The authors argue that the influence of media in general, and social media in particular, is greatly overrated. In the mainstream media world, audience was associated with influence because we had few tools to understand the true dynamics of decision-making. The danger of this approach is that social media is more about quality than quantity. advertising influence mainstream media marketing PR Influencer Marketing Klout Radian6 Seth Godin Topaz Partnersit also got me several e-mails from companies that claim to have built a better mousetrap than Klout. MORE >>

Buddy Media uses it to capture leads , as does e-mail marketing provider Infusionsoft. EMC has several FBML pages, including a list of its other social media accounts and a game you can play only after liking the page. Sodexo is a master of using social media for recruitment. This company’s entire recruiting effort  – it hires about 5000 people in the US every year – is built on social media. In my work with B2B organizations, the question of how to use Facebook is invariably front and center. Let’s look at some examples of what they do well. MORE >>

advertising communities influence Social Media social networks business 2.0 Scott Wright is the general manager of the Wyndham Wingate Hotel in Erlanger, KY, and in a 15-minute ride to the airport yesterday morning he taught me something about the future of business. The fact that the manager of the hotel was driving me to the airport was unusual in the first place, but Wright makes it part of his routine. “I try to get out of the office at least a couple of times a week and connect with the customers,&# he said. Customer service is number two. Scan the excerpted customer comments. MORE >>

attended a nearby Social Media Breakfast on the subject of content marketing, featuring several respected speakers. A list of tips for building a quality business Twitter following that I recently contributed to The CMO Site mentioned the value of being the eyes and ears of your followers. When you attend a conference, play reporter and tell your followers what you’re witnessing,” I advised. An experience from this morning demonstrates the value of what amounts to sharing notes you would probably take anyway. Within an hour after the event had ended I had 26 new followers. SMB26”. MORE >>

I was privileged to be on a panel with some outstanding social media practitioners from the insurance industry at the 2011 Social Media Conference for Financial Services put on by LOMA LIMRA this morning. This morning’s audience of about 100 social media practitioners truly believe in the value of new platforms to reach their customers, although they have understandable concerns about the many regulations that govern what they can say. His  advice to social media marketers: “Think big. John Hancock had no social media strategy at time. With 1.3 MORE >>