Over the past year social media has become a huge fixture in World culture. People are constantly signing up and getting involved in this ever-growing world community. Some individuals join these social sites to reconnect with old friends, while others join because they want to find others in their areas of interest. Finally, corporations join these networks because they want to increase their clientele and find out what people are saying about their product.

However, there is a large benefit that comes along with the latter reason for joining social media networks and that is profit gain. A recent study done by Wetpaint and Altimeter Group showed that those corporations that are heavily involved in social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, wikis and forums are experiencing an increase in profits. Likewise, it was found, “Those brands that were the most engaged saw their revenue grow over the past year by 18% while the least engaged brands saw loses of negative 6%.”

In order to organize this study, those conducting it divided each of the top 100 companies from the 2008 Business Week/Interbrand Best Global Brands survey into four profile groups; “Mavens,” “Butterflies,” “Selectives” and “Wallflowers. The Mavens are those brands who are deeply engaged in seven or more social media sites. The Butterflies are characterized by being “wannabe Mavens” they have seven or more social media profiles, but are not as engaged in each one equally. The Selectives focus on fewer sites then the Mavens and the Butterflies,

no more t

han 6, but deeply engage their clients in conversation. Lastly, the Wallflowers are brands that are on 6 or fewer sites, but are not truly engaged in any of them.

Even though we cannot directly correlate the increase in corporations’ profits to their social media interaction we can display the growing trends

we see in these brands’ profits. After seeing these statistics and knowing that social media involvement has more than doubled since 2007 let Always Be Social lead you into the new era of marketing and get you involved in your clients conversation.

Last night my friends and I were discussing how technologically dependent people are today and how impersonal our society has begun. We then went on to discuss the two main reasons people are, in many ways, permanently attached to their electronic devices.

The first reason we pinpointed was convenience; technology makes everything so much easier. You can pay your bills, catch up with an old friend and conduct business via the Internet with the press of a button. People in this day and age, myself included, are all about instant gratification, the faster, the better.

The second reason we discussed was the fact that everyone else was doing it. If everyone you are talking to is always online and you know the only sure way you can reach them is via email, Facebook or Twitter then you too will be drawn into this society.

Now don’t get us wrong we are by no means about to make our Twitter, Facebook or email accounts inactive, but we are going to attempt to spend a little more time interacting with people in real life as

well as online. I’m sure we would all hate to become completely disconnected from our friends and family and only interact with a machine for the rest of our lives. Certain things such as viewing the longest solar eclipse or choosing a college to attend should be done in real life not via technology.

However, as stated earlier, I am by no means saying I am going to put my MacBook in the drawer or throw my Blackberry in the ocean, but maybe every once in awhile it wouldn’t hurt to put down technology and spend time with the people in your life that make it worth while.

Over the past decade technology and the Internet have advanced greatly, but there is one thing that everyone across the web development and technology industry feel is stifling our growth, Internet Explore 6 (IE6). The technology and sophistication of this web browser has been far surpassed by browsers such as Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Internet Explore 8, yet people still have the desire to use IE6.

There are several disadvantages to this browser, however a few of the main issues with IE6 is that web developers and designers have to practically hack up their websites just so they can load in IE6. Likewise, .png images don’t display correctly in IE6, which takes away from the creativity of developers and designers.

Another liability of IE6 is that by not upgrading your Internet browser you leave yourself vulnerable to virus attacks. Furthermore, the majority of social media networks such as Digg and Youtube have stated that they will be cutting back on IE6 support and Facebook already suggest that their users upgrade internet browsers before starting their activities on the site.

Yet, despite all of these facts people still use IE6; however with the introduction of HTML 5 this Internet browser will ultimately become obsolete. We have justified using IE6 for years, but with the new capabilities of HTML 5 it will no longer be a logical or feasible use of Internet space in the years to come.

Throughout his life Michael Jackson has always been the target for much media attention and thus it should be no surprise that his death would be the same. Over the past few weeks we have been bombarded with an abundance of information about the life and untimely demise of Michael Jackson.

Yet, unlike in his youth not only did Jackson have mainstream media conveying their feelings about the situation, but he also had online source discussing the event as well. The day of his memorial services 500,000 Facebook users changed their statues to mirror the events that were occurring during the ceremony. Likewise, from the moment it was announced that Michael Jackson had died of a heart attack people were twittering about it, changing their Facebook statuses and writing blogs about how devastated they were about Jackson’s death.

However, in times such as these we must wonder where our world is headed. Twitter, Facebook and other social media avenues are becoming extremely viable in providing their users with constant up to date and accurate news information. What we must begin asking ourselves is whether or not mainstream news and broadcasting will be necessary anymore i

n a few years or will we simply use social media to receive all our world news and upcoming events.

Blueye Creative has recently finished the redesign of Bella Baby Photography’s new website.

Bella Baby is a photography company that specializes in newborn photography. They feel as though babies look their best when they’re being held in their parents’ arms. This photography company has been deemed the new face of hospital baby portraits. They use freelance photographers, natural light and professional SLR digital cameras to capture the true essence of your newborn.

However, they are not completely confined to newborn portraits. They also have a section of their company that they refer to as Bella Life, which is geared toward capturing every other stage of a child or families’ life.

We created Bella Baby a cleaner and fresher site, while preserving the overall feel of the current site. The subtle changes we made stayed true to the professionalism of the current site but added a touch of modernism in the mix as well.

We also made the logo more prominent throughout the site to emphasize their branding. Along with this we strayed away from the initial design’s multi-color and pattern backgrounds. Originally we wanted to create two separate color schemes for Bella Baby and Bella Life, but ultimately we settled on adding a white background to both sights, which aids in the seamless transition from one site to the next. The white background also keeps the focus on the photography and shows it off more than in the previous sight.

If you would like more information on Bella Baby Photography or would like to see their new site you can visit. www.bellababyphotography.com