Among the myths of the negative impacts of technology is the myth that new media and "texting" are inherently destructive forces that are degrading our ability to write properly, and that, in the young, the continual compression of communications, and in particular the use of abbreviations (like ICU), is destroying a full appreciation for 'language'. This turns out be a misguided fear and a completely unsupported myth. In fact, research shows that the best text-ers are the best spellers, and that twitters often write relatively long and carefully crafted sentences. Text-ers also use fewer abbreviations than one might expect, because they are striving for precision, and in their efforts to communicate clearly the abbreviations are simply too indeterminate. Studies over the past decade show repeatedly that new media 'writers' are intensely aware of language issues, and that they are fully able to switch between conventional language and the highly compressed code that they sometimes use in their new media posts. Text-ers totally enjoy writing and language. More than 'literate,' these new media writers have become become 'multi-lingual' students of literary expression, and are actually more likely to score well on language tests.

Watch renowned linguist David Crystal discussing the impact of new media on language in this very interesting video:

Many businesses are dipping their toes into social media and many start with a Facebook Page. However once the page is up, invariably the next question becomes 'how do I grow my Fan base'?

Recently the SocialMedia Examiner website listed 10 Ways to Grow Your Facebook Page Following. They're great suggestions and definitely worthy of sharing!

1. Be Prepared With Quality Wall Posts and Consistent Engagement
2. Reward Your Loyal Supporters
3. Leverage Your Existing Social Networks
4. Integrate Facebook Social Plugins to Your Website
5. Remind Your Fans to Like and Share
6. Utilize Forum Signatures and Membership Sites
7. Take the Initiative: Request Help From Friends
8. Use Tagging and Acknowledgments
9. Participate Outside Your Page
10. Collaborate With Other Page Admins for a Social Event

Click here to read the specifics on each step.

When you're first starting out this list might seem a little daunting, especially if you're thinking you need to try to do ever suggestion right away. A good place to start is by looking the list over and determining which few you'll feel comfortable doing right away, and #7 is a great place to start -- ask your friends!

Another helpful element when starting out is to develop a conversational calendar. Often when people know they have to sit down to write, once they do they find themselves with a big case of writer's block. To help the wheels turn, try identifying some basic items like these:

• Your focus
• A theme
• Keywords
• Your upcoming events

Put these elements together into a weekly plan and writing your Facebook posts should get easier.

Click here to see an example of a conversational calendar.

The date associated with this last link is a little on the old side but the example is worth sharing; at least I hope you think so! if you do, let me know by clicking the "Like" button above the title of this post. Thanks!

In today's marketing arena, most folks are aware a social media presence is an important tool for their business. However, there are some different considerations for setting up a business profile as opposed to the personal one.

It's all too easy to take the same approach you did setting up your personal page, but Steve Goldner has some great tips on his blog, SocialSteve.

Go through the very old marketing practice of defining your positioning statement. A strong statement should consist of the following parameters:

For ...................... [target customer]
Who .................... [key qualifier - form]
Our product is a .. [product category]
That provides ...... [key benefit]
Unlike .................. [main competitor]
Our product ........ [key point of differentiation]

Once you clearly understand your position in the terms described above, you MUST determine how you will rise above all the noise provided by others in your vertical industry.

According to Steve, the 4 elements of success are:

1. Know who you are and what you stand for
2. Tell your story in a quirky or standout matter
3. Select the best social channels to get your story out
4. Provoke customer engagement

Read the entire blog entry from Steve.

What can you do in the face of an out-of-the-blue attack in social media? At Signal we've been preaching the importance of "crisis preparedness" from the earliest days of social media; Phil Lempert's video this morning prompts me to say this again. Social media rumors and misinformation can travel at very high speed, it is vital that businesses plan ahead and have their 'crisis story processes' in place BEFORE a problem actually emerges.

• Speed of response is critical. Get your story out in front of the public quickly, before a negative story can build momentum and take on a life of its own.
• Respond in the same medium that the attack first occurred in; make sure that the response is seen by the same audience.
• Use multiple social media channels to get the word out everywhere fast.
• Make sure that the company web site has accurate and easy to access facts about the attack.
• Have a search engine strategy in place to make sure that the facts on the web site come up first in a Google search.
• Accept that "anyone can say anything they want, whether it is true or not", and that your brand is your responsibility to actively monitor and defend.

A recent Harris Poll shows that one third of US adults share their opinions about products online, and more of these opinions are negative than positive. In the age of social media, companies have more exposure to public relations risk than ever, but they also have more and better mechanisms for rapid response as well. Businesses need to realize that social media is more than just an "optional" device for selling products and services. Today, an active social media presence is a critical defense mechanism for any public facing enterprise.

See Phil Lempert's excellent short video on this topic here.

Blogs are proving to be far more durable as a communications channel than many might have thought. Far from being eclipsed by the new social media whiz-kids like Facebook and Twitter, blogs have gained renewed vitality to become the content backbone of the social networks. For one thing all that 'posting' and 'sharing' needs solid fixed targets to point at with links; and blogs are simply the easiest way to publish an article and gain such a fixed target. In blog lingo, we call the link to a particular post within a blog a "permalink"; permalinks are now a key component of the social sphere. Blog articles are also the natural "long form" source material to support complimentary "sort form" and "micro" posts on Facebook and Twitter. A good blog post can easily spawn dozens of social media spin off posts, all of which can link back to the original, and provide inbound traffic to the blog, and the website. For today's marketers blogging is more useful and important than ever.

Here's a great blog post from BlogSpot with a glossary of terms that can help you navigate the jargon of the "blogosphere":

Ever hear people throw around terms like RSS or .XML and you wrinkle your forehead in confusion but nod your head because you don't want to admit that you haven't a clue? This blog post will lift some of that mystery by covering the ABCs of blogging's most important terms.

