Social media marketing has been changing the way business utilize communication technology, combining different mindsets with flexible rules and non-existent standards. Nearly every company entering the “social media fray” is trying to create something new,in preparation for this I have collected a list of sites and authors that have some incredible resources for making strategic plans.

I urge every client at here at 123SocialMedia to educate themselves and listen to the conversation. It is far more effective to spend some educational time so that you know enough to ask the right questions. It is also far more effective to understand what types of like-minded campaigns have succeeded or failed in the social media space (while your thought may sound original, it may have lived and died a hundred times already.)

• The first author: Peter Kim, has an amazing resource of over 300 brand examples to look at. He has the most comprehensive collection I have found to date (I highly suggest you visit!) In addition to that piece, Peter Kim also has an article at Mashable covering the 22 steps to Social Media Marketing. One of the most valuable pieces of that article is his mention of the username check tool (one of my favorite free services) that tells you if a username is available on 75 different networking sites.

• 110 Ways Retailers are using Social Media is a good breakdown by Linda Bustos provides a platform breakdown of businesses using Facebook, Myspace, Flickr, and other applications.

There are many other resources for finding specific examples on platforms: here are a few that I have found useful.

What is all the Twitter about?

SocialBrandIndex has a useful breakdown of brands using Twitter.

Want to share your images?

Geoff Northcott covers brands using Flickr.

Want to understand Facebook?

Inside Facebook talks about improved SEO with Brand Pages.

Are there any other platforms and campaigns that you are specifically interested in hearing about? If so, leave a comment and I will point you in the right direction.

It has been a little quiet here, mostly as I am getting several e-books ready and preparing for several different speaking engagements. My next speaking engagement is for the Seattle Young Professionals Network on Nov 6th. You can read about the event here: Seattle Social Media Training.

On other avenues, you can read the intro page of one of the e-books I am currently working on. It should be available shortly for all my readers.

Introduction: Why Social Media Deserves Attention

In the past two years, social media has found a growing acceptance in nearly every niche. Unless you’ve been “LOST” on a tropical island, you have probably been exposed to social media from hundreds of different angles in just the past ninety days. Some of the significant reason this requires attention:

• Media is no longer print, radio, and television. Fragmentation has occurred. Traditional media and social media are undergoing a radical reaction and creating hundreds of new media channels. There are hundreds (if not thousands) of communication platforms that allow businesses and consumers to broadcast information. Examples: blogs (Wordpress), micro-blogs (Twitter), social networks (Linkedin), community news (Seattle PI), and search platforms (Google.)
• There is a significant shift in the fundamental idea of “broadcast media” and “collaborative media” Whether by choice or intent, businesses are being subjected to a very collaborative and brand defining conversation online. Any single company or professional may be found on social sites, resource sharing platforms, or evolved into material that was not originally intended. Examples of such dissemination can be seen on viral sites like YouTube  video or Stumbleupon’s site rating groups.
• The social media trend IS NOT a trend. It is a technology evolution of traditional media and social acceptance brought about by the wildly decreasing cost of high-speed internet access and mobile platforms (Laptops, Wifi Hotspots, Mobile Phones, Personal Entertainment Devices.)
• Niche audiences are using social media to become further defined by communicating with like-minded niche individuals and creating micro-networks of information that are not connected to traditional media. This requires an understanding of how content creators in the media space may be several levels away from any one audience member, and those levels of separation may be causing “brand mutation” before information is being digested by the end user.
• While “user generate content” is everywhere, what business brands need to acknowledge is that consumer audiences do not want “user generated content”, they are seeking “user trusted content.” Online audiences are turning to personal and professional networks to rate the amount of relevance, credence, and reasonable trustworthiness of the information.

Ignoring your online brand is not an option. If there is not a conversation about your brand and industry online yet, there will be soon. The only option you have today as a business is to decide what type of voice you want to have in the social media conversation. If you choose not to have a voice and be un-involved in the conversation, you are allowing the community at large (your prospects, your consumers, and your competitors) to control the direction of your brand.

One of the greatest tools of social media is group sharing and collaboration. In that venue, you should expand your mind with two articles a day that will grow your social media brain-power. In the case of the following two articles: they will probably make your brain explode.

Our first article of choice is from Chris Brogan- 50 Online Applications to Consider. “For those of you who are getting involved in social media a little bit at a time, consider this a list of things you might check out a little bit at a time to see what appeals, what fits into your workflow, and what you can dismiss as unnecessary for your needs.”

The second article is by Franklin Bishop - 15 Blogs All Bloggers Should Read. “A lot of of times bloggers, especially new ones, do not know where to look for help. Well, look no more.”

