Greetings, 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 have a nice bundle of practical articles in addition to an inspiring study.

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.

Aloha, 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 have two articles on mobile social media, so again, something like a theme here.

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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5 Companies Reinventing the way we think about mobile. Mobile devices have made some considerable technological advances since their inception. So who is it that’s been working on them, and what are they working on now?

Social media as small business strategy. In this article-video couple, Andrew Lock, small business marketing expert, talks about how you can track results in social media marketing, how to make money blogging, and using social media to provide users with surprise, special gifts.

6 Brilliantly Designed Mobile Sites. Many predict that by 2015 more people will browse the internet with mobile devices than with desktop devices. What will your mobile site look like? Mashable gives some stellar models to build off of.

Why Social Media Is Such A Challenge. Kip Cassino, vice president of research at Borrell Associates, talks to Media Life about the boundaries between advertising, promotions and public relations, what’s fueling social media spending, and why social networking is not a fad.

Howdy, 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 have two articles about the social sphere (cause-based initiatives) and social media, so we might even call that a theme.

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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10 Beautiful Social Media Infographics. If you’re a visual learner, these are ten images you need to see. Mobile phone usage, social media comparisons, demographics information, and much more. These infographics really allow us to see just what’s going on with social media today. Eye candy for a social media nerd if we ever saw it.

How to Get the Social-Media Generation Behind Your Cause. Do you run an issues-based cause? Ninety-Six percent of 18-34 year olds are on Facebook. Here are ten tips for getting youth involved in your ideas and activities.

6 Challenges to managing your brand on the social web. We talk a lot about the opportunities in social media, naturally. But what are some challenges that you’re going to face? Mashable gives us the top concerns of six different social media experts and how to address them.

How the Gulf Coast Benefit Is Using Social Media To Rally Support. Social media can play a crux role in any marketing strategy, whether it’s helping your business or, in this case, entering the social work sphere. What can other social causes learn from the Gulf Coast social media strategy?

Flickr credit BrianSolis

We presented to the Corpus Christi chapter of ASTD earlier this week on Social Media for Trainers. We jam-packed the presentation with social technologies you can use before, during and after training sessions to increase engagement, attentiveness, feedback, efficiency in research, and much more. Check out the slides.

Apologies, everyone, for being a bit tardy this week. But, better late than never, 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.

Be on the lookout every Monday 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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Should We Be On Twitter? Is Twitter right for you? Well, do you have something to talk about? Josh Klein elaborates on the best use of this potentially very powerful social media tool, and whether or not it will be useful to you.

Small Business News: Selling Integrity. Social media is about building relationships. But there’s a right and a wrong way to do it. Small Business Trends talks about the best ways to establish yourself as a brand that people really “like”.

Do SMBs on the Web Get More Sales? It’s what you want to know. Will using social media actually raise your sales? Small Business Trends brings you an interesting study with some encouraging graphs and discussion.

How To: Use Social Media Lead Generation. “51% of Facebook fans and 67% of Twitter followers said they were more likely to buy the brands they like on Facebook or follow on Twitter” How will you take advantage of this and up the amount of leads you generate?

Every week we round 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. Be on the lookout 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.

One Password To Rule Them All: If we have a million passwords, we can’t remember them. If we use the same passwords for multiple accounts, we risk the dangers of hacking. Landon Fraley reviews some popular password management tools so you’ll never have to use the same password again while still maintaining security.

12 Ways To Make Your Blog Posts More Credible: Anyone can start a blog, but how do you set yourself up as an authority on your topic? Darren Rowse offers some at-times surprising advice on establishing yourself as a guru.

Blogosphere Trends+ Writing Great How To Posts: How-To posts and videos are good for your readers and good for you. Better still, they apply to any and all industries. Here’s a look at bloggers using this week’s top stories to fuel their how-to posts.

If Your Company Went Out of Business, Would Anyone Notice? Bill Taylor of the Harvard