And sharing is the name of this week’s game. Sharing widgets, sharing buttons, sharing testimonials, sharing information. Plus one article that isn’t quite like the others, but needed to be shared as well.

Sharing

How to Boost Site Traffic with Social Media – Social media has helped businesses of all sizes expand their audiences. Here’s how social nets can help boost the number of visitors you draw.

5 Ways to Encourage People to Share Your Content – You spend hours creating linkable blog posts, valuable resources and juicy articles all so that your customers will find something to dig into and engage with. You know that producing great content is one powerful way of increasing your own authority. But you don’t want the interaction to just stop there.

How Social Sharing is Working for SMBs – Unconvinced that “unproven” social media marketing tactics will benefit your small- or medium-sized business? Get the facts on why you can no longer afford to be anti-social.

5 Ways to Get Rockin’ Reviews – Getting reviews and testimonials on a routine basis takes a proactive and committed approach if you are going to generate them on a consistent basis and still generate them authentically. (Fake or over the top review generation campaigns can actually produce negative results.) Here are five ways you can look at systematically creating reviews.

Plus One

3 Steps to Make Your Vision Work for You – Visionaries see things that are invisible to most people; ideas far beyond the “norm” that sing with creativity and thirst to be born.  How could you ever put something like that effectively into words? Sure, it’s great to have written statements in your formal business plan for others to see, but what about having a vision statement that resonates with YOU? Follow these 3 simple steps to take your vision to the next level.

Photo credit: Calamity_Photography via Flickr.

What’s next for us? Among other big, hairy aggressive goals, we’re starting a social media intern training program. We believe we’re the first to offer this kind of service to our clients, and this kind of training to interns. We work with a lot of small businesses, many of whom simply don’t have the manpower to carry out the day-to-day functions of social media. While we don’t believe an intern should be in charge of your social media efforts, we do believe that, if properly trained, an intern can handle the smaller tasks. Our cadre of interns will be trained in blogging, popular social networks, video, and all the technologies that accompany them. They will be made available to our clients on a contract basis, and will actually office with our clients, so they’re what they should be: a critical and integrated part of the business. We think what we’ve got is a new way for small businesses to find qualified help where they need it most.

Finally, no anniversary would be complete with a party, and we celebrated with our clients, friends and fans. Cupcakes, craft beer and sarsaparilla were on the menu. Thanks to L & F Distributors, Sierra Nevada, South Texas Provisions, and D&P Photography for their support.

Thanks to our friends, family, fans and clients for making our first year a successful one. Expect great things from us over this next year.

This week we bring you two hot plates of social media comestibles. The first is a collection of articles talking about the new Facebook Places, launched this week, and its implications for how you’re doing business. However the second plate is full of what not to do with your social media. We all make mistakes. But how do we fix them? Read for some constructive help.

Be on the lookout every week for news, tips from pros, reviews, emerging technology, and a whole bundle of thought-provoking articles on this ever-developing, exciting world of social media.

Facebook Places

How to Use Facebook Places For Your Business. This article functions as a practical how-to for seeting up your Facebook Place and merging it with your facebook page. Simpler than Facebook’s directions.

The Advertising Opportunity in Facebook Places. Facebook is still getting people used to the idea of “checking in” before they start facilitating ads, but what can businesses expect from Facebook Places for their advertising?

3 Ways Businesses Can Take Advantage of Facebook Places. “So we know how to get on Places, what’s in store, now give me one good way I can use Facebook Places to achieve my business goals.”—PC World’s got three!

What Not To Do

Why do So Many Companies Suck at Social Media? Just because Old Spice did it, doesn’t mean it will work for you. Just one example of the root of the social media suck factor.

The One Reason Your Facebook Page Strategy Doesn’t Work Lacking fans? What’s missing from your strategy?

5 Reasons Why No One Is Reading Your E-nEwsletter. This article is a dose of tough love, but you’ll be better for it, and so will your newsletters.

This week we bring you some stories and tips for the two most popular kids walking the social media hallways, Facebook and Twitter.

Be on the lookout every week for news, tips from pros, reviews, emerging technology, and a whole bundle of thought-provoking articles on this ever-developing, exciting world of social media.

Facebook

How To Steal Your Competitor’s Fans on Facebook. What sounds like a dirty business comes down to showing the merit of your product over another via strategies entirely acceptable in the Facebook Guidelines.

Facebook Geolocation Services Are Coming. Everyone had talked about it and now its closer than we thought. With Facebook’s ridiculously large membership, will you still be using FourSquare or TwitterPlaces? Find out.

