G’day ladies and gentlemen.

This week we’ve decided to give you a roundup of some new articles that do a lot of different things. It’s been a busy week and we didn’t want you to miss out on some important and helpful information that’s been popping out of Mashable in particular. So, in an old fashion tip of the hat to Mashable, we present you with some of this great content getting you up to speed on what’s up with all of these different platforms.

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What’s Up With Smartphones? Well, we’ve got tips for you to make your app more discoverable. It has to do with optimization, in-bound leads, and customer reviews. Oh by the way, soon your phone may be able to tell you when you’re sick. When will we see the phone that tells you what the right thing to do is?

What’s Up With Twitter: They’re putting promoted tweets in your timeline in the Next 2 Months. And by the way, I hope you like the new twitter. Because the old one is dead.

What’s With Facebook? They’re experimenting with comment ads. This is an interesting move, and is a nifty new idea that you may want to start considering. With this addition to the ad strategy, en element of engagement is instantiated that wasn’t present before.

What’s Up With LinkedIn? They’re perpetually getting better, and now they’re using column ads and profile promotions to encourage follows and recommendations, similar to some of the features on Facebook’s right hand interface column. Imagine, on the side of your LinkedIn page, “you might be interested in applying for this job”.

It’s the stuff of what you are, your essence, your worth and value–it’s your content. The thing that sets you apart from the next guy is your potential and what you produce and put out into the world with that potential. Getting a bit too philosophical for you? The word content starting to sound funny when you say it? Well let’s look at it this way:

How is content marketing any different from product marketing? It is true that product is a kind of content, but content can mean a variety of things. It can mean a video, white papers, sharing a presentation on Slideshare, a blog post—in short, business generated, not-for-sale product. Most content takes the form of releasing information, expertise, or instruction to a viewer, reader, onlooker, what have you. Product marketing is, in the first place, trying to get you to purchase a product. While content marketing is, in short, driving you to consume and enjoy information that may be of use to you.

Then what’s the point? Well, we’ve got some videos from the Neovia Summit last week premiering shortly, but for now suffice it to say that this kind of content marketing allows people to know, like, and trust your business–ultimately leading to sales. But, for the good of business, your heart has to be in the right place or you’re just another dude throwin’ ads in my face. Dig?

But let’s put our feet back on the ground and dig our cleats into the turf. What we have here are a series of articles that demonstrate quality content marketing, and offer practical, bottom line advice on how to use it. Remember to check our Facebook page and Twitter for updates on when those videos are coming out.

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Three steps to generate higher ROI from content marketing. You’ll see the beginning of this article, which has some helpful stats on the efficacy of particular content marketing strategies. You can read the rest for a free membership, but hey, we’re not gonna make you.

How 3 Companies Took Content Marketing to the Next Level. Learn from the best! Husbpot, mint.com, and American Express all chime in here.

The Importance of Writing Well For Social Media Content. We know it’s important to write well (DoNt wEee!!!^&) in any circumstance, but why does that sentiment seem to evaporate in some social media contexts? Humanities students unite! Writing makes the social world go round after all.

5 Step Model For A Killer B2B Content Marketing Strategy. These guys really do have an impressive content marketing model, from extensive planning to evaluation. Take a note or two, and, when considering content you’d like to produce, think: what kind of content would I like to see as a social user?

11 Ways to find new content for your social strategy. Every businesses #1 worry in content marketing is? “What do I talk about?” Don’t worry, this happens to everybody, ourselves included. Luckily when Social Media Examiner had this problem, they decided to talk about what to do when they had that problem. Thanks SME!

3 Advantages of Using Content Marketing for SEO. Something you certainly want to consider in your content marketing strategy.

image from richesinnichesblog.com

Last Sunday, President Obama officially announced (on TV and via a live stream online) the news that people had been tweeting about for over an hour: Osama Bin Laden had been located and killed by U.S. Military forces. Whatever your politics, the event was the single biggest landmark for social media to date, and everyone responded. Below we’ve collected the absolute best coverage of the event from a social media standpoint. If you have anything to glean from this response (other than that if you’re not on Twitter, you probably should be), we’d love to get the conversation going.

