The Facebook obsession of amassing 'friends' creates the impression that some users are wildly more sociable than others.
But while we may be able to count 5,000 friends on the online social networking site, scientists have shown that humans' brains are capable of managing a maximum of just 150 friendships.
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January 24, 2010
8 Top Twitter Track Tools to Organize the People You Follow
The proliferation of tools created to support Twitter is astounding due to the early adoption and usage of the Twitter API by developers worldwide. While there are plenty of web applications to choose from to analyze and visualize your activity with Twitter, the Twitter tracking apps that help you manage all of your friends and followers with ease are indispensable.
Here’s a rundown of eight of the best Twitter tracking apps to help you keep track of your friends and followers, and decide among them who are adding value to your usage of one of the world’s most popular social networking tools.
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Here’s a rundown of eight of the best Twitter tracking apps to help you keep track of your friends and followers, and decide among them who are adding value to your usage of one of the world’s most popular social networking tools.
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18 Online Productivity Tools for Your Business
This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.
Small business owners may have more of a need than most to be able to access their chosen suite of productivity tools from more than one computer or platform. As a business or startup owner you may have occasion to bring your work home with you, or require frequent access to your to-do lists, notes and documents on the go.
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Small business owners may have more of a need than most to be able to access their chosen suite of productivity tools from more than one computer or platform. As a business or startup owner you may have occasion to bring your work home with you, or require frequent access to your to-do lists, notes and documents on the go.
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A Twitter App for Power Users: SocialVisor
Seemic's announcement of Look, their brave new Twitter client, had the tubes positively humming yesterday.
Although it might be a great interface for newbies, this app isn't recommended for power users. But we just found one that is - for desktop use, anyway. It's an agile bit of hotness that's as responsive and unobtrusive as you'd ever want, and it can also provide you with a stock-ticker-esque UI that will satiate all your info-social needs. Meet SocialVisor - the Twitter app.
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Although it might be a great interface for newbies, this app isn't recommended for power users. But we just found one that is - for desktop use, anyway. It's an agile bit of hotness that's as responsive and unobtrusive as you'd ever want, and it can also provide you with a stock-ticker-esque UI that will satiate all your info-social needs. Meet SocialVisor - the Twitter app.
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Sleep Talkin' Blog Is a Viral Sensation
It’s official, one of the funniest blogs out there, Sleep Talkin’ Man, has become a bonafide viral sensation, with more than a half a million visitors, nearly 20,000 Facebook fans and more than 10,000 Twitter followers to its name. It’s official: We all know the secrets that you keep when you’re talking in your sleep, dude.
Here...
Here...
Facebook and Twitter Lead the Pack as Social Media Usage Skyrockets [STATS]
Despite Facebook privacy changes and serious cases of Twitter Fail Whale, social media use has increased astronomically since this time last year: During December 2009, global users spent an average of five hours on social networking sites, up from three hours in December 2008. That’s an 82% increase.
Nielsen just released a report on its blog detailing increased social media use, and the results are impressive, while not exactly shocking. Some highlights:
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Nielsen just released a report on its blog detailing increased social media use, and the results are impressive, while not exactly shocking. Some highlights:
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Pampers’ Reputation Crisis Has P&G Crapping Itself
Every couple of months, we can reliably count on a big brand to help us learn a lesson about online reputation management. Today, we give thanks to P&G for today’s lesson:
Read it here...
Read it here...
The social behavior incentive (how your app can be as addictive as Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare)
I’m an addict. You already knew that, didn’t you? After all, I’m just about to pass my 30,000th Tweet and on Facebook I have more than 10,000 friends and on Foursquare I follow more than 3,000 people (about 1% of their user base as just reported).
I’m not the only addict, though. On Google there are 402,000 results for “social media addiction.” Someone even made a rap video about social media addiction
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I’m not the only addict, though. On Google there are 402,000 results for “social media addiction.” Someone even made a rap video about social media addiction
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Why Twitter Wants to Know Where You Are
Ever since the introduction of the location-aware tweet, we’ve been curious as to why Twitter wants to know where we are. The release of Local Trends holds the key to unlock that answer.
Now more than ever, where you are is more important than what you’re doing. So as location-sharing is poised to be the breakout technology trend of 2010, the Local Trends feature points us to look towards the future of local services brought to you by Twitter, made possible by the location-aware tweet.
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Now more than ever, where you are is more important than what you’re doing. So as location-sharing is poised to be the breakout technology trend of 2010, the Local Trends feature points us to look towards the future of local services brought to you by Twitter, made possible by the location-aware tweet.
