This one is self explanatory – very cool graphic by Brian Solis…

Top 10 reasons to Build your Twitter following:

1. Drive more traffic to your website and raise your profile
2. Promote specific events / conferences / webinars
3. Announce new updates, new initiatives, new services etc.
4. Demonstrate a customer centric focus
5. Search current trends in real time
6. Share best practice, knowledge, ideas and information
7. Reach and engage with your targeted audience
8. Keep people informed of your latest news
9. Turn prospects into advocates and raving fans
10. Develop new business contacts

Be sure to download our free guide to getting started with Twitter and instantly transform your twitter account into a traffic monster.

What’s the ROI in Social Media?

Thanks to http://socialnomics.net for this video!

The video showcases that social media can help you achieve success on almost any front.  While the video uses familiar nomenclature like ROI, many pieces of social media behave so differently than anything we have ever seen, that I prefer to use “What does or will success look like?” rather than “What’s the ROI?”

We are pleased to announce the launch of our sister site: Social Media Infusion (http://socialmediainfusion.com). Social Media Infusion was created to serve our existing clients and attract new clients interested in launching a social media campaign for their business. Social Media Infusion is a social media marketing agency specifically focused on helping small business owners integrate social media into their overall marketing plans. We help clients understand the social media landscape and build an appropriate strategy to connect to their customers through facebook, twitter, blogs, youtube, etc.,

I love this video, simple but great story telling. View the Social Media Simplified Video…

It has been reported that Twitter is in the beginning phases of launching new commercial accounts. Supposedly, the twitter commercial accounts will offer advanced functionality, analytics and a commercial API. It appears that Twitter is starting to appeal to the demand for more features from power users – it is our understanding that the basic service will always remain free.

Social Media Visualized!

Take a look at this four minute video created by Eric Qualman from Socialnomics. He presents some great social media statistics.

Summary of stats from the video (courtesy of Digital Buzz Blog):

• By 2010 Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers
• 96% of them have joined a social network
• 1 out of 8 couples married in the US last year have met via social media
• Facebook added 100 million users in 9 months
• If Facebook would be a country, it would be the world’s 4th largest
• 80% of companies are using LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees
• 80% of Twitter usage is on mobile devices. People update anywhere, anytime. Imagine what that means for bad customer experiences?
• In 2009 Boston College stopped distributing e-mail addresses to incoming freshmen
• YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world
• There are over 200.000.000 Blogs. 54% of bloggers post content or tweet daily.

We have been scouring the web to uncover the best social media information out there.  Luckily we came across the folks at Social Scoop who have put together what I think are the Top 7 Social Media Resources on the web. Each one of these social media reports provides useful information to help the social media newbie to the seasoned new media executive. Let us know what you think and be sure to visit our friend at Social Scoop.

1. Social Media Marketing Trends
2. Trendspotting: Influencers on Social Media 2009
3. Marketing to the Social Web
4. Social Media Primer
5. Social Media Marketing for the Rest of Us
6. Building Personal Brand with Social Media
7. You: The Online Brand

Take six minutes today and watch Stephen Pierce explain why he thinks social media is the new “center of gravity” on the internet. I wholeheartedly agree with his summary that you need to add value and contribute to one or all of the three major components of social media:

• Communities
• Conversations
• Content

Watch Stephen’s Video Now

I Gotta Tell You’s Author, Jim Edward’s summarizes his thoughts on Social Media Marketing and the Seth Godin video.