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How Social Media Reacted On Osama Bin Laden Death. We’ve been keeping up pretty darn well with these stories, and this has the best sum-up of how a variety of platforms were affected by the news, from Flickr to Youtube to search engines.

Timeline: How News of Osama Bin Laden’s Death Unfolded on Twitter. Everyone knows Twitter is where it started. Mashable recounts how, piece by piece, second by second, the world came to know and respond to the monumental event.

One Twitter User Reports Live From Osama Bin Laden Raid. And apparently he didn’t even know what he was in the middle of.

“Osama Bin Laden is DEAD” Facebook Page Goes Viral. Over 150,000 likes in two hours.

Foursquare Users Check Into Post-Osama Bin Laden World. You might be thinking, how could people check in to a thing like this? Well, they did.

Google Maps Shows Where Osama Bin Laden Died. Even Google Maps is in on it! Quickly after the news was revealed, Google Maps was updated with an “Osama Bin Laden’s Compound” in norther Pakistan.

Other Related Stories

Osama/Obama Gaffes. And next-to-lastly, how not to do social media in a time of crisis. Lesson #1–do not report, under any circumstances, that the President has been killed.

Players learning that social media needs to be used responsibly. You tweeted, she tweeted, we all tweeted. Let’s face it, not all of it was appropriate and you’d be a lucky one if you managed to squeeze by a Facebook political conversation unnoticed. But if you’re an NFL player, it’s hard to hide in the crowd. And Rashard Mendenhall of the Pittsburgh Steelers learned the hard way.

Photo by ZUMA Press via Mother Nature Network (MNN).

Last week we showed you how to get Facebook fans. This week we show you how to keep them. Engagement is key in both of these endeavors. People aren’t interested in liking a page that no one else is interested in. Likewise, it’s hard to convince fans to stick around if there’s no party going on with your page. So that’s one way to think about it–make sure your Facebook page is a constant party.

In addition, look: what’s social media about? Here’s a good answer–building relationships. Relationships? Engagements?! This sounds heavy! Not ready to commit? That’s fine, but when you’re able to have real conversations that you and your Other are both interested in, when you can be mutually helpful and supportive–well, you might just find yourself changing your relationship status to “married to my fans”. Jokes aside, if you want to have any success in social media, get your audience talking. How? We’re glad you asked.

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HOW TO: Improve Engagement On Your Brand’s Facebook Page. By far the most awesome thing you’ll read this week. Industry-specific tips based on real data of 200 companies over two weeks. The images are great, and should change your game for engagement in the coming weeks.

How to Encourage Engagement on Facebook. Another outstanding article, bringing in the idea of contra-competitive posting and including an e-marketer graphic. Gotta love emarketer.

16 ways To Get More Comments On Your Facebook Page. This article focuses on asking questions. What do you ask? How do you ask it? And, our personal input, always think of what exactly you’re trying to achieve when you do ask it.

The 5 Golden Facebook Engagement Metrics. Metrics are key for finding out what to do. So we have two articles here for you. This one gives you the tips as well as examples for the things to do/watch for no matter the size of your business. If you keep just these 5 metrics in mind, then you’ve got a good start for progress.

How to Measure Your Facebook Engagament. I mean, you could start counting comments and likes, but we’re not sure that’s really what you want to do. Facebook comes with some sophisticated analytics that allow you to see what works and what doesn’t. Remember that, in the end, past all the tips, do what works for you.

image courtesy www.93south.net

On our Facebook fan page poll the other week, we asked you folks what you’d like to learn more about, what your current challenges are in social media. We had a lot of people saying they wanted to learn how to get more Facebook fans, so we’ve collected a slew of articles here for you that either share stories of how a company got so many fans or give some concrete, proven directions when it comes to getting more people to click that “like” button.

It’s important to remember that getting more fans isn’t the point of social media. It’s a necessary part of it. You want the right fans, and you want to engage them in the right way. A large part of getting more fans is to have a solid, well-kept, helpful, interesting Facebook page. So never sacrifice quality of content for numbers. Everybody’s gotta start somewhere.

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Oh yeah, two notes. Firstly, there are a lot of people out there telling you that you can buy more Facebook fans from them. It’s ridiculous, and don’t do it. Unless of course you’re hiring on a professional, reputable company who is helping you build a social media strategy. Otherwise, stick to doing social media well. It’ll pay off.

