A year ago, Cheryl Burgess and I published the first #Nifty 50 award winners, starting with the #Nifty50 Women of Twitter on this blog in May 2011 and followed by the #Nifty50 Men of Twitter published on Cheryl’s Blue Focus Marketing blog in June.

The posts were a huge hit on Twitter, with the #Nifty50 hashtag reaching nearly 70,000 people through more than 140,000 tweets and retweets, according to TweetReach.

The goals of #Nifty50 are:

1) Acknowledge 50 men and women who share valuable content and actively engage on Twitter, and

2) Help foster connections between those who are recognized and others who would mutually benefit from being followed on Twitter.

But as the #Nifty50 moves forward, our goal—our passion—is to add a third component to the #Nifty50 brand, an objective for social good.  We are working with a potential corporate sponsor to provide Apple iPads to 50 low-income children—the #Nifty50 Kids—somewhere in the U.S.  Over time, our goal is to give technology devices (who knows what the future may hold—Google Glasses next year perhaps?) to 50 disadvantaged kids in all 50 states.  Check out Google’s Project Glass Video .

As marketing and social media professionals (which most of you reading this post likely are), we get to spend our days in interesting and intellectually challenging work, in (generally) comfortable surroundings, interacting with bright, innovative people through the latest technology platforms.

But for many kids, that world is as foreign as a faraway planet.  The #Nifty50 Kids program is a way to bring creativity-unleashing technology to these kids, who otherwise would have no way to afford it.

Want to be part of this?  Nominate your favorite technology twitterer using this form.  For 2012, the #Nifty50 will honor 50 men and women who work for technology companies (B2B or B2C) and are, of course, active and engaging on Twitter.  See the form for complete qualifications.

Nominations close on June 22, 2012 and the #Nifty50 women and men for 2012 will be announced in posts on the Webbiquity and Blue Focus Marketing blogs this summer.  So nominate yourself, a co-worker, and/or someone you admire. And feel free to share this post!

Guest post by Hernán Gonzalez.

Experienced marketers understand added benefits are what make a sale and features are what provide value. That meant that campaigns with lots of bells and whistles were assumed to be more productive. Each accent added to a brand’s “wow” factor and more updates meant more sales would soon follow. However, the creation of modern day analytics tools has changed the marketing environment from hopeful anticipation to anxiety. Today, added benefits can actually be measured and thus, there is no longer a good reason to pay for features that won’t deliver.

Clients are now able see how much ROI they receive real-time. While this may useful, it also means that if metrics don’t add up, businesses are more likely to return to agencies asking why a campaign is underachieving. At that point, should the agency be responsible to change the site design, content and layout until performance rates are higher? Good Question.

The answer lies in better consultation practices, workforce preparation and adaptation. Even the most seasoned agencies can have trouble achieving a balance between all three on the first attempt, hence the need to include revision fees in the initial budgeting consultation. Clients and agencies alike understand the value of these services, and after all, there wouldn’t be a point in investing in them unless a profit was guaranteed sooner or later.

Marketers should no doubt place as much value on the results as their clients, since a reputation can easily be created or ruined depending on the success of a campaign. What can be done to eliminate concerns about metrics for both parties? The responsibility falls on to the agency, yet clients can at times be too fast in making their own evaluations in regards to what the resulting numbers really mean. For example, a site may convert fewer visitors into subscribers, but the percentage of customers out of those conversions is higher. The click through rate from Facebook may be high, but few products are being bought.

Determining whether a third party or the agency itself should interpret these statistics should be an important part of negotiations. Not only will establishing the importance of metrics assist in showing the agency’s concern for a campaign’s success, but it will help clear the air regarding the extent of their role in adapting to ever-changing analytics. Clients should be educated so that they recognize the difference between attractive statistics versus those that actually matter. A few primary attributes should serve as the basis for determining what’s worth a call for agency resources, such as monitoring actual sales as opposed to casual “Likes” on a Facebook page.

Despite the need to deliver measurable results, less tangible values should not be overlooked. Although they don’t provide monetary worth in and of themselves, “Shares” and page views could translate into the establishment of a broader customer base and increased media attention. Brand exposure and visibility are difficult and complicated things to measure, it not completely impossible. The benefits of both can help lead to more endorsement, brand reach and eventually may provide the exact sort of concrete worth clients are eager to see.

As long as a solid plan is established and agreed upon by the agency and client, marketers must return to the basics through the discovery of their customers’ existing problems or areas of growth. By confirming the results businesses are after- higher click through rate or conversions – marketers can set goals that are within reach and provide improved results. The most significant area of this practice is in the avoidance of cutting costs until ROI has been confirmed. While agencies should and do continue to adapt to the changing marketing landscape, they also need funding to maintain the resources needed for updates based on metrics’ fickle nature.

Hernán Gonzalez is Creative Director at Dutch Monaco.

Guest post by University Alliance.

Mobile access to the web has surpassed browser usage. Consumers are growing fonder of their smartphones and tablets, using them to access content and make online purchases in staggering numbers. In fact, by 2015 more U.S. Internet users will access the web through smartphones than through PCs, according to technology site Mashable.com.

Still not convinced? Consider these 2012 statistics:

• • Twitter estimates 55% of users access the site through a mobile device.
• • 34% of marketers have generated leads using Twitter.
• • Click-through rates on search result ads are higher on mobile, according to a Marin Software study. In the fourth quarter 2011, smartphone click-throughs were 1.25%, tablets were 1.31%, and desktop/laptops were .95%.
• • 57% of Facebook users “like” a business because they want to receive special offers and promotions, according to Mashable.com.
• • Consumers are engaging with their favorite companies on Facebook, says Mashable.com. 77% said they interact by reading posts and updates, while 17% share experiences and news stories, and 13% post updates about brands they like.
• • 56% of consumers are more likely to recommend a brand to a friend after becoming a Facebook fan, according to Mashable.com.

But what do these trends mean for today’s businesses? And what do marketers and business owners need to know—and more importantly, do—to keep ahead of consumer demands? First, they should recognize the benefits of creating a mobile strategy that their best customers will respond to.

What Can A Mobile Strategy Do For Me?

Once upon a time (like a year ago), having a mobile strategy was an option, and revamping your company website for mobile was very progressive. Now, having a mobile strategy is a must—no matter what size your business is.

Consumers use mobile devices for entertainment, with books, movies, games and videos; to interact with friends and business on social networks, like Facebook and Twitter; and increasingly, to find information and make immediate buying decisions. What does mobile mean to your company?

Mobile is a direct channel to your target audience. It can have a significant impact on your marketing efforts by increasing awareness of your brand, events and special offers. Mobile marketing can drive traffic to certain locations, and provide a mechanism for instant feedback and engagement. Plus, it can create a whole new generation of opt-in prospects, and give you the means to convert them to customers and evangelists.