See the whole glossary at BlogSpot

Blogs are proving to be far more durable as a communications channel than many might have thought. Far from being eclipsed by the new social media whiz-kids like Facebook and Twitter, blogs have gained renewed vitality to become the content backbone of the social networks. For one thing all that 'posting' and 'sharing' needs solid fixed targets to point at with links; and blogs are simply the easiest way to publish an article and gain such a fixed target. In blog lingo, we call the link to a particular post within a blog a "permalink"; permalinks are now a key component of the social sphere. Blog articles are also the natural "long form" source material to support complimentary "sort form" and "micro" posts on Facebook and Twitter. A good blog post can easily spawn dozens of social media spin off posts, all of which can link back to the original, and provide inbound traffic to the blog, and the website. For today's marketers blogging is more useful and important than ever.

Here's a great blog post from BlogSpot with a glossary of terms that can help you navigate the jargon of the "blogosphere":

Ever hear people throw around terms like RSS or .XML and you wrinkle your forehead in confusion but nod your head because you don't want to admit that you haven't a clue? This blog post will lift some of that mystery by covering the ABCs of blogging's most important terms.

See the whole glossary at BlogSpot

Blogs are proving to be far more durable as a communications channel than many might have thought. Far from being eclipsed by the new social media whiz-kids like Facebook and Twitter, blogs have gained renewed vitality to become the content backbone of the social networks. For one thing all that 'posting' and 'sharing' needs solid fixed targets to point at with links; and blogs are simply the easiest way to publish an article and gain such a fixed target. In blog lingo, we call the link to a particular post within a blog a "permalink"; permalinks are now a key component of the social sphere. Blog articles are also the natural "long form" source material to support complimentary "sort form" and "micro" posts on Facebook and Twitter. A good blog post can easily spawn dozens of social media spin off posts, all of which can link back to the original, and provide inbound traffic to the blog, and the website. For today's marketers blogging is more useful and important than ever.

Here's a great blog post from BlogSpot with a glossary of terms that can help you navigate the jargon of the "blogosphere":

Ever hear people throw around terms like RSS or .XML and you wrinkle your forehead in confusion but nod your head because you don't want to admit that you haven't a clue? This blog post will lift some of that mystery by covering the ABCs of blogging's most important terms.

See the whole glossary at BlogSpot

With Ford's new SYNC technology, it has now become easy to simply talk to your car and ask it to send a Tweet. Now we need 'mobile specific' social experiences that integrate the fact that we are rolling down the road and our need to 'social-ize' with our similarly mobile cohorts. New applications are in the works that will build on mobile location awareness and help us make sense of our social lives 'in motion'.

Ford, the University of Michigan, Microsoft and Intel gave students a rare opportunity to develop their ideas of future in-car connectivity. The research project resulted in experimental applications combining social networks, GPS location awareness, and real-time vehicle data in ways that help drivers get where they want to go efficiently, while having fun along the way.

In the class, the students explored and built applications based on access to Fiestaware: a Ford developmental application platform built on Windows 7 and Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio. This enabled them to harness the power of social networks that safely and responsibly connect to the cloud. The software system is the first of its kind, and provides access to vehicle performance data, networking services, voice recognition, social networking tools and other data, as well as the Windows Azure cloud services platform. Students in the class were able to use the platform to conceptualize and build a new class of applications as class projects. ...Like: Caravan Track - software that allows clusters of vehicles traveling together to track each other along the journey.

Read the whole article at TheFordStory.com

Erik Qualman has released an updated version of his highly regarded video. This video is really a must see if you have not already seen it, and it is a great update for those who have. It's got all the latest stats and figures to support the original contention - which is that the social media revolution is a cultural tsunami! Great stuff!

It's amazing how fast the world of social media moves! As many of the statistics from the original Social Media video have changed, I took a moment to refresh the video with a few new statistics and graphics. Thanks to all of you for your support in making the first Social Media Revolution and Social Media ROI videos such a huge success and I hope that you enjoy this refresh!

Check out the new "Socialnomics: Social Media Revolution" at Erik's site

Are embedded tweets the social media equivalent of "pull quotes"? Once again Twitter has co-opted one of the ways that users are working with their product and incorporated it directly into their service. It's a little clunky right now, but the idea is pretty interesting. In the example below you can see that this is a live 'tweet' with all the attributes of a tweet:

Twitter's "Blackbird-Pie" tool for creating embedded tweets is here.

Twitter not only gets media attention, it drives media attention for world events by making it faster and easier for every day Joes to share information through its micro-blogging service. Now, Twitter is taking it one step further with embeddable tweets. The embeddable tweets are essentially a micro-blogging version of newspaper-era pull quotes, intriguing statements that aim to get attention of readers and entice them to read the entire article. Twitter is calling the embedded tweets the "new quotes."

Read the whole article at Yahoo

This does not surprise me. I think women are generally more 'socially communicative' than men. According to Brian Solis, women 'get' social communication 10% better than men. I believe it. Some say that, since the late 90's, the socially most communicative people on earth have been adolescent Japanese girls using next generation mobile devices in Tokyo. Read more on new media practices in Japan
...I think this is because women are simply more inclined to engage and share using language. I think they gain more personal satisfaction from the exchange process. It may be that women are genetically are more inclined to listen and learn, as well as to speak. What this means for social media and internet development is going to be the focus of a great deal of attention going forward. Clearly the development side of the social sphere will not be dominated by males. This is a very good thing for our historically male dominated technical culture, in my opinion.

Based on data collected and analyzed using Google Ad Planner, I recently discovered that in Social Media, women rule. Across almost every major social network, the balance was revealing and in some cases, profound....According to new reports, it appears that mobile counterparts paint a similar picture. Nielsen recently released data that shows that in mobile, women also dominate social networking.

Read all of Brian's article at BrianSolis.com

According to the National Association of Realtors, 84% of all home buyers look for properties on the internet before contacting a realtor. Many of these home buyers are social networking using Facebook and Twitter as well. Real estate professionals have always been skilled at networking with prospective buyers and sellers, but increasingly this activity is moving online and onto the popular social networks. To be successful in real estate marketing today realtors need to expand their networking skills to include social media channels. Integrating a social media plan with sound web design, an email marketing program, and search engine optimization efforts can increase leads, generate customer awareness and build solid relationships.

