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There have been a lot of social media efforts I’ve seen latley that just don’t cut it. It’s a really obvious problem that gets neglected when social media outlets become buzz words on the evening news. Usually it starts out something like this:

Boss: Hey! I heard about this Tweety or Twitter or something like that on the news last night, are we on that?
Marketing Head: Ummm no.
Boss: Well we should be, get us an account ASAP!

First of all, before I get negative, it’s great that companies are trying to stay current with marketing trends. Ugh, I hate that word, trends. That’s really the wrong word for this. Marketing Fashion is a more appropriate term, or maybe marketing fads. If there is one thing to remember about the internet, it’s that it is constantly changing. While Twitter is vogue right now, the shelf life in indeterminate. We can sit and debate how long Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, etc. have to last or we can approach everything with the same question: How can we use this to leverage our company?

Are you ready for some internet marketing blasphemy? Some companies don’t and/or shouldn’t have Twitter. The reality of Twitter, and social media outlets is that it’s addictive. We might go out there as internet marketers to post a new ad, or to tweet about a cool new company product… but then you get sucked into the vortex of poking that attractive person you met at the networking event last week or retweeting that hilarious YouTube video. Which is a really quick way to get fired because internet marketers have a lot of legitimate work. So you think, I know… hire some college kid to do some tweeting for the company. Ok, great, but now you have someone else doing the exact same thing and wasting a whole lot of time and money.

If you can’t answer the question, how can we use this to leverage our company? Don’t do it! Better yet, look at ways you can actually use things to leverage for the company! Traditional marketing, or what I like to call “dumb marketing” like a dumb bomb is a lot of “drop from a plane and hope it hits its target.” Dumb Marketing is the same approach, the flashy ads, the billboards, the TV commercials, etc. Create a big enough presence and eventually that translates to sales. And look, it’s proven, it has worked for eons and that’s great. There’s a big problem with that, it’s costly and it the actual sales generated isn’t all that great considering how many people see an ad.

So, again, how can we use social media to leverage our company. If you’re a traditional marketer your probably think of this word as “incentive” but internet marketers call it engagement. You need to create incentive, or engagement with your social media efforts. If you don’t give your followers something to tweet about then fire the college intern you hired to tweet because you’re wasting time and money. Besides, interns are supposed to learn something and teaching someone how to twitter takes 30 seconds. As marketing differs between industries I will leave you with the same question: How can we use social media to leverage our company? Stop thinking about following the fashion and try to think about why social media is such a buzzword. I’ll give you two big hints, it’s the data and the interaction.

I’m not sure I buy into Jon Friedman’s approach to Facebook. He thinks Facebook (and Twitter) is for journalists because they can source people. Sure they can, and I can source Wikipedia for my term paper. The problem is that it just isn’t enough. I’d like a little more investigation from supposedly credited news papers like the Wall Street Journal than quotes captured from status updates and tweets.

Why? Because I’m sick of “Buy the rumor, sell the news” mentality of media outlets. You’ve no doubt heard, don’t believe everything you read. Part of that is because of the media. If you missed the humiliation of Jim Cramer on the Daily Show, you missed one of the greatest televised humiliations of a news personality in recent memory. Jon Stewart held Jim Cramers’ feet to the fire and had such indisputable evidence of Cramer’s fraud that even Cramer couldn’t deny it.

Facebook is an invaluable tool for journalists though. For the same reason it’s a invaluable tool for the rest of us, networking. So is Twitter, LinkedIn, and so on. It’s about networking, not about news. There might be some truth in tweets and status messages, but dig a little deeper than that. Just like there is valuable information in Wikipedia, but go to the source, don’t solely rely on the Wiki. So Journalists, join Facebook, Tweet away, but when it comes to the news, “Just the facts, Jack!’

In the past month or so at least 4 executives have branched out from both Google and MySpace. If you know what it’s like to work at Google you have to wonder what they are thinking. Apparently, it’s that they think they can do social networking better. Most recently, three executives from MySpace, including Amit Kapur, left MySpace to join a start up. It seems a little crazy to ditch a well paying job in this economy but you gotta do what you gotta do.

The biggest question it sparks, is just how much social networking can we take? Isn’t the social networking market pretty well saturated? Between MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and many other sites what are the odds for social networking startups to succeed?

One of these start-ups is Likaholix. Started by a former Googler, Likaholix seems to be a Twitter like item for products and media. The idea is that you make suggestions for things that you like and people comment it and favorite on it. It is still in private beta, so to say it is a tad undercooked is being pretty accurate.

[Read] Total Telecom Three MySpace execs quit, including COO
[Read] Mashable Why Googlers Are Leaving to Start Social Sites

To the non-corporate user (IE, most of us) the most noticeable changes will come in the form of the visuals. Both the Facebook “homepage” and corporate pages are changing to become more personable. Now those pages that you are a fan of will look less corporate and more like your buddy. Also good news for you super friendly types, no more cap on 5000 friends.

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Twidroid: If you’re a twitter’er and you’re in love with your T-Mobile G1, there is no better Twitter Application than Twidroid. Although the name might take a little tongue twisting to get out the program rocks. It allows you to upload geo-tagged photos and customize how frequently you want to check for updates, or even on demand. This is actually crucial because the G1 isn’t exactly what you would call long on battery life.

The Weather Channel: Waiting for summer is brutal. The Weather Channel app lets you check weather in multiple locations so, since it’s 30 degrees and snowing here, I can at least pretend I’m in Hawaii. The application also loads radar maps so you can prepare for the snow and rain. A frequent worry if you’re in Ohio this time of year.