Mobile can help you acquire new customers, increase your engagement with them, and drive sales; and you’ll be more successful at all three when your brand message is delivered across all mobile platforms.

Cross-Platform Is a Must

It’s important to note that all mobile platforms are worthy of attention. Focusing on just the iPhone ignores huge sections of your market. Apps, games and videos must be developed for Androids and iPads, as well. And don’t forget about the Amazon Kindle, Windows Phone and BlackBerry. Fortunately, cross-platform mobile frameworks make it easier for developers to generate new versions of an app, so it functions properly across platforms.

When done well a smart mobile marketing strategy can be hugely successful, as demonstrated by the Oklahoma Lottery.

How One Organization Successfully Embraced Mobile

The Oklahoma Lottery recognized mobile marketing’s power to reach new markets. They launched a 30-day promotion, creating an exclusive Mobile VIP club. Participants had the chance to win $100 per day by texting in to join the club. Updates and winners were posted on the company Facebook page and mobile website.

At the end of the month-long contest, the Oklahoma Lottery had over 13,000 new, highly engaged fans. The very next day, they launched an iPhone app, and invited the Mobile VIP club members to download it. The result? 667 click-throughs from the text to the app on Day 1. By targeting their audience through their mobile devices, they amassed an entire community they can tap into to promote special events, drive sales and introduce new products.

With the enormous growth of mobile devices, mobile marketing strategies are a must for every business. As the Oklahoma Lottery’s effort shows, knowing how to create and execute a mobile marketing campaign can open up tremendous opportunities for your business.

Developing a Mobile Marketing Strategy is Essential

Mobile media marketing puts your brand right into the hands of your target audience. No one knows what the next mobile craze will be, but it’s clear that mobile devices are increasingly the consumer’s choice for staying in touch, finding information and making buying decisions. Savvy marketers will continue to stay on top of mobile marketing trends and deliver informative, usable content that their customers want—no matter where they are.

This guest post was provided by University Alliance and submitted on behalf of University of San Francisco.  USF offers online marketing courses including SEO training, search engine marketing, social media training, advanced mobile marketing training and more.  To learn more about University of San Francisco’s certificate programs visit www.usanfranonline.com.

References:

Mobile stats:

http://mashable.com/2012/02/16/mobile-commerce/

Social Media Stats:

http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/social-media-statistics-stats-2012-infographic/

Guest post by Nisha Kaushal.

Twitter has long dominated the social media scene in terms of spreading the word to a lot of people at once. The reach of Twitter is incredible. For every one person that reads a comment of yours on Facebook, there’s a chance that a dozen will read it on Twitter. Facebook posts have to be reshared and reshared to reach a million people, but as Charlie Sheen and Ashton Kutcher have proven, a Twitter post can reach a million people in the blink of an eye.

However, this wide range of influence may not be enough to keep Twitter relevant to marketers who rely on social media to get the word out. Here are some of the major problems Twitter needs to address if they hope to keep up with Google+, Pinterest, and Facebook.

1. A Lack of Community

You don’t have friends on Twitter, you have followers. Google+ allows you to post similarly to Twitter, posting short ideas and jokes and links, but they also encourage a sense of community with comments threads and Circles. Twitter has nothing like this. There are people following you and there are people you follow, and that’s about it. Well, there are Twitter lists of course, but they are under-used.

There are a lot of ways to approach this problem without sacrificing the simplified, bare-bones nature of the site that users find so appealing. Something like small social circles or short comment threads could easily be implemented without seeming like clutter.

The impersonal feel of Twitter makes it great for short updates and sharing, but while Facebook feels more and more like Livejournal every day, Twitter has made almost no evolution whatsoever in any direction.

2. Zero Monetization

Other than the money that Twitter collects, nobody is making anything on Twitter. A marketer who’s looking to launch an ad campaign that will pay for itself will look at the monetization available on other social networks and make the obvious choice. They look at Twitter, and all too often, they see nothing but an expense.

True, it’s possible to make a Twitter following really pay off, but only in the long term. An ad on Facebook or an affiliate link on Blogspot will pay off immediately.

3. The Lack of Multimedia

Multimedia isn’t the point of Twitter. If they add comments, friends and unlimited multimedia, then they’re just copying Facebook. However, sometimes users don’t want to click a link to see a picture. Small embeddable photos, videos and other multimedia might be a great way to create a more natural and immediate Twitter experience.

4. Maintaining Their Identity

This is another major challenge if they do hope to make changes: How can they keep up without losing their identity? The issue here is that Twitter’s appeal is largely their simplicity. If users have to learn how to use multimedia settings, profiles and so on, they may lose interest.

Unfortunately, as it stands, Twitter isn’t really a way to make friends or really, truly connect with people. It’s a way to get attention, perhaps, but a Twitter user is just one voice in a sea of noise. It’s hard to stand out against that. Whatever the answer is, Twitter needs to find a balance between being the short-sentence side of social media without falling behind.

5. Public Image

Public image isn’t too big of a problem for Twitter, but there is a degree of bias against the site. Many people don’t feel that Twitter is worthy of their time, they worry that there’s absolutely nothing of substance to be found or shared on Twitter.

The truth is that, if used properly, Twitter can be an incredible tool. Unfortunately, it’s a much more difficult tool to use properly than Facebook or a blog. Where you can build a small, dedicated following with a blog, or a larger, somewhat-involved following on Facebook, you’re building an enormous and barely connected at all following on Twitter. Most users have a lot of followers who don’t even read any of their Tweets.

Twitter is a necessary component in the fast-moving age of iPhones and Androids, but the shallow user experience, the lack of any real monetization angle and the lack of any real sense of community may turn marketers off of the site in the long run. Social users, casual users will likely continue to use Twitter for as long as the site remains available, but businesses may turn more and more towards other means of getting the word out.

Nisha Sharma represents a site called http://www.neteffekt.com. She is a keen writer who enjoys offering business advice and tips.

Let’s face it; lots of people consider spending one’s days with online games, tinkering in PhotoShop, “working” in Facebook, and using words like “viral” and “targeting” in decidedly non-lethal ways a funny way to make a living. Why not laugh with `em?

Find sh*t marketing people say, cross-dressing Linux developers, the stages of Twitter addiction, still more priceless demotivational posters, an online tool for generating business jargon phrases, Russian unicorns, things puppets hate about Facebook, the funniest tweets of last year and more in this collection of amusing, creative and offbeat market and social media stuff.

Sh*t People Say (Various Sources)

Starting early last year, a raft of sh*t various sorts of people say videos hit YouTube, some going viral, some less so. The flood continues, though the more recent additions to the genre are becoming progressively more arcane (e.g., Sh*t No Adult with ADHD Says). Here are a few of the best technology / marketing related creations. Funny even if you’re not seeing them for the first time.

