Feds' Web site gets Web 2.0 makeover

Following WhiteHouse.gov's lead, USA.gov upgrade adds RSS feeds and widgets

Taking a cue from the updated WhiteHouse.gov Web site, the federal government has gone Web 2.0 with is own site.

The General Services Administration announced that it has delivered on a promise to use Web 2.0 technology to give citizens electronic access to government information. The USA.gov Web site now is offering a governmentwide news feed service and a gallery of gadget applications.

"Using these Web 2.0 tools is a huge opportunity for government to be transparent and save valuable tax dollars," said Beverly Godwin, director of USA.gov, in a statement. "Tools such as RSS feeds and gadgets allow the public to directly access content from the original source, no matter which Web site they're on. It reduces duplication across government, because an agency creates content once and makes it available for reuse by others."

Last week, users got their first view of the changes on the WhiteHouse.gov Web site when it went live during President Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony. The Web site not only switched over to represent the Obama administration, it also was updated with a new design that focused on new media.

For example, the White House site now has a feature called The Briefing Room, where users can read the latest White House blog posts and even sign up for e-mail news updates.

Additions to the USA.gov Web site include the Government News Aggregator, which is designed to use RSS feeds to deliver news and information from across the federal government. People can subscribe to RSS news feeds, which are based on NewsGator technology, on a variety of topics, including agriculture, economics, recalls, foreign affairs and science and technology.

Another new tool on the updated USA.gov Web site is the Government Gadget Gallery, which features a collection of gadgets or widgets that are created by experts from across government. The gadgets are online tools that can be embedded in individual home pages and blogs. One, for instance, is the Food and Drug Administration's drug finder widget, which is designed to help people search for specific information about medications. Other widgets include one that delivers an environmental tip of the day and another from the FBI that updates information on predators and missing persons, according to the GSA.

Warner Music adding social networking to websites

After years of watching music fans flood online social networks to interact with their favorite recording artists, the music industry is starting to get serious about adding community features to its own websites.

Hoping to become a big player in that effort is networking giant Cisco, which during the Consumer Electronics Show, January 8-11 in Las Vegas, introduced its Eos platform -- a set of hosted online tools designed to enable media and entertainment companies to build social networking functions into websites.

For record labels, that means adding fan community services to artist sites. Warner Music Group (WMG) is the first label partner signed on to use the Eos platform, and it already plans to add such functionality to the sites for Atlantic artists Laura Izibor and Sean Paul. Other artist sites will migrate to the platform over the course of the year.

"As the Web shifts from the enterprise to the consumer in terms of where the traffic is coming from, the social media revolution -- which is all about fans interacting with artists -- is going to provide an enormous opportunity," said WMG executive vice president of digital strategy and business development Michael Nash. "This is a recognition that having a social media strategy is not just about partnering with social networks, but it's also about what we do with our direct-to-consumer efforts."

Eos features include data analytics, content management and site administration capabilities, but it's the social networking that gets Cisco's foot in the door. That a company the size of Cisco is dedicating an entire division of resources to the effort speaks volumes on how significant an opportunity it expects the field to present in the years ahead.

According to the company's internal market research, 36 percent of fans seek entertainment content directly from the branded site of the provider -- be it a music artist or a TV show. Today, that traffic is largely promotional, with few opportunities for fans to interact the way they do on MySpace or Facebook.

Several site development tools with a social networking focus have been around for years, particularly one called Ning, which powers several existing artist-focused social networks. But outside of a few pioneering artists like 50 Cent and Kylie Minogue, few labels or artists have made much of an effort to turn it into a standard practice.

"A lot of the interaction around artists occurs on MySpace or Facebook, where neither the label or the artist particularly monetizes those types of things," said Dan Scheinman, senior vice president/general manager of Cisco's Media Solutions Group.

xactly how WMG or other labels plan to monetize their artists' sites using the platform remains to be seen, but Scheinman said it will build the system with online advertising and sponsorship models in mind.

"This is really about managing these websites as businesses," Nash said.

Reuters/Billboard

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http://www.freemarketmediagroup.com

30+ Facebook Apps Designers may be interested in

Facebook Apps Designers may be interested in. Yep, 30 count 'em. Facebook is really awesome, I mean come on, Google's Open Social platform would even be anything without facebook pioneering the concept of real apps. Unlike the it's predecessor, Myspace, Facebook has opened the doors to 3rd party apps that do more than change the look of your profile, which is something you can't even do on Facebook!So check out these Facebook apps

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Our Social Web and Internet Marketing Strategy

An online marketing strategy for 2008.Did you ever consider:A Comprehensive PR Program?Overview: A comprehensive PR program can be implemented to build brand awareness and establish us as go to experts. This can increase our national coverage as well as increasing our back links that can help our page rank with the search engines.What we have done: Issued an occasional press release with significant news. Have done occasional interviews with local media when approached.What we want to do: We want to create a press kit that is available for us to send out when asked; along with sending those out to specific radio stations. We also need a version that is downloadable off of all our sites and channels. Also we want to register with specific websites that list us as a source for journalists both print and talk radio. One goal of this is to craft a standard message with common information that we can deploy across all our properties. Currently we have zero consistency with our information.As a company we need to get into the habit of regularly issuing press releases.

