As of December 09 online social activity of consumers around the world was at an 82% increase in time spent on social networking from the year prior. On average, users spent more than five and a half hours a day on networks such as Facebook and Twitter. So what does that mean for businesses today? What does it mean when customers continue to adopt social technologies at a blinding speed – yet organizations big and small aren’t able to keep up.

Since rapid adoption of social networking enables users to connect with individuals and communities who share mutual interests, organizations are increasingly being left out of the conversation. Simply hiring more people to keep up with social marketing, sales, and support will not be sufficient, as customers and their new channels outnumber employees. As a result, organizations need an organized approach to connect their business to the social web giving them the opportunity to respond in near-real time and in a coordinated fashion.

The relationship between organizations and customers has traditionally been optimized around organizations, not customers. However, the rapid adoption of social networks and online activity has shifted the balance of power to the customer. Companies and organizations have fallen behind in connecting with customers, and realize that they must find a way to at least participate in the conversation. Some still yearn to regain control of the customer relationship.

The reality – this is no longer possible as a few key trends have emerged:

 Customers connect with each other – happily leaving organizations behind.

Customer behavior has changed. Businesses and organizations no longer control the conversations with their customers. In fact, customers and prospects have chosen to engage with organizations on their own terms, for instance in Yahoo! Answers, online communities, and on Twitter because they trust companies less and less. As a growing number of customers choose to connect and collaborate with each other, for instance, in Get Satisfaction, Yelp, and the blogosphere, they’ve discovered that they can enjoy a more accurate, timely, and relevant customer experience without the organizations, disrupting the flow of influence.

 Companies know the problem will get worse before it gets better. Organizations realize they are no longer in charge. They often lack a credible strategy that empowers their employees to catch up with their customers. Although Comcast Cares has over 10 employees responding in social channels, they know they can’t scale in a 1:1 manner. Furthermore, a proliferation of new social networks and mobile tools are appearing at an increased pace – organizations will fall further behind. The result – tremendous amounts of waste in piecemeal data, customer records, APIs, and experiences – leaving companies unable to efficiently reach customers, prospects, and partners.

 Outdated frameworks and pet theories relegate discussions to incremental fixes.

Organizations seek a unified framework from which to build use cases. What’s lacking is a holistic approach to integrating social into CRM and enterprise apps. With technology providers espousing their point of views based on heritage (e.g. support, sales, marketing, and customer experience), and over 15,740 social media self proclaimed experts on Twitter1, confusion abounds in the application of social CRM.

The market seeks actionable frameworks to provide vision, build use cases, create entry points, address change managements, and consider technology requirements. And what’s more, the market seeks relationships. And that’s exactly what they’re getting.

Source: Brian Solis

10 Steps for Optimizing Your Brand for Social Search

1. Modernize and socialize your site to complement the experience visitors expect in 2010

2. Optimize the site and all social objects for traditional, social, and real-time search

3. Create meaningful and personable social profiles where consumers are active today (pay attention to where they will be tomorrow as well)

4. Establish an editorial calendar to produce and distribute relevant content for every network with cadence

5. Add social connectivity to the home site to facilitate maximum engagement (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, Google, Yahoo) – eradicate proprietary login systems

6. Integrate social sharing functionality at the source of engagement – keep them on the page

7. Enable the social syndication of that content within one step

8. Manually introduce content and social objects to stakeholders and social beacons

9. Create paths that define and engender the experience you desire with destinations and calls to action integrated to close the loop

10. Monitor the activity and find ways to improve the experience and also sharing

Bonus: Give them a voice to make sharing more personal and contextual

The Future of Business People-Powered

 
Better said, the future of information discovery and dissemination is people powered – by the very people who were once fed information as dictated by mainstream media and brands.

The rapid evolution of search fuses traditional search algorithms and destinations with new formulas and services defining social graphs, social networks, semantic and real-time. As social becomes the axis for which all search is predicated, advanced SEO/SMO and a maturing human algorithm reinforced by the stature of one’s social capital will ultimately contribute to the hierarchy, placement, and findability of the content and social objects we share online.