Sh*t Web Designers Say

Sh*t Graphic Designers Say

Sh*t Silicon Valley Says

David Pogue: Be There, or Be Cher! | CrossOver Impersonator launching at MacWorld! by CodeWeavers

How do you get the world’s attention if you’re a scrappy little Linux-realm software company with a bit of creativity (and some really smart coders) but no cash? Well, you could try producing an outrageous cross-dressing-themed video, but that’s risky–it could definitely go wrong. Or, it could go spectacularly right, as this effort did from CodeWeavers founders Jeremy White and Jon Parshall.

10 Incredible Interactive YouTube Videos by Mashable Business

“Like a 21st century version of the choose-your-own-adventure books, interactive YouTube videos can up the engagement factor by letting the viewer decide the course of the action, or just play around with the content,” writes Amy-Mae Elliott , who then shares “10 top interactive YouTube experiences, from both businesses and individuals, that incorporate gameplay, quizzes and just plain old fashioned entertainment.”

Social Media Saves Valentine’s Day by Socialnomics

A cute little video from the brilliant Erik Qualman about a guy who uses social media perhaps too well on Valentine’s Day.

The 46 stages of Twitter Usage by Chris Voss Show

Funny and true progression of common Twitter reaction beginning with ridicule and ending in addiction.

De-Motivational Posters for Freelancers by FreelanceSwitch

For those days when you wonder, “Was I crazy to leave to leave the corporate world?,” this priceless collection of demotivational posters will remind you that yes, you were. And are.

Video Case Study Parody by Jack: A Blog About Experience Brands

The pink pony birthday party video case study parody. Parents will get this.

Twitter Gets the Ken Burns Treatment From Funny or Die (Video) by All Things D

Funny or Die goes Ken Burns on the history of Twitter. Hilarious, mostly safe for work (a few cuss words), and it’s endorsed by Perez Hilton.

Clever QR Code Example: The World Park by Firebelly Social Media Marketing Blog

Not funny, but very creative video showing “a clever use of QR codes. The World Park campaign turned New York City’s Central Park into an interactive board game.” As blogger Chad Richard advises, “You have to see it for yourself.”

Business Jargon Generator by Growth Science

Anyone can write clearly. The challenge is to be able to appear profound even when you have no clue. This handly tool will help. For example, “If you’re not sure what to call your next PowerPoint slide deck you might use ‘Experiential Paradigm Convergence.’  Nobody will know what it means – and that’s the point!…Want your boss to think you’re forward-looking? Ask why nobody’s been prioritizing ‘Proactive Competence Alignment.’  If your boss asks what that means, say it’s to ensure ‘Global Impact Integration.’” Try it yourself!

The Lighter Side of SEO: People Search for the Darndest Things by Inkling Media

Ken Mueller shares some of the odder search phrases that visitors have used to find his website, based on Google analytics data. Among the unexpected phrases that have driven search traffic for Ken: “random things Mennonites can’t do,” “shiny comphy shoes” and “wooden pegs for marketing.” Hmm.

Not Google+: The First Antisocial Network [PARODY VIDEO] by Mashable

Do you have too many social networks to manage already? Does the world really need another one? The guys from College Humor provide their answer here.

“Russian Unicorn” — a bad lip reading of Michael Bublé by BadLipReading

Okay, it’s not marketing-related, but this video take-off on “Just Haven’t Met You Yet” is extraordinarily well done. And funny. Not to be missed.

The Best Of “Google+ VS Facebook” Videos by @NewCommBiz

Benjamin Beck pulls together four of the best videos about the battle between Google+ and Facebook. It may be a deadly serious fight for Google and Facebook, but no reason the rest of us can’t laugh about it.

10 Things Puppets Hate About Facebook by Burgers By Phone

People sharing pictures of what they just ate, cartoon cows as gifts, getting tagged in pictures where you look terrible, and seven other reasons that puppets (and many non-puppets) hate Facebook.

The 50 funniest tweets of 2011 by HappyPlace

A fantastic (for the most part, other than the questionable political tweets) collection of some of funniest tweets of the past year, among them, from @Starlett17: “I hate when old people poke me at weddings, point and whisper ‘You’re next!’ So I’ve started doing the same thing to them at funerals.”

The 10 Best Commercials of 2011 by AdWeek

Tim Nudd presents ten of the best, if not the best, TV ads from last season. Fortunately the list was compiled before the Clint Eastwood ad from this year’s Super Bowl, which while interestingly crafted, seemed like it should have been either promoting Ford (Gran Torino) or the Republican party.

Honest Logos by Viktor Hertz

An interesting collection of “honest logos, revealing the actual content of the company, what they really should be called. Some are cheap, some might be a bit funny, some will maybe be brilliant.”

9 campaigns that won with humor by iMedia Connection

Jim Nichols like the use of humor in these campaigns. The quality is uneven, but the collection includes a few clear hits, like the Tom Hanks video in which “Reality TV’s biggest train wreck was beautifully spoofed.”

As always, this penultimate post highlighting the most valuable content of the past year is dedicated to interesting marketing and social media content that didn’t fit neatly into any other category.

Are QR codes an intriguing technology that never lived up to the hype, or is widespread adoption still just around the corner? Is social media worth the effort for online retailers? How can B2B companies improve customer service using social media? How can you deliver dazzling presentations by avoiding common mistakes? How can someone with no artistic talent create inspiring and informative infographics?

Find the answers to those questions and more here in eight of the best hard-to-categorize-but-worth-a-read marketing posts and articles of the past year.

12 Most Important Things We All Can Control by Straight Talk

Noting that “There are so many things in life that we simply cannot control, but what about the things we CAN control?  As human beings, we have the power of reasoning and choice, both of which give us substantial control over our own life situations. We just need to be reminded of this from time to time,” Ted Rubin provides just such a reminder in these dozen aspects of life that are under our control, from our actions and attitudes to friendships and learning.

Marketing with QR Codes by Smart Insights

For those curious about QR codes but don’t know a lot about them, Danyl Bosomworth explains what QR codes are, marketing considerations when deciding whether or not to use them, seven of the top applications for QR codes (e.g., maps, coupons, how-to advice), and two illustrative case studies.

Ten ways marketers can use QR Codes by eConsultancy

If Danyl’s post above got you interested in exploring QR codes, Lee Carpenter-Johnson presents 10 ways to use them in business, from placing them on cash register receipts (particularly if you have a mobile-savvy clientele) and product labels to business cards and print ads.