Some people may find the concept of an online social network intimidating, but the applications and platforms are typically intuitive and easy to learn. And for real estate practitioners, who tend to be naturals at networking and forming community connections, social media seem to be a perfect fit, says Peter Kim, a former analyst at Forrester Research who is now part of a team that's developing social software startup Dachis Group in Austin. "The Web isn't something people should be afraid of," Kim says. "On one hand, it takes time to learn about the technology and the interactions. But once that's done, social networking should be no different from the work [real estate professionals] are already doing--researching, networking with customers, and marketing. It's just using a new technology to get there."

Read the whole story at Realtor® Magazine

According to the National Association of Realtors, 84% of all home buyers look for properties on the internet before contacting a realtor. Many of these home buyers are social networking using Facebook and Twitter as well. Real estate professionals have always been skilled at networking with prospective buyers and sellers, but increasingly this activity is moving online and onto the popular social networks. To be successful in real estate marketing today realtors need to expand their networking skills to include social media channels. Integrating a social media plan with sound web design, an email marketing program, and search engine optimization efforts can increase leads, generate customer awareness and build solid relationships.

Some people may find the concept of an online social network intimidating, but the applications and platforms are typically intuitive and easy to learn. And for real estate practitioners, who tend to be naturals at networking and forming community connections, social media seem to be a perfect fit, says Peter Kim, a former analyst at Forrester Research who is now part of a team that's developing social software startup Dachis Group in Austin. "The Web isn't something people should be afraid of," Kim says. "On one hand, it takes time to learn about the technology and the interactions. But once that's done, social networking should be no different from the work [real estate professionals] are already doing--researching, networking with customers, and marketing. It's just using a new technology to get there."

Read the whole story at Realtor® Magazine

According to the National Association of Realtors, 84% of all home buyers look for properties on the internet before contacting a realtor. Many of these home buyers are social networking using Facebook and Twitter as well. Real estate professionals have always been skilled at networking with prospective buyers and sellers, but increasingly this activity is moving online and onto the popular social networks. To be successful in real estate marketing today realtors need to expand their networking skills to include social media channels. Integrating a social media plan with sound web design, an email marketing program, and search engine optimization efforts can increase leads, generate customer awareness and build solid relationships.

Some people may find the concept of an online social network intimidating, but the applications and platforms are typically intuitive and easy to learn. And for real estate practitioners, who tend to be naturals at networking and forming community connections, social media seem to be a perfect fit, says Peter Kim, a former analyst at Forrester Research who is now part of a team that's developing social software startup Dachis Group in Austin. "The Web isn't something people should be afraid of," Kim says. "On one hand, it takes time to learn about the technology and the interactions. But once that's done, social networking should be no different from the work [real estate professionals] are already doing--researching, networking with customers, and marketing. It's just using a new technology to get there."

Read the whole story at Realtor® Magazine

According to the National Association of Realtors, 84% of all home buyers look for properties on the internet before contacting a realtor. Many of these home buyers are social networking using Facebook and Twitter as well. Real estate professionals have always been skilled at networking with prospective buyers and sellers, but increasingly this activity is moving online and onto the popular social networks. To be successful in real estate marketing today realtors need to expand their networking skills to include social media channels. Integrating a social media plan with sound web design, an email marketing program, and search engine optimization efforts can increase leads, generate customer awareness and build solid relationships.

Some people may find the concept of an online social network intimidating, but the applications and platforms are typically intuitive and easy to learn. And for real estate practitioners, who tend to be naturals at networking and forming community connections, social media seem to be a perfect fit, says Peter Kim, a former analyst at Forrester Research who is now part of a team that's developing social software startup Dachis Group in Austin. "The Web isn't something people should be afraid of," Kim says. "On one hand, it takes time to learn about the technology and the interactions. But once that's done, social networking should be no different from the work [real estate professionals] are already doing--researching, networking with customers, and marketing. It's just using a new technology to get there."

Read the whole story at Realtor® Magazine

Many companies use their email marketing program to update their list subscribers on the latest company news, to reveal a new product or service, and of course, to announce a sale. While these are all legimate reasons to contact your list, there's a shift occurring throughout the marketing world.

Gone are the days of "batch 'n blast" (ie: sending the same message to everyone). In today's social media climate, you need to build relationships with your recipients. Learn what they're pain points are, what their day-to-day challenges are, and then customize messages with that information.

With email marketing, thoughtlessly pushing the same message at your entire customer base is no longer enough. It doesn't take care of them. It doesn't show that you recognize and respect them.

Continually blasting everyone with a "me, me, me" attitude isn't going to garner positive results. When you start learning more about your recipients, perhaps through surveys or engaging them on their social media networks, and then adjust your messages accordingly, you'll start building a community of dedicated followers. Readers who look forward to your messages and will help spread your message.

According to media marketing expert Chris Brogan:

Old marketing would be: find buyers for my product. Hunt them down and relentlessly hit them with messages until they buy. The bigger the number of prospects, the better the yield.

New marketing is more like: find people who make more sense. Start relationships with them before selling to them. Learn more about them. Make the offer - if it makes sense.

Read the blog entry from AWeber Communications

Many companies use their email marketing program to update their list subscribers on the latest company news, to reveal a new product or service, and of course, to announce a sale. While these are all legimate reasons to contact your list, there's a shift occurring throughout the marketing world.

Gone are the days of "batch 'n blast" (ie: sending the same message to everyone). In today's social media climate, you need to build relationships with your recipients. Learn what they're pain points are, what their day-to-day challenges are, and then customize messages with that information.

With email marketing, thoughtlessly pushing the same message at your entire customer base is no longer enough. It doesn't take care of them. It doesn't show that you recognize and respect them.

Continually blasting everyone with a "me, me, me" attitude isn't going to garner positive results. When you start learning more about your recipients, perhaps through surveys or engaging them on their social media networks, and then adjust your messages accordingly, you'll start building a community of dedicated followers. Readers who look forward to your messages and will help spread your message.

