#nabj #detroit #media by Ingrid sturgis 🎥📻 (Taken with Instagram)
How to Know if Social Media Marketing is right for Business
Is social media right for your business? That’s the million dollar question. If you answer it right - your business will flourish. If you are clueless, your business may suffer.
Let’s get this straight. Marketing is marketing. The first thing is to THINK about what you want to accomplish. No business runs well without thought to market (demo) they are trying to reach and information (research) ABOUT that market.
The best way to determine if you need Social Media Market is to ASK more questions. Here are some thought-starters and suggestions. The more questions you can answer, the better off you’ll be before you jump off in the ever-widening pool of social media. It’s ok if you don’t know - just know what to ASK. www.socialmediaprsolutions.com
Amplify’d from www.drewsmarketingminute.com
There are a lot of social media “experts” out there who will tell you that every single organization on the globe should be participating in social media. They will point to the cool Facebook fan pages they’ve made or the funny videos their clients have on YouTube and say “see, you can do this too.” And they’re right. You can.
The question is: Should you?
The real answer to that question is “it depends.” It depends on whether or not it can do one of two things.
- Save you money
- Make you money
If it isn’t going to accomplish one of those two goals, then you have no business engaging in it. Why?
Participating in social media is expensive. I know everyone talks about how cheap it is…but that’s because they are not thinking like a business owner. They’re thinking like someone who knows how to open a YouTube channel account or sign you up on Twitter. It’s true, creating an account on many of the tools and networks is free. But that’s where free ends.
To integrate social media into the rest of your marketing, which is an absolute if you want to consider it a business tool, you are going to have to expend some resources. Social media requires care and feeding. It requires brand integration. And it requires a well-conceived strategy. All of those are going to cost time and money.
Don’t misunderstand. I believe in the power and reach of social media and most of our agency’s clients are using social media tools as part of their overall marketing strategy, but I am not bullish on the belief du jour that everyone must do it and it’s free. Neither is true.
Here are twenty questions to ask yourself as you consider melding social media into your existing marketing strategy.
How will it save us money?
- Will it allow us to stop doing something we’re currently doing?
- Will it allow us to extend/expand something we are currently doing?
- Will it lower our customer acquisition costs?
- Will it connect us to existing customers in an efficient way?
- Will we be able to use social media to create a community specifically for our customers?
- Will it be easier for our customers to rave about us/create positive word of mouth?
- Do we look behind the times to our customers if we aren’t there?
- Will it introduce us to new potential customers at a low lead generation cost?
- Will it make us more findable (either within the social network or on search engines)?
- Will it impact our search engine results? (so we don’t have to buy results)
How will it make us money?
- Will it shorten our sales cycle?
- Will it create credibility/trust faster among prospects?
- Can we establish ourselves as the expert?
- Will it shorten customer service response time?
- Will it create a sense of accessibility for our customers?
- Will it increase trial of our product/service?
- Will it allow us to connect with more prospects at once?
- Will it increase repeat buying?
- Will it increase up sells?
- Can we collect/use testimonials?
If the answers to those questions indicates that social media would be a smart investment for your company to make, then you should be there. But now you will enter into it knowing that there’s a return for that investment.
Now we’re talking smart marketing, not marketing hype.
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a1cp2p
Mr. Arrington’s new role will still raise questions, but probably less so than if he continued to work for TechCrunch.
So what exactly is Mr. Arrington’s new role?
Like many other celebrities and former AOL writers, Ms. Huffington says, Mr. Arrington will be welcome to contribute unpaid blogs to the company, as long as he stays within AOL’s blogging guidelines.
So is Mr. Arrington still employed by AOL at all, or has he actually left the company? (Which would itself be news).
That’s not quite clear yet.
Mr. Arrington’s new relationship at AOL, Ms. Huffington says, is not with TechCrunch but with “AOL Ventures,” a business-development group in another division that has funded Mr. Arrington’s new venture capital fund, the CrunchFund. It is not clear whether this relationship is a paid “relationship,” or whether it’s just a business relationship.
myntprAt last count, I think there are around 45 billion applications available for our smartphones and tablets. The first application that everyone probably downloaded was either Facebook, Angry Birds or Pandora (Facebook was mine and I even downloaded a virtual pet, which I…
Business Checklist on When It’s Time to Engage in Social Media Marketing
Though social media marketing is a great tool to expand your business and reach new customers quickly and very inexpensively - not every business has the capacity to include this in their current marketing mix.
