Some interesting and provocative stats. What we say to businesses however is that they to develop a strategy and a systematic approach to harness the power of social media.

Advice From Some Leading American Social Media Practitioners

Some good tips in this Techcrunch video that ties in with what we preach at Bua Consulting. Start with the business, its strategy and objectives before you even think of the tools....

According to research done by Nielsen in October 2009, Australians spend the most time on social networks.

This was reported on in detail in Economist 30 January 2010.



For an interview with the Economist reporter Martin Giles click below.
 

Great video from Socialnomics author Eric Qualman with some thoughtprovoking stats on Social Media

Visit our Social Media Page for more...

Some good information on blogging contained in this presentation. As expected  it's not a way to get rich quick! IT takes passion, time and commitment just like everything else!

Technorati SOTB 2009 -

by Mike E. Belicove

Social networking sites and services such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have followed the same path to the business world that blogs did only a couple years ago: They're all online hangouts that evolved into sophisticated branding, lead generation and sales tools for business. And with the right approach, they are an ideal way to quickly--and cheaply--promote your startup:

Facebook offers several applications and advertising solutions for promoting your website, products and services. For example, you can create a free group based on any topic and invite customers and Facebook members to join. Group content, which is usually created by Facebook members, lacks hard-core marketing messages and makes a strong soft-sell tool.

Creating a Facebook page for your company means you can share information about your business with Facebook's 220 million members. As they interact with your page, stories linking to your profile are shared with their friends--so news about your business can go viral.

You can also pay for premium advertising, which allows you to target those who are the best match for your brand. For information about paid advertising and other business solutions (many are still free), click the advertising link at the bottom of any Facebook page.

I recommend starting with a Facebook page that can function as your home base, then expanding from there.

On Twitter, instant messaging meets social networking as members share what they're doing right now. Each post or "tweet" is limited to 140 characters, and can be done via computer, cell phone or desktop app like Seesmic.

Tweets have a short shelf life, so don't expect them to drive substantial sales or replace a website or blog. Twitter is better for company announcements, spotting trends, conducting polls and posting on new products, services and in-the-moment specials. Visit Twitter.com to get started, and remember to include strong calls to action in your tweets.

LinkedIn provides a more traditional platform for business networking and is more useful for business-to-business relationships and harvesting talent. You can create a company profile to use as a research tool that helps other LinkedIn users "find the right companies to work for and do business with." Are you Socially Acceptable?

Most social networks enable you to integrate your website or blog, to some degree, with the network. On Facebook, for example, you can use the "connect" feature (on the advertising page) to connect your startupís site to a memberís Facebook account.

For LinkedIn, you can add a button to your website or blog that will let visitors click to your profile. Just go to LinkedIn, click Edit My Profile, then Edit Public Profile Settings. Under Public Profile, click Customized button to access HTML code to put into your website or blog.

To link to Twitter, simply add a Twitter button to your site that links to your Twitter URL. Google "twitter button" to find a good selection.

Mikal E. Belicove is a market positioning, social media and management consultant specializing in website usability and business blogging.

http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/technology/article/use-social-media-to-elevate-your-companys-online-cred-mikal-e-belicove

Over the last number of years, social media companies, and the tools they have developed, have received ever increasing column inches in the business press. It seems when real news is sparse business columns get used up telling us how the latest social media tool is being used by a large company or a quirky celebrity to do something fuzzy like generate awareness or grow their brand.

Naturally as an internet advisory company, these articles are of interest to us and we are constantly trying out the new technologies mentioned. However when we discuss social media tools with our clients they are not interested in hearing about the new features the latest social media tool offers. Small business wants to know one thing: how can social media add value to my business. The problem with articles on social media is that they don’t address the issues of delivering value to business.

Thankfully this area of the internet is maturing and we are starting to see the emergence of some approaches that promise to deliver value from social media.

The first thing to recognise is that every business is different, with different products and services, and even more importantly with different customers, with different behaviours. To get value from social media a company needs to begin with this understanding.

Forrester Research outlines a simple framework for implementing social media in its latest book “Groundswell”. It is called POST which stands for People, Objectives, Strategy, Technology. This is an approach we favour.

People: Begin all social media initiatives by analysing the people. What is your target market? How are your customers segmented? Once you know who they are you can start to understand how they interact on the internet and with social media in particular? Forrester Research has developed a social technographic s ladder to describe customer behaviour in relation to social media. It recognises six types of profiles: creators, critics, collectors, joiners, spectators and inactives. You need to understand where your customers fit on the ladder. This will tell you whether they are ready to embrace a social media initiative and, if so, how they are likely to engage with it.
Objectives: What are the business objectives of the social media initiative? Are you looking to build your brand? Do you want to listen to what your customers have to say? Are you looking to generate sales via social media? Forrester lays out five key objectives of social media (all related to interaction with the customer): listening, talking, energising, supporting and embracing.
Strategy: What is your strategy? How do you want to change your relationship with customers as a result of social media? Every business will have different strategies. However every business should have a strategy and a tactical plan outlining how you are going to achieve this strategy?
Technology: Interestingly, and as with all good technology projects, the technology comes last! Only when you know what you want to do with the technology should you begin implementing it. As with all technology implementations, have a good process to ensure you choose the right technology provider and implementer (we recommend developing a functional specification matrix, or at the very least a simple decision matrix (see http://www.bua-tools.com/decision_matrix/).

In conclusion, The POST approach will ensure organisations adopt a business oriented approach to social media that will ensure value is delivered to the organisation. For more on Social Media and the forrester tools outlined above visit www.buaconsulting.com/social_media