According to media marketing expert Chris Brogan:

Old marketing would be: find buyers for my product. Hunt them down and relentlessly hit them with messages until they buy. The bigger the number of prospects, the better the yield.

New marketing is more like: find people who make more sense. Start relationships with them before selling to them. Learn more about them. Make the offer - if it makes sense.

Read the blog entry from AWeber Communications

While we are still in the early stages of the Social Media Revolution the roadmap to the future is becoming clearer every day. The social web is rapidly becoming the functional base for most people's daily interaction with web content. That content is now qualified and validated by being shared and channeled across relationships of trust between friends and acquaintances. Product decisions will increasingly be mediated by the authentic testimony of friends on the social network, regardless of whether the brands in question want to participate in the conversation. Smart brands will learn to get involved in these conversations and contribute to a growing consumer awareness of the real issues involved in making informed decisions about products and services, or they will be marginalized. In ways that we have not seen since the advent of television and radio, social conversations have become more important than mass marketing claims.

Jeremiah Owyang at Forrester Research wrote a prescient blog piece about "The Future of the Social Web: In Five Eras" exactly a year ago this week. It bears reading again to plot our progress. It seems to me that we're right on track.

The Five Eras of the Social Web: 1) Era of Social Relationships: People connect to others and share 2) Era of Social Functionality: Social networks become like operating system 3) Era of Social Colonization: Every experience can now be social 4) Era of Social Context: Personalized and accurate content 5) Era of Social Commerce: Communities define future products and services

Read the rest of Jerimiah Owyang's blog here

While we are still in the early stages of the Social Media Revolution the roadmap to the future is becoming clearer every day. The social web is rapidly becoming the functional base for most people's daily interaction with web content. That content is now qualified and validated by being shared and channeled across relationships of trust between friends and acquaintances. Product decisions will increasingly be mediated by the authentic testimony of friends on the social network, regardless of whether the brands in question want to participate in the conversation. Smart brands will learn to get involved in these conversations and contribute to a growing consumer awareness of the real issues involved in making informed decisions about products and services, or they will be marginalized. In ways that we have not seen since the advent of television and radio, social conversations have become more important than mass marketing claims.

Jeremiah Owyang at Forrester Research wrote a prescient blog piece about "The Future of the Social Web: In Five Eras" exactly a year ago this week. It bears reading again to plot our progress. It seems to me that we're right on track.

The Five Eras of the Social Web: 1) Era of Social Relationships: People connect to others and share 2) Era of Social Functionality: Social networks become like operating system 3) Era of Social Colonization: Every experience can now be social 4) Era of Social Context: Personalized and accurate content 5) Era of Social Commerce: Communities define future products and services

Read the rest of Jerimiah Owyang's blog here

Lately I've been reading and listening to social media expert Brian Solis, and learning a tremendous amount about how our social media activity can influence search engine ranking. When it comes to Google search results, it comes down to 'inbound links', and the more links to our web content the better. We've known for a long time that Google will rank the importance, or relevance, of our page content much higher if other people think it is important enough to link to it from their web pages. In the last several weeks we have seen Google and the other search engines begin to rate the social media posts in Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and the others, as searchable content.

It follows that keywords that occur in social media posts with links to web content will now increasingly count as legitimate 'inbound links' to that content, and elevate our search rank. Our SEO work now has to encompass Social Media Optimization (SMO). In my opinion this is a positive thing. It is better that search visibility should relate to authentic conversations that occur in online communities of interest, than that it should depend on some kind of code manipulation arcana, or specious link swapping scams. Social media presence is frankly a very realistic indicator of relevance and as ethical marketers we should celebrate this development.

This may sound a bit familiar to you; after all, this is the purpose of search engine optimization (SEO) right? We know that people use search engines like Google and Yahoo to find relevant content and as such, we optimize our work so that it is discovered in search engine result pages (SERPs).

However, the technicalities involved with wiring SEO are not the same processes required to boost visibility in social networks like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Twitter. And it's in social networks like these where people are increasingly spending time communicating, finding relevant and interesting content, and sharing it with their connections. So now, in addition to SEO, we have to implement and manage a Social Media Optimization (SMO) program around our content to increase visibility in these new environments.

Read Brian Solis on SMO

Get Brian's book:
Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web

While there are an astounding 55 million tweets per day on twitter, there are and even more impressive 600 million Twitter searches per day. Twitter has become THE real time search engine for the internet itself as well as social media. If you want to know what's happening NOW, search Twitter.

Microblogging service Twitter announced that it now boasts close to 106 million registered users--up more than 1,500 percent over a year ago--and continues to add 300,000 new users each day. Speaking at the company's first Chirp developer conference in San Francisco, Twitter co-founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone added that Twitter now fields 55 million tweets and 600 million search queries per day. Despite the popularity of the service, Williams said the firm is still seeking ways to make Twitter more mainstream, adding that when consumers begin to type "I don't get..." into Google search, "I don't get Twitter" is the second suggestion, followed only by "I don't get drunk I get awesome."

Read the whole story at FierceMobile

While there are an astounding 55 million tweets per day on twitter, there are and even more impressive 600 million Twitter searches per day. Twitter has become THE real time search engine for the internet itself as well as social media. If you want to know what's happening NOW, search Twitter.

Microblogging service Twitter announced that it now boasts close to 106 million registered users--up more than 1,500 percent over a year ago--and continues to add 300,000 new users each day. Speaking at the company's first Chirp developer conference in San Francisco, Twitter co-founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone added that Twitter now fields 55 million tweets and 600 million search queries per day. Despite the popularity of the service, Williams said the firm is still seeking ways to make Twitter more mainstream, adding that when consumers begin to type "I don't get..." into Google search, "I don't get Twitter" is the second suggestion, followed only by "I don't get drunk I get awesome."

Read the whole story at FierceMobile

Social media users are voting with their pocketbooks. They have learned to trust the brands that they see on Facebook and Twitter, and they are spending their money on these products. This is tremendously important news for online marketers.