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Easy Ways of Internet Marketing

There are many ways to promote your online business. Over the years, several online marketing techniques have been developed to further improve on the visibility and exposure of a business in the Web. But many still prefer to stick the simple and easy marketing strategies that are more or less the basic ways of getting noticed online.Building Links: For more visibility in the search engines, it is important to achieve a good ranking. Search for your main keyword and terms that are related to your website. Build links all over the Web by reciprocal linking, building quality content, and submitting your link to site directories.Article Submissions: Interesting and quality articles are very much appreciated by the online community. For online businesses and marketers, article submissions are also very helpful in leading visitors to their sites. By submitting your articles to the article directories, you will have gained good back links to your site. Search engine crawlers will dig up on this and will increase your rankings.Affiliate Marketing: Networking with other websites can increase targeted traffic! In a way, you are building links (through the ads) on other sites that are in the same niche as yours. The best thing about affiliate marketing is that the traffic is targeted. The downside is that it will cost you the commissions of affiliate sales. This is just the beginning. This is a really good internet marketing article and there is lots more info on myagentofvalue.com.

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Building Business on Zaadz

Zaadz is a social network like Friendster or Gather. People can open an account, meet others, create blogs, build a friend list and lots of other things. What Zaadz does a little differently is that they given new meaning to the concept "Social" in the social networking world. Social in the sense that they are concerned with our world and it's people. Social in the sense that are are concerned about the environment. The Zaadz community is concerned about the many cultures of the world. The mission of Zaadz is to make the planet a better place in every sense and it’s motto is: “Zaadz: Connect. Grow. Inspire. Empower.”

Zaadz is the Social Networking alternative. They go so far to have a button on the bottom of every page proclaiming themselves "100% Organic"! You see the differences immediately between Zaadz and sites like Care2 (another "green" site) and LinkedIn when you start the process of registering for a Zaadz account.

When you click "you! (join now)" link (there version of register for an account), you must in mind agree to the Zaadz ideals. Their ideals are: Harmony, Integrity, Peace, Trust, Truth, Unity and Finally, Love. You agree to these ideals by clicking each word in a series of circles that resembles a flower.

In their own words:

"We're a little different than most of the communities you'll find online.

How? We're committed to the principles in the circles above, and we expect those in the community to uphold these principles.

Before you can join, then, please take a minute to express your own commitment to these values, indicating your agreement to the principles and your understanding of our terms. Starting with Harmony, proceed clockwise around the flower until you're invited to click the center, opening the gateway that'll allow you access.

Ready? Take a deep breath (we're all about remembering to breathe!), and when you're ready, proceed. We'll see you inside. :)"

Once you click the 7 circles, you can join.

So, is there a way to both serve this community and grow your business? You bet there is. Zaadz is the place to take advantage of the emerging green economy. Never has there been a place where so many socially conscious and active individuals come together in one place. The Green Economy, which I will here officially name Green 2.0, is becoming more important every day. Experts predict that the green economy will make the dot com boom seem trivial.

Here are five actions you can take to guide these socially minded people to your web presence:

1. Create a Complete Profile - Just like the other social network sites (Plaxo and LinkedIn for example) you first create a profile. The content you add to this profile is extremely important. Remember this is the first thing other members will see about you and your business. You only get one chance to make a first impression. Make your profile complete. Add a cool title for yourself. Hard to explain but they will give you some examples like (Philosopher or Thinker), just go with it. Add a good description about you and your services in the about me section. Remember be complete.

2. Join a Pod (Zaadz Group) - Browse Pods or use the Pod Tag feature to find a couple of pods that you fit into. Join and share your vision, your goals, your with the other members. Share consciously, no one wants to be besieged with a sales pitch on the first meeting. That's not the goal here. The goal is to create a network of like minded individuals, who, once you earn their trust, may very well become some of the best agents for you, your message and your products/services.

3. Post a Blog - With your Zaadz account, you get a blog. Here is the place where you get to add really powerful and captivating content packed full of outstanding insight for your fellow community members. This doesn't have to be directly about you or your business but rather about the bigger picture that your business products/services address. For example, if you are a sculptor, don't write about your sculptures (at first), write about the importance of creating art and offer some tips.

4. Add an Event - Hosting a Seminar? Create an events page and invite all your new friends. Here you can add a link to your site and it even add a link to a Google Map. Marketing doesn’t get much easier (or more inexpensive!) than this.

5. Add Some Friends - Like the other social networking sites, you can add friends. Click the "Zaadzsters" link and use the search feature to find people with similar interests or favorite movies. By adding friends, you increase your network. Remember the seven Zaadz principles, you are not here just to help yourself, you are here to enlighten. By adding friends on Zaadz, you are connecting with loads of new people that have like interests, goals and dreams.

Since it's inception, Zaadz has been tagged with a "New Age label. In my opinion, this is not a bad thing. After all, we are in a New Age of Green and Social Consciousness marketing and business. Go Green 2.0.
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Lennie Appelquist is the Owner of FreeMarket Media Group. FreeMarket Media Group is dedicated to helping individuals and small businesses generate leads, convert those leads in customers/clients and build a web presence that works for them. We can show you how to make your online business profitable - IMMEDIATELY. Wanna open a FREE account on Zaadz? Click here to join me on Zaadz!