E-tail Marketing: Is Social Media Worth the Cost? by MarketingProfs

The short answer is—yes and no. Among the research results presented here, “Only 5% of online shoppers surveyed say they are primarily influenced by social media to visit a top retailer’s website. Most (38%) cite existing familiarity with a brand, followed by promotional emails (19%) and search engine results (8%)…however, customers who visit retail sites because of a social media interaction are highly likely to purchase.”

7 Ways to Improve B2B Customer Service with Social Media by Social Media B2B

Writing that “If you have not yet brought your customer service reps into the realm of social media, it is time. They are the most qualified to respond via social media, as they are the ones responding by phone and email,” Jeffrey L. Cohen details the process and key considerations for getting a customer service department up to speed and effectively using social media for customer interaction.

5 Ways to Ruin Your Next Presentation by CIO Magazine

Thomas Wailgum shares five tips from Carmine Gallo, author of The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience on how to avoid common presentation mistakes, from talking too long (“Nobody is as interested in you as you think they are”) to failing to rehearse to (ugh)—reading from your slides.

How To Create An Infographic – With No Discernible Talent Whatsoever by DIY Blogger NET

Dino Dogan presents a seven-step guide to creating an infographic, though despite the title, at least a bit of talent is needed. The guide is designed for Mac users (and the Pixelmator tool he recommends is an Apple iOS app), though several of the steps are universal.

Inbound Marketing Partnerships and Pricing by Impact Branding & Design

Finally, benchmark pricing/costs can be hard to come by, but this detailed price and service list is one helpful data point for inbound marketing costs, whether you’re agency thinking about how to price these services or a corporate marketer wondering what you should expect, roughly, to pay for them.

Content is king. As you’ve no doubt read in many places before, content is one of the core elements of B2B social media marketing success. Content is also crucial for lead nurturing, SEO and other online marketing initiatives.

But producing content is expensive. Producing great content is even more expensive. What brands have done it well—and what can you learn from them? How can you recycle / re-use / re-purpose content to stretch your investment? What are the current best practices in content creation? What forms of content are most popular with buyers?

Get the answers to these questions and more here in a dozen of the best content marketing guides of the past year.

Brands that have mastered content marketing by iMedia Connection

Reporting that “content marketing has reached a tipping point within the marketer’s toolkit…nine out of 10 marketers are (now) utilizing some kind of content marketing in their overall strategy, and more than half plan to increase spending for content-related marketing over the next 12 months,” Rob Rose highlights the content strategies of three brands. It’s an excellent article, though unfortunately Rob’s first example is Kodak. Oh well, one does not thrive by good content marketing alone.

Content Marketing Strategy for B2B Software Vendors: Starring the ‘New’ White Paper by Highly Competitive – Software Industry Insights

Noting that studies consistently show that “the most sought-out and influential content for B2B technology customers during decision-making buying cycles…in every study, #1 is the White Paper,” Julie Hunt explains the origins of white papers, what makes for an effective white paper (from the buyer’s perspective), how white papers fit into a broader content marketing strategy, and the attributes of the “new” white paper for today’s buying environment.

Why Your Social Media Campaign is Performing at 1/7th of Its Potential by Business2Community

Citing research showing that “Social media campaigns with a robust content marketing strategy provide approximately seven times the number of leads/conversions as a social media campaign without,” Chad Pollitt shows how content marketing positively affects conversion rates, SEO, referral traffic and branding.

How to get the most out of content creation by iMedia Connection

Author and frequent best-of honoree Rebecca Lieb writes that “what smart marketers who invest time and dollars into content creation know is that reusing and recycling that content can far extend the reach of their message and the ROI of their spend,” and explains how to repurpose content without repeating yourself.

Why Content Marketing Fails by Geoff Livingston

Geoff Livingston contends that a lot of content fails because…it’s marketing. He argues that, to be successful with this strategy, “Marketers need to create compelling content — specifically, interesting and factual stories. They need to adapt best practices from the journalism field, and bridge the gap between corporate interest and market needs for valuable information.”

The Life of an Article on the Web by Elliance

A clever little diagram illustrating the relationship between authoring, syndication, dissemination and consumption of an online article, designed to demonstrate “exactly how an optimized article can find its way to your target audience.”

Getting savvy with content creation by iMedia Connection

Rebecca Lieb (again) provides valuable guidance on using content aggregation and curation for marketing, noting that producing engaging content is the top challenge marketers say they face in content marketing, but “The problem isn’t (having) enough content, it’s knowing what content merits time and attention.” And in another notable article on content marketing (Whose job is content?), Rebecca writes that while “there are certainly plenty of possible roles and responsibilities that can oversee, or play a role in, content marketing” such as the CMO, content or editorial director, blogger, social media guru or PR professional, “Companies that really buy in to content marketing are increasingly taking the ‘everyone’ approach.”

Fuel to the content marketing fire: McKinsey quantify changes in the purchase funnel by steveseager.com

Steve Seager cites McKinsey research on changes in the traditional purchase funnel and the corresponding value of content marketing in addressing this; the study shows that “just before people are ready to buy they enter stage of ‘active evaluation’. In this stage, the funnel actually widens as people actively research and consider all the options before making their final purchase decision…People at the ‘active evaluation’ stage of their decision making cycle are the closest to buying. So it makes sense to focus there…They do not want, or respond to, advertising, so why advertise? People at that stage want valuable, meaningful information that helps them with their decision. So why not give it to them?”

Lower Your Cost Per Lead! The 3 Pronged Attack To Inbound Marketing by KISSmetrics

Explaining that “Rather than working hard to reach out to cold and potentially unqualified leads, inbound marketing is the process of getting your message out to warm, receptive leads who are actively searching for what you’re selling,” Sherice Jacob lays out a three-pronged inbound marketing attack utilizing blogging, social media and content marketing.

The 22 Best Infographics We Found In 2011 by Co.Design

Suzanne LaBarre shares 22 of her favorite infographics from last year (click on the thumbnails at the top of the article to scroll through), illustrating everything from “a metaphorical chart of how water flows from the source to the consumer (to) the spikes and dips of the Dow Jones Industrial Average rendered as notes on a musical scale.”

Content best practices for 5 marketing channels by iMedia Connection

Writing that “Generating and promoting quality content can have search engine optimization (SEO) benefits, enable your company to communicate brand and product stories, and drive brand impressions as the content is shared,” John Faris details best practices for integrating content marketing with SEO, email marketing, Facebook, blogger outreach and multimedia content curation.

