expert in their interests and needs. Don’t just say “we are ____ experts”, actually show them. By actively blogging, a company can provide visitors with additional information, tips and knowledge. You can show that you are expert in your field by discussing it, providing resources and telling them how your services have help others.

When a company maintains an active blog they are more likely to build inbound traffic. An effective blog solves a customer’s problems, which in turn is shared with the customer’s friends and acquaintances. When a blog stays focused and defines a specific expertise then you’ll become a resource or a go-to point for anything related to your industry.

Likewise, you can use Facebook and Twitter to share your expertise with customers and friends. Engaging yourself into the community is one of the most effective ways to provide your expertise. I love Answering questions on Linked In, it’s a great way to network, gain trust and build expertise. With Twitter I’ll do the same and most of the time I’m sharing information and resources for my “customers”.

3. Engage the community

Most business overlook the importance of socializing in social media campaigns. Socializing is the very basis for these networks and any business that forgets this will inevitably fail at social media marketing. Any company can use Linked In, Twitter, Facebook or any other social network to start discussions, ask questions,  make friends, and be conversational.

Some businesses, like Mountain Dew, use social media in an outstanding way. Rather than just giving away promotional items, they run promotions that require audience participation. An example of this could be a local restaurant that asks it’s followers to submit a picture of their kitchen via Twitter and whoever has the messiest could win a dinner for two. These kinds of strategies engage your customers and allows them to have fun while participating.

4. Learn from others

It’s never too late to check out the competition or other businesses that successfully utilize social media. You should constantly be researching and developing new ideas. The social media is so young that no “correct” strategy exists yet, nor will one ever. It’s all about testing the waters, learning what works and what doesn’t.

Designers typically explore the web to get inspiration, writers will go into public and businesses ask their customers. Perhaps a simple survey or a brief Twitter conversation could help you discover what will make your business better. Always remember that reaching out to customers is always an option, don’t hesitate to directly @reply a follower on Twitter to ask them about their thoughts.

5. Reflection and Analysis

After you begin a social media campaign, it is important to closely monitor its success. There are a few immediate steps that should be taken to carefully watch your campaign.

1. Install Google Analytics to monitor visitors, content and trends
2. URL Shortener: Always use a URL Shortener with built in click tracking, like Bit.ly or Is.gd
3. Google Webmaster Tools allows you to analyze keyword performance and content accessibility

These tools will help you discover how people are interacting with your website and your campaign. Make sure to allow comments, feedback and social media sharing on your blogs and fan pages, these subtle options will help you gain feedback, analyze the results and decide whether to continue in a particular path.

Conclusion

Just remember that none of these tactics are guaranteed to make you money online. That’s not what this is about. This is about your brand being social. This is about giving your brand a personality and engaging with the community.

More and more people are becoming increasingly loyal to their brands because they have a personal connection with them. I’ve been successful in my industry because we have a small amount of clients at any given time and each of them knows me on a more personal level than big business. My clients trust me and believe in me. Social media can help you achieve these results if you use it correctly and effectively. Just remember to be social, fun and engaging!

Whenever we engage in a web production, we always build a site map. A site map is the architectural framework for the project, whether a large scale system or a five-page website. When clients understand how to build site maps, the web design process becomes increasingly efficient for both parties. The following is a resource we’ve created to assist clients in preparing and organizing for small to medium size websites.

Since information architecture in large scale applications and systems is a bit more intricate, we’ll stay away from that and focus on small to medium size websites, including small five-page sites to larger, more dynamic websites.

For this tutorial, we’ll build a site map for a small business consulting company. Feel free to build your own site map as we go along. Also, I always advise clients to check out their competition and their websites, this is always a good starting point when designing for your industry.

1. Identify All Pages Involved in the Project

After I understand the basic ideas and goals for a project, I usually try to build a list of pages included in the website. I’ll simply put together a numerical list of pages. For our purposes, let’s build a site map f

1. Homepage
2. About Us
3. Services
4. Blog
5. Contact

This is a pretty simple example, but lets run with it for now. These are considered the primary pages of your website, regardless of how they are going to be displayed across the website.

2. Sub Pages

Now that we have our primary pages, we can build upon our site map with relevant sub-pages. Although some projects don’t require any sub pages, it is important for any client to know this step.