People who are Facebook fans and Twitter followers of a brand are more likely to buy the brand's product or recommend it to a friend, according to a new study by Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research Technologies. The study of 1,500 consumers found that 60 percent of Facebook fans and 79 percent of Twitter followers are more likely to recommend those brands since becoming a fan or follower. More than half (51%) of Facebook fans and 67 percent of Twitter followers are more likely to buy the brands they follow or are a fan of.

Read the rest of the story on WebProNews.com

We all want our venture into Social Media to go perfectly, however sometimes mistakes happen. What should you do if it happens to you? Social Media Today has 3 good tips:

1. Apologize for the mistake (or at the very least the misunderstanding).
2. Clarify the statement (or action). Most mistakes are more miscommunication that an actual mistake.
3. Move On. Don't dwell on the mistake, instead reengage with the community and get back to having fun.

Read on at socialmediatoday.com

If you don't know who your target audience is, or what they're doing online, your chances of success diminish. However, when you identify the demographics and psychographics of your audience, your chances for success in the marketplace increase!

Analyst firm Forrester has some very detailed research about how people use social media. This information can really help you put together strategies to target specific audiences.

Read the whole story at socialsmallbiz.com

It's inevitable. At some point your company will experience negative feedback. With social media, the likelihood more people will hear about it are higher. What should you do? Here are 5 easy tips.

1. Monitor
2. Respond Quickly
3. Stay Calm
4. Be Honest
5. Be Generous

For more details on each tip, visit socialsmallbiz.com

Customer service inquires are part of the job when utilizing social media in your business strategy. Here are 5 tips on how to handle praise, criticism and customer feedback.

1. Be quick
2. Be polite
3. Be helpful
4. Be ready to admit defeat
5. Be proactive in building relationships

For more details on each tip, visit socialsmallbiz.com

Pepsi is betting $20 million, multi-decade, and highly coveted position as the lead Superbowl advertiser to run an amazing social media program. The Pepsi Refresh Project is about getting the global community to nominate projects that need funding in local communities. A good cause, but this is a pretty big bet on a marketing channel that is still only in its fledgeling stage. Pepsi apparently thinks that that social media is a smarter investment than to continue to be a cheerleader for a highly popular but ultimately meaningless game. The apparently see the handwriting on the wall for conventional TV advertising.

Real all about it at Pepsi's "Refresh Everything" site.

How far we have come!

It was on this day in 2004 that Mark Zuckerburg launched Facebook (at first called "the facebook"). The Web site's name comes from the student directory book with names and photos that is distributed to incoming students at many universities. Harvard sophomore Zuckerburg, a comp-sci major, had gotten the idea for doing an online facebook when he was slightly drunk on a Tuesday night. He'd just been dumped by his girlfriend, he was looking for a distraction, and he hacked into a Harvard database and copied student names and photos from dorm lists and put them online into a site for which he'd written the code. It was immensely popular: In the first four hours it was up, 450 Harvard students used it to look at 22,000 photos of their classmates. A few days later, the site was shut down by Harvard and Zuckerburg was charged with a number of disciplinary things, including violating privacy rules and breaching security. Eventually, the university dropped the charges, and Zuckerburg moved to Palo Alto set up Facebook, Inc. without graduating from Harvard. Today, about 350 million people around the world actively use Facebook as a social networking tool.

See the original post on Writers Almanac.

The Mobile/Social Internet is ramping faster than the original internet breakout, and will prove to be an even more disruptive factor in the global economy. Facebook is evolving into a unified communication platform and multimedia creation tool. Social Media is the new 'killer app' running on mobile.

Sounds like a sensationalistic headline, but if you read Morgan Stanley's latest series of reports on the Mobile Internet, you'll walk away with the same impression. Morgan Stanley's global technology and telecom analysts documented the rapidly changing mobile Internet market to provide a framework for emerging trends and direction. To set the stage, Morgan Stanley forecasts that the mobile Internet market will be at least 2x the size of desktop Internet when comparing Internet users to mobile subscribers.

According to the report, Apple's iTunes + iPhone/Touch ecosystem has created what "may prove to be the fastest ramping and most disruptive technology product / service launch the world has ever seen.

Read the whole story at Brian Solis PR2.0

Mobile messaging revenues worldwide are expected to grow to $233 billion in 2014, up from about $150 billion in 2009, according to a new forecast issued by Portio Research. Portio reports that global SMS traffic exceeded 5 trillion messages in 2009, a total expected to double by 2013--more than 4 billion subscribers have now embraced texting, the firm adds. In addition, MMS continues to grow, with full-year revenues for 2009 close to $27 billion worldwide (comparable to what SMS generated five years ago).

Despite the recent economic carnage experienced the World over during the last two years mobile messaging revenues continue to rise and the sector as a whole looks to be in excellent health. The appetite for mobile messaging continues unabated and is likely to be sustained for the foreseeable future. The new edition of the report, 'Mobile Messaging Futures 2010-2014', discusses the vast mobile messaging industry worldwide, currently generating revenues in excess of USD 150 billion, and set to continue growing to more than USD 233 billion by 2014.

Read more at Fierce Wireless

As an advertising guy I am generally suspicious of "viral" media outbreaks. What's going on here? Is the "iPad" brand name the most brilliant and wickedly viral social marketing ploy ever conceived? Did Apple use the adolescent joke aspect of this brand name and the obvious association with feminine hygiene products to create a huge surprise, and kick off a weirdly controversial viral rollout of a new product name. Did Apple know from the start that the MADtv skit (from 2005) was out there just waiting to be "discovered", and instantly leveraged into a wildfire overnight viral outbreak. They had to know this clip was on iTube. It is inconceivable that they did not discover this in their first brand discovery efforts. Did they trade on this edgy and funny MADtv clip to instantly inject the brand name into millions of social media conversations around the net. Is this a hint of what's to come in branding for the social sphere? Was this a stupid mistake, or a brilliant stroke?

MADtv Apple iPad Parody 2005

2005 MADtv Apple iPad spoof predicting the iPad. The Apple iPad was announced on 1/27/10. It's brings the best of an iPod Touch, iPhone and Computer all together in an all touch interface. .

See the MADtv sketch on YouTube

This should be interesting. High profile corporate players are cutting back on their conventional media spending to place big bets on social media.