Google and Bing are already implementing sweeping changes in their algorithms and reported results to include activity from the social and real-time Web. It’s also the reason why Google rushed Google Buzz into the spotlight. Information and activity are now influenced by the greater collective of social contacts with whom we forge relationships and relations in each and every network where we engage.

 Guest Post by Ivana Taylor, Third Force

How do you feel about new software applications or new ways of doing business? Are you eager to try something new or do you prefer the tried and true? Sometimes I feel like I’m the only person in the world who hasn’t complained about Vista or the new user interface of Office 2007. I love to see how art and engineering come together to make computing fun and easy.

This is why I’ve decided to examine 5 up-and-coming applications – and how to turn them into a daily tool.

1. Augmented Reality and Reality Browsers. You may not be familiar with this phrase, but you’ve already seen this in action on TV and the movies. When you see actors interacting with a virtual computer screen that’s actually an overlay on the space around them; moving files with the swipe of their hand, opening documents in mid air – that’s augmented reality. Augmented reality applications can already be found on mobile phones. The new Android has an application called Layar. Layar is a “reality browser. Users will simply use their phone’s camera feature to point at scenes or objects and the technology will overlay additional information or data on the screen about those objects. For example, say you’re in a new city or town and are looking for a Chinese restaurant, you would point your phone at the street or neighborhood where you are and Layar will tell you what businesses are around you. Think of this application as on-demand Yellow Pages.

You’ll want to make sure that your business appears accurately on Google Maps. Bryce Sady, a Boston-based healthcare marketer recommended the following: “Enter in the address (not the business name) on maps.google.com and see if it shows up. You can advertise your business for free on Google Maps .When adding the category of business you are in, think about search terms that someone would enter in on their phone or GPS to find a business like yours. Also, be sure and upload an updated photo of the storefront. Prices, hours, credit cards taken are all helpful information for users. If you are listed, you will want to verify the listing, so that it shows up as “owner-verified” in results.”

2. Location-Based Applications: With the widespread incorporation of GPS devices and applications, it’s easier than ever to get real-time information on where your friends are and what’s around you. This trend is related to augmented reality applications because it’s “location-based” technology that is one of the first consumer-accessible ways that we use it. Twitter was a pre-curser to this trend when people were using it to tell their friends where they were and connect in real time. BrightKite was another location-based application that was a little before its time in giving you updates as to where your friends are. The latest in the mix is Foursquare: A location-based service based on your Twitter network with an added layer of social gameplay. Currently Foursquare is gaining traction in big cities.

How to take advantage:  You have to be visible, listed and tagged in all the right places, Google Maps and Yelp. Another important way to take advantage of these applications and trends is to build an active community that sincerely promotes your product and talks about it online. If you’re a small business, you must start a customer community program this year. Make it a point to build an accurate customer list that includes e-mails. Create a Facebook Fan page, Twitter, Foursquare, BrightKite and any other location-based application account and offer specials and promotions through those channels to your customers. Also check out: Google Latitude to Loopt and FireEagle,

3. Interactivity and Crowd Sourcing –Wikipedia is a great example of crowd sourcing. But as the trend has become more commonplace, people have come up with increasingly more creative ways to use it. Take Dahlia Lithwick, for example. By day, unassuming Supreme Court reporter, but for her special project, she decided to write her novel (Saving Face) using input from her Facebook Fans. From the other end of the spectrum, budding inventors can use the power of crowds to think up, develop, manufacture and market new products on Quirky. Say that you have a great idea, but don’t have the engineering skill to design it. Submit it to Quirky and engineers will help. The community serves as the market test site and the proceeds from products that actually sell are divided among the community according to their level of input.