If the business is confused about who to reach with social media - don’t start. If you think “one Tweet fit all” is appropriate - stop and learn some more about TARGET markets.
All things are digital - but not all things are equal. www.socialmediaprsolutions.com
Amplify’d from www.ecommercegeek.com
When You Don’t Need Social Media Marketing
by geek on December 14, 2010
For an ecommerce geek, talking social media marketing with senior executives can be a traumatic experience. That’s because the upper echelons of corporate America are still dominated by digital immigrants whose discourse on web 2.0 matters is often unintelligible to those in the know. Maybe the CEO just saw Mark Zuckerberg interviewed and learned that Facebook is now the most popular website online with over 500 million users. Or that Groupon just snubbed a $6 billion dollar buyout from Google. 500 million and 6 billion are huge numbers, and huge numbers have a way of tickling the pecuniary glands of C-level mucky mucks Then, the confused questions start in: “What’s our Facebook strategy?” “How are we monetizing Groupon?” “What’s our ROI on Twitter?”
As ecommerce geeks, we need to be able to answer misguided questions such as these while squelching our knee-jerk reaction to embrace all things digital. The mere fact that a new trend has taken root online doesn’t mean geeks should rubber stamp it as a budget-worthy item. There are times when an ecommerce geek should actually oppose social media marketing while superiors who don’t understand the technology want to move full steam ahead. Examples of such times include:
- Your business doesn’t have capital dollars but your competition does. During the worst recession since the Great Depression, many businesses folded, others filed for bankruptcy protection, others focused on lowering marginal costs, and others slashed headcount. However, those with cash on hand invested in their products. They did this while less cash flush competitors cut capital expenditures in order to stay in the black. As the economy recovers, those businesses that made upgrades in their products will have the upper hand on those who didn’t. But what happens when yours is the business that had to cut capex dollars while your competition made major upgrades and opened new facilities? When your product offers a patently inferior value and you know it and your customers know it, it’s the wrong time to initiate an open online conversation with customers. As long as your business isn’t suffering a salvo of negative attacks already, it makes more sense to ride out the slow recovery until you can start investing again and have a good news story to share publicly.
- Your business has slashed operating dollars but your competition hasn’t. Similar to the example above, in some times, like recent times, a business has to cut its operating budget in order to survive a dearth of cash. If your business is cutting routine expenses or even payroll while a competitor has the free cash to continue normal operations, your product or service might suffer, particularly when compared to that of your competition.This situation is difficult to explain to a customer, but once you open the Pandora’s box of social media marketing, your business must respond to negative attacks and inconvenient questions and comments. And if you have an underfunded operating budget, you’ll get a disproportionate share of these. Sure, your business could embrace a radically transparent strategy and take these challenges head on in public. I can just see the Facebook post now: “Thanks for your feedback! We realize that our website service has been spotty today, but we are having problems with our infrastructure because our load balancer is intermittently failing and we haven’t paid to renew our service agreement. We hope that our only slightly better priced product justifies our crappy site experience, and promise to fix the problem when we have more money. Do you follow us on Twitter yet?” Better to hold off on social media marketing until your business won’t be entering the fray with a bullseye on its back.
- Your business’ customers aren’t interacting in the social space. Check out MetaMucil’s (a fiber supplement company’s) or Advance America’s (a payday loan company’s) Twitter feeds… MetaMucil quit tweeting and Advance America has 360 followers and follows 1,199. And this is no shock, as a typical customer of either brand over indexes in a demographic group that participates infrequently in social media. As an ecommerce geek, you need to be able to apply what you know about your target demographic to your online strategy. Sometimes that means you should reject those initiatives, like social media marketing, which won’t have sufficient influence on your target customer.
- You don’t have the resources to interact in the social space. Setting up a Facebook fan page or Twitter page requires very little resources. It doesn’t take long to create profiles and there are cheap custom templates that are easily available. But, what happens when customers start using social sites the way that they are designed to be used: as interaction platforms? You’ll need a resource to listen, evaluate, respond, and record/report. If you don’t have the resources to sustain your social media presence, then you could wind up doing more harm than good: you create an official venue for interaction and then don’t attend to it in a timely fashion when customers try to engage you. And, your inattentiveness is now on display for other potential customers to see. Don’t put the cart before the horse – first acquire resources, preferably in-house, to manage your social media presence, and then begin marketing.