Secondly, a couple of these first articles are old (the dinosaur ages of 2009 and 2010). This isn’t because we’re unhip–hey, we read Slate–but because the trouble of getting more fans has been around since pages were introduced. So some of the information is outdated, but know we chose these articles because they are still useful, and the tips are still relevant/still hold. And there you doubted us for a second.

How To Develop A Facebook Page That Attracts Millions. Now this article doesn’t actually tell you how to get a million fans (and for a small business, we’re not sure that’s what you’re aiming for). Aaaaand it’s also from 2009, but that shouldn’t deter you. Even if it is one of those articles telling you what a facebook fan page is, we checked through all 10 tips and all 10 tips still hold. Call it goin’ retro. It works.

21 Creative Ways To Increase Your Facebook Fan Base. Quick tips: use video, cross-post to other social media outlets, print (people still walk around in the real world from time to time).

How To Get Facebook Fans: The Easy Way and the Hard Way. This article focuses on Facebook advertising and why it’s a route worth taking. From January 2011.

9 Best Ways to Increase Facebook Fans. Some additional, more current ideas on some solid, proven methods of getting more fans.There’s some overlap, but call it reinforcement.

The Top 5 Ways to Stand Out On Facebook. This one is less directly focused on getting more fans, but talks about how to be a good brand on Facebook. You do that, and people will like you, link to you, and trust us, you’ll see the fan count rise.

image courtesy www.bulklikes.com

Aren't all of your B2B interactions like this?

Well hello there! This week’s roundup is all business. So business, we’ve got a slew of articles here for you on B2B. Emarketer has some info-packed articles on mobile, email, websites, and social media use among B2B, and MarketingSherpa serves some knowledge made of social media tactics and B2B sales.

So 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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Website and Email critical b2b investments: Emarketer gives us another insightful article, showing that online marketing spending in 2011 has website and email with the largest increase in funding, followed by social media. This article’s packed with additional stats on what the B2B industry is doing.

How and When to Use Content in the B2B Sales Process: MarketingSherpa has three of their panelists from the “How To Develop Content for Specific Buying Stages” panel break down their systems and advice into essential elements of cohesiveness, defining the buying stages, and involving sales. Read the thorough explanations of each element via the link.

Social Media Tactics for B2b: What are the most common B2b social media marketing tactics? MarketingSherpa graphed it out so you can find out what’s most effective for other B2b groups like your own.

B2B possibilities for mobile: Forbes Insight surveyed C-Suite executives in October 2010 and found 82% had a smartphone, with 56% saying they’d clicked on mobile ads. If you wanted to know about the real presence of mobile in the business world, this Emarketer article breaks it down well. How often do you work on your smartphone?

Happy New Year’s Eve, world! We hope your year is seeing its way out in good health and spirit. This will be our last roundup of 2010, but we’ve got 52 more to look forward to next year. So stay tuned and we’ll keep rounding up 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 take out our crystal ball and talk 2011. What can we expect or hope to see in the coming year? This year brought surprises, and we can only expect more in the coming months, so we look at what people are saying about digital advertising, news media, small business, and lastly, of course, social media. Needless to say, there are a lot of exciting prospects, so we’ll be interested to see how it all pans out.

Be on the lookout every week in 2011 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. Have a safe, fantastic holiday.

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10 Predictions For the News Media in 2011: Predictions galore, including some of the following—social media optimization will challenge SEO, mobile-first news organizations will emerge, interactive tv will rise up, and more niche content news sites will develop.

5 Predictions for Small Business in 2011: social media will get focused in the new year, smartphones usage—already owned by 48% of business owners—will go up, and cloud computing—are you into it?

6 Predictions for Digital Advertising in 2011: social web influencers will become celebrities; smaller, more intimate social connections will rise up; and brands will become more like media companies.

10 Ways Social Media Will Change in 2011: video will be everywhere, companies will integrate social feedback into decision-making, ROI will be redefined, and some musings on the Next Big Social Network.