How to take advantage:  Make it a point to add “interactivity” to your products and services. If you’re thinking about writing a book, involve your audience in the process. If you’re planning on a new product, create a space where customers and users can put their two cents in. Put a crowd sourcing button on your web site from IdeaScale and let your customers tell you what new features to add. Create a Facebook Fan Page or a blog-style web site dedicated to your next new venture and engage your readers in the conversation. Use social media tools like Search.Twitter.com to search on your company name or industry terms to see what people are saying about it in real time in their own words.

4. Real time collaboration –Google Wave is an innovative new way for people to communicate and collaborate. Wave is already being used for projects and collaboration among many small groups and organizations around the world, in large part because of its strength in combining familiar communication platforms. But it’s really no fun or no good if everyone you work with isn’t on the system. Maybe that’s why it’s been so slow to build steam. Because I run so many virtual teams, I think that Google Wave is an amazing way to stay connected, work collaboratively and efficiently with people from all over the world as if they were right next to you.

How to take advantage:  Get yourself on Google Wave and get everyone you work with to sign up too. Connect with associates and customers and collaborate on projects in real time.

5. Digital Branding/Real Time Branding:The internet revolution has made it hip to be small. Small businesses can increase their brand equity by becoming ubiquitous participants on social media sites. But there are more opportunities for small businesses who want to build their brand in a more subtle, more cost effective way. Ex-Yahoo Real Estate executive, Arjun Dev Arora used his expertise in real estate to create ReTargeter, a brilliant way to get past visitors BACK to your site. The technology places a little “burr” of code onto your web site – much like the little burrs you might collect on your pants while your hiking. Then once visitors that have been to your site, they collect these digital “burrs” as they wander off to bigger sites like CNN.com, for example. As they wander the web they see a subtle ad for your site on the sites they are visiting (such as CNN.com, that have ad spaces) thereby increasing the perception of your brand and enticing them to return to you.

How to take advantage:  Look at digital advertising opportunities. Do your customers have a favorite site in your industry? Offer to sponsor a page or become a regular contributor.

Guest post by: By Chris Garrett

Social media has many uses—from making contacts to performing customer service—but driving quality traffic to your site is Twitter’s secret weapon. The big question is this: How can we get more of that lovely attention we crave?

As my recent poll shows, generating incoming traffic is the number-one need that people have right now, and for good reason. Traffic translates into:

■Attention, engagement, conversation and recognition
■Spreading your message far and wide
■Prospects and subscriber opt-ins
■Customers, increased sales and leads
■Media and interviews, which lead to more attention
… and last but not least, an ego boost.

In a previous article here I mentioned the many benefits of Twitter for your business. Now here are seven key points you need to know if you want to get more targeted traffic from Twitter:

#1: Know your audience
Growing your traffic always starts with your audience if you want to do it right. Untargeted, uninterested “hits” are a waste of time and resources at worst, and at best just pure vanity.

■What does your audience want and need?
■How do they like it delivered?
■Which topics are on their minds right now?
■Are there trends that are growing in popularity?
■How do these folks speak? What words and phrases do they use?
This means that driving traffic starts with listening and observing. Get to know your target so you can most efficiently engage them.

Twitter has a tool for this. Use search.twitter.com to find what people in your niche are talking about and follow some of their conversations.

Once you get an idea of what people are interested in, join in those conversations and talk to people.

#2: Get the “right” followers
So much rubbish is thrown around about how to grow your follower count that it makes it seem that the number is all that matters. Wrong!

You need people to want to hear what you have to say. This means you do NOT want people who auto-follow because they are either:

1.Robots and not real human beings (e.g., spam software, people trying to inflate their follower count, scrapers)
2.Not actually reading your tweets and just following to allow you to DM them
The followers you most want are those who follow you because they are interested and think they will get value from your tweets. These people are most likely to find you via:

■People retweeting your stuff, either within Twitter or using a TweetMeme button
■Referrals from other Twitter users
■Your blog; for example, your articles that say “Follow me on Twitter at @chrisgarrett and tell me what you think,” or your sidebar Follow Me button
■Other people’s blogs, when you guest post or comment
■Clicking your forum signature when you participate in discussions, or your email signature
Unfortunately Twitter closed off a really nice way that people used to get targeted Twitter followers. It used to be that we could “listen in” to conversations that people we followed were having, but now you have to be following both parties. This means we can’t discover new people that way. If someone puts something before they mention your @name it can still work, and I still occasionally get followers through that.