- Your social media efforts will live and die by return on spend. Marketing through social media sites would ideally reside in the marketing or ecommerce department. But, with some exceptions, social media marketing typically won’t generate the kind of measurable return on spend that your company is accustomed to seeing from other types of digital marketing, like paid search advertising, email promotions, search engine optimization, and display advertising. On the other hand, an official presence on social media sites is something that could be relevant to many different departments, including customer support and HR. In the event that social media marketing would be evaluated as traditional online advertising is, a geek might be better off having the head of a department whose purse strings aren’t as closely tied to ROI fight for social media dollars. Once senior management buys into social media marketing as a part of, for example, an overall customer support program, then ecommerce can work with customer support to incorporate consistent online marketing best practices.
It’s important to note that if a business is currently in a position which makes asserting itself in the social space an imprudent strategy, it likely won’t be in that situation forever. If any of the above situations applies to your business, there are still non-resource-intensive measures that an ecommerce geek should take to ready her business for the time it is finally in a position to do social media the right way.
- Monitor. There are several free online reputation management tools available that let you know when and how your brand is being discussed online. Trackur does the trick for monitoring single terms and is relatively inexpensive for monitoring multiple terms. It also allows users to have custom feeds parsed for relevant mentions; this feature is ideal for niche businesses that need to track discussions on particular sites. And, it’s not just your brand that you should be monitoring. Use your downtime to see how competitors are marketing through social media channels and note what works and what doesn’t.
- Preempt. When your company is in a better position to deploy a proper social media strategy, you’ll want consistently-named profiles that are relevant to your brand. But profile squatters abound, which is why you need to be creating accounts now even if you aren’t yet ready to use them. Knowem is a terrific service that acquires profiles on a company’s behalf on websites that offer vanity urls/usernames. Be sure to periodically log in to these accounts, otherwise the sites where Knowem created your profile may cancel your account, seeing that there is no activity.
- Prepare. Even when your business shouldn’t be engaging in social media marketing, be careful how you frame the case against it; otherwise, it’s going to be a tough sell when it’s time to get into the game. If you are currently eschewing social media marketing, make sure senior management understands why. Again, your business likely won’t be in its present situation forever, so frame your social media strategy as one that comprises multiple phases. Explain that the current phase of non-participation is temporary and delineate what the next phases will look like. If you are holding back because your business or a product line is underfunded, then incorporate anticipated resumption of capex or opex funding as dependencies into your plan. The goal here is to ensure that no one is surprised when you start to request a budget for social media marketing.
Ecommerce geeks eat, sleep, and breathe all things web. So, when the CEO gets a wild hair and wants to jump into social media marketing with both feet, it’s tempting for an ecommerce geek to do just that. But, just because social is all the buzz doesn’t mean that marketing on social media venues is the right move right now for every business. Knowing what time is the right time to embrace social media marketing as part of a comprehensive marketing plan is what distinguishes an ecommerce geek from her digital immigrant colleagues.
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a1b1ui
What does a social media PR agency do?
Because so many people are jumping in this “social media expert” space, we wanted to do some research so that no company is misguided.
A social media PR agency is very much like a normal public relations agency with the big exception that the messages are also transferred thru the online channel as well. This is 21st Century PR at it’s best - using traditional and digital media channels to communicate a message.
So what is the key qualification you look for: an agency that understands and has influence with the target audience your company endeavors to reach.
Bottom line: Anyone can through up a blog, facebook and twitter page - but are they strategic in the messaging and can they measure (and deliver) results.
www.SocialMediaPRSolutions.com
Amplify’d from www.drewsmarketingminute.com
Social Media
…buy the right help from the right agencyOkay…the other day I blew a fuse about social media consultants selling smoke screens and mirrors. (read my rant here)
Which of course begs the question — what SHOULD you buy from someone who actually has an expertise in melding social media into the rest of your marketing efforts? (And yes…at MMG we do all of this but so do many other qualified and competent consultants)
Strategy: Whether you’re pretty familiar with all things social or you don’t know your Facebook page from your Facebook status — it helps to have an outsider help you think through your strategy.
They’ll ask questions to get you really thinking about WHY you’re investing resources into social media and WHAT goals/results matter to your organization.
Measurements: A good social media strategist will help you determine WHAT to measure and HOW to measure what matters.
While social media serves up things to count, they don’t always count, if you know what I mean. That you have 1,348 Twitter followers may be important or it may just be a meaningless number.
A good strategist will help you determine not only what to measure but help you set up a comparative reporting system (we call ours The MMG Digital Footprint) that monitors your progress.
Mechanics: You don’t need to know how to code a blog or customize a Facebook fan page to build one into your marketing activities. Let your social media consultant either do the heavy lifting or supervise someone else doing it for you.
