99 Bloggers community blog

 By Carla Chadwick

Do you feel just a little intimidated by the vast world of social networking? If so, you’re not alone. There’s a lot to know. Even if you’re quite familiar with your favorite networking sites, it would be difficult to be an expert on the rest of them — especially if you haven’t been blogging for long.

When I started blogging, I didn’t know any other bloggers. I had to learn the ropes all by myself. My approach was to study a few social networking sites at a time, so I wouldn’t become overwhelmed. It didn’t work! I was still overwhelmed. But in the process of sorting it all out, it occurred to me that other people might have the same learning curve issues. Since I have a tendency to learn best when I write things out, I scribbled down some notes to help me learn about social networking. I then expanded (and, I hope, improved) my original notes and turned them into the collection of resources below.

Although the following certainly aren’t the final word — not by a longshot — the components are geared to give information on various aspects of social networking. It’s my hope that they help shorten the time it takes for a new blogger to get from being green to going strong in the world of social networking.

SOCIAL NETWORKING RESOURCES

* Overview of some of the major social networking sites, a link to a larger list of sites and a glossary of social networking terms

* Samples of icons (avatars) that draw people in

* Free clip art and photography to help you create a compelling icon

* Beginner’s guide to keywords

I hope you find these resources helpful!

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Consumers consider BP and Toyota Motor to be the greenest energy and automotive brands, but 58 percent of Americans still don’t care how green a brand is, according to a new study by branding firm Landor Associates.
Landor surveyed 510 American adults to investigate how the market for ecologically friendly products has been gaining a foothold among mainstream consumers.

Participants were asked to rank automotive and energy brands, as well as brands in categories such as personal-care products and coffee manufacturers. Rankings ranged from “least green” to “most green.” In the petroleum-and-energy category, BP was chosen as the greenest corporation, beating Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron’s Texaco. Toyota was picked as the greenest auto manufacturer, ahead of Lexus, Ford, General Motors and BMW.

When it came to consumers’ perceptions of the greenest brands, the companies that came out on top were those that have heavily promoted healthy, environmentally sound images. BP, for example, has diligently promoted clean-burning biofuels to combat climate change, while Toyota’s Prius remains one of the most prominent and recognizable hybrid vehicles on the road.

Study participants also indicated whether they considered themselves “green motivated” consumers who consciously purchase products they perceive as green, or “green interested” consumers who dabble in the practice. While only 42 percent of those surveyed indicated that they fell into one of those categories, Landor notes that this is a growing percentage.

But the question still remains: What exactly does green mean? Even participants in the “green motivated” segment of the study weren’t in agreement on that topic. Thirty-four percent of them considered a green brand to be best described by environment-friendly technology, while 33 percent focused on natural, or organic, ingredients. Only 14 percent of “green motivated” respondents considered the manufacturing of environmentally safe products to be the best indicator of a green brand.

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If you like YouTube, but you don’t get too excited about the quality of the videos, reports of a high quality player have started to circulate. According to Steve Chen, the feature is already being tested, and the public should expect to see the new functionality within three months.

Does YouTube need higher quality videos though? Even Steve, co-founder of YouTube, asks the question — do we need to fix what isn’t broken?

Most viewers are interested in content itself than a higher quality. What they’ve seen through past successes, people get more fed up having to wait for buffering. It’s ‘good enough’ right now. - YouTube co-founder Steve Chen on YouTube video quality

The new technology they are testing will work for people regardless of their bandwidth. The new player supposedly will serve up higher quality videos for people with a fast enough connection. What do you think? Will a higher quality YouTube actually make the service any better? or will slower buffer times take away any advantage the higher quality provides?

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