2012 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends [Research Report] by Content Marketing Institute
***** 5 STARS

Content marketing guru Joe Pulizzi shares a treasure trove of content marketing statistics and facts, among them:

• • The three most popular forms of content marketing are articles (used by 79% of marketers), social media other than blogs (74%) and blogs (65%).
• • At the other end of the spectrum, just 15% are using mobile-specific content, while 14% produce digital magazines and 10% participate in virtual conferences.
• • The top three channels for sharing content are Twitter (74%), LinkedIn (71%) and Facebook (70%).
• • Marketers have the highest confidence that in-person events, webinars/webcasts and case studies are effective tactics. They are evenly split on the effectiveness of social media however.
• • The two biggest challenges marketers cite in content marketing are producing quality content that “engages prospects/customers” (41%) and producing enough content (20%).

Links still matter for SEO. Not low-quality links, not reciprocal links, not the kind of links you can buy in bulk for cheap from some sketchy source in the third world, but real, valid, quality links.

So—how do you build those high-quality links? What types of links should you be seeking exactly? What are the best link-building strategies in a post-Panda world? What “red flag” linking practices and other common linking mistakes you should avoid? How can you leverage business relationships and giveaways to quickly build quality backlinks?

Discover the answers to those questions and more here in 18 of the best SEO link building guides of the past year.

Finding Potential Link Partners by Search Engine Watch

Jennifer Van Iderstyne details three advanced techniques for finding link partners, like OPL (other people’s links): “One of the best and most productive ways to find new links is to mine other people’s. There’s nothing inspired about digging through your competitors backlinks to see which ones you can pillage; most link campaigns involve using that kind of intel. But competitors aren’t the only group whose backlinks hold possibilities…it’s always worth looking at the backlinks of any website, or single page, that is relevant to your topic. There are multitudes of question-and-answer or informational sites online with backlinks that could prove viable.”

Ten SEO Link Building Strategies by AboutCrawler.com

A helpful collection of link-building tips primarily for newbies, such as syndicating articles online, submitting your blog to blog directories and syndication sites, and posting comments on relevant industry blogs.

6 Types of Backlinks to Get For Your Website by Quick Online Tips

Lee Dobbins outlines six types or sources of backlinks to pursue, culminating with guest blogging, which “will give you the highest quality backlinks and it’s all because of two words ‘editorial discretion’…in order to get a post published on a blog in your industry, a human has to approve it. The search engines know this so naturally that link is more valuable than one from an article directory or rss feed that you can easily get on your own.”

Smart Linkbuilding Queries For Any Industry by SEER Interactive

Adam Melson identifies eight types of search queries that are useful for finding potential link partners, such as “free business profile” followed by a specific keyword or phrase: “While profile linking across hundreds of sites can be spammy, finding business profiles that are related to your business, getting the profile link, and participating on those sites could be huge.”

The Panda Reaps – Is Article Marketing Still Viable? by WebProNews

Noting that “Article Marketing was a reliable way to build quality links and drive significant traffic to web properties. It was a perfect way to augment most any SEO campaign, that is until the Google Farmer/Panda update,” Dan DeRoeck delves into how the landscape has changed for this tactic and provides ten tips to pursue this strategy successfully in the post-Panda world.

8 Tactics to Try as Google Tinkers with its Ranking Algorithm by MarketingVOX

Craig Macdonald offers eight suggestions for coping with Google’s recent Farmer/Panda algorithm changes, among them: “Integrate links across the value chain. The brand advertisers tend to have highly regarded sites, Covario says. Build out key connectivity to the product suppliers and downstream partners within the advertiser ecosystem.”

Do You Practice Safe Link Building? by Performics

Reporting that “The first quarter of 2011 provided some of the most dramatic news in recent search engine marketing memory. Major retailers and publishers were punished, particularly by Google, for a variety of link building and content-related guideline violations,” Jonah A. Berger and Jason Walker take a close look and discover that a significant percentage of major retailers are violating more than one of five “red flag” SEO practices that are best avoided.

10 Ethical Ways to Buy Links by Kaiserthesage

Jason Acidre details 10 “ethical” methods of paying for links, though a few of his recommendations such as sponsored reviews stretch the definition of that term. Still, it’s a helpful list and it attracted a sizable number of comments, some from names you’ll probably recognize in the SEO world.

Actionable Link Building Strategies by The Daily SEO Blog

Paddy Moogan outlines four promising link-building strategies for those with the time/budget to pursue them, some of which involve the use of SEO tools like Screaming Frog. His final tip is write weekly or monthly roundups of industry news, about which he writes “This is a very simple one and can be very effective as a consistent way of getting good quality links as well as social shares.” It occasionally even works for annual “best of” roundups as well.

25 Ways to Get Another Site to Link to Yours by WebProNews

Ken McGaffin and Susan Payton serve up a big list of more than two dozen useful link-building tactics, among them joining a trade association, agreeing to be the subject of a vendor case study, becoming a resource for journalists, giving an expert interview, and posting videos on YouTube.

The Five Linking Mistakes You Didn’t Know You Were Making by The Daily SEO Blog

Josh Gill presents five common mistakes to avoid when building links, such as judging a site’s authority by PageRank alone (“Don’t completely ignore pagerank but be aware of its limitations and use additional factors to measure a sites authority…look at how humans view a site, start by looking over the comments, user ratings or anything else that will tell you how internet users judge the site”) and analyzing backlinks for your real-world competitors rather than the sites that actually rank highly for your target keywords (they are often different).

3 link building tactics you shouldn’t rely on by iMedia Connection

Trung Ngo advises link builders to avoid these three tactics that “are short-sighted and potentially a huge waste of time”—profiles on social media sites where you never plan to actively participate, submitting to every directory that’s marginally related to your industry and network article syndication.

10 Tips on How to Improve Your Link Building by Thewebcitizen

Alex Petrovic offers ten tips for better link building, from planning first (“Do thorough research, check out your prospective link partners, and even see where your competition is getting links) to guest blogging, giveaways, videos, and charity sponsorships.

99 Ways to Build Links by Giving Stuff Away (and Improve Your Brand Too) by The Daily SEO Blog

Mike Essex provides 99 quick tips “to gain links by giving stuff away,” among them: let people/bloggers test your product for free before release, build a free website plugin or widget, offer a free app that complements your brand, offer a free trial, and—wow, here’s a potentially dangerous idea: “Ask people to sing a song about your product—Offer a prize to the most viewed video and host them on your website. People will then link to their video to get it more views, and you get extra traffic and links.”

13 SEO Link Building Secrets You Must Know by Kuno Creative

Chad Pollitt shares an online presentation that details 13 link-building techniques; most aren’t really “secret” but they are for the most part practical and do-able, ranging from writing guest blog posts and distributing search-optimized news releases to contributing to online forums and getting listed in relevant national directories.

12 ways to speed up your Link Building by SEO Takeaways

Himanshu Sharma outlines a dozen link-building tactics along with the estimated required time to execute each, for example: “Leverage business relationships of your client. Get contact details of all the vendors, suppliers and dealers with whom your client does business. These are the first people you should outreach for links…Estimated time: 2-5 days.”