The great thing about most social media is that it’s plug and play but the truth is — it should all look and feel like your brand. Which means some customization is needed.
Content Massaging: Odds are you already have plenty of raw material for content creation. But it’s probably not written in the style, length or format best suited for social media.
Need a white paper turned into an ebook? Or a research report converted into an infographic? Let your social media agency take your existing material and get it ready for your friends and followers.
Coaching: Understanding that a touchdown is worth 6 points is very different from knowing the nuances of how to actually get into the end zone. Many companies fumble the ball (sorry — the last football analogy) by applying old school marketing behaviors to these new marketing tools.
Having someone at your side, teaching you how to navigate the new waters without making any faux pas. Remember…Google never forgets.
Systems: There are plenty of tools out there to help make your social media activities more efficient and easier to manage. Whether it’s setting up your listening post (it’s not just about creating content — you need to know what people are saying about your company, your industry, your competitors etc.) or scheduling your content’s publication (so you can time fresh content to appear when your audience is online) — your social media partner can help you do more with less effort.
Integration: Social media (like all marketing tactics) should not exist in a vacuum. It should fold into the rest of your marketing strategy and efforts. Otherwise, you are not stacking up your impressions and maximizing every dollar and every effort.
Of course, that’s just hitting the highlights but you get the idea. There’s plenty for an agency to help you with. But they should be behind the scenes…not front and center.
There’s no substitute for your smarts, years of experience or personality. That’s how your prospects meet your brand.
What should you buy from a social media savvy agency?
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a1ay3j
Detroit Social Media PR Roundtable Discussion
Cheryl L. Bunkley, a Lifestyle & Brand Marketing Consultant, recently had a roundtable discussion about social media PR with some Detroit professionals. I was glad to be part. Hear (or read) the discussion below. YOUR Comments welcome!
www.socialmediaprsolutions.com
Amplify’d from the-creative-collection-detroit-edition.onsugar.com
Social Media Roundtable Discussion
Pam Perry Melih Oztalay Dwight Zahringer Tom Nixon
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Q. Based on your experience, do most clients prefer to outsource their social media services or, do they prefer to coordinate their social media needs in-house?
PP: Most clients and their staffs are super busy. That’s why they reach out to us to be their “social media pr solution.” They have one person to be our point person on staff but basically it’s up to our team to do all of their SMM services. This includes creating the strategy and publishing the content to growing their email database and keeping it current.
DZ: We are seeing a pattern, similar to a few years ago with “website maintenance” where a company wants to elect an employee to help or partake in the management of social media. While the idea is good it is almost always a failure and they take it to outsource and work with a liaison internally at the company.
MO: We find that the results are mixed and size of business does not seem to make a difference.
For businesses that are early adopters of Internet technologies and are committed to a “Internet team”, will focus on managing social media internally with only a request for consultation to review, improve or enhance their efforts.
Businesses that are not as web savvy will outsource their social media and the process requires close communications with the client to know what activities are taking place to insure the social media efforts are effective.
In either case, if a business seeks consultation or outsourcing, a professional web marketing agency can assist with social media that goes beyond Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Not only is there cross communication in social media that can include blogging and creating an industry community, but Google’s recent Google+ with the Google 1+ button will directly affect what can effectively be called “social media search”. Another way of viewing this is “Facebook for Business” in which your Google community will affect search engine rankings of websites in search results.
TN: Most businesses at this point are still exploring social media. Most read that they need to dive in head first, so they go ahead and jump. They prefer to start in-house…but over time, they realize that something’s not clicking, and they aren’t getting the results they anticipated when reading that exciting article in Time or Newsweek. Then comes fatigue. What many soon realize is that they didn’t have the in-house resources to pull off what amounts to a very significant undertaking. They lack the time and personnel to remain actively engaged on social networks (so they ask someone to wear a new hat), and they lack the experience and strategic oversight to set goals, establish metrics and monitor success relative to social. At that point, that’s when businesses look to outsource.
* * *
Q. Do you consider having a “social media presence” to be an absolute must for a company to be successful in today’s business climate?
PP: Yes and clients realize this too. The game has changed and smart business owners and corporations are changing with the times by implementing new, targeted and cost effective marketing methods via the internet. It’s all about search – and they aim to be found online. This is survival of the fittest.
DZ: It is not a “Must” but in order to be competitive you need to participate. Even more so now with the emergence of Google Plus and +1. Social activity is now a consideration in the ranking algorithm for a company, their products and services. If you are not at a minimum listening and responding when and where necessary you are missing many opportunities and not in the “norm”. Like having a working website that will harvest leads, calls and sales you need to do the same with social media. If not you’ll jump on after you hear of a great case study from your competitor.