Essentially the advice is, put your Twitter name where it will be seen and encourage people to share it!

#3: Build engagement. Talk to people.

Engage your followers. Don’t just see them as a passive list of eyeballs! Treat folks as human beings and you will do much better at this stuff. It is called social media for a reason.

■Ask questions
■Hold conversations
■Dip into others’ conversations
■Encourage feedback

#4: Get clicks
So now your followers are seeing you as an interesting person and not a robotic “feed,” which means they are more likely to take notice when you tweet out a link.

Tweet Valuable Links

Whatever you do, don’t just tweet your own stuff. That is both selfish and boring!

Get into the habit of sharing anything cool, regardless of who created it. Retweet good stuff and other people are going to be more willing to retweet yours. Tweet out fun and useful links your friends send you in email or from the news. Be known as a person who tweets good stuff.

Timing

Not everyone is online at the same time. There is a whole world outside of your timezone, plus people have a different schedule than you. You know the feeling of confusion when you land in a foreign country. Not only have you got to adjust to local time, but also people seem to have their meals at a different time of day, shops open and close at strange hours, and business meetings seem to be held randomly. Twitter is like that, you can’t just look at a time zone converter and think people will be at their desk at a certain time.

1.Tweet the same thing a few times, a few hours apart, to give your message several chances to be seen.
2.Vary the times of day you tweet and monitor response.
3.Watch for the peaks and troughs of activity in YOUR stream (not just what works for others).
I tend to aim to catch the peak times for Aussies, the EU/Brits, East Coast USA, and West Coast USA, but it is far from an exact science!

Headlines

There are two main driving factors that affect your chances of getting a click:

1.Your reputation
2.The headline
Hopefully at this point #1 is taken care of, but #2 takes some work.

First of all, use my free download 102 Proven Headline Formulas as a starting point. There are 102 fill-in-the-blank templates which ought to give you a head start on writing a compelling caption.

If you use an interesting title and it matches your audience’s wants and needs, then you are going to get clicks.

Split test

You might not get it right the first time, so try another variation:

■Phrase it as a question
■Make it into a “How To” headline
■Use curiosity versus just the facts
A lot of this is about learning what your audience reacts to best.

#5: Measure performance
When you use a link-shortener with a built-in click-tracker such as bit.ly, you can see how well any of your links perform. This is useful for improving over time and to see which links get picked up virally. As they say, what you measure you get more of!

With Twitter it’s not just the link clicks that YOU get, but the retweets and shares that really drive the real traffic. TweetMeme and bit.ly can give you vital reporting about how well you do, as well as your Google Analytics.

#6: Do more of what works, but test, test, test
When you find what works for you, do more of that. Keep in mind though that if you only do the same things you will either get the same results and not improve, or you will wear out that technique. Experiment, learn and mix it up.

Trends change, techniques improve, fads go out of fashion. Do not get stuck on rails, move and flow with your audience.

#7: Encourage sharing
Once you have your initial click, your job is not done!

Make sure your article has a TweetMeme button so that anyone who likes what you shared can easily share it too.

If you want to get really fancy, give people an incentive to share, such as a random prize drawing for anyone who tweets your message. Of course, the message will contain a link back to you …

Once in a while it doesn’t hurt to actually ask for retweets. Just don’t overdo it, as you will only annoy your followers. This will make them less responsive, rather than more.

Posted by Shannon Sweetser

So, what kind of leverage does Inbound Marketing get you in comparison with Outbound Marketing? Well, let’s go back to those simple machines we were learning about in Physics.

Let’s say you had to raise a heavy box 3 feet. To do this, you have two choices. You can lift the box straight up in the air 3 feet. Or you could push it up an inclined plane 5 feet.  Though it would seem that inclined plane makes you do more work because it increases distance, really it’s using mechanical advantage to multiply force. Though you arrive at the same height, the extra work combined with mechanical advantage gives you leverage. It’s much easier to push a box on a solid surface than to just lift it.