How to Create and Promote a Link-Worthy Resource List by The YouMoz Blog

Tom Demers walks through the benefits of resource lists (e.g., “They’re Useful—There is so much ‘noisy’ content being produced on the Web that even Google is struggling to come up with algorithmic solutions for finding high quality answers from highly reputable sources. Human curation, as a result, is ‘making a comeback’ as people seek out trusted information from quality sources”), how to create one, and how to make the most out of the resource list once it’s been developed.

Pinterest: Link Building & SEO Strategies by Search Engine Journal

Starting out by by noting that “I’ve seen more SEO interest in Pinterest in the last month than the rest of the image bookmarking site’s life. One day, I saw multiple veteran SEOs ask for an invite and I’m pretty sure they’re not going for cute animal pictures and interior decorating ideas,” Scott Cowley explains how Pinterest links work, what kinds of companies are best positioned to take advantage of the site, how to ask another user to change a Pinterest link (if they are using one of your images but not linking to you) and thoughts on reaching “visual influencers.”

Recent research from MarketingProfs shows that 84% of B2B companies use social media marketing in some form, and the figure is likely higher for B2C firms. But that’s a bit like saying that most Americans exercise regularly; it’s probably true, but there is a big difference between walking the dog around the block a couple of times per week and training for a triathlon.

Image credit: The Far Side

And just as there are significant differences in the results one will obtain from an intense training regimen vs. the occasional stroll, the MarketingProfs study points out that the “best in class” B2B social media performers are producing more than three times the number of leads from this channel than are “laggard” firms. In fact, another recent study from HubSpot reveals that 63% of B2B companies aren’t generating leads from social media at all.

In social media, as in physical training, it takes time to see substantial results. And so, just as it’s easy to slip off a training schedule, it can be tempting for busy marketers who aren’t seeing an immediate payback from social media efforts to neglect those efforts. This is apparent from the large number of abandoned blogs, orphaned Facebook pages, silent Twitter feeds and the like littering the social media landscape.

I recently did some “spring cleaning” on my Twitter account using Twit Cleaner and was stunned—though perhaps I shouldn’t have been—to discover that hundreds of those “following” me hadn’t tweeted a thing in the past 30 days, 90 days, 180 days, even a year or more.

Billy Mitchell recently commented on this phenomenon as well, writing that “Although social media marketing continues to be a hot topic among B2B marketing professionals, a surprising number of B2B companies are (either) not planning to start, late to get started, only going through the motions with little or no results (or) have already given up.”

The good news is that, just like there’s never a bad time to start exercising (unless you’re in a body cast perhaps), there’s never a wrong time to step back, reassess, and re-launch social media marketing efforts. The first step is to take a look at your social media program and determine if you’ve got a results problem that’s really an activity problem. And understand that if that’s the case, you’re not alone.

I recently conducted a competitive analysis on behalf of a client looking at 10 companies in the IT management software market. Note that these weren’t hair salons or auto body shops or some other type of business whose core isn’t the online world; these are companies whose buyers were trading messages using now-obscure online communication protocols since before the Internet had a name, and long before the term “social media” was introduced. This is a group of companies that, although primarily SMBs, should be fluent in online and social communications.

So while certainly not a scientifically valid sample, the findings about social media use among these 10 companies are nevertheless telling:

• • Two of the vendors’ websites have no social media buttons/icons/links at all, and three have only a limited social presence on their sites (e.g. social account links only on their Home and Contact pages).
• • Only four of the 10 have blogs, and of those, three have had a total of four or fewer new posts in the last 60 days.
• • Three of the companies aren’t on Twitter. Of the seven who are, three have fewer than 100 followers. Six of the seven companies tweet, on average, less than once every four days.
• • Though nine of the 10 companies are on LinkedIn, though only three have complete, optimized company profiles and product listings. Eight companies have 50 or fewer followers.
• • All of the companies can be found on Facebook, but only three have complete or professionally designed pages. Three others have unmanaged “community pages” which the companies don’t maintain and may not even be aware of.   Four of the 10 pages have fewer than 10 “likes.” Four have no wall posts at all, and four more have fewer than 10 posts over the last 60 days.
• • Seven of the ten companies have no presence on Google+, and only one has a complete, optimized profile there.

What should you do if your company’s social media strategy isn’t firing on all cylinders, or how do you avoid this fate if your company is just getting started in social media?The topic of social media marketing could fill a book (and has in fact, several), but here is a seven-step approach to get things moving in the right direction.

1. Research your company’s social media landscape, so you understand where your prospective buyers are congregating and active.

2. Listen to the conversation for a while before jumping in, so you get a solid sense for the tone, etiquette and group dynamics of each social venue as well the popularity of various specific discussion topics.

3. Develop content that answers the questions you see being raised. The more relevant your content is to the concerns of your prospective buyers, the more likely it is to be read and shared. In order to produce content on a regular basis without breaking the bank, find ways to re-use and re-purpose existing content (e.g. a white paper can be re-used as a presentation, a couple of blog posts and a bylined article) and spread the workload among several internal subject matter experts, so one writer becomes overwhelmed.

4. Respond to questions and engage your buyers and influencers in social media. Reach out. Interact. Build relationships. That will encourage followers to share your content and  customers to reinforce your messages.

5. Convert followers to known prospects or even customers through targeted calls to action. This is where the “R” happens in social media ROI. Any time you are able to engage prospective buyers with your content, give them an easy (but not obnoxious) way to perform a conversion action: sign up for your newsletter, subscribe to your blog, register for a webinar, download a white paper, or start a free trial. Make the action fit the content. Experiment. Keep it fresh.

6. Measure. The ultimate measure of social media success is leads or sales, but there are dozens of intermediate measures that, while not success metrics in and of themselves, are crucial for letting you know how your current efforts are working. What should you do more of, less of, or do differently? Running a social media program without metrics is like driving a car with no gauges. Not a good plan.

7. Persist. Building readership for a blog takes time. Building a significant presence on any social network takes time too. Establishing credibility, cultivating relationships, optimizing your online presence…none of this happens overnight. Stick with it. The losers are those with abandoned blogs, silent Twitter accounts, orphaned Facebook pages. Those who score in social media are often those who just keep shooting.

While most companies have now adopted social media marketing practices of some sort, many are still struggling to see the hoped-for results. If your company is in that group, you aren’t alone. Keep at it. Learn. Experiment. Measure. Tweak. Prevail.

Innovation is alive and well in the development of cool free and low-cost web-based tools and apps. It’s great to find a tool that automates some little process or provides a new capability you’ve been looking for, and fun to find a tool you didn’t even know you needed.