MO: The short answer is “Yes”. I think that the problem with social media for business is that businesses do not understand how to best use it or how to use it most efficiently. Many businesses see social media as a waste of time, when in fact it allows for the most efficient communication and relationship marketing through many people very easily.
Additionally, many businesses see this as a B2C marketing tool and not so much as a B2B marketing tool. What the B2B world doesn’t necessarily realize “yet”, is that staff at other businesses are between 20 – 40 years of age and they all grew up with the Internet. Of course the first thing this B2B age range staff does is use the web to seek out other businesses, products, services and do so not only through search, but social media.
If we add the new Google+ social media tool into the mix, we will find that businesses will migrate towards Google+ much more readily as it will have an impact on their website ranking position and what others in their networked community will see. By default, businesses will be more likely to tap into social media whether they want to or not.
TN: Like any consultant’s favorite answer, is “it depends.” Again, businesses need to guard their enthusiasm when reading about the latest shiny object in the news or online—the latest shiny object being the collective “social media.” For most companies, there is an appropriate social strategy to explore, identify and define. But you shouldn’t assume it to be so. Our advice to companies is not to jump on Facebook because everyone is doing it. Do the work upfront to truly define your audiences, examine and communicate your overall business strategy, and from there define your marketing strategy, from which will flow your social strategy. If your target audience is 60+ men, it’s likely that Facebook has no place in your social, marketing or business strategies. Ditto Twitter. LinkedIn is a maybe. Think first; act later…you can’t go wrong taking that approach.
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a1aroq
Can we get some Diversity here? Blacks do Blog about Social Media.
Who will be the top blogs for 2011? Let me add some of my favorite Social Media blogs: http://www.sistasense.com, http://www.socialwayne.com, http://www.blackenterprise.com, http://myblogalicious.beblogalicious.com, http://www.reginabaker.com/blog/, http://www.brothatech.com, http://www.2createawebsite.com/other/about.htm, http://pamlawhorne.com/blog, http:// and http://www.myurbanreport.com - oh, I love Lamar Wilson’s Tumblr Blog ===> http://wt1.tv/ - He’s funny.
See http://www.bloggingwhilebrown.com too to see the Black Weblog Awards…. I was there! And it was so cool. Kim Coles and Rene Syler presented the awards to the best blogs representing the multicultural community. African Americans do BLOG, DOG!
Amplify’d from www.evancarmichael.com
In today’s economy, it is not enough anymore for businesses to have just an email address or customer service number on its website. Customers want to engage with companies in new andauthentic ways, and thanks to social media, now they can. From Facebook to Twitter, businesses that embrace social media are finding their new transparency rewarded with new and deeper client relationships. So just how can entrepreneurs make the most of these new tools? Check out the Top 50 Social Media Blogs To Of 2010 to hear what some of the industry’s leading voices have to say. You can also view last year’s list here.
1) Mashable!
http://mashable.com/ -Founded in 2005, Mashable is the top source for news in social and digital media, technology and web culture. With more than 30 million monthly pageviews, Mashable is the most prolific news site reporting breaking web news, providing analysis of trends, reviewing new Web sites and services, and offering social media resources and guides.
2) ReadWriteWeb
http://www.readwriteweb.com/- ReadWriteWeb is a popular blog that provides Web Technology news, reviews and analysis, covering web apps, web technology trends, social networking and social media. It has a large and highly influential readership, and is one of the world’s top 20 most popular blogs according to Technorati.3) The Next Webhttp://thenextweb.com/ – The Next Web launched in January 2008 as a spin off to The Next Web Conference. It features technology news from across the world, highlights on quality startups, and Internet trends to watch out for.4) SmartBlog on Social Mediahttp://smartblogs.com/socialmedia – Designed for marketers and decision makers who need to stay ahead of social networking trends, SmartBrief on Social Media is a free daily newsletter. It delivers hard-to-find news on creative social marketing campaigns, technology, research, and best practices.5) Online Social Mediahttp://www.onlinesocialmedia.net – Online Social Media was started with the specific aim to provide readers with news focused exclusively on Social Media, and Web 2.0 technology. They report on new Social Media services and Web sites, publish breaking news and offer social media guides and resources.6) Social Media SEOhttp://socialmediaseo.net/- SMSEO covers news and information that is relevant right now, from expanding on news that people are searching for to the latest technology, gadgets, and mobile devices along with anything that interests author Robert Holland at the moment.