Pepsi will take a massive gamble this year, they are pulling their multi-decade, multi-million dollar Superbowl opening ad position and trading it in for a $20 million social campaign at levels we are yet to experience... for a company that spends almost all it's money on TV ads - it's an incredible gamble.

Read the whole story at Digital Buzz Blog

There's no doubt about it, the times they are a-changin'. The last 10 years have brought about their own share of changes, (good and bad) and the new decade is sure to bring about its own set. Take a look at 10 projected marketing trends for 2010.

2010 is poised to be an exciting year for marketers; trends that have been taking shape over the course of the past decade are creating new opportunities for business owners. The first 10 years of the 21st century brought economic problems, corporate collapses and environmental disasters, but it was also a decade defined by a shift in communications from traditional media to a worldwide conversation that flows faster and farther than anyone could have imagined. Thanks to the tools of the social web, such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, online video and so on, news and information travels instantaneously, and that means marketers have new and exciting opportunities to reach consumers.

Read the whole story at Entrepreneur.com

There's no doubt about it, the times they are a-changin'. The last 10 years have brought about their own share of changes, (good and bad) and the new decade is sure to bring about its own set. Take a look at 10 projected marketing trends for 2010.

2010 is poised to be an exciting year for marketers; trends that have been taking shape over the course of the past decade are creating new opportunities for business owners. The first 10 years of the 21st century brought economic problems, corporate collapses and environmental disasters, but it was also a decade defined by a shift in communications from traditional media to a worldwide conversation that flows faster and farther than anyone could have imagined. Thanks to the tools of the social web, such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, online video and so on, news and information travels instantaneously, and that means marketers have new and exciting opportunities to reach consumers.

Read the whole story at Entrepreneur.com

There's no doubt about it, the times they are a-changin'. The last 10 years have brought about their own share of changes, (good and bad) and the new decade is sure to bring about its own set. Take a look at 10 projected marketing trends for 2010.

2010 is poised to be an exciting year for marketers; trends that have been taking shape over the course of the past decade are creating new opportunities for business owners. The first 10 years of the 21st century brought economic problems, corporate collapses and environmental disasters, but it was also a decade defined by a shift in communications from traditional media to a worldwide conversation that flows faster and farther than anyone could have imagined. Thanks to the tools of the social web, such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, online video and so on, news and information travels instantaneously, and that means marketers have new and exciting opportunities to reach consumers.

Read the whole story at Entrepreneur.com

There's no doubt about it, the times they are a-changin'. The last 10 years have brought about their own share of changes, (good and bad) and the new decade is sure to bring about its own set. Take a look at 10 projected marketing trends for 2010.

2010 is poised to be an exciting year for marketers; trends that have been taking shape over the course of the past decade are creating new opportunities for business owners. The first 10 years of the 21st century brought economic problems, corporate collapses and environmental disasters, but it was also a decade defined by a shift in communications from traditional media to a worldwide conversation that flows faster and farther than anyone could have imagined. Thanks to the tools of the social web, such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, online video and so on, news and information travels instantaneously, and that means marketers have new and exciting opportunities to reach consumers.

Read the whole story at Entrepreneur.com

There's no doubt about it, the times they are a-changin'. The last 10 years have brought about their own share of changes, (good and bad) and the new decade is sure to bring about its own set. Take a look at 10 projected marketing trends for 2010.

2010 is poised to be an exciting year for marketers; trends that have been taking shape over the course of the past decade are creating new opportunities for business owners. The first 10 years of the 21st century brought economic problems, corporate collapses and environmental disasters, but it was also a decade defined by a shift in communications from traditional media to a worldwide conversation that flows faster and farther than anyone could have imagined. Thanks to the tools of the social web, such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, online video and so on, news and information travels instantaneously, and that means marketers have new and exciting opportunities to reach consumers.

Read the whole story at Entrepreneur.com

There's no doubt about it, the times they are a-changin'. The last 10 years have brought about their own share of changes, (good and bad) and the new decade is sure to bring about its own set. Take a look at 10 projected marketing trends for 2010.

2010 is poised to be an exciting year for marketers; trends that have been taking shape over the course of the past decade are creating new opportunities for business owners. The first 10 years of the 21st century brought economic problems, corporate collapses and environmental disasters, but it was also a decade defined by a shift in communications from traditional media to a worldwide conversation that flows faster and farther than anyone could have imagined. Thanks to the tools of the social web, such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, online video and so on, news and information travels instantaneously, and that means marketers have new and exciting opportunities to reach consumers.

Read the whole story at Entrepreneur.com

There's no doubt about it, the times they are a-changin'. The last 10 years have brought about their own share of changes, (good and bad) and the new decade is sure to bring about its own set. Take a look at 10 projected marketing trends for 2010.

2010 is poised to be an exciting year for marketers; trends that have been taking shape over the course of the past decade are creating new opportunities for business owners. The first 10 years of the 21st century brought economic problems, corporate collapses and environmental disasters, but it was also a decade defined by a shift in communications from traditional media to a worldwide conversation that flows faster and farther than anyone could have imagined. Thanks to the tools of the social web, such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, online video and so on, news and information travels instantaneously, and that means marketers have new and exciting opportunities to reach consumers.

Read the whole story at Entrepreneur.com

There's no doubt about it, the times they are a-changin'. The last 10 years have brought about their own share of changes, (good and bad) and the new decade is sure to bring about its own set. Take a look at 10 projected marketing trends for 2010.

2010 is poised to be an exciting year for marketers; trends that have been taking shape over the course of the past decade are creating new opportunities for business owners. The first 10 years of the 21st century brought economic problems, corporate collapses and environmental disasters, but it was also a decade defined by a shift in communications from traditional media to a worldwide conversation that flows faster and farther than anyone could have imagined. Thanks to the tools of the social web, such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, online video and so on, news and information travels instantaneously, and that means marketers have new and exciting opportunities to reach consumers.