Facebook 101 For Business: Your Complete Guide. Herein lies the most thorough introductory guide to Facebook for business that we’ve come across. If you’re just stepping in or even may have missed a few basics, they’re all in here.

Twitter

HOW TO: Get tweetable moments from your presentations. Is your presentation worth tweeting about? This article incorporates some fascinating social psychology to determine how to get listeners and talking social about your presentations.

15 Twitter Lists for C-Suite Executives. Twitter Lists are great ways to find a slew of tweets related to your position of profession of interest. From CEO lists to Techie lists, see what these lists can do for you.

Why Using Twitter for Business Makes Cents: Twitter is obviously invaluable for its reach and potential for brand exposure. But here are five more fantastic reasons why you should be tweeting right now.

Image courtesy www.editorsweblog.org

This week we bring you Community Connections and Monitoring and Measurement. The former will talk about the invisible lines that draw us together in the world, what’s going on with them, and what do with them to drive you business forward and enhance the experience of everyone involved in your social media sphere. For the latter section, we throw you an article that explains the key differences in monitoring and measurement, then two more articles, one dedicated to monitoring strategy, the other to measuring efficacy. Plus, a video presentation for those who liked their social media movie-style. We’re pretty self-satisfied with the line-up, and we think you’ll find it helpful too. And let us know as much, leave us some love and suggestions.

Be on the lookout every week for news, tips from pros, reviews, emerging technology, and a whole bundle of thought-provoking articles on this ever-developing, exciting world of social media.

Community Connections

Connectedness and Customer Service. An experience with a lost wallet at Starbucks gets Carol Dangson thinking about customer service and social media, primarily the importance, at the end of the day, of not the social media tools, but the person behind the computer using them.

How To Manage A Sustainable Online Community. Mashable offers a visual, cyclical theory of online community behavior and suggests familiarization with it in order to avoid the “Three cardinal sins” of online community management. This one’s got some great visuals and ideas on value formation in social media.

Geolocation Grows Despite Privacy Concerns. Last week we posted an article on FourSquare and its dubious effectiveness for marketers. But this week we hear that nearly 40% of individuals using mobile services use services that are aware of where the individual is located. Learn how particular demographics are behaving with geolocation with this Webroot and Forrester study.

Monitoring and Measurement

Why You Need To Monitor and Measure Your Brand On Social Media. Our headlining article for this section. What’s the difference between monitoring and measuring your social media, and why is each important?

10 Tips for Successful Social Media Monitoring. Now that we know what monitoring is, we need to know how to do it well. Foremost the article emphasizes strategy and a plan (like us!). From there we’re offered a series of smart ideas on really evaluating what’s going on in your social media world.

How To Measure Social Media Return On Investment for the Complex Sale. We’re big on ROI here. That’s why it’s a pleasure for us to recommend this article by Nichole Kelly, who thinks that businesses can build an effective measurement strategy by taking a holistic view of lead generation. Enclosed are four tips on making sure that you’re effectively measuring social media’s effect on your bottom line.

Starbucks Video Case Study: Powering Product Launches, presented by Alexandra Wheeler. A nice, thorough presentation looking at Starbucks and powering product launches. We know–Starbucks again?! What can we say. We’re coffee people (and not the only ones, it seems–take note). Alexandra’s big idea is that social media can change behavior and drive purchase decisions. Let’s hear what she has to say.

Image courtesy www.liverpool.nsw.gov.au

Pleasant greetings from Neovia, everyone! We’ve rounded up some of the top stories in the social media world to help you stay up to speed with trends and developments that will enhance your online marketing strategy and experience.

This week we bring you an assortment of little stories, some of which point inward toward your business use, and some of which are helpful in your outward marketing efforts. So there you have it. Social media advice–inside out of your work bubble.

Be on the lookout every week for news, tips from pros, reviews, emerging technology, and a whole bundle of thought-provoking articles on this ever-developing, exciting world of social media.

To Use Inside Your Company

4 Steps to Social Media SEO Success. Listening, Content, Socializing, and Measuring are the four keys to increasing your search engine optimization with social media, according to TopRank’s Lee Odden.

6 Ways to Generate and Nurture More Leads on Twitter. If you’re struggling to find ways to use Twitter in your B2B relations, struggle no longer. It’s easy and highly effective, but you have to read on…

Best Practices for a Killer Corporate Blog. It’s certainly not enough to just have a blog. The art of blogging and keeping your readers engaged is indeed an art, but an understandable one. IMedia Connection tells you what you need to know and do if you’re starting your corporate blog.