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January 23, 2010
In India, Facebook Uses Google AdWords To Leapfrog Orkut
Different territories demand different marketing approaches. Google, for instance, has been spotted taking the unusual route of promoting their search engine and Chrome browser with print advertising campaigns in India and The Netherlands, respectively.
And now a reader informs us that Facebook is buying Google ads on the search giant’s India portal (Google.co.in). You can see some examples embedded in this post or on our tipster’s blog.
Read more...
And now a reader informs us that Facebook is buying Google ads on the search giant’s India portal (Google.co.in). You can see some examples embedded in this post or on our tipster’s blog.
Read more...
Removing the Blindfold that Prevents True Engagement and Measurement in Social Media | Brian Solis
MarketingProfs recently published a fantastic report on the equality of B2B and B2C adoption and practice of social media. In “The State of Social Media Marketing,” the 242-page report shared how over 5,000 marketers and business professionals use social media to create award winning campaigns, measure ROI, and reach audiences. Jay Baer offers an interesting analysis at Convince and Convert. More of my thoughts on the subject of B2B and B2C social media are shared in my post, “The Business of Social Media.”
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Facebook Snatches User’s Vanity URL And Sells It To Harman International
his looks really, really bad. An avid Facebook user named Harman Bajwa says that his Facebook vanity Url – Facebook.com/Harman – was unceremoniously revoked yesterday for violating Facebook’s policies. His new Facebook URL is the much less memorable facebook.com/profile.php?id=538612932.
Facebook then apparently did a sales deal around the vanity URL with Harman International.
M0re...
Facebook then apparently did a sales deal around the vanity URL with Harman International.
M0re...
The 10 Stages of Social Media Integration in Business
What follows is the unabridged version of my post on Mashable, “The 10 Stages of Social Media Business Integration.“
An overnight success ten plus years in the making, Social Media is as transformative as it is evolutionary. With every day that passes, we are presented with increasing reports that showcase the impact of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogs within small and large businesses alike. As a result, we can now visualize the state of adoption, understanding, and implementation in different business ecosystems. What we realize as a result, is that individual examples vary based on the assorted stages of aptitude and proficiency in Social Media within each company.
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An overnight success ten plus years in the making, Social Media is as transformative as it is evolutionary. With every day that passes, we are presented with increasing reports that showcase the impact of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogs within small and large businesses alike. As a result, we can now visualize the state of adoption, understanding, and implementation in different business ecosystems. What we realize as a result, is that individual examples vary based on the assorted stages of aptitude and proficiency in Social Media within each company.
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Getting Real Followers Rather than Other Marketers
When I first started using twitter as a means for promotion, I thought that it wouldn’t be worth my time. I assumed that the only people that following me were other marketers pushing their products and services on me. It reminded me of a room full of salesmen trying to sell each other cars. Obviously there are real people using twitter for leisure and not for business, and I kept asking myself how I could find these people and, more importantly, how I could get them to follow me.
Here are a few things I learned that helped me find the right tweeters and might be able to help you, too.
Getting Real Followers Rather than Other Marketers
Here are a few things I learned that helped me find the right tweeters and might be able to help you, too.
Getting Real Followers Rather than Other Marketers
January 17, 2010
How Conceptual Metaphors are Stunting Web Innovation
As much as we focus on developing new technologies, it is also essential that we break free of certain metaphors that bind and restrict our thinking about what these technologies can ultimately achieve. The familiar “document” metaphor, among others, has cast a long shadow on how we think about the web, and is standing in the way of some innovation.
More here...
More here...
January 16, 2010
Four Ways Facebook is Slowly Destroying You
Facebook has hundreds of millions of users, and it’s put everyone from basement dwelling mouth breathers all the way to the coolest people you know on equal ground. It’s become a social phenomenon, and it doesn’t appear to be stopping anytime soon. But there could be a downside to it as well. Sure, Facebook is great for looking at candid photos of the hot girls you knew in high school, but some people are starting to suggest that it could cause problems for users regardless of how perverted they are.
Read it here..
Read it here..
January 15, 2010
The 10 Stages of Social Media Business Integration
An overnight success ten years in the making, social media is as transformative as it is evolutionary. At last, 2010 is expected to be the year that social media goes mainstream for business. In speaking with many executives and entrepreneurs, I’ve noticed that the path towards new media enlightenment often hinges on corporate culture and specific marketplace conditions. Full social media integration often happens in stages — it’s an evolutionary process for companies and consumers alike.
Here are the ten most common stages that businesses experience as they travel the road to full social media integration.
Read On...
Here are the ten most common stages that businesses experience as they travel the road to full social media integration.
Read On...