Read the whole story at Entrepreneur.com

There's no doubt about it, the times they are a-changin'. The last 10 years have brought about their own share of changes, (good and bad) and the new decade is sure to bring about its own set. Take a look at 10 projected marketing trends for 2010.

2010 is poised to be an exciting year for marketers; trends that have been taking shape over the course of the past decade are creating new opportunities for business owners. The first 10 years of the 21st century brought economic problems, corporate collapses and environmental disasters, but it was also a decade defined by a shift in communications from traditional media to a worldwide conversation that flows faster and farther than anyone could have imagined. Thanks to the tools of the social web, such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, online video and so on, news and information travels instantaneously, and that means marketers have new and exciting opportunities to reach consumers.

Read the whole story at Entrepreneur.com

There's no doubt about it, the times they are a-changin'. The last 10 years have brought about their own share of changes, (good and bad) and the new decade is sure to bring about its own set. Take a look at 10 projected marketing trends for 2010.

2010 is poised to be an exciting year for marketers; trends that have been taking shape over the course of the past decade are creating new opportunities for business owners. The first 10 years of the 21st century brought economic problems, corporate collapses and environmental disasters, but it was also a decade defined by a shift in communications from traditional media to a worldwide conversation that flows faster and farther than anyone could have imagined. Thanks to the tools of the social web, such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, online video and so on, news and information travels instantaneously, and that means marketers have new and exciting opportunities to reach consumers.

Read the whole story at Entrepreneur.com

There's no doubt about it, the times they are a-changin'. The last 10 years have brought about their own share of changes, (good and bad) and the new decade is sure to bring about its own set. Take a look at 10 projected marketing trends for 2010.

2010 is poised to be an exciting year for marketers; trends that have been taking shape over the course of the past decade are creating new opportunities for business owners. The first 10 years of the 21st century brought economic problems, corporate collapses and environmental disasters, but it was also a decade defined by a shift in communications from traditional media to a worldwide conversation that flows faster and farther than anyone could have imagined. Thanks to the tools of the social web, such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, online video and so on, news and information travels instantaneously, and that means marketers have new and exciting opportunities to reach consumers.

Read the whole story at Entrepreneur.com

With the rapid surge of use businesses are demonstrating with social media, tools that help companies monitor what's being said about them online are crucial.

Knowing what someone is saying or has said about your brand online is absolutely vital for any business.

But, the good news is that it is not hard to do and you can set up a great monitoring service for free.

Read the whole story at socialsmallbiz.com

Is this the year that Social Marketing will advance from its brilliant "trial stage" to achieve a more mature form, and take its rightful place along side Email Marketing and Search Marketing as one of the "three pillars" that will make up the backbone of online marketing going forward? Brian Solis is one of the most accomplished writers and thinkers on the social media front lines.

In 2010, Social Media will rapidly escalate from novelty or perceived necessity to an integrated and strategic business communications, service, and information community and ecosystem. Our experiences and education will foster growth and propel us through each stage of the Social Media Marketing evolution.

As MarketingSherpa observes, "2010 is the year where social media marketers gain the experience required to advance from novice to competent practitioner capable of achieving social marketing objectives and proving ROI."

Read the whole story at BrianSolis.com

Things are chainging fast. Last week it was Ford now it's Coke - Coke has announced that it is abandoning plans for campaign web sites and investing in social media. They say that the their Facebook and social media presence is "a better homepage than Coke.com." Prinz Pinakatt, Coke's interactive marketing manager for Europe explains:

"We would like to place our activities and brands where people are, rather than dragging them to our platform."

Read more at Hubspot.com

Ford definitely get's it! They're firing on all social media cylinders. They've made a huge commitment to social media, and it looks like it is really paying off. Ford is seriously 'listening' to customers. As a result sales are going great, they're profitable, and they are the only American car company that did not require a government bail out. Is it any wonder that they are able to make cars that people actually want to buy? CEO Alan Mulally even has his own Twitter account!

Ford Motor Co. this year will spend 25% of its marketing dollars on digital media, more than twice the amount spent by the industry.

According to J.D. Power, about 9% of spending this year by automakers will be digital, but that will rise to about 12% by 2012 as more companies embrace social networking, online gaming and rich media ads in place of traditional TV and print.

Speaking at J.D. Power's Internet Marketing Roundtable in Las Vegas today, Ford's chief marketing executive James Farley says the company has made a bigger digital and social media bet than rivals because, "If you are trying to communicate, as we are, that you have been reinventing the company , you can't just say it. You have to get the people to say it to each other."

Ford is also adding tweets to its Sync in-car technology

Ford Motor Co. is adding Twitter messages andInternet radio to its in-car entertainment and communication service, known as Sync, and suggests that the voice-activated system is safer for drivers than trying to manipulate applications on their cell phones.

While it might seem hard to believe, the 'mobil revolution' promises to be faster and more wide spread than the general internet explosion of the last decade. As cell phones morph into "smart" phones and ultimately into hand held computers in the next few years, more and more people will be logging on to the internet with mobile data devices. The trend lines predict that by 2015j more people will access the web via mobile devices than from desktops.

"We believe Facebook has the potential to serve as a communications platform/engine of one-to-one, one-to-some and one-to-many (and visa versa) for the mobile Internet," Morgan Stanley says. "Facebook has already become a primary way for millions of people to stay connected and Facebook's lead is likely to be extended as more consumers use increasingly powerful mobile devices (with photo/video + high-speed access) and the communications options on Facebook (like voice/video chat and other services) continue to rise."

Read the whole story at FierceMobile

The trend is clear - mobile communication is growing at an astronomical rate, with no end in sight. Contributing greatly to the adoption of mobile technology is Twitter. Twitter use is up 3500% in the first half of 2009! Twitter status-updates offer uniquely compelling properties for social media raconteurs.

Microblogging site Twitter is having a positive effect on the number of consumers using their mobile phone to access the web, says research firm Novarra. Research by the internet mobility company revealed that page views of Twitter from handsets increased by 3500 percent in the first half of 2009. Novarra also said that page views of URTL shortening services bit.ly and tinyurl.com grew by 1,068 percent this year.

