Find ways to let consumers take the actions that help them personally or professionally and that enrich their online lives. What if they were all spending the same resources and money trying to find valuable ways to serve consumers through their Facebook pages and blogs, ways to help consumers meet their own online goals and enrich their own relationships with one another.  By Neicole Crepeau, Contributing {grow} Columnist. Facebook is seeing a decline in use. Studies show that users are un-Liking business pages. The thing is, it’s our own fault. Sure, there are exceptions. MORE >>

The company solicited help from four scrapbook fanatics who demonstrate their love of crafting — and the tools they use — with this customer-generated content. My reaction to most company blogs: “Blah, Blah and Double Blah!&#. recently taught a class on corporate blogging at the amazing social media marketing graduate program at Rutgers University.  In my research for the class, I pored through hundreds of websites looking for examples of the best company blogs in the world. IBM, SAP and Oracle are examples of innovative and remarkable blogs. Think again. Starbucks. MORE >>

Yet, as an educator teaching electronic marketing at the collegiate level I owe it to my students to introduce them to every and any concept that will help them land an internship or fulltime job. By the way: this may also help them land an internship. 1) Improvement to Klout scores that will help students during job application screening, 2) Hands-on experience engaging with others via social media by using specific functionality within different social sites. By Todd Bacile, Florida State University. Klout matters to employers. And here is an inescapable fact. Tweet. MORE >>

In fact, the biggest brands are establishing social media “war rooms&# to monitor sentiment and help customers. A Facebook site for US government agencies. I’ve had the honor of providing business strategy consultation recently to a UK agency and in the process became immersed in current uses of social media in government. learned so much that I considered a five-part series on the topic, but one post will have to do for now! Let’s see if you agree. Here are five significant and fascinating trends … 1) The cry for transparency. Secretary of State. Government. MORE >>

I’ve been honored to be selected to help judge a global company’s internal social media competition. Why does every social media strategy seemingly start with a company cajoling people to come “like” their Facebook page? This post will explain why that is usually a bad strategy if you are aiming at creating long-term, loyal customers. Entries were submitted from all over the country as their locations put forward their best shots at social media gold. There were some interesting entries, even some very good ones, but they all had one thing in common. Tweet. MORE >>