How can you quickly find out how far a link has spread on Twitter? Surf the web securely and anonymously when using pubic WiFi? Manage all of your social media accounts from a single login on your iPhone? Back up your Gmail account? Make more productive use of your time on social networking sites?

There’s an app for that—or cool web tool. Find tools to do all of the above and much more in this collection of helpful business, online and social media tools, apps and reviews.

Cool Social Media Tools

PingTags

A slick service that enables you to easily add a QR code to your business card which links to your LinkedIn profile and contact information. Anyone scanning the code can conveniently contact you without entering any additional information. And when you log in to PingTags, you can view analytics like how many people scanned your card and which links they clicked.

Buffer

Buffer is a tool for automatically posting content to Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. As the site puts it, “Fill up your Buffer at one time in the day and Buffer automagically posts them for you through the day.” It’s available at three price/service levels: free, Pro ($10 per month), and then a big jump to Premium ($99 per month). Nothing replaces real social media engagement of course, but used carefully and in conjunction with real-time monitoring, automation tools like this do have their place.

Storefront Social

One of the easiest ways to import an online store into Facebook, even incorporating translation and foreign currency support for buyers in other countries. Plans have a monthly fee (with the most popular priced at $30-$50 per month) but you can try it out for a week free.

Four51

Four51 offers two sets of tools for local business and consumer brands. FanTools uses “knowledge gained from across the FanTools network of small businesses to deliver plans” that enable local retailers, restaurants and other types of businesses to use exclusive coupon offers mixed with other content across their social networks to drive engagement and purchases. It’s priced for small business at $50 per month with a 90-day free trial offer to try it out. CommerceTools uses cloud-based technology to help companies streamline the distribution of products, supplies, services and content to individuals or groups by simplifying and automating order and fulfillment processes.

ALOT
***** 5 STARS

ALOT is a catalog of free “apps for your PC” in a range of categories including entertainment (comic books, TMZ, The Onion, IMDB search), food, games, travel, music, news (The New York Times, CNN, Fox News, Stock Market Watch), reference, social networking (e.g., apps for Facebook, Twitter and Evite) and more.

ShortStack

ShortStack is a tool that helps businesses customize their Facebook Pages with “contests, sweepstakes, videos, custom forms and more.” Yes, it is “Timeline ready.” The tool is free for pages with up to 2,000 likes, with pricing starting at $30 per month above that level.

Mywebees

Mywebees lets you display your website on your Facebook page. It’s not a copy of your site, but your actual site—displayed in a Facebook iFrame. It’s a very cool, easy way for small businesses to increase the interest and value of their Facebook presence. No word yet though on how this may be affected by Timeline.

Cool Twitter Tools

TweetReach

How many people saw that link you tweeted? Tweeted or retweeting it themselves? Which Twitterers exposed it to the largest audience? Find out in a snap with TweetReach. In just a few seconds, I discovered that a recent post I wrote on social media storytelling for PR reached 56,689 people via 25 tweets—over 10,000 people just through Jim Dougherty.

TweetStats

This free tool graphically shows peak Twitter activity for any Twitter handle. It takes a few minutes to load completely, but once fully loaded shows activity on your network by day of the week and time. I wasn’t surprised to learn that most of the activity on my network happens early in the morning, but it was interesting to note unexpected spikes in activity at midmorning on Monday and Tuesday and around lunch time on Wednesday and Thursday.

tweepi

An automated free tool to help “flush” Twitterers you are following who aren’t following back, follow those who are following you, clean up inactive users (requires paid “premium” subscription), force spammers to unfollow you, and find interesting new tweeps to follow.

Other Cool Web Tools

Clipboard

A free tool for clipping, saving and sharing just selected parts of web pages such an image or a selection of text. Clipped content can be kept private, shared only with friends or shared publicly.

AnchorFree

Concerned about your web browsing security and privacy when you’re away from home and using public WiFi? AnchorFree’s Hotspot Shield is a free (or optionally ad-free low-cost) VPN encryption service that provides secure, private web browsing anywhere. It works on desktops, laptops, and mobile devices. On mobile devices Hotspot Shield enables data compression, increasing the amount of data a user has under their mobile data plan and thus saving users money on mobile data. Hotspot Shield also protects users from over 3 million malware threats, phishing sites, and spam.

AirSpeed

A simple app that syncs contact information, emails and appointments between Google and Salesforce, eliminating time-consuming copying and pasting. After a 14-day free trial, the service is priced at $10 per month (or less per user for larger teams) with a 50% discount for non-profits and schools.

Teamplifier

A free online project management and collaboration tool, similar to Basecamp, that lets users switch between projects with one click, delegate tasks, track task changes, subscribe to tasks and receive notifications, and manage people on projects with groups.

Prezi

The new way to present—way beyond PowerPoint. Prezi is an online presentation tool that lets you pan and zoom around your presentation “canvas,” present online or offline, easily collaborate with teammates anywhere to develop a presentation, and add a timeline using “frames and a path to create a cinematic journey.” Pricing ranges from free (though your “Prezis” will be public and include Prezi branding) to $159 per year for the Pro version (your own logo, lots of storage space and more).

Cool iPhone Apps

MySocialMania (app)

A free app for Apple iOS devices that enables users to manage multiple social media accounts at once. A users can post to his/her Facebook wall, send a Tweet, share photos to Flickr and TwitPic, upload a video to YouTube, post a blog entry and manage other social accounts all from a single login and tool.

AtZip

A free iPhone app for discovering what events are happening in your area, who you know that’s going to each, browse ideas from nightclubs to museums to movies (along with ratings), connect with others who are attending the same events and share thoughts and photos.

5 Awesome Spreadsheet Apps for the iPhone by Search Engine Journal

Frequent best-of honoree Ann Smarty reviews five spreadsheet apps for the iPhone that “allow you to look at anything from profits and annual earnings, to employee checks and monthly expenses” anytime from anywhere. She notes that there are many others available, but calls these “arguably the best around.” All are priced at $10 or less.

250 best iPad apps: social media apps by The Telegraph

Brief reviews of top social apps for the iPhone including Flipboard—which “takes the activity from your social networks—Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and plenty of others are supported —and presents it in an attractive magazine-style layout…This app is must-have on all iPads”—Gowalla and Spout.

Social Search and Social Media Monitoring Tools

Topsy

Billing itself as a real-time social search engine, Topsy is reasonably good at finding topical and brand references across the social web. While it’s no threat to professional monitoring tools like Radian6, it’s a decent, free, quick-check tool for smaller companies and one-off searches.

Synthesio

Synthesio is a powerful, professional social media monitoring system that combines technology with human assistance for global brand reputation monitoring, topic monitoring, influencer rating and social community mapping. It is multi-lingual, customizable and filters out much of the “junk” picked up by other monitoring tools. This power and flexibility comes at a cost, however, as pricing is based on the number of search returns and starts at $1,500 per month.

