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.

—

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.”

Holly's "chocolate-chocolate-cherry" cookies

Good tidings of joy, everyone! And a happy holiday season. So you know the rules: you can open one gift on Christmas Eve. But hey, we’re hip! And who are we kidding, you guys are great! So we think we can make an exception–just this year—because we’ve got five gifts for you. And unlike that houndstooth sweater, you can totally regift this.

This Christmas dinner, you’re a social media hotshot. You just checked in at “Granpappy’s House”, on FourSquare, Facebook Places, and Twitter Places (not even integrated) and you tell Aunt Maude: “It’s all about the fans” and grab some casserole. So we take a look at how to get more fans on Facebook and how to be good to them. Then we give you some information that will help you address user-end Facebook concerns with the newsfeed filter and instant personalization.

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.

Your biggest fan,

Neovia

****

Surefire Way to Get More Facebook Fans: If you’re like most of us (everyone but the Glee fan page), you’ve faced some difficulty getting people to “like” your page. Why is that? It’s an art, and in this article from Guy Kawasaki, he recommends incentivizing your fan page content in creative ways. Read on for details.

How to Convert Email Contacts to Facebook Fans Using “Tell Your Friends”: In early December, Facebook threw fan page admins a bone and released an incredibly helpful tool that tells you which of your email contacts aren’t currently liking your page, allowing you to message them. So, tell your friends.

6 Surefire Ways to Piss Off Your Facebook Fans: You just got Facebook fans with the above surefire methods. Now, avoid surefire pissing them off. Facebook fans are your friends. So be good to them, particularly by avoiding the herein-contained activities.

Facebook Creates Page Explaining Instant Personalization: Speaking of pissing off fans, privacy has been and always will be a concern for Facebook users and fans on your page, so it would do you well to be in the know in this department. Facebook released a video showing how they use information to create Instant Personalization and how to turn that off.

Facebook Newsfeed Filtering: Facebook has given the user more control in deciding what goes on their feed. Which means “liking” a page isn’t enough anymore. How will you stay in the feed?

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

[LISTEN]

Listen here:

Pop-up window: Listen to this episode

Download: Download this episode (right click and save)

iTunes: Subscribe in iTunes

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.

________________________
Holly R. Hoffman

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

Contact Me

Neovia blog Meet the Fall 2010 Neovia Interns

— @ WiseStamp Signature. Get it now

HootSuite is a wonderful application that allows you to update and manage multiple social media accounts all in one place. It does a lot of neat tricks, but our favorite has to be allowing us to schedule updates to our Facebook fan page. Once you’ve linked your Facebook account and fan pages, you’re ready to try this. Watch our simple how-to video below to see how you can save time by scheduling all of your updates to Facebook in one sitting. Another plus: You get the consistency of a regularly updated fan page without worrying about remembering to post every day.

Posting links to your website or blog on Facebook is a great way to drive traffic, but you may not be getting the most out of your Facebook links. There are a lot of little things you probably don’t know that you can change about the way you’re posting. Hopefully, this quick little how-to video will help.

Good Monday to you, 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 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

Good tidings, ladies and gentlemen! 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 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