Email, Social Media to See More Marketing Dollars in 2011: “According to a November 2010 survey of business executives around the globe by StrongMail, nearly two-thirds of companies will increase spending on email marketing, and 57% will put more dollars toward social media marketing. Search took a distant third place with 41% of respondents indicating they would spend more.”

The awesome crew over at the Tech in Twenty podcast asked Holly to appear on this week’s show. Jennifer Navarrete and Luis Sandoval Jr., our social media brethren (and Holly’s mentors), run a great live podcast every Thursday evening at 8 p.m. (CST) that covers the latest in tech news and gadgetry. Check out this week’s episode, featuring Holly discussing strategy, agility, and how to overcome challenges in social media. You might also want to subscribe to Tech in Twenty in iTunes.

Thanks again to Tech in Twenty for having us!

This week we discuss our most least favorite thing to hear about social media: “I don’t care what you ate for lunch.” Which takes multiple forms, such as “I don’t care where you’re eating lunch.” So Kendra and I discuss signal versus noise in the social media sphere, including why you should care, and for lack of better way of saying it, how you can care efficiently. We discuss the various ways you can use filters in Facebook, Twitter, location-based applications like Foursquare, and feed readers. And what’s making us happy this week? Believe it or not, reading materials.

[Links we mentioned]

• Facebook: What are friends lists and how do I create them?
• Twitter: How to use Twitter lists
• Foursquare: How do I get pings or notifications when my friends check in? (Or not.)
• RSS/feed readers: How to find feeds
• Seth Godin’s “Ship It” pamphlet
• “Open Government” by O’Reilly Media

Twitter:

• @nanpalmero
• @luissandovaljr

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A couple of months ago, we announced what we hoped would be a solution to the problem that many businesses face – needing help with the day-to-day tasks of maintaining a consistent, quality online presence. We began our training and certification program for social media interns this fall. These social media interns are available to our clients to help with the day-to-day tasks of managing their online presence, such as formatting blog posts, editing videos, and administering Facebook and Twitter accounts. Many of them work in the offices of our clients, where they can soak up the company’s culture, values and business.

We’re pleased to introduce our first crop of social media interns, newly trained and already working with clients.

Ericka Clay

Ericka graduated from the University of Arkansas in 2007, with a bachelor’s degree in English/Creative Writing. She moved to Corpus Christi in 2008 with her husband and their family business. She is a novelist, blogger and mother to a one-year-old daughter. She joins the Neovia Solutions team as our internal intern, in the hopes of learning the social media marketing ropes in order to one day open her own agency working with authors on their online presence.

Jaclyn Nix

Jaclyn will graduate from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi this May with a degree in Communications with an emphasis in Media. She interned this past summer at the Art Museum of South Texas, working with their website and Facebook fan page to create an up-to-date online presence. She is also responsible for a public service announcement, “Buckling Up,” which was selected by the Texas Department of Transportation as the winner of a contest. It appears regularly on television. She joins the Neovia Solutions team as client company 3eWerks social media intern.

Tyler Moody

Tyler will graduate from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing. Before coming to us, he worked as an intern at Snap Fitness, where he helped establish and maintain the gym’s social media presence. Tyler hopes to enter the marketplace as a marketing professional, and to obtain his MBA in Marketing. His passion and drive made him the perfect addition to our social media team working for the Loyd Neal re-election campaign.

Adriana Oliva

Adriana will graduate from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi this May with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing. Originally from Laredo, Adriana came to Corpus Christi to go to college. She is the president of the Sophia Del Carmen Fan Club, in which she handles promotion, website maintenance, graphics and social media presence for the Latina artist. She joins the Neovia Solutions team as a general intern, who will work with various clients as needed.

Martha Castro

Martha will graduate from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi this May with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing. Like Adriana, she is originally from Laredo and came to Corpus Christi for college. She is co-president along with Adriana of the Sophia Del Carmen Fan Club, and also works with children’s book author Ben Joy as his marketing assistant, helping with his online and social media presence and promotions. Martha joins the Neovia Solutions team as a general intern, working with a variety of clients as needed.

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Holly R. Hoffman

Cofounder & Chief Inspiration Officer, Neovia Solutions
321.277.6573
holly@neoviasolutions.com
www.neoviasolutions.com

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