LinkedIn just announced their earnings last week for the first time since going public, and it was good to see that their membership (now at 115 million members) and website traffic (#11 in the U.S., #13 in the world) continue to grow. When I wrote my first LinkedIn book back in early 2009, LI was at 40 million users and had not yet established itself as the default social networking platform for professionals that it has become. Beyond mere networking, however, in 2011 there is now a compelling case to be made for us to rethink how we view LinkedIn …
read more
When I taught my first Twitter workshops back in 2009, I mentioned one of the many reasons why I was bullish from the start about using HootSuite as a Twitter client: It gave you the ability to seamlessly import RSS feeds. At that time, I mentioned that this was efficient for your blog content, although now I would say since you spent 2 hours (at least I do!) to create a blog post, you might as well spend a minute or two to customize your tweet to promote it. However, I also told those in the workshop that, should they …
read more
As Twitter grows to encompass almost 200 million users and businesses display almost as many Twitter icons as Facebook icons on their websites, you’d think that companies are starting to figure out how to better utilize Twitter to inform and truly engage with the public. While there are success stories of businesses on Twitter who are finding their own path in social media, it still amazes me as to how many ways businesses can improve upon their Twitter presence and stop making the common mistakes I often see. As I prepare to present at a virtual conference put on by …
read more
As we head into 2011, it’s best to take a look back at the top 25 social media marketing blog posts of 2010 and see what we can glean to help us in the new year. Social media is fascinating in that the way we utilize these sites, and the functionality of these sites, is always changing. Therefore, as social media marketers, we always need to be staying ahead of the curve of not only the latest changes in the world of social media, but also what the thought leaders are saying about social media marketing. The algorithm I used …
read more
Since Facebook is where Americans spend more time than anywhere else on the Internet, our needs as social media marketers as well as professionals to stay on top of the latest trends in 2010 regarding the social media gorilla are as important as ever. While I limited my similar top blog posts on Twitter and LinkedIn to 20, so many people had so much resourceful information to provide on FB that I felt the need to expand this blog post to include the top 30 most useful articles this year. Because Facebook gives anyone the ability to create a mini-web …
read more
Although Facebook and Twitter always steal the social media spotlight, 2010 should be remembered as the year where LinkedIn accelerated development and released a plethora of new applications, features, and functionality to their platform for professionals. While many complain of the ever-increasing restrictions and some question the validity of potentially keyword-stuffed search results on the professional networking platform, it is clear that LinkedIn is following a path of sticking to its roots as a trusted network built upon relationships while always looking for creative ways to generate additional revenue and traffic from new sources. If you haven’t kept up with …
read more
It’s that time of year where I look back at all of the changes that happened in social media and choose those best blog posts that you want to make sure you read. I’m going to start with Twitter for my 2010 best of lists, and I think you’ll be happy with the mix of resourceful blog posts that were published that cover both tips for beginners as well as business-related and insightful analytical posts for intermediate and/or experts. Of course the biggest functionality added to the realtime platform was its new user interface, so I have made sure to …
read more
It seems like only yesterday when I was blogging about the top 15 recommended social media books of 2009, but here we are ending out 2010. And what a year 2010 has been: The rise of Facebook to become a dominating (and sometimes threatening) force globally, Twitter becoming a mainstream realtime communication platform embraced by older generations, and even LinkedIn adding various functionalities throughout the year to continue to remain relevant as the default social network for professionals. Popularity in location-based applications such as FourSquare also skyrocketed this year. And if 2009 was the year in which companies were still …
read more
While recent social media conversations tend to be about Facebook and Twitter, I find that many professionals and businesses aren’t maximizing their LinkedIn presence. There are many that simply don’t know what else they can be doing on the platform, while others still believe in some of the many common fallacies about the social networking platform for professionals that exist. Social media is a tool, and you can only leverage the tool by thinking outside of the box and applying it to your situation. Believing in what you hear about any social media platform, without taking the initiative and experimenting …
read more
It’s not easy being a social media consultant these days. Between the bashing of some social media “experts” and the viral what the **** is my social media strategy blog, you’d think that every social media “guru” is a quack. I thought it was about time to clear the air and stick up for my profession and the need for our existence, and I am glad to see that Shannon Paul just did something similar by writing an excellent blog post on why we still need real social media strategists. Yes, there are professionals with years of successful sales, marketing, …
read more
