This has personally come as a surprise as I personally know several people managing relatively decent sized social networks on Ning and cannot see them paying for such tiered pricing to continue their community when facebook would offer pretty much the same service for free. The pricing levels Ning have introduced are not over priced at all starting from around $3/month with its core features and going up in price dependant on a variety of factors that the user would wish to bolt onto their “social networking website”.

Tiered plans are rolling out in June and we shall see the true backlash of this as many users will undoubtedly flock to Facebook for a “newly released” community page which is a branch from the popular “Pages” used by businesses and the like. Others I suspect if they are serious about their social network website on Ning will opt to spending money creating a true self owned platform/website and shell out the initial cost as opposed to paying a monthly fee.

Ning ID is also being chopped which in a sense is a good thing, this was a single sign on created by ning so you would be able to sign into any social network hosted by ning with a single username/password combination. I say its a good thing because now we have so many other single sign on platforms ranging from the age old Microsoft Passport, to the variety of OpenID providers and of course the fairly newcomers of Google, Twitter and Facebook connect programs.

What is your view on Ning?

So visit the article on Crystal-Jewels.co.uk to learn move and let her know your thoughts on social networking also

For those who do not know what Twestival is, its a festival held WORLDWIDE to support charity and do fundraising that is organised predominantly through the global network that is Twitter.com

Twestival events although global are completely organized and orchistrated by local volunteers who give their time and effort to organize events together with finding talented people to collaborate with to donate prizes, source great venues, music and entertainment. All the proceeds from the sales of tickets, auctions, raffles and general donations will go to a charity chosen by Twestival.

2009 saw the first Twestival and donations were given to Charity Water (http://twitter.com/charitywater) and was a huge success wordlwide gaining a lot of publicity around the events and cause. This year the charity is Concern Worldwide (http://twitter.com/concern) who have a vision for changing education programs for the poorest people in the poorest countries in the world particularlly those who suffer from HIV and AIDS, children with disabilities, orphans, street children and so much more.

This year one of my favourite local businesses Crystal Jewels (http://crystal-jewels.co.uk / http://twitter.com/crystal_jewels1) are taking part in the Twestival in Bristol (bristol.twestival.com) by donating two handmade jewellery designs to the auction.

Bristol Twestival is being held at The Tunnels, an incredible location underneath Bristol Temple Meads station and former England rugby union international Gareth Chilcott who owns the space has given this to Bristwestival for free and if that wasn’t enough, fantastic local band Phantom Limb shall be playing on the night.

This year Bristol Twestival has over £1,000 worth of prizes to win – buy your tickets now or on the door on the night.

For a list of the prizes take a look at the Bristol.Twestival.com website

Every day I speak with customers and potential leads and ensuring that the customer service not only my company offers but myself on a personal level is the absolute best I could offer, as much as possible I go out of my way to visit and interact with my customers and actually give a damn about what they do not only in work but if personal life comes into play then that too because there isn’t a brick wall between personal and business life especially when it comes to caring about your customers. Far to many people but up barriers between their work and personal life and in some cases rightly so and some areas they are needed but knowing that if someone is going through a tough time then its really not the best idea to be chatting and trying to sell them your service.

Today I have had to deal with several fairly large companies to get some information and details changed and the manner in which this was achieved was nothing short of a 2 hour conversation for something that should have taken 10 minutes. Not because their systems were down, i was asking the impossible, there was a queue or things weren’t being put across properly but simply the cultural difference and bias bought upon them with the culture and expectancies of their company forced them to act and play out a scene that was really not needed at all.

When it comes to customer service for your business five things I think are crucial and these play a big part especially with social media:

1. Make sure your message is coming across as clearly and accurately as possible so that what you are saying does not offend or irritate the customer
2. Do not try and brush the customer and their concerns to one side quickly without properly attending to them just in order to get through more work or more enquiries
3. Word of mouth has always been a powerful tool – 1 bad customer review is worth a lot more when told to friends and family than 1 good review is and whats more with social media tools such as twitter, facebook, linkedin then this word of mouth has been increase a million fold – don’t damage your brand equity
4. Don’t rely on just your own knowledge when tackling a problem – if you need the help of co-workers or even the public – USE IT instead of being stuck or giving advice/information that may not be beneficial
5. The customer is always right, right? If they are embrace this and even display this knowledge through social media tools whereby should a customer praise, make suggestion or just ask for help with something promote these ideas and show the community you are listening. Should the customer not be the happiest person and are having problems with you – you better believe they will slate you through social media outlets – what do you do? Connect with them – engage and try your best to resolve the issue.

Make sure the way you communicate and engage with your customers not only through social media but on a day to day basis isn’t closed and restricted – caring is key – its not all about the money.

If you are interested in the first event which happened in October 2009 and this second event then you can find more information including all the slides (yesterdays slides to come) over at my company website by clicking here.

The most common question I get asked is WHICH SOCIAL NETWORK SHOULD I USE?

The answer is simple – ALL OF THEM being at least a presence on them all is important maybe you dont focus all of your energy into all of these networks but having a presence there is important as your target niche isn’t in just one place – they are spread across facebook, twitter, myspace, bebo, flickr, hi5, tagged, tuenti and the thousands of other social networks out there.

So whats the Buzz in the social networking plane lately?

Well Google in their infinite efforts to monetize, improve search and improve the way we communicate have released BUZZ.

Google Buzz has gained a lot of attention since its release only days ago bringing approximately nine million posts and tens of millions of views in its first two days alone! Many people especially those on networks such as Twitter and Facebook slated Google for its efforts with Buzz for its lateness to the game and lack of privacy features.

We are still only in the first few days of Google Buzz but without a doubt its going to be a very important part of the Google plan as it ties in with mobile, email and desktop very tightly – mobile being the key part of Buzz which allows you to post updates just like other social networks to all your friends only this time your network expands A LOT quicker and is built on so much more importance the contact and communication between the entities of your network.

Every single person who has a Google Mail / Gmail address  with their Google Profile automatically has a Buzz account now that is a HUGE start to a social network to have that many registered users from the start with a system that integrates so tightly with your own email inbox!

What are your thoughts on Google Buzz? Friend me up on Google Buzz http://google.com/buzz/seanpriceiboxsecurity

The event held last year aptly named “Wired Weston” at The Royal Hotel in Weston-super-Mare had a great turn out and proved to be a great chance to network with like minded people and talk about business moving online in a town which is very much sat in its old ways.

This February 17th at the Royal Hotel sees the Chamber of Trade and Commerce come back with their 2nd part of the event with “Wired Weston II” – (I wish they would call it “Revenge of the tweets”) where by this time the event will touch on content from the previous event briefly and then move deeper into how you can benefit greatly from using Social Media on both a personal and business branding level.

My talk this year will be approximately 30 minutes followed by Q&A and I would love to answer as many questions as possible. If you are interested in coming along to the event please visit the Weston chamber of Trade & Commerce website, a buffet and refreshments will be provided, no pushy selling to join the Chamber, come along and learn, ask questions and network.