PeopleBrowsr

A social media analytics and engagement tool that incorporates search, analytics and engagement capabilities. Within “engagement,” for example, you can evaluate the “degrees of separation” between a company and its audience, schedule tweets, and assign tweets to different team members for response / follow up. Pricing starts at $150 per month, but you can try it out first with a 14-day free trial.

Chatmeter

Chatmeter bills itself as “the first and only Local Brand Management service—the only platform that informs with daily alerts to monitor and respond to customer feedback from across the web combined with a dashboard to see the real impact on how customer experience is affecting online visibility for each location.” Priced at $40 per location per month (volume discounts for chains),  Chatmeter purports to save chains thousands of dollars in lost revenue by improving marketing effectiveness and providing the tools to easily respond to customers immediately for each of location.

Inefegy Social Radar

Inefegy’s Social Radar is known as a social media monitoring platform that is powerful, fast, has an outstanding user interface, and “now tracks some 40 million Web sites, including blogs, forums, image sites, news sites like CNN and the BBC, Twitter and more.” You can “request” a free trial, and the pricing is flat rate (you can run unlimited searches for one monthly fee), but specific pricing information is difficult to come by.

Cool Tools for Creating Infographics

10 Awesome Free Tools To Make Infographics by MakeUseOf
***** 5 STARS

An outstanding article by Angela Alcorn which provides guidance on how to create an infographic, followed by helpful, illustrated reviews of 10 free tools to assist in infographic creation, such as Stat Planet, Hohli, Creately (which also supports collaboration and easy flow chart creation) and Inkscape.

The 5 Best Free Tools For Making Slick Infographics by Fast Company

Noting that “It’s not enough to simply write about data any longer; the world wants visuals. While there are many professional information designers making a name for themselves, such as Nicholas Felton of Feltron.com, the majority of these digital artists are up to their eyeballs in high-paying work. Where does this leave you?,” Amber Mac reviews five free tools for creating infographics—four of which were covered in Angela’s article above, plus a new tool, Visual.ly.

Reviews of Cool Social Media Tools

Introducing PeerIndex: A New Companion to Klout for Social Media Influence Measurement by WindMill Networking

Neal Schaffer reviews PeerIndex, a competitor to Klout for social media influence measurement. Klout had an opportunity to become the standard before it stumbled badly in October 2011 when it radically changed its algorithm, calling its validity into serious question, then arrogantly refused to apologize and reverse course. A newer and (possibly) more accurate influence metric site is Kred, which is also worth checking out.

Is HootSuite Pro a Smart Investment? by Social Media Examiner

Nichole Kelly answers the question many of us HootSuite fans have been asking: is it worth it to upgrade to the Pro version? And after detailing the differences between the free and paid versions, her conclusion is…probably not, for most users. But it’s worthwhile (and HootSuite could make it more worthwhile, with a little work) for agencies and larger companies.

How to Back Up Gmail by Time Techland

Worried that Gmail could crash and lose all of your email history? Doug Aamoth details five different methods to protect yourself from just such a possibility, ranging from easy and free (e.g., Gmail Backup) to harder but free (forward to an email client such as Microsoft Outlook) to other slightly more involved but still free alternatives.

Search Social Media More Efficiently with Greplin

Josh Peters reports that Greplin is a powerful tool for topic-searching across your “personal social graph,” to find instances of people you’re connected to talking about topics you’re interested in. “Greplin social media search can access more than just your Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts. With a basic account (free) you can also include your DropBox, Gmail and Google docs accounts to the search to include content you’ve created. With a premium account ($5 / mo) you can include Evernote, Yammer, Basecamp, Highrise, Google Apps, and Salesforce accounts with more to come.”

4 Great (free) Tools to Measure Social Sentiment and 4 Important Stats by Social Media Today

After highlighting four important statistics (among them: “53% of people on Twitter recommend companies and/or products in their Tweets, with 48% of them delivering on their intention to buy the product”), Nick Bennett reviews four free tools for measuring social sentiment, including Twendz and Twittersheep.

Content Tools: This Week in Social Media by Social Media Examiner

Cindy King reviews a handful of fairly new tools, including Storify, a content curation tool that “gathers content from various social media platforms to create your own story. You can then create a widget of this story to embed it in your website” and 23press, a low-cost tool that simplifies the process of moving a blog from one host to another.

Free analytics tools you should be using by iMedia Connection

Josh Dreller advises marketers to “Check out some of the following free tools that can help you collect, analyze, and take action on data. In fact, a combination of all these systems would certainly push your data-driven organization to another level. With these free analytics platforms, any company could truly compete with the advanced data tools and tactics of even its largest competitors”) the reviews eight free tools including Quantcast for demographics, 4Q for free survey analytics and TubeMogul for video analytics.

5 Productivity Tools for the Busy Social Media Manager by Social Media Today
***** 5 STARS

Leo Widrich shares five of his favorite tools to optimize his time on social media, including Refynr, which lets you “Create a social savvy filter of keywords you want to have included…(then) creates a ‘refyned’ news stream for you with only the most relevant tweets”), Triberr (an invite-only community of bloggers), and Tungle for setting up meetings.

48 Free Social Media Monitoring Tools by DreamGrow

Priit Kallas reviews four dozen free social media tools in two groups: one including the tools he uses most often (e.g., HootSuite and Social Mention and one arranged alphabetically from Addictomatic for searching “the best live sites on the web for the latest news, blog posts, videos and images. It’s a tool to keep up with the hottest topics” to WhoUnfollowedMe which enables the true Twitter paranoid to “check your unfollowers on your schedule, every 15 minutes.”

17 Alternatives to Klout by ReadWriteWeb

Acknowledging the Klout trainwreck and noting that no influencer rating measure will ever be perfect, David Strom nevertheless runs through 17 alternatives for Twitter influence measurement, Facebook metrics, Google metrics, tools with a multi-site focus (e.g., PeerIndex, which is “probably the closest competitor to Klout” according to David), and sentiment analysis tools such as Kred (which has since emerged as one of the top alternatives to Klout).

7 Apps That Rocked My Work by iMedia Connection

Jason Harty reviews his favorite seven work-related apps, including Editor by Pixlr for easy online photo editing (“If MS Paint ain’t cutting it and Photoshop is over your head, give Editor by Pixlr a look”), Evernote for online and on-the-go note-taking, and Jing for quickly capturing any portion of your computer screen.

Nine companies B2B marketers should know about by Velocity Partners

Doug Kessler provides brief reviews of nine marketing products/tools for B2B professionals, such as EPiServer (web content management for the .Net platform), Reevoo (a social commerce platform for brands and retailers) and Marketo (marketing automation software).