What It Takes To Discover Your Social Media Star. Whether you’re looking to hire out a social media expert or turn a current employee into one, here are the essential elements you’ll need to look for in a qualified candidate.

To Use Outside Your Company

Forrester: Why Most Marketers Should Forgo Foursquare. According to research, a very small percent of mobile users are using geolocation technology, but this doesn’t mean they won’t. Read on for what you need to know about geolocation, where it is, and where it’s going.

8 Criteria for Facebook Marketing Success: Facebook has more users than any other social media platform out there. While current trends in conversation with this platform concern what the ROI will be, this article focuses on how to use Facebook professionally and maturely to accomplish your marketing goals.

5 Qualities of Successful Online Video. Anyone can post videos of their cat falling off of a chair, but if you really want to have an impact with video, you’re going to need to start thinking more artfully about your video strategy. Here are some tips you’re going to want to take to heart.

Image Courtesy BigMouthMedia.Com via vannevar.blogspot.com

This week we bring you a group of articles on the ascending popularity of the geolocation feature present in places like FourSquare and Twitter and what it means for your business. In addition, we’ve got a bundle of articles on efficacy with small and big picture ideas of how you can get the most out of your social media.

Be on the lookout every week for news, tips from pros, reviews, emerging technology, and a whole bundle of thought-provoking articles on this ever-developing, exciting world of social media.

Geolocation Apps

5 ways to use FourSquare to market your location based business. As with most social media, it’s not enough to be just be on it. How are you going to use a geo-location device like Foursquare to get people checking into your business? Here are some creative tips!

How to add your business to Twitter places. In addition to Foursquare, Twitter Places was recently announced. If you’re wondering how you can take advantage of the popularity of Twitter in conjunction with the geo-location trend, well here are your answers.

Foursquare vs. Gowalla vs. MyTown: Which is better for business? Here’s the match up! Foursquare is still the most popular, but how long with that be the case? And in whatever case, which one do you need to keep your eye on for business? Discussion within.

Efficiency

What to Do About Social Media Overload, or How to Network Online and Still Have Time to Run Your Business. Even if your social media campaign is successful, to be sure it’s come at some cost–time. So to give you more time to run your business, Patrice-Anne Rutledge some advice on how to lower the time you’re spending on social media while still maintaining your successful status.

5 helpful iphone apps for the office. If we’re talking efficiency, what better to talk about than the magical, all encompassing Iphones?But with so many apps to choose from, which one’s will assist your business the most? Here are five.

How to be the Life of the Social Media Party. We’ll admit, this one is less about efficiency, and more a great article on approach. This is a particularly poignant article comparing success in the social media world to success in the social living world. Social media can and should bring out a character for people to like, and it all comes back to the individual behind the screen.

photo: photo courtesy of red5standindyby

Be on the lookout every week for news, tips from pros, reviews, emerging technology, and a whole bundle of thought-provoking articles on this ever-developing, exciting world of social media.

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Experts Agree: Gen Y Will Not Grow Out of Social Networking. Most millenials agree that the benefits of sharing personal information online outweights the consequences, and that social media is here to stay.

Six Social Media Sins. There are a few attitudes to have toward social media that will guarantee dismal times in your social media experience. These are six things thou shalt not do

More Social Media Policies: La Times, Harvard Law, Microsoft, and Cisco. It’s wise for many businesses to develop a social media policy. Here’s a look at what some big names are doing and what you can learn form them.

10 Ways to Boost CRM with Social Media Tools. Social Media has Customer Relationship Management built right into it. But how do you actually get results? These guys have ten ideas.

image from FastCompany.

One of our super-fans recently asked us to do a blog post on Facebook Events do’s and don’ts. We’re always happy to oblige our fans, but in this case I happened to be inundated with tons of inappropriate Event Invitations that same week, thus compelling me to get this one out as quickly as possible.

(As a side note, it will always amaze me how many people don’t know netiquette rule #1: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.)

Events That Go On For Weeks

When It’s OK: When the Event actually goes on for weeks. For example, a community theater might have a running showings for four weeks. It’s perfectly acceptable for the administrator of the event to make it last for as long as the show is running.

When It’s Not OK: When the Event isn’t really an Event in the true sense of the word, or you’re using it for multi-level marketing. For example, an individual wants their friends to vote for them in an online contest that runs for 3 weeks. While your friends are happy to help out, your event is taking up real estate in their Upcoming Events tab. What would be the appropriate to do this is to send a message to your friends letting them know about the contest, and then follow up throughout the contest time period with regular status updates reminding people with the link. This would be far more effective, not to mention polite, than the Ongoing Event anyway.