SnapPhoto: The G1 camera is…. horrid. If it isn’t a bright sunny day, it usually isn’t worth trying to take a picture, until SnapPhoto. SnapPhoto offers a plethora of customization and filters. The biggest helper for non-fuzzy photo taking is the stabilization feature. It uses the G1’s accelerometer to judge when the most stable time to take the picture is.

GPS Status: Nothings more frustrating than watching the GPS satellite icon blink… and blink… and blink. THe GPS Status program shows you how many satellites you’re connected to, the speed you’re moving, latitude and longitude and more. Quite a handy application.

Shop Savvy: We’ve all been there, tempted to buy this or that but wondering if you could get it somewhere else cheaper. Shop Savvy lets you scan items using the camera and bar code, searches local stores and the web for the product and even gives you reviews. Never over pay again. The only catch is that most smaller products aren’t really in there.

There’s a few reasons why you want people to follow you on Twitter. The first and most vain reason is that it gives you the impression people care about you. That may or may not be true, but there are genuinely valid reasons. Among them is increasing brand awareness, either the company you work for or the “you” brand. Sometimes it can be tricky to get people to follow you but there are some things that you can do to increase the odds.

1. Follow those who follow you. Nobody likes to give and not receive. If someone takes the time to follow you, follow them back. For the simple reason that it increase the chance they will stick with you and not drop you a few days later.

2. Follow Others With a Larger Following. There’s a really quick way to gain at least 5 followers in one day. On Twitter, go to Find People, then Suggested Users and follow all of those people. You don’t have to keep following these people, but you will be surprised how many people you might gain.

3. Post often on a wide range of topics. I did a little experiment the other day and posted at least every 15-30 minutes for 6 hours. This combined with No. 2 netted me 20 extra followers in 1 day. Remember though, quality counts. Sharing links, quotes, and videos are all better than “just refreshing my Twitter feed because I’m bored.” Although shaking things up a bit good, nobody wants to know boring details.

4. Email/Facebook/LinkedIn/Blog etc. Adding your twitter feed to your email signature, integrating it with your Facebook status or profile and LinkedIn profile are all ways of exposing your feed to new viewers. Integrating your blog to update your Twitter status keeps new (and possibly original) content of your

5. Comment, ReTweet, Reply. Every time I get a reply from Guy Kawasaki I swear at least one other person follows me. The catch is, to get Guy to reply, I have to comment on something he does. It helps to actually mean what you say, if it’s obvious you’re just trolling the waters of someone else’s twit success then they probably won’t reply. Don’t forget, the reason these people are followed is because they have something of value to give and provide interesting content. You should provide value if you expect people you don’t know to follow you.

Recently, the Department of Health and Human Services made its way on to twitter and social networking to address the concerns of the salmonella in peanut butter. As the line between what is and isn’t tainted keeps getting skewed, peanut fans and concern parents can follow Department of Health and Human Services to keep up to date with the issues. If you are concerned and a social networking fan the CDC, the government agency has a made efforts to take part if a wide variety of social networking sites.

The CDC and HHS aren’t the only government agency or people using Twitter. Of course our President is one of the most famous Twitter users, but he isn’t the only one. Social Butterfly has an extensive list of Agencies, Senators and other Government Officials using Twitter. In this case, it’s not an insult to say the government is full of twits.

Advertising Age: How Government Is Using Social Media to Respond to Citizens
The Center for Disease Control: Social Media Tools for Consumers and Partners
USA.gov: Social Networks and Government

When you’re starting a site and trying to get noticed there are a few tips you can use to get yourself noticed other than just buying a domain and getting started.

First things first, content is king. Especially if you are a blog. Write often, write smart, and stick to your niche. I’m going to try to stay relevant to eMarketing on this blog, but like many of use there are other things I like. Depending on your blog you might be able to switch topics every once and awhile, but try not to loose focus. You should be concerned with posting a bit, even though it seems like a daunting task. For personal blogs, at least a post a day, but if it’s just you, shoot for 3-5. Considering blogs like Autoblog, Engadget and others probably have somewhere between 20-30 posts per day, you have stiff competition. If you’re worried about keeping up don’t forget not everything you write has to be specifically for your blog, reuse school papers or work research if it is relevant.

Social Networking:
If you blog the first thing you should get going is Twitter, because it’s the easiest. If you have already established a Twitter account and have many followers this is great. It’s a built in readership. Not everyone will read, but some will. If you use WordPress like I do, there is a plug in called TwitterTools that automatically plugs in the title and shrinks the url to a tinyurl and posts it to my twitter feed. If you aren’t using Wordpress there is TwitterFeed which allows you to use your RSS feed to accomplish the same thing. Post a link to your twitter account and wait for people to follow you. Voila! It’s that easy.

If you are doing this for professional reasons don’t forget to update your resume, LinkedIn Profile, or any other pages where you want to market yourself with the web address. Other options include putting it in your email signature and business cards. If you use Facebook, MySpace or any other social networking sites, don’t forget about those either. Your friends might pass along your site too!

There’s something that I have purposefully left out so far, and that is search engines. It’s pretty important to get listed on but it’s a much bigger topic than this. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an industry unto itself. Thus, it is a topic for itself and to be discussed another day.

There are some other things you can try to get the ball rolling too. Consider creating a “fan” page for your blog or product on Facebook. It’s free and it allows you to reach out to more people without doing too much work. It also gives you the ability to proactively interact with your fans. You can also @ your Twitter fans occasionally just to show them you’re alive and not a blogging robot.

These are just the basics, but good foundations for getting started. As you get into the habit of blogging, and trying to generate page hits you will notice what does and doesn’t work.