1. Homepage
2. About Us
   1. History
   2. Mission and Philosophy
   3. Managing Staff
3. Services
   1. Business Plans
   2. Business Analysis
   3. Manager Coaching
   4. Marketing Strategies
   5. Growth and Transition
4. Blog
5. Contact

As you can see, we’ve just added a list of sub-pages to our current primary pages. Whether you want these displayed as drop down menus or all available at all times is not important right now, we are just building the information architecture.

3. Content Analysis for Each Page

Once we have an outline of all the pages, it is important to build upon our framework. If this site map was all a designer had to work with then you will end up with a bunch of pages with content and nothing else. If you look at other websites, though, you’ll see a nice even distribution of content, related pages and information spread throughout each page.

Most client don’t take this step, usually because they are not aware of how to approach it. This step is important for both you and the designer. It helps the designer understand your need and the project deliverables and consequently helps him put together more accurate design concepts. Most of the time, you can save money by identifying these elements prior to design or production, otherwise it may be extra (unnecessary) work to fill in these elements down the road.

Here is an example of a more comprehensive site map that includes content overview:

1. Homepage
   1. Banner/Image rotator
   2. Welcome Message
   3. Inquiry Form
2. About Us
   1. History
      1. History Content
      2. Sidebar w/ link to services and inquiry form
   2. Mission and Philosophy
      1. Mission/Philosophy Content
      2. Sidebar w/ link to services and inquiry form
   3. Managing Staff
      1. Image, Title and Description for each Manager
      2. Sidebar w/ link to services and inquiry form
3. Services
   1. Business Plans
      1. Business Plans Content
      2. Sidebar w/ link to services and inquiry form
   2. Business Analysis
      1. Business Analysis Content
      2. Sidebar w/ link to services and inquiry form
   3. Manager Coaching
      1. Manager Coaching Content
      2. Sidebar w/ link to services and inquiry form
   4. Marketing Strategies
      1. Marketing Content
      2. Sidebar w/ link to services and inquiry form
   5. Growth and Transition
      1. Growth and Transition Content
      2. Sidebar w/ link to services and inquiry form
4. Blog
5. Contact

So now we’ve outlined almost all the content on the website. When a designer sees this kind of starting point he is able to play around with the design with a bit more trust in the project. His first step will be to wire frame the website and then build a nice interface that includes the content you added in the site map, i.e. rotating image, welcome paragraph, inquiry form, etc.

If a client possess this kind of knowledge then your project is likely to proceed smoother and with less problems. This gives the client a clear understanding of the project scope and it gives the designer a lot to work with, rather than just making things up and waiting for you to comment. And as it turns out, most successful projects occur when the client and designer are on the same page, share the same thoughts and are in completely understanding of the project deliverables.

Hope this helps!

So after reflecting on the previous years, I’ve decided to put together a comprehensive guide to help clients prepare for a web project. Just a little disclaimer, this guide is intended for common website projects, not for large scale applications or systems (that guide will come in the future).

1. What Kind of Client are you?

The first step that each client needs to express is their involvement in the project. Some clients are much more trustworthy (or just completely disengaged) and want you to handle everything from strategy to creative to development. These kinds of clients are our favorite clients because they don’t send a design straight to hell, but consequently, I believe all projects that lack input from the client also lack real solutions.

Prior to engagement, every client should identify what kind of client they are. Each designer/project manager should make sure to identify this prior to project launch.

2. Do Your Homework Prior to Project Launch

Before you sit down with your designer you should make sure to do your homework. By homework, I mean going on the web and researching your industry, competitors and trends. Nine out of ten clients don’t do any homework at all. In fact, they sometimes don’t even identify their competition. Before you start a project you need to know what your competition is offering, what solutions they provide on their website and how they utilize their website to gain leads or sell products or whatever else they do.

3. Market and Demographic Research

Before you even begin to build a web plan or strategy, it is important to understand your market and your customers. You need to clearly identify the typical customer for your website and what they will be looking for. Every industry has a typical customer, whether it be a flower shop or a video production company, you will need to identify what the typical customer (who actually buys something) will be like and need.

For example, an insurance seller may be looking for small business owners who need insurance. The website, therefore, should be simple, clean and easy to access information. A video production company, on the other hand, should be creative, use vivid video presentations and contain a portfolio, this kind of site may be intended for advertising executives or PR companies, looking to partner with them.

Understand your customers and you’ll inevitable develop a product that suits their particular needs. If you fail to accomplish this then you may as well pack your bags and forget about the website.