The Multi-level Marketing Events don’t really surprise us. Scams, shams and pyramid schemes will always find a way to SPAM you in such a way they think looks credible.

Gray Area: When the Event can only loosely be categorized as an Event. For example, an organization might be holding a membership drive for the entire month of August. Or, a retail location might be having it’s annual summer sale that lasts all week. For some people, this would be acceptable use of an Ongoing Event. For others, it’s a nuisance. Think about the people you’re trying to reach and ask yourself if they might be annoyed by this method of getting their attention. In social media, the old adage “All press is good press” is not true. You run the risk of looking like you don’t know what you’re doing in social media, and worse – that you don’t care about whether you are bothering your audience. You’ve just turned an opportunity for engagement into television advertising and SPAM.

In the case of the retail sale, if it’s not very long that might be information people find useful and helpful. I would say the use of an Ongoing Event is acceptable in this case, especially since it might be something I want to share with a friend who likes that store by inviting her to the Event.

Inviting Out-of-Area People to a Local Event

When It’s OK: When there is a reason you want them to see the Event, or there’s a chance they might actually attend. For example, a local chapter of an organization is hosting a member of another chapter as their featured speaker. It would be acceptable to invite people to the local Event from the other chapter, despite the fact they’re in another city, as a way of letting them know that the Event is featuring one of their own. If the Event is notable enough to drive attendees to travel to your city, then this is acceptable as well.

When It’s Not OK: When you’re simply inviting all of your friends without discernment of their physical location. Select All is the devil in Facebook. You should never be selecting all, unless all of your friends are 100 percent local. When you Select All, you SPAM. There are just no two ways about it.

If you haven’t already, create Lists for your Facebook Friends. On your home page, click Friends on the lefthand side of the page. Then, click Create List. From there, simply select the Friends that fit that category. I have my Facebook friends on multiple lists by geography/location (Corpus Christi, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, Rio Grande Valley, etc.), relationship to myself (family, high school, college, etc.), and where I met them (bloggers, Twitter folks, clients, etc.). I send out not just Event Invitations, but also Page Suggestions, according to whether they would be interested.

Gray Area: If the Event is in a city that is close enough to another city that traveling to an Event is not a major effort. Again, ask yourself whether or not the people you’re sending the Event Invitation to are interested enough to travel. Also consider whether your idea of “close” is the same to everyone else and that the Event date and time are amenable to short travel. For example, in my city of Corpus Christi we’re willing to drive 2 hours to an event in San Antonio if it’s on the weekend since there’s literally nothing around us for a 2-hour driving radius. However, my San Antonio friends would be hard-pressed to drive 2 hours to a 6 pm weekday Event that ends at 9 pm, putting them back home at 11 pm with work the next morning.

Events That Aren’t Actually Events

When It’s OK: In our opinion, never. It’s never OK to misuse an application when you have other methods of getting the word out. For example, you’ve launched a new website or you’re transitioning from a Facebook user account for your business (which you should never have had in the first place, as it is a violation of Facebook Terms of Service) to a fan page. These things are not Events. They are not happenings that I can purchase a ticket to, walk in the door to, etc. They are SPAM.

Though it requires more effort (Gasp! You mean, don’t just do what’s easiest for me instead of what’s better for my audience?!?), what would be the appropriate to do this is to send a message to your friends letting them know about this non-event, and then follow up for an acceptable time period with regular status updates reminding people with the link. Again, as with the Ongoing Event, this would be far more effective, not to mention polite.

Gray Area: There is none. I know you wanted to be the exception to this rule, but unfortunately there aren’t any exceptions. Try thinking about a way to make your non-event more interesting to your audience and give them ways to back up your cause. If you’re introducing a new website, post screen shots of it and boast about it’s new capabilities and tell us why you launched it. If you’re transitioning to a fan page, enlist your Friends to help you spread the word by telling them how they can share it.

But, hey, if you want to create an Event Invitation to this blog post and invite all the Event offenders on your Facebook, we’ll look the other way just this once.

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The moral of the story, kids, is that just because you can do it in social media, doesn’t mean you should. Careful consideration of how your audience would like best to be reached with a particular piece of information is a good measuring stick for what tool you use to do it.

Intro photo credit: Photos by Fitsum Belay/iLLIMETER illimeter.com