Top 100 Best Social Media Books, Ever

When somebody takes the time to put together such an exhaustive list, it is time to defer to their research and wisdom and share the link:

Jurgen Appelo's Top 100 Social Media Books, Ever

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Social Media Optimization Can Lead To Monetiziation

I stumbled upon a post about "Social Media Optimization Rules" over at the Open Circle Blog, who drew their inspiration from the Online Marketing Blog. There are some very, very good points about how to build community in the social media realm. I highly recommend reading the post if you want brief pointers on increasing traffic and entrenching yourself in established online communities. With that said, I think we can take it a step further and talk about monetizing social media efforts after they've been optimized.

There is no doubt that the more traffic and reach you have in social media, the more likely it is that you are to be able to monetize your efforts. It isn't as simple as getting increasing traffic though. Optimization is the process of leveraging that community and traffic. There are a number of ways to do this:

• Ad Sense: This is the simplest form of monetization. Google has enabled this program to be embedded in any website. More clicks on that advertisment by your community means more money for you.
• Sponsors: Companies both large and small are always looking for ways to reach their target audiences. There is no doubt that your social media niche will appeal to at least one company if not more. Either they will find you, or you can proposition them to buy banner space on your site, write a sponsored tweet, evaluate a product/service and much more.
  
• Events and Contests: Being the trusted source that you are for your community, you can create and promote an online contest that will benefit your readers and you at the same time. Raffling off a MacBook Pro, t-shirt design contests, organizing an online marathon and many other options allow you to provide engaging content for you readers while potentially making some money for you.
  

Social media should be what you want it to be. If you want to develop a community to share and build relationships, by all means stick with that. If you want to monetize your social media efforts, just don't forget that you are absolutely able to do so in a number of ways.

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Healthcare Reform Broadcast Through Social Media

It is well documented that President Obama used social throughout his campaign to develop an army of active, highly engaged individuals. Now that President Obama is in office, he hasn't forgotten the communication tools that helped garner him so much support. As the Los Angeles Times reported,

The White House blasted links to the package out to more than 300,000 fans on Facebook and more than 900,000 on Twitter today. It also sent an e-mail acknowledging "scare tactics" being used to bash the programs. A few hours later, users of the social news site Digg voted Reality Check to the site's homepage. That potentially exposes Reality Check to millions of eyeballs.

I don't think that this is a major landmark for social media. This isn't the first political message mass-communicated through social media, nor is it the Obama administrations first foray into social media, but it is for the first time being used consistently as a tool to educate the masses.

What the current political administration understands is that social media reaches an audience that might otherwise be uneducated or uninterested in healthcare reform. They also understand that by asserting facts, preaching opinions and generally opening the discussion, they can rally support and find true citizen advocates for their programs.

Combining President Obama's notoriety with his willingness to take a stance and his administration's understanding of communication methods like social media could potentially lead to the greatest revolution in mass education for Americans since FDR and the radio.

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Friday Fun With Widgets II-Mario and Luigi

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Social Media Is About Individuality

When trying to market your brand and increase communications through social media, you have to remember that each person and each community is unique.

Social media communications can't be mass produced. Every social media technology has a plethora communities within it. All of these communities have their own interests, ways of sharing opinions, languages and code of ethics. Within that, the individuals of the communities have to be treated as such. Sure, you can send a message to a blog, discussion board, Facebook group and get some pick-up or engagement, but your brand with grow much stronger and with greater affinity if you seek out individuals or go through the community administrators who are trusted by the community. The notion that your brand is connecting on a one-one level with consumers will hopefully spread like wildfire.

The key in social media is to be human, show some personality and ultimately so your brand is tangible rather than mechanical. You have to remember that no matter how easy it is, mass communication techniques are often tabbed as spam in the social media world.

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