'Tweet Five years ago, Dell had little presence on social media. That changed when the computer company realized 4,000 conversations about the brand were happening online every single day and the company was not present. In fact, one in 12 of Dell’s more than 105,000 employees have attended its Social Media & Community University , which encompasses up to 12 hours of training on how to best represent Dell online. In addition, Social Outreach Services, a team representing 14 languages, actively monitors and participates in social media. MORE >>

Innovation is alive and well in the development of cool free and low-cost web-based tools and apps. It’s great to find a tool that automates some little process or provides a new capability you’ve been looking for, and fun to find a tool you didn’t even know you needed. Manage all of your social media accounts from a single login on your iPhone? Make more productive use of your time on social networking sites? There’s an app for that—or cool web tool. Cool Social Media Tools. Storefront Social. MORE >>

Social media and inbound marketing techniques have been a boon for marketers. Not only do leads generated through social and content marketing cost half as much as traditional outbound-generated leads (see below), they also close at higher rate (again, see below). And social media isn’t just about lead generation of course. While prospective buyers are using search and social to research products and services before making purchase decisions, marketers and PR professionals can use those same tools to research buyer wants and needs. Which U.S. MORE >>

the sources below provide a vast wealth of data, statistics and research results, as well as a bit of interesting social media trivia. How are consumers and b2b decision makers using social media in their buying processes? Which social media platforms are most effective at influencing buyer behavior? How do the audiences differ across various social networks? How do social media marketing strategies in small businesses differ from those in larger enterprises? Social Media Facts and Stats. by Social Media Today. MORE >>

Social media marketing has gone well beyond the hype stage and is now mainstream business practice. Still, questions remain: how do I use social media most effectively across the enterprise? Which social media monitoring tools should I use? What social media developments and trends should I be watching? And of course, there’s the ongoing social media ROI debate : how do I measure this? Can social media ROI really be measured? Social Media Strategy and Best Practices. What to do? MORE >>