5 Tips for Creating a Successful Social Media Contest
One of the best ways to drive engagement and build word of mouth traffic about your brand is to run a contest via social media channels. Not only does it engage consumers with your brand in a fun and exciting way, it results in a treasure-trove of customer information, preferences, and feedback you can then mine to improve your business. And, best of all, launching an online contest can be very inexpensive.
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CMOs: Where Are You On Twitter?
Many CMOs are talking about Twitter--some even encourage employees to "tweet" on behalf of their employers--but despite all the talk among top marketing executives about the importance and potential of Twitter as a marketing and communications tool, few are using it regularly.
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RSS is the universal language of realtime
Point is, RSS is the universal language of realtime updates. The Plancast guys know it, they do UI and systems. The Times guys know it too -- they do news content, the other side of the equation. And everyone in both their industries knows it too. When you have something that's working so incredibly well you celebrate the fact that while no one was looking everyone was compatible. It's a fracking miracle.
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7 Social Media Roles You Haven’t Considered
When you think of social media roles, chances are you think of a community manager or the oh-so-generic “social media manager”, which is usually some function of the marketing department managing strictly social media programs. But there are loads of other potential roles that can integrate or represent social media alongside other business areas.
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Five Essential Twitter Features You Might Not Be Using
The hardcore early adopters of Twitter will remember a time when even the use of the @ symbol preceding a person's name was "homespun" - it wasn't built into the Twitter architecture in the way that it is now; rather, it was created by Twitter's users themselves, who spread the idea through the social network (and beyond). Now the use of an @ symbol preceding a person's name is seen everywhere from Twitter to Facebook to internet forums in general.
More here...
More here...
3 Things You Need to Know About Social Media Strategy
Companies large and small are rushing to understand and get involved in social media. But most of the agencies and consultants who are being paid to establish social media campaigns for corporations are afraid to tell their clients three things they don’t want to hear.
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Things You Should Know About Real-Time SEO
It's ok to say "no" to Twitter if that's your thing. There's a chance that it just doesn't fit into your strategy or help you achieve your goals. That's cool. However, if it is your thing, you may be interested in how Google ranks tweets. That is if search marketing is your thing.
January 14, 2010
Social Media Research And Trends: Do Top Brands Adopt And Use Social Media Tools?
As every year, Nora Ganim Barnes and Eric Mattson have released their groundbreaking research into the adoption of social media within the Inc. 500, the elite group of the fastest-growing companies within the United States. This is one of the first studies of corporate social media adoption with statistical significance, trying to get reliable answers to the following questions: 1) Are top US corporations adopting and using social media tools? 2) How much do they use them and how?
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125 Social Bookmarking Sites
The positive effects of social bookmarking for publishers of news sites, blogs and other web sites is outstanding. Social bookmarking can introduce the sites that you own or you like to others with relevant tastes, can drive traffic to your site, and valuable backlinks.
The full list here...
The full list here...
Design, timing and social media key to email marketers in 2010: report
As part of email marketing solutions provider StrongMail's latest Email Breakthrough Report, a team of email marketing veterans reviewed hundreds of recent email campaigns and came up with a list of trends that email marketers should be looking at in early 2010.
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Can your comments affect your credit? Yup.
Did you know that everything you and those in your network do and discuss online may be compiled and provided to creditors? If your settings are tuned to public, it's true. This includes your Facebook status updates, Twitter "tweets," joining online clubs, linking a Web site, and even posting a comment on a news blog (such as, well, this one).
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How to Measure Social Media Success
If a marketing campaign is to be successful, and repeated, it must be measured. How would you know if it was a success, or be worth repeating otherwise?
The fist step should be to ask "why"? The same question applies to any marketing campaign, be it search marketing, radio, television, or anything else. Why does this website exist? Why am I doing this and what result am I trying to achieve?
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The fist step should be to ask "why"? The same question applies to any marketing campaign, be it search marketing, radio, television, or anything else. Why does this website exist? Why am I doing this and what result am I trying to achieve?
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January 13, 2010
10 Tips for Becoming a Smarter, Social Business Person
The web is filled with social networks: We have Twitter for meeting new people, Facebook for old college buddies, and Bebo for those of us who don’t want to hang out with the mainstream. Those social networks are rarely viewed as corporate services — they’re relaxing at the end of a long workday, not playgrounds for more business activity. But I would argue that social networks provide value to a business person on several levels, whether it be for those furiously working each day in a cubicle or for others closing big deals on the golf course.
More here...
More here...
January 11, 2010
How Google collects data about you and the Internet
Google has, perhaps more than any other company, realized that information is power. Information about the Internet, information about innumerable trends, and information about its users, YOU.