Read more at PCWorld

Is seems counterintuitive but, young people are not automatically attracted to Twitter. The average age of a Twitter user is 31. This statistic may be changing with time, but Twitter appears to be an example of an Internet application that skipped a generation and was adopted first by an older group.

They think it's pointless, narcissistic. Some don't even know what it is.

Even so, more young adults and teens - normally at the cutting edge of technology - are finally coming around to Twitter, using it for class or work, monitoring the minutiae of celebrities' lives.

It's not always love at first tweet, though. Many of them are doing it grudgingly, perhaps because a friend pressures them or a teacher or boss makes them try the 140-character microblogging site.

Read the whole story at CBSNews.com

You may not think that Twitter is for you, or that it is very important in the larger scheme...but...
Titter is becoming a very big deal. The numbers alone make this an important phenomenon, and companies that are using it are seeing a positive impact on sales. The more you know about Twitter the more sense it starts to make. If nothing else, think of Twitter as a mechanism for broadcasting bookmarks, and links to cool stuff on the web. What's not to like?

Microblogging service Twitter topped the 5 billion tweet threshold earlier this week according to a counter posted on the GigaTweet website, which analyzes Twitter messages in real time. GigaTweet notes that Twitter is currently averaging about 23 million tweets per day, down from earlier in October, when users broke the 25 million per day benchmark. Mashable notes that the GigaTweet counter stood at 1.6 billion tweets as of April 2009, meaning Twitter users have posted about 3.4 billion tweets in just the last six months. Twitter currently boasts about 54 million users worldwide, and is valued at about $1 billion despite the absence of a discernible revenue model.

Read more at FierceMobile.com

Getting your corporate social media presence to actually work for your company is really pretty simple. You simply have to engage your audience and 'interact' with them. It is not enough to 'talk at them', or to just talk about your self and your company. You have to present a bigger picture. And you have to listen to your audience and respond to 'them'. If your internal corporate culture does not allow this kind of listening and responding, your social media efforts are not going to succeed.

Social media isn't complicated. When you boil it down it's about listening to your customers, being helpful by offering your knowledge and giving them interesting content to share and thereby advocate for you. "It's not rocket surgery."

Read the whole article at AmyMengel.com

Because something is happening here
But you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones? .....Bob Dylan

We've heard this before (starting with Radio, TV and Rock-and-Roll), new communications break-outs have always been accused of "rotting" our "brains", and as far as I can see, in hindsight, there has never been much to support these condemnations. Of course our 'brains' have the potential to 'rot' for a wide variety of reasons, most notably due to addictive behavior. And addiction is potential in any activity that is practiced in excess. Twitter is just the most recent human activity to reach the level of intense engagement that we can see becoming an excessive and addictive practice for 'some' individuals. There is no question that some people have become addicted to Twittering, but I'm not sure that this makes Twitter a fundamentally damaging activity. Instead, I think that the net's often excessive enthusiasm about Twitter just highlights the tremendous power and significance of this new medium. As with other such cultural break-outs, the reality is far more interesting than the critique. None-the-less, a Twitter Backlash is growing.

Dr. Tracy Alloway, from the University of Stirling in Scotland, claims that his research shows that using Twitter "diminishes intelligence." Specifically, she says that it weakens "working memory," which is the ability to remember information and to subsequently use it. Dr. Alloway also claims that working memory is far more important to success and happiness than one's IQ measurement.

See: the Twitter Backlash Journal

Read more about Twitter hating: Twitter haters and why they hate

Social media is for real, it's here to stay, and it could be very helpful to you marketing efforts. But it takes time and effort, which always comes down to money and investment. If you want to make social media work for your business you will need to take it seriously, make it a priority, and apply some of your best resources to the task. This is not a trivial undertaking, but it could be a game changer for your business.

Many executives think that they don't need a professional to help them with their social media activities. They'll just take a student who has a few hours a week and get him to sit on the social networks and play with their company's branding. It's inconceivable to me how on one hand companies can be so cautious regarding beginning to use social media and on the other hand they'll give the work to a mere student who could ruin their branding in a few hours just to save a few bucks.

Read more at SocialMedia.biz

Marketers who think that they can implement a social media campaign using their old PR techniques are in for a disappointment. Vastly different rules apply in the social media space:

Social Media Is Different: Embracing social media and making it part of the overall marketing strategy rather than simply part of an experimental budget is all the rage these days. That is absolutely the right direction for agencies and advertisers to head, but they cannot lose sight of the fact that social media is vastly different from traditional online channels. Advertisers who don't accept the need to approach and measure social media in a different way are doomed to executing sub-par campaigns and being left behind by their competitors.

Read more at Adotas

In a desperate search for simple truth in a chaotic media environment characterized by information overload, and relentless spin, consumers are turning to 'reviews' as their best hope of finding the facts necessary to make decisions. In the end we trust our peers (though they may be strangers) more than we trust the companies that are selling the products and services we are seeking to buy.

There are many more research studies, findings, dissertations, and so on that confirm the same fact: reviewing is the new advertising. This shouldn't come as a surprise: just as with other trends, what's unfolding now is a 'forever need' among consumers, one that's now being satisfied in a superior and previously unattainable fashion. In this case, the need is for trusted advice and recommendations--for feeling in control, for knowing the facts, for avoiding mistakes and disappointments--in order to make that perfect purchase. Which has become even more pressing as choice-overload continues: never before was there so much to choose from, in mature consumer societies, and thus such a need for reviews.

Read the whole article at TrendWatching.com

Social media is rapidly becoming an important component of almost every enterprise's marketing efforts. As expected, businesses are now trying to measure the ROI of these efforts, but they are having to adjust to entirely new metrics:

"If you're using the available mainstream social media that you don't have to serve, host or secure, then you're talking about a number of different value drivers," ... "And when you look at the value of conversations with people, then you can ask whether you can spend less time in a 140-character tweet versus a 15-minute conversation on the phone. So we're beginning to measure that: Is it a less costly service channel than phone or e-mail, and is it preferred?"

Read more at ComputerWorld - What's Your Twitter ROI?