7) Social Media News http://fastgush.com/ – Fastgush.com provides Social media news, Web tips, Entrepreneurship articles and everything to do with the latest on web. Started in only April, 2010, fastgush has garnered tremendous response from the reader community a small amount of time.Social Media In Action
Darren Rowse, TwiTip
8) TwiTip
http://www.twitip.com/ – Written by Darren Rowse, the mastermind behind ProBlogger and Digital Photography School, TwiTip is about capturing some of the lessons that he and others have been learning about Twitter and how to use it more effectively. It covers Twitter Tips of all varieties including Writing for Twitter, Branding, Growing a Following, Corporate Tweeting and more.
9) All Facebookhttp://www.allfacebook.com – AllFacebook.com is a blog that was started by Nick O’Neill. The purpose of the blog is to cover all issues pertaining to Facebook including new applications, general news, and analysis about the future of Facebook. It is an exciting time in the world of social media and social networking and it is his job to cover all of it in relation to Facebook.
Social Media Personalities
Chris Brogan
10) Chris Brogan
http://chrisbrogan.com/ – Chris Brogan is an eleven year veteran of using social media and both web and mobile technologies to build digital relationships for businesses, organizations, and individuals. Chris speaks, blogs, writes articles, and makes media of all kinds at chrisbrogan.com, a blog in the top 5 of the Advertising Age Power150, and in the top 100 on Technorati.11) Chris Pirillo
http://chris.pirillo.com/ – Chris Pirillo has been participating in Internet conversations since 1992. He is a personality in whom tech enthusiasts trust to answer questions and lead discussions. Get your questions answered here!12) Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang
http://www.web-strategist.com/blog – As a WebStrategist, Jeremiah Owyang strives to deliver insight on disruptive technologies and their impact on how companies mcommunicate with their customers. He’s been writing this blog since 1996, and it’s recognized as a top analyst blog within the industry.13) Danny Brown
http://dannybrown.me/ – Co-founder and partner at Bonsai Interactive, Danny Brownoffers social media, digital and mobile marketing solutions and applications. His blog is featured in the AdAge Power 150 list as well as Canada’s Top 50 Marketing Blogs, and won the Hive Award for Best Social Media Blog at the 2010 South by South West festival.14) Social Wayne
http://www.socialwayne.com/- The Social Wayne blog covers: Blogging, Social Media, Location Based Services, Marketing, Gadgets, Social Networks, Events and Mobile Technology from the ever popular Wayne Sutton.15) Matt Singley
http://mattsingley.com/blog/- When a company knows that they need to be in the conversation that is happening online but they don’t know how to do it or what that even means, Matt Singley and his team step in. His blog will help you to understand and use the new tools that are available online, and not only get into the conversation, but teach you how to leverage and guide it.16) Kyle Lacy
http://kylelacy.com/ – Recognized both locally and globally for his knowledge of social media, Kyle Lacy writes a regular blog at KyleLacy.com and has been featured on the AdAge 150, Wall Street Journal Online and ranked on over five global blog lists.17) Gwen Bell
http://www.gwenbell.com/blog/ – Gwen Bell is equal parts Social Web Strategist and Discovery Agent. She teaches technologists how to unplug. She wellness professionals and entrepreneurs wanting to be online bring real presence to the Web do so.18) Chris Garrett on New Media
http://www.chrisg.com/- Chrisg.com is where Chris posts daily (or thereabouts) thoughts and advice on the business of new media, blogging and online marketing. The aim is to teach you ways you can create compelling resources, provide your audience more value, build trust and loyalty, and generate more rewards for yourself.Social Media Marketing
Lee Odden, Top Rank Blog
19) Top Rank Blog
http://www.toprankblog.com/ – Since December 2003, TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog has provided insights, resources and commentary on a range of digital marketing and public relations topics including: Search engine marketing and optimization, Social media marketing, Business blogging and marketing, and Online public relations.
20) Conversation Agenthttp://www.conversationagent.com/ – Conversation Agent is ranked among the top 25 marketing blogs in the world on AdAge Power150. Handpicked by Fast Company as Expert blogger, author Valeria Maltoni is on the Advisory Board of SmartBrief on Social Media and a co-author of The Age of Conversation, a groundbreaking eBook collaboration by 103 of today’s top marketing writers. Follow her advice here!
21) Social Media Marketing Strategyhttp://www.jmorganmarketing.com/ – Jacob Morgan spends a good amount of time experimenting, researching, and developing ideas and concepts around social business. Jacob’s blog is ranked among the top 100 most influential marketing blogs in the world by AdAge.