The interesting part is that out of 50 of the online tools mentioned 50 Online Applications to Consider, our staff has experimented with all of them. Of the 15 Blogs All Bloggers Should Read, I have 11 of the 15 on my RSS reader (and I am now checking out 4 new ones.)

There is no limit to the amount of information available and being created. Every day a new service appears (think I’m kidding- check out Mashable.com) or someone writes an epic article like Brian Solis - Comcast Cares and Why Your Business Should Too (which relates to an SEO/Reputation problem I wrote about in Online Reputation Control, Branding, Insurance, or Blind-luck? )

As consultants in this space, keeping up-to-date with the volume of information and technological change becomes a matter of streamlining your own work flow and clearing focusing on high-quality news sources.

If you have any top-notch news sources to recommend, leave a comment with some pointers to introduce high quality stuff. (Comments are moderated for this)

Social Media in Plain English

My friend Joe Hage and I did a marketing workshop last night for a small group of professionals. Normally hosting a marketing workshop wouldn’t be a noteworthy event, but in this case it is a wonderful case example of starting a connection using social media and developing into a trusting business relationship.

Who is Joe Hage?

As a professional, Joe is one of the few marketers I have met that has an extreme grasp of both tactical and strategic marketing. He has a sparkling resume of working with companies like Cardiac Science, 1-800-Flowers, Kraft Foods, Jell-O, and Safeco. When he originally met me, Joe didn’t know a huge volumes about my specialty in social media, and he immediately rolled up his sleeves and began devouring information. In any line of marketing work, the ability to absorb new concepts and create new strategies is essential to exceeding expectations. From a business perspective- Joe is the “full meal deal” when it comes to marketing strategy.

How did we meet?

I originally met Joe by being a casual member of a local online community here in Seattle called Biznik. You can view both of our friendly profiles here - Joe Hage and Barry Hurd. In terms of the relationship between us, Joe and I would simply not have met in real life if not for Biznik. Realizing that two extremely busy professionals such as Joe and I can form a strong and healthy relationship using online networking is an eye-opener for other professionals like us.

How do we interact?

Joe and I use Biznik as a place to shed some of our daily job duties and dive into a creative problem solving mindset working with independent business owners. While I cannot speak entirely for Joe, planning the occasional workshop with a different group of professional personalities allows me to really flex my brain and bring my marketing mind to bear. While some topics in such a class may seem very “101″ to either of us, the unexpected difficulties and obstacles our attendees have require us to think outside of our own box.

What was our workshop about?

The official positioning statement: “To Biznik members in the real estate and related industries, Joe and Barry’s Real Estate Marketing Workshop is your opportunity to learn and apply strategies you need to better stand out in a market crowded with half-hearted real estate professionals.”

In our two-hour session, you will:

• Apply recommendations from the real estate marketing article to your own business.
• Share and learn best practices used by fellow Bizniks in the space.
• Get Barry’s counsel on which search engine optimization key words are virtually impossible to get.
• Walk away with some of Barry’s best tricks to get your name on the Google searches you are targeting.

What did people learn?

A lot more than those four bullet points above. The attendees had a chance to hear relevant and like-minded marketing problems analyzed and trouble-shot by two marketing veterans. However the real value only becomes apparent when the audience and the mentors agree to see things from different angles.

In the normal world most of us accept our problems and obstacles from our own point of view. When we see a wall in front of us, most of us see an option to steer around it or stop.

Joe and I do not see things from the same angle. Yes we are both marketing professionals. Yes we both have a lot of experience.
Yet we each have a fundamental viewpoint and core to the way our mind works.

In an interactive workshop, attendees have the ability to utilize the wisdom and talent of the entire group. Joe and I may lead the discussion, but we cannot see how anyone else perceives the same problem. We can only observe how we see it, along with how we view the interaction of the group members.

By utilizing skill, talent, experience, and different perspectives - a team of professionals working in unison can creatively offer solutions to maneuver around almost any obstacle. With only a few extra viewpoints, the team may also benefit from knowing what is behind the obstacle before they even decide to expend the effort to get around it.

Conclusion - What does this mean in regards to social media?

Simply put= When used correctly, social media allows any professional to use the wisdom and talent of the entire conversation. They may be smart and talented in respect to a certain field of focus, but the intelligence, talent, and return on effort is magnified significantly by the ability to accept that they may have a perspective that is hindering progress. (I.E. truly wise people can admit that they are wrong, not “the best”, or simply need help.)

As a professional who utilizes the online world, every day of my life is exposed to the benefit of having hundreds of experts in my network that serves as a sounding board for my own ideas. That exposure is not just simply readership and promotion for my business, but results in the benefit of my ideas interacting with the talented viewpoint of professionals like Joe and all of you.