Think about Inbound Marketing. Though you may get a whole lot of traffic to your site from buying enormous ppc advertising, it can’t last forever. Just like your body will get tired doing all that back breaking labor without an inclined plane, your marketing budget will eventually tire out, too.

Inbound Marketing Multiplies the Force of Your Marketing Efforts.

When you use simple inbound marketing tactics in combination, it builds a powerful Inbound Marketing machine.  If you write one fantastic blog article, it simplifies your marketing efforts. People link to that blog article, increasing your search rankings. That article then spreads to the social mediasphere, which connects you to more people who will link to and share your article.  If the article has a lot of links, it will start getting found more easily in Google for keywords that are important to your prospect.

Though you may have spent more time creating your blog, coming up with a concept for your article, and writing it, you actually created more force using your Inbound Marketing machine to complete your goal and you did it without breaking your budgets back.

Guest post from Todd @SHIFT Communications

While the RFP process for PR agencies was relatively straightforward for the past 50 years, in the next 3 – 5 years agencies like will need to suss out their proper role on a client-by-client basis:

Some clients will want a traditional Media Relations firm … Some will want a Social Media specialty shop … Some will want Content Creation (video, microsites, iPhone and Facebook apps) … And smart clients will desire a hybrid model that incorporates all of the above – yet which could also potentially be sourced to an advertising agency.

Meanwhile, mainstream media relations will continue to be important, but ultimately no more or less important than Blogger Relations, Facebook Group Administrator Relations, etc. That’s the power of Social Media: when everyone has a printing press, everyone is important.

“Advertising is shifting from being the foundation of a corporate marketing strategy to a catalyst that feeds owned media and creates earned media.” – Sean Corcoran, Forrester Research

Advertising now comes after the corporation has created an ecosystem for its owned media channels (e.g., a blog, a Twitter handle, a Facebook Fan Page).

Advertising now comes after the corporation has an established rapport with its fan base, bloggers, and traditional media contacts.

Advertising now comes after relationships.

Tellingly, the “Challenges” that Sean Corcoran points out regarding paid media — “clutter, declining response rates and poor credibility” are ameliorated if the brand takes the awareness scale approach in which: social media feeds PR and advertising, both of which serve to catalyze fresh brand conversations amongst people who are predisposed to do so.

With consumer and media relationships in place, advertisements then are not rebuffed but are embraced and carried forward by online enthusiasts. Sayonara, “clutter.”  So long, “declining response rates.” Bon voyage, “poor credibility.”

So, there’s no question that Social Media has complicated things in the marketing world.  The problem with complexity is that it too often leads to analysis paralysis. Sometimes you need to see concepts broken down to their simplest terms to come to grips with them.

Ask anybody why they use Facebook, and most people will respond with reasons like staying in touch with friends, or being able to share pictures. Rarely does one’s professional life ever get mentioned when describing the social network. When it comes to business networking, LinkedIn tends to take all the thunder, and Facebook is generally written off as a place just for fun. Yet, perhaps that’s a mistake.

Facebook, after all, has 250 million active users compared to about 44 million for LinkedIn, and even though the atmosphere is clearly not as focused on business, there are still a ton of opportunities for professional networking that business users would be remiss to pass up. Once you look beyond the obvious social features like sharing pictures and poking friends, there are plenty of ways to tap into the professional community on the world’s largest social network.

In this post we’ll talk about how to setup your Facebook for professional use, how to find others to network with, Facebook features that work for professional networking, and ways to maximize the value from those features.

Setting up Facebook for networking

If you’re like most people, your personal and professional lives have already blended. You share your personal stories and pictures with your work colleagues, you discuss both work and your personal life on your blog and Twitter, and you’ve probably let go of the notion that professional and personal must be kept completely separate.