4. Create a List of Pages, Content and Functionality

I’ve had so many clients that “need” a website and have all the content and material prepared. Most of the time, all they really have is a piece of paper with the name of a few pages they want. If your website is only 5 pages, and has nothing dynamic to it then that probably is a great list for the designer, but usually that’s not it.

Build a sitemap: A site map is like a table of contents for your website, it’s quite simple to do and it definitely helps the designer (and you) understand the scope of the project.

Also, one of the most important aspects of a web project is understanding the functionality. You’ll need to make a list of the functions you want, i.e. shopping cart, blog, CMS, dynamic content, etc. If you don’t tell the designer until after the project has already begun then you will not only frustrate the designer but also incur some additional costs. Usually it is cheaper and easier for everyone if the scope and functionality is defined in the beginning.

Notes

Some clients believe this is the role of the web designer…which is usually not true. When you engage in a contract with a designer or creative team, you need to identify the deliverables. If you are hiring someone to make your website then that’s it, that’s all your paying for and that’s probably all your going to get. If you want brand development, creative development and marketing, then that is a completely different project scope and will incur much higher costs.

If you are on a budget, I would suggest doing your own homework, researching your industry and presenting your thoughts to your creative team. Otherwise, you will get a completely disengaged design. If your designer knows what your goals are, who your competition is and what your industry trends are, then he is more likely to create a product that fits perfectly into the competitive market.

When the iPhone first launched without Flash enabled browsers it was not a big deal at all. How can you expect that little device to handle some of the interactive flash sites you see nowadays. Even with the release of iPhone OS 3.x.x it’s not that big of a deal. Most people use their iPhone for web, mail and those awesome apps. But when the iPad came out without a flash enabled browser it seemed like this Apple vs. Flash battled ragged on. Here is my perspective on the issues.

First off, the iPhone’s memory and cache just can’t handle some flash which is alright, especially considering that the iPhone is not a primary web surfing device. The iPad, on the other hand, is exactly that: it’s “the best way to experience the web, email, photos and video. Hands down”. That’s a pretty bold statement to begin with, but what makes it more interesting is this device doesn’t support Flash. How are you suppose to experience the web without flash? No Hulu, no Pandora, no interactive websites, and consequently, almost half the web is inaccessible.

Over the past year or so, we’ve been playing around with the idea of developing web based iPhone apps, primarily in Flash. We figured that Apple would eventually support Flash, considering the technological advances made in the iPhone. When the iPad came out without Flash and Steve Jobs openly admitted that Adobe is “lazy”, we realized this Apple was not going to support Flash for a while (if ever). Consequently, our dreams were shattered.

How does web based Flash applications effect the iPhone? It’s simple, if we could develop iPhone apps in Flash, that were accessible via Mobile Safari, then anyone could make an iPhone app, regardless of Apple’s App Store approval. Furthermore, these apps would be free, which means Apple makes no money. Developers and companies could probably profit off of advertising, but regardless, Apple makes no money.

To a company like Apple, and any other corporation, money is the bottom line. They need to monetize on their products. With an app store that makes no money, there is no reason to continue support. Apple makes most of their money off of the App store, and that is why they push the iPhone so aggressively. Without an App Store there would be no reason to support the device or the operating system, unless of course, you want the iPhone to go up to regular Apple product prices. Nobody wants that.

Apple has never been a fan of allowing third parties to develop with their software. The App store was one of the biggest moves they’ve mad in decades and they did it for profit. The iPad follows in the footsteps of the iPhone, with access to the App store and tons of paid resources. Enabling Flash on either device opens up the OS to thousands of new web applications.

The next year or so we really show us how this battle is going to end. Perhaps Google can save Flash. That’s a discussion soon to come.

Some times in our life we forget about some of the more important things in life, ahhm, religion. And although we feel awfully bad about it, we tend not to actually do anything about it. Now, with the power of technology, we can remind you.

Behold, the SMS Salat, an integrated SMS system that text messages you every day reminding you of the dailiy prayer times. So now you’ll have no excuse. This super sweet application we developed calculates the times based on your relation to Mecca via zip codes and geographical locations. Yeah, let me reemphasize, its sweet!

Not Muslim? Yeah, we’ll either are we, but we still get the text messages, because you never know when you’ll meet a nice Muslim girl and she ironically asks you for Today’s Prayer times.