Social Media Resources

Submitted by Karen on 11 Jul 2010

Did you Know:

If Facebook were a country, it would be the fourth most populated country in the world with over 400 million users. At this rate, there will be 630 million Facebook users by 2011.

By a long shot, Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn and Facebook are the top four social media tools used by marketers, with Twitter leading the pack
81% of all marketers* indicated that their social media efforts have generated exposure for their businesses
A significant percentage of survey participants* strongly agreed that overall marketing costs dropped when social media marketing was implemented
34% of bloggers post opinions about products and brands...what are they saying about YOUR brand?
24 of the 25 largest newspapers are experiencing record declines in circulation

Here are some resources to help you with your Social Media integration

Twitter

Twitter is a microblogging site that allows users to "tweet" information. Updates, questions, answers can all be sent out as "tweets" and by making for use of the @ and # tags information can be targetted to individuals or groups. Check us out @flightcrewfind (http://www.twitter.com/flightcrewfind)

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking site that was originally introduced to connect University students. It connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them and has recently moved into highly targetted advertising that in some instances is out performing google. See this article for more details. See Flight Crew Finder's facebook page for examples

Create a professional network of trusted contacts and gives you an advantage to your competitors. LinkedIn exists to help you make better use of your professional network and help the people you trust in return. Their mission is to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful. They believe that in a global connected economy, your success and your competitiveness as a company depends upon faster access to insight and resources you can trust.

You can also use tools such as TweetDeck, HootSuite etc to manage all your social media feeds (twitter, facebook, linkedin etc)

Four Square

Foursquare aims to encourage people to explore their neighborhoods and then reward people for doing so. We do this by combining our friend-finder and social city guide elements with game mechanics — our users earn points, win Mayorships and unlock badges for trying new places and revisiting old favorites.

FeedBurner

FeedBurner allows you to track the amount of subscribers to your feeds to see how relevan they are to your community. Incorporate advertisements into feeds

Disqus

Disqus is a global comment system that improves discussion on websites and connects conversations across the web.

Google Alerts

Follow what people are saying about you on the web. Sign up to be alreted on keywords as people talk about them on the web.

Second Life

Second Life is a free 3D virtual world where users can socialize, connect and create using free voice and text chat. Set up your virtual business and engage in business that crosses the boundaries or virtual and real world. Many businesses are starting to open up stores in Second Life and some real life tech sector recruitement has already taken place in the virtual world.

YouTube

YouTube is a place to discover, watch, upload and share videos. Many companies now have their own "Channels" where they share videos of their products with customers. It is also the main platform for the delivery of "viral marketting" campaigns. See this one that inadvertantly marketted Mentos Mints and Diet Coke.

Flickr

Flickr is almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application on the web. Show off your favorite company photos and videos to the world and let people share their photos with you.

There are many many more and once you start with Social Media you will find that you want to learn more. If you would like to see more articles on Social Media please vote on the poll here.

In the meantime keep track of the latest Social Media developments:

Mashable

Social Media news blog covering cool new websites and social networks: Facebook, Google, Twitter, MySpace and YouTube. The latest web technology news specialising in Socila Media.