A lot of PR firms are stating that they have social media capabilities and can help develop your strategy in this arena. So I thought, how many are actually practicing what they’re preaching?   I decided to see which PR firms were actively participating in social media.

This technique was also used to generate the Hot Trends in B2B Marketing for 2009 . Top 80 Posts - December 1, 2008 to November 30, 2009 How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy - WebMarketCentral , March 24, 2009 Would YOU Trust a PR Agency Not Involved in Social Media with YOUR Social Media Programs? It’s always fun at this time of the year to look back at what’s happened in the world of B2B Marketing .  We are happy to announce the Top Posts as defined by Social Filtering - meaning by everyone involved directly or indirectly. 

With social media and digital marketing come the challenge of creating trust without the usual face-to-face interactions. Trust is one of those words that business people bandy around like it just happens. But, just what is trust? According The adage of "People buy from people they know and trust" is one used a lot to try and point out that companies need to humanize themselves to relate to their customers. If someone asked you, could you tell them?

What is it that makes me -- and your potential buyers -- trust one company more than another when viewing a website? But, having a clearly-written website also inspires trust with me as it gives me the feeling that you a) know your business and, b) haven't simply repurposed existing content to go on your website. When a company has a good handle on this and presents it well, it makes me trust them because I feel like they understand the market (and the need I've been doing a number of competitive analyses for clients, which means I've been spending a lot of time looking at websites.

by Social Media Today Crystal King reports that a Forrester survey from the second quarter of 2008 found that only 16% of readers of company blogs trusted them. She notes, however, that more recent research indicates that both readership of and trust in blogs is increasing. Crytal emphasizes the importance of building up trust with corporate blog readers, and concludes "Bottom line, if your company isn’t blogging, How can you attract more traffic to your blog? Generate more comments?

11 Reasons You Can’t Ignore Social Media in 2009 by Digital Labz Social media now has wide adoption as a marketing and PR tool, but for those still reluctant to use tools like blogs, video, LinkedIn and Twitter for marketing, Eric Brantner offers almost a dozen reasons to get started, such as "social media is gaining trust," it's fast, it's passionate, and it's free (at least the tools are for the most part). Study: Company Blogs Lead Social Media Options by MediaPost Mark Walsh reports that " blogging (is) the most important lead-generation source among social media options, followed by

There has been quite a bit of discussion from the original post and on a post by Jeremiah Owyang titled “Walking the Talk: Some Agencies and Vendors Demonstrate Social Media Prowess,” . I honestly didn’t think that my initial effort would generate such discussion, which I think provides a lot of fodder for thought.  

2009 was about learning social media. Looking back at the 2009 predictions published in this space last year, I think we have a long way to go. Simon Payn Marketers will get more feisty and opinionated in their content to build trust with their best prospects and clients. If you are looking to protect and market your brand, focus on engaging your customers with content that Some things amaze me, like this year's social media and content marketing predictions list.  0160; What does one sent email and two tweets equal? 

Without having something to add to the customer conversation, how is it possible to leverage social media tools where you can help guide the conversation and position your brand/company as a trusted advisor ? It's about creating valuable, relevant and compelling content on a consistent basis that positions your brand as the trusted expert to your customers. Get Content Get Customers is just hitting bookstores now ( you can read the news release from McGraw-Hill here ). When Newt and I first started putting the book together in late 2007, content marketing was a relatively

In 2009, most small businesses do have websites and the term, ‘content marketing,’ has gone from obscure to fashionable. Establish as a primary content marketing goal to become a trusted source of information for your target buyers. Trust is the all important element that can transform prospects who were initially skeptical into long-term customers who have faith that you can and will deliver results for them time after time. How to go from clueless to compelling to transform prospects into buyers In 2007, the mention of content marketing brought as many blank stares