22) ViperChillhttp://www.viperchill.com/- ViperChill is authored by Glen Allsopp. With detailed 2,000-3,000 word posts and updated weekly, ViperChill will help you get others to spread your message for free.
23) Social Media Optimization
http://social-media-optimization.com/ – After spending the last eight years focused on search marketing, author David Wilson discovered social media marketing, and it was the solution had been searching for. His blog will give you insight into the merging of Traditional Media, SEM and Social Marketing.24) The Social Media Marketing Bloghttp://www.scottmonty.com/- Scott Monty is the head of social media at Ford Motor Company. Visit his blog for his insights and perspectives on all things social media.25) The Future Buzzhttp://thefuturebuzz.com/ – The Future Buzz is a blog about web marketing/PR strategies, spreading buzz in the blogosphere and building long-term visibility for your brand, business, and art on the web. Bloggers, marketers, freelance writers, entrepreneurs, artists, small business owners and public relations professionals will all benefit from the content here.26) Diva Marketinghttp://bloombergmarketing.blogs.com/ – Diva Marketing gives you a fresh approach to marketing that’s fun, bold and savvy…but always strategically aligned with your brand’s objective.All About Blogging
Brian Clark, Copyblogger
27) Copyblogger
http://www.copyblogger.com/ – Remarkable social media content and great sales copy are pretty much the same — plain spoken words designed to focus on the needs of the reader, listener, or viewer. Want more traffic, links, subscribers, and a profit-generating website? Copyblogger gives you the solutions you need to succeed.
28) Shout Me Loud
http://www.shoutmeloud.com/ – Harsh Agrawal is a young Entrepreneur and professional blogger from New Delhi, India, who writes about Blogging, Social media, WordPress, SEO, Internet, Computer tips and tricks, Making money online, and Affiliate Marketing.
29) Kikolanihttp://kikolani.com/ - Kikolani is about the art of blogging – blogging tips, social networking strategies, and other useful information to help bloggers become more successful in the art.
30) Converstationshttp://www.converstations.com/ – Mike Sansone is an independent business consultant specializing in business blogs and conversational copywriting. His experience in public speaking, sales and marketing, writing, and real-time online communication are strengths Mike relies upon in his role as a Conversation Conductor.Social Media & PR
Brian Solis, PR 2.0
31) PR 2.0
http://www.briansolis.com/- Brian Solis is globally recognized as one of the most prominent thought leaders and published authors in new media. A digital analyst, sociologist, and futurist, Solis has influenced the effects of emerging media on the convergence of marketing, communications, and publishing. BrianSolis.com is among the world’s leading business and marketing online resources.
32) PR-Squared
http://pr-squared.com/ – Todd Defren is recognized globally as a Social Media & Public Relations innovator, thinker & lecturer. His blog, PR-Squared, is routinely among the top 20 blogs on AdAge’s Power150.Industry Insights
Duncan Riley, The Blog Herald
33) The Blog Herald
http://www.blogherald.com/- Founded by Duncan Riley in March 2003 as a premium source of blog and blogging related news for bloggers, the Blog Herald was the first blog dedicated exclusively to the news of the blogosphere and remains the longest (and largest) standing resource of its kind.
34) The FASTForward Blog
http://www.fastforwardblog.com/ – This site is a companion blog to the FASTforward conference and summit series and is sponsored by FAST, A Microsoft Subsidiary. The blog, like the conference series, aims to drive and deepen conversation about how today’s companies can use technology to place users in control of information, and is home to ongoing discussion about the user revolution and Enterprise 2.0 opportunities and challenges.
35) Neville Hobson
http://www.nevillehobson.com/ – As an influencer at the forefront of social media, author Neville Hobson works with organizations in helping them to understand the business benefits of using social media such as blogs, podcasts and RSS, determine what cultural impacts may arise from deploying social media, and create climates of trust that enable those organizations to successfully take calculated risks in using social media. Get all his advice here!