But even with that blurring of our work and social lives, most of us still want some separation, and I would recommend actually splitting the two on Facebook. Once split, you can continue to reap the social benefits of Facebook with your friends and family while simultaneously connecting with your professional colleagues.

Here’s how to split the two.

– Go to your friends list by clicking on the Friends tab -> All Friends at the top of your Facebook page.

– Click the “Create a New List” button and create one called Professional.

– You can now go through your entire friend list and add all of your professional contacts into this new and separate business list.

– Once you’re done, navigate to your profile privacy settings by clicking on the Settings link in the top right corner of your Facebook; then click on privacy; then click on profile.

On the profile privacy settings page you can begin slicing and dicing your Facebook world into personal and professional segments by restricting access to various parts of your profile using your newly created friend list. For example, if you don’t want your professional friends to see any of your pictures, click on “edit photo album privacy settings.” In the “who can see this” drop down, click on “customize” and then in the “except these people” field type in your newly formed professional friends list. Now only your personal friends will be able to see your pictures.

Though these settings can get fairly complicated because of their granularity, you can control your entire Facebook experience from this area of the site and decide what parts of your personal life you would like your professional friends to be able to see. Bear in mind that there are no best practices here. Meaning, if you don’t want your professional friends to see your wall comments, don’t let them. If you don’t want your professional friends to see your pictures, don’t let them. It’s your world and you can set it up exactly how you like.

Using Facebook groups for networking

One way to professionally benefit from Facebook’s enormous user base and to grow your professional network is to participate in Facebook Groups. Facebook Groups is a feature that allows Facebook users to connect, discuss and network with each other within the context of a common interest or topic.

Finding groups

There are groups on Facebook representing just about every topic under the sun. To find the right group for your professional aspiration, think of topics that will motivate you, allow you to connect with others of professional interest, and will allow you to gain insight into your industry/skill set – groups around these topics are the ones where you’ll find professionals you can network with.

Now that you have a direction in mind, enter your keyword into the search box on Facebook, and click on the “Groups” filter to the left of the results. You can also filter down the displayed groups by drilling into a number of sub categories, including business (a good bet for many professional groups), common interest, geography, Internet and technology, and organizations.

There are, of course, other ways to find Facebook Groups. Here are a few techniques that should give you plenty of groups to get started with.

– If you have friends whose professional advancements you respect, go to their profile page and click on their info tab. Towards the bottom of the page, you’ll see links to all of the groups to which they belong.

– On the main page of any Facebook Group, there are links to several other similar or related groups.

– Conduct an Internet search for “popular Facebook Groups” coupled with some of the keywords that interest you. You’ll often uncover blog posts, articles and people tweeting about a variety of groups, some of which may interest you.

Once you find a group that interests you, it’s a good idea to evaluate whether or not it will be a good fit before joining and pouring too much time into it.

What to look for in a professional group

There are millions of groups on Facebook, so how many should you join and which ones? Joining too many might prove to be unmanageable, so it’s a good idea to only join the ones that you can actually see yourself participating in.

Below is a list of the features you’ll find in each Facebook Group and what to look for in each to determine whether a group is quality enough to be worth joining.

Recent News – This section contains news from group administrators that is either about the group itself or is about a topic that might interest the group. Is it up to date? Is it useful information or just self-promotion?

Member Listings – Lists all group members including their profile photos, location and link to their profile page. This is an easy access way to send a message to a specific group member OR to request them as a friend. You can also use this tool to evaluate the group before joining. Does the group attract people with similar backgrounds and interests to yours? Can you see yourself giving information to and appreciating information from these other members? Do they seem like people you would value interacting with?

Discussion Board – The group’s discussion board allows members to engage in a discussion about topics listed by other group members. Before joining, use the discussion board to measure group activity and member engagement. Are discussions recent? How many are there? Are they interesting and on-topic? You should contribute to an existing discussion or start your own, once you’ve joined.

Wall Posting – This section is usually for member introductions or job postings. This is a great way to introduce yourself and your interest in this group. How recent are the latest postings? If there is any spam, how quickly is it cleaned up?

