How To Do Social Media by the book

9+ Ways to Define “Social Media”

From Engage by Brian Solis Social Media is all about building communities and building bridges that connect customers, prospects, peers, tastemakers, and influencers with the people who represent organizations. Social media is many things to many people, but here are nine ways to define social media: 1. A platform for the socialization of media. 2. The online tools that facilitate conversation. 3....

10 Top Monetization Trends for Social Media & Microcommunities

from Engage by Brian Solis The magic of microcommunications is the human nature of dialogue. Successful communities are built upon the fulfillment that consumers experience based on their dialogues with “real” people who listen to and acknowledge their participation. But how do you leverage the resulting microcommunities for macro impact? Here are the Top 10 ways to monetize real-time...

11 Types of Marketing Data to Collect

from Engage by Brian Solis Before framing messages for an audience, companies must conduct preliminary research to uncover the following types of information: 1. Material social networks 2. People linked through common interests that are germane to the business, industry, and marketplace 3. Keywords commonly used by community members 4. Patterns for discovering and sharing information 5. Influence...

7 Ways Social Media Has Changed Business

from Engage by Brian Solis By establishing an entirely new ecosystem that supports the socialization of information, this shift is facilitating new conversations that start locally, but ultimately have a global impact. What’s different these days? Social media has . . . 1. Rewired the processes by which consumers share experiences, expertise, and opinions. 2. Broadened the channels available...

8 Questions to Ask Job Prospects Re: Their Web Experience

from Inbound Marketing: Getting Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs by Brian Halligan & Dharmesh Shah: Hiring criteria need to change to bring in savvy inbound marketing employees. Companies need to look for “Digital Citizens,” i.e. prospects who speak Web fluently. Here are 8 questions to ask interviewees: 1. What RSS reader do you use? 2. What blogs do you read? 3. Do...

6 Viral Strategies – Actions to Make You Unique

from The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web by Tamar Weinberg: To stand out from the crowds and the noise, plan online activities that others won’t expect. Consider these six successful strategies from social news and bookmarking sites. 1. Lists: Lists are easy to read and encourage engagement and conversation. Readers can choose one item to comment on. Meant to be shared because...

10 Social Media Sites to Find Answers for Your Questions

from The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web by Tamar Weinberg: People enjoy soliciting the advice of their peers on just about every subject to get the benefit of others’ firsthand experiences. Answers are different than search because they are human responses to specific problems and questions. Here are 10 popular Q & A sites to get those answers 1. Yahoo! Answers –...

8 Give-Aways as Calls To Action

from Inbound Marketing by HubSpot founders Dharmesh Shah and Brian Halligan Your website may be attractive enough to draw visitors, but if you can not convert them into qualified leads, then you are not using your online presence effectively. You want names, emails and phone numbers, but remember you have to “give to get.” Here are eight things you can offer for FREE: 1. Webinars 2. Whitepapers 3....