36) What’s Next Bloghttp://www.whatsnextblog.com/ – Internet marketer, internationally known blogger, blog strategy consultant to Fortune 500 companies including IBM and Cendant, B.L. Ochman heads the creative team of whatsnextonline.com. She also publishes the internationally respected What’s Next Blog, which gives you insights into what’s coming up in the world of social media.37) 901amhttp://www.901am.com/ – 901am.com is a blog that covers new media news, the web, and blogging. Check it first thing in the morning to get your daily hits.38) The Buzz Binhttp://www.livingstonbuzz.com/blog/ – The Buzz Bin provides a point of view on integrated communications, including PR, social media, interactive and general marketing topics. Topics range from strategy and tactics to news commentary and trend analysis. It’s not about being safe, it’s about pushing the envelope, thinking and, hopefully, learning.Social Media 101
39) Social Media Explorer
http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/ – Social Media Explorer is the online home and blog of Social Media Explorer LLC, Jason Falls’ consulting company. As a social media educator and strategist, Falls helps companies understand the social web and show them how engaging consumers online can help their business.
40) Social Media Influencehttp://socialmediainfluence.com/ – Social Media Influence provides intelligence and analysis for business professionals looking to understand and navigate the ever-evolving world of online communication.
41) Convince and Convert
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/ – Social media isn’t a conversation, it’s where the conversation takes place. Jay Baer is a hype-free social media strategy consultant, speaker, and author that helps companies harness the awesome power of the social Web and develop those conversations.42) Soshable
http://soshable.com/ – Newways of socializing are popping up daily. Soshable will try to keep up. By tapping into the minds and resources of some of the brightest stars and most knowledgeable people in the business, author JD Rucker wants to present the social internet on a golden platter for everyone to enjoy.
43) Instigator Bloghttp://www.instigatorblog.com/ – Author Ben Yoskovitz started Instigator Blog in 2006, and with 14+ years of experience as an entrepreneur, he shares his thoughts and lessons learned on startups, entrepreneurship, and marketing.44) Social Media Strategeryhttp://steveradick.com/ - “It’s not about the technology, but what the technology enables.” Or so believes Steve Radick, whose background in change management, strategic communications, and stakeholder engagement strategy and implementation means that his blog focuses not only on the technology and infrastructure aspects of social media, but perhaps more importantly, on the people and processes that really determine the success of social media and Government 2.0.
45) One Social Media
http://www.onesocialmedia.com/blog – One Social Media is a social media marketing firm with broad industry experience, a talented staff and a fresh point of view. They specialize in helping entrepreneurs use social media tools, sites and applications to connect with customers and prospects. Get all their tips here!46) Social Media Clubhttp://www.socialmediaclub.org/ – Chris Heuer and Kristie Wells started Social Media Club (SMC) in March 2006 to host conversations around the globe that explore key issues facing our society as technologies transform the way we connect, communicate, collaborate and relate to each other. Social Media Club enables you explore your personal and professional passions by helping you connect with a community of your peers based on both geography and areas of interest.47) Social Mediahttp://www.britopian.com/ – Author Michael Brito considers himself a student of social media and community building. He has worked for major brands in Silicon Valley (HP, Yahoo! and Intel) and was instrumental in driving social media programs and campaigns emphasizing authenticity and long-term relationship building. Get his advice on his Social Media Blog.Social Media & Branding
Olivier Blanchard, Brand Builder
48) Brand Builder
http://thebrandbuilder.wordpress.com/ – The BrandBuilder blog provides commentary and discussions about Brand Management best practices. Areas of focus are Corporate Communications, Product Design, Social Media, Change Management, Leadership, Customer Relations, Community Management, Measurement, Strategy and Planning, PR, Advertising, Copywriting, Brand Development, Crisis Management, Integrated Marketing, Quality Control, Customer Relations, Traditional Media, Enterprise 2.0, Mobile Marketing, and Experience Design.
49) We Are Social
http://wearesocial.net/ – We Are Social helps brands to listen, understand and engage in conversations in social media. In their blog, you’ll better understand the impact that social media is having on your organization and the changes that need to be made as a result.50) Brass Tack Thinkinghttp://www.brasstackthinking.com/ – Blogger Amber Naslund is a communications and business strategist and the Director of Community for Radian6. She’s a writer, professional speaker, community and social media strategist, and has worked with businesses of all sizes to solve business problems through better communication. Follow her on her blog, Brass Tack Thinking.
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a19lvs
Shelita Williams Reigning at Starbucks on Flickr.
Get fit, fab and fly with Shelita. She’ll show you how. http://reigninfitness.eventbrite.com
see www.shelitawilliams.com too and join her facebook page. She is an author/speaker and coach.
Social media moment with pam perry on Flickr.
See www.TerrenceWilson.com and www.shelitawilliams.com - OMG!
Boomer social media moment with pam perry on Flickr.
Just cause you’re a Baby Boomer doesn’t give you the right to carry a Boom Box. Time to upgrade.