Groups also often have photos, videos, links sections, and event listings. You should evaluate these areas for recency and quality of information, as well.

Group participation

Once you’ve joined a group, it’s time to start participating. This is where the real fun begins and the true business value will happen. Below is an example workflow I would recommend following upon joining a group for professional purposes. It’s a great way to show your presence in the group and get some professional networking activity under your belt.

Post an introduction on the Group’s Wall stating your interest in the group. If you’re looking to network, say so. If you’re looking for a job, say so. If you can offer advice, say so. The key here is to make this a simple introduction so the group knows who you are – not an advertisement for yourself or services, which may come across as spam.

Add links to interesting events, pieces of news or blog posts. Anybody who reads them will know you posted them, which will add to your professional branding efforts.

Go to the discussion board and comment on a few topics; don’t be generic. Find a discussion where you could truly add value and help some fellow members with their questions or contribute to some discussions with your thoughts.

Post a topic for discussion. Ask a question or propose a thought-provoking topic of discussion and share your thoughts — the object is to engage your fellow group members. Check back on this discussion often so you can participate and remain an active part of it.

Add friends. Because Facebook was intended to be an online extension of your offline social graph, it is proper etiquette to know somebody before adding them as a friend. While being in the same group might satisfy that requirement for some people, I think it’s a good idea to have some sort of further engagement with a member before requesting them as a friend. Once you’ve engaged someone (such as in a discussion board topic), request them as a friend but include a personal note letting them know you appreciated the interaction. That way, they will have some context for the request and will be more likely to accept. Once you’re friends, make sure to add them to your professional friend list so that you are able to maintain that line between social and professional.

Now that you’ve gone through this workflow for each group you’ve joined, you can now consider yourself to be an active member. So what’s next? Networking! Come back to each group often to post new links and videos, engage in discussions or start your own. You should also invite other existing contacts to join the group as a way to help spread the word and keep the group active. Also remember to befriend those with whom you’ve been active and take your professional relationship to the next level.

Once you have the basics down, professional networking on Facebook is very similar to professional networking in real life. The same rules and etiquette apply. As you build your professional network on Facebook you’ll be able to use those contacts for job hunting, business development, and more.

Conclusion

Although Facebook was built as a social network and most people treat it as such – there is a tremendous amount of professional value that can be gained there. Once you’re a member of a few groups and have completed the introductory workflow for each one, the professional value of Facebook should be evident and ready to be fully realized. Be creative, have fun, and remember: What you put into things is what you get out of them, so always try to stay active!

Guest Post by the Society of New Communications Research

What Companies Need to Do:
- Don’t over-engineer brand stories –but companies must facilitate and manage
- Must position but the brand story will develop organically based on customer feedback
- New technologies facilitate these exchanges now in ways that are effective and viral
- Companies must re-integrate customer insights into an evolving brand story

How the Co-author Model Works – Leads to Co-Creation:
- More than simply putting customer stories or CGM on your website – baby step
- Means 360 communications and open exchange with your customers
- Requires re-integration of customers’ stories into company’s branding, communications
- Engages loyal customers to cocreate: discover, develop, deploy new products
- This can be positive or negative – ex: JetBlue’s customers push for Bill of Rights

A Few Models That Work – What Do You Think?
- Software models – open-source (Linux), Microsoft Developers’ Forum, Adobe
- Consumer products – Whole Foods, Lego, Saturn, Ikea, Jones Soda
- Tech – Yahoo! as Case Study:

Co-Authoring to Co-Creating With New Technologies:
- Give customers new tools to create and share content with you and each other: dialoguing, gleaning insights, building trust, and co-creating stories and products to strengthen brand
- Monitoring and re-integrating feedback into company positioning
- Culling research for product ideas vetted by target

How? Ways include…
- Stories, peer tips and creations with your products, contests, forums for user-generated content and product ideas, open dialogue with CEO, ask for feedback on business models, products, book (John Mackey of Whole Foods let users became coauthors of his book)

What Keeps Companies from Implementing Despite Interest
- Not sure how – still learning how the new models work
- Management support and internal processes remain issues/barriers

How to Measure Success?
- Customers engaged, increased positive customer comments, loyalty, profitability, and trust
- Product ideas generated
- The value of customer insights gleaned – critical market research

Guest Post by Brenna Ehrlich | Mashable

It’s a new year, which means it’s time to make resolutions, take on fresh challenges, learn new things and change our lives for the better. Perhaps you want to lose 10 pounds, travel more, or get the job you really want?