So how much does Google know about you and your online habits? It’s only when you sit down and actually start listing all of the various Google services you use on a regular basis that you begin to realize how much information you’re handing over to Google.
This has, as these things tend to do, given rise to various privacy concerns. It probably didn’t help when Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, recently went on the record saying: “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”
Now let’s have a look at how Google is gathering information from you, and about you
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So how much does Google know about you and your online habits? It’s only when you sit down and actually start listing all of the various Google services you use on a regular basis that you begin to realize how much information you’re handing over to Google.
This has, as these things tend to do, given rise to various privacy concerns. It probably didn’t help when Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, recently went on the record saying: “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”
Now let’s have a look at how Google is gathering information from you, and about you
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The Rapid Evolution of Search
Over the past several weeks, leaders in the search industry launched an aggressive, very public series of campaigns designed to capture the elusive future of search mind and market share.
The accelerated evolution of “real-time” search, introduced to us mostly through the adoption of Summize, which was eventually acquired to now serve as Twitter search, inspired both Google and Bing to release new iterations of its search engine to now include live Twitter results. Bing also announced a deal with Facebook to include status updates and shared content that were intentionally earmarked for public consumption – although this is expected to go into effect at a later date.
The accelerated evolution of “real-time” search, introduced to us mostly through the adoption of Summize, which was eventually acquired to now serve as Twitter search, inspired both Google and Bing to release new iterations of its search engine to now include live Twitter results. Bing also announced a deal with Facebook to include status updates and shared content that were intentionally earmarked for public consumption – although this is expected to go into effect at a later date.
Can Facebook really help your business?
Research shows that Australian consumers want organisations to communicate with them through social media outlets such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. Yet many organisations are hesitant and feel unsure how to approach this new channel. How do you know what is right to communicate via YouTube or what to put on Twitter? Can Facebook really help your business?
January 10, 2010
20 Goals for Business Social Media Use
Think About Your Goals Before You Delve Into the Social Networks
By Chris Crum
I probably don't have to tell you that many businesses are still struggling with the concept of using social media. Many simply can't find a good reason to use it at all, and many more find themselves using it but struggling to validate that use. They can't find the ROI. They feel that too much time is being wasted. Basically, they're just using social networks because they feel like they're supposed to. They just want to keep up.
By Chris Crum
I probably don't have to tell you that many businesses are still struggling with the concept of using social media. Many simply can't find a good reason to use it at all, and many more find themselves using it but struggling to validate that use. They can't find the ROI. They feel that too much time is being wasted. Basically, they're just using social networks because they feel like they're supposed to. They just want to keep up.
The Business of Social Media: B2B and B2C Engagement by the Numbers
Within the B2B sector, among other things, social media is a growing and or pervasive program within a comprehensive, integrated communications and service strategy. In almost every scenario encountered, executives, marcom and service executives, and brand managers have generally assumed that social and interactive activities and programming were ideally best suited for consumer applications. However, as we recently explored, it’s not just business, it’s business-to-business.
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January 7, 2010
The Year In Facebook: The 10 Biggest Stories Of 2009
Just a few days after the start of the new year, we thought we’d take the opportunity to highlight the biggest Facebook stories of 2009. Whether it was the company surpassing 350 million users, fighting aggressive ad networks and developers on the Facebook platform, hosting the Obama inauguration, or one of the numerous other stories, Facebook had a busy year. Now valued at over $11 billion, Facebook is poised to have an amazing 2010, but before starting off this year’s news, we wanted to highlight the largest stories of last year.
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Anti-Social Media: A Rising Rebellion Against Web 2.0?
Want to wipe your online slate completely clean for 2010 and eliminate most traces of your social-media indiscretions? Now, there's an app for that. As highlighted by TechCrunch, the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine will do the dirty work for you: Just give it your passwords and watch it totally purge your social-media accounts at Facebook, LinkedIn and other such sites. This splash page that greets visitors to the Netherlands-based site tells it all.
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January 5, 2010
2009 In Social Media: A Cartoon Review
It was the okay-est of times, it was the meh-est of times.
From the election of the first American social media president... to a nod to social media from the mainstreamiest of mainstream media (Oxford Dictionary, for god's sake!)... it's been a big, tumultuous sprawling toddler of a year, prone to tantrums and potty accidents but adorable nonetheless.
Here, then, is 2009 the way it was meant to be remembered... in doodles.
See the video here or here on youtube
From the election of the first American social media president... to a nod to social media from the mainstreamiest of mainstream media (Oxford Dictionary, for god's sake!)... it's been a big, tumultuous sprawling toddler of a year, prone to tantrums and potty accidents but adorable nonetheless.