Mashable has been building a vast archive of how-to guides on everything from professional networking to planning a vacation online — what better time to release a combined list than at the beginning of a new decade?

If you’re looking to improve your life in 2010, we hope you’ll find these 40+ How-To guides useful. You can find even more How-To guides and tips in the How-To section of this site.

Professional Goals

---

Many professionals today are primed to leverage online tools for success in 2010. Here’s a list of resources that will help you increase your ROI, whether you’re a novelist or a PR rep.

HOW TO: Implement a Social Media Business StrategyHOW TO: Measure Social Media ROI

HOW TO: Track Social Media Analytics

HOW TO: Build the Ultimate Social Media Resume

HOW TO: Launch Your Own Indie Journalism Site

HOW TO: Plan and Promote Events With Social Media

HOW TO: Make Social Media Work for Non-Consumer Brands

HOW TO: Use Wikis for Business Projects

HOW TO: Use Social Media in Your PR Pitch Plan

HOW TO: Use Social Media to Retain Customers

HOW TO: Write a Novel Using the Web

HOW TO: Choose a Smartphone for Your Small Business

HOW TO: Choose a News Reader for Keeping Tabs on Your Industry

HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn

HOW TO: Use Facebook for Professional Networking

Top 5 Business Blogging Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

 

Lifestyle Goals

---

It would probably give you a serious case of the Blue Mondays, but if you so desired, you could manage your entire life without leaving your computer chair. While we don’t recommend becoming Boo Radley, Mashable does have a pretty sizable cache of stories that will show you how to shop, manage your finances and learn new skills — all from the comfort of your rolly chair.

HOW TO: Learn and Practice Languages Using Social MediaHOW TO: Use the Web for Socially Responsible Shopping

HOW TO: Plan a Vacation Using Social Media

HOW TO: Manage Bills with Social Media

HOW TO: Plan a DIY Wedding Using Social Media

HOW TO: Use Social Media for Better Health

HOW TO: Get More Responses in Online Dating

 

Fun

---

From satire to songs, the web is a fun place. Kick back with this list when you need a break from the grind.

HOW TO: Outsmart Phishers [HUMOR]HOW TO: Survive Disconnect Anxiety [HUMOR]

HOW TO: Party Like Microsoft [Awkward Video]

HOW TO: Find the Name of That Song

HOW TO: Stalk Your Kids on Facebook and Twitter [VIDEO]

 

Bonus: Twitter

---

Twitter was the breakout success of 2009 and looks to be a vital tool for both professional and personal communications in 2010. In fact, we think Twitter is so important, we figured the microblogging site required its own run-down. If you’re not yet hip to Twitter (how’s the weather under that rock?) or if you just want to fine-tune your skills, check out these resources.

The Twitter GuidebookHOW TO: Use Twitter Lists

HOW TO: Use Twitter’s New Retweet Feature

HOW TO: Get Retweeted on Twitter

HOW TO: Create Custom Twitter Backgrounds

HOW TO: Find a Job on Twitter

HOW TO: Get the Most Out of Twitter #Hashtags

HOW TO: Use Twitter Hashtags for Business

HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on Twitter

HOW TO: Organize a Successful Tweetup

HOW TO: Use Twitter for Customer Service

HOW TO: Live Inside Twitter and Still Stay Productive

HOW TO: Start a Petition on Twitter

 

[img credits: Marcin Wichary, viagallery.com, webmove]