Here, then, is 2009 the way it was meant to be remembered... in doodles.
See the video here or here on youtube
Deep brand engagement correlates with financial performance
A research report wrote in conjunction withWetpaint called “ENGAGEMENTdb“ looked at how the 100 most valuable brands — as identified by the 2008 BusinessWeek/Interbrand Best Global Brands ranking — engaged in 11 different online social media channels.
We critiqued the brands on not only their breadth of engagement across these channels, but also their depth, such as whether they reply to comments made on blog posts. Each brand was given a numerical score. The top 10 ENGAGEMENTdb brands with their scores are:
- Starbucks (127)
- Dell (123)
- eBay (115)
- Google (105)
- Microsoft (103)
- Thomson Reuters (101)
- Nike (100)
- Amazon (88)
- SAP (86)
- Tie - Yahoo!/Intel (85)
10 Ways the Internet Will Change in 2010
Solid predictions for the Internet's continued evolution -- and how it will affect you.
Carolyn Duffy Marsan, NetworkWorldForty years after it was invented, the Internet is straining under the weight of cyber attacks, multimedia content and new mobile applications. In response, U.S. computer scientists are 
from IP addresses to routing tables. There are many views about how to fix the Internet's architecture, but there's widespread agreement about many aspects of the future Internet. Here's our list of 10 surefire bets for what the Internet will look like in a decade.
The Evolution of the Internet
from IP addresses to routing tables. There are many views about how to fix the Internet's architecture, but there's widespread agreement about many aspects of the future Internet. Here's our list of 10 surefire bets for what the Internet will look like in a decade.The Evolution of the Internet
January 4, 2010
Five examples of innovation with Twitter
Credible case studies or examples of how people in organizations successfully use social communication channels like Twitter to connect and engage with customers are gold dust to anyone looking to make a case in their own organization.
Five examples of innovation with Twitter
Five examples of innovation with Twitter
TopRank's Top Social SEO Posts of 2009
You don’t have to look far to find social media roundup posts this time of year. But what about the most effective one-two marketing punch for building community AND delivering conversions and ROI? Social Media and Search Engine Optimization – or “Social SEO” as we like to call it.
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January 3, 2010
Social Media Policies of 113 Organizations
With companies searching for and developing standards for social media usage, many of them have come up with social media policies of their own.
I’ve found that reviewing the policies of other companies is a worthwhile way to gauge how a company uses social media and their goals with social media. These also serve as case studies for ideas of the type of information that is included in a social media policy.
Following is a list of organizations and their respective social media guidelines. This is a list compiled by Chris Boudreaux at his Social Media Governance web site.
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I’ve found that reviewing the policies of other companies is a worthwhile way to gauge how a company uses social media and their goals with social media. These also serve as case studies for ideas of the type of information that is included in a social media policy.
Following is a list of organizations and their respective social media guidelines. This is a list compiled by Chris Boudreaux at his Social Media Governance web site.
More...
Twitter Follow Management With Stats
One of my “vacation” projects was to do some Twitter housecleaning. I needed to unfollow a lot of people who weren’t following me on one of my accounts. Twitter, as you know, provides no built-in options for filtering followers, mass unfollowing, or mass reciprocating (following people who follow you). When you get past a certain number of people, trying to manage followers through Twitter can make you want to scream.
More here
More here
Social Media: Making Relationships
Social media is a term used to define a collective assembly of web properties such that its contents are published not by the direct employees of that property but by its users. The Web properties comprise of videos, pictures, audio and words. It is an association of interaction, networking and technology that is what social media is about. Social media these days is the best tool to create reputation, responsiveness and credibility. No wonder it is one of the best means to generate profit for any small or big business. Many people and companies have quite an outstanding commercial scenario because of social media.
More here...
More here...
January 1, 2010
How Social Media and the Web Helped Avatar Make $1 Billion
The Simulcam and Fusion 3D camera inventions were not the only technologies that made James Cameron’s Sci-Fi epic Avatar a massive box office success. While smaller films have used social media to spread the word guerrilla-style, no other major blockbuster has employed a full-on social web marketing assault quite like Avatar.
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How Facebook Dominated in 2009
To most observers, 2009 marked the year Twitter conquered the world. Yet it wasn’t the only social media company that grew like wildfire. There’s another that grew even more rapidly, adding over 200 million new users and raising $200 million dollars — double that of Twitter’s most recent round.
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What Type Of Social Media Engagement Is Right For Your Brand?
In a post that addresses the communications professionals' new understanding that there is a need to engage customers within social media, Clark Fredricksen of the eMarketer blog asks "What type of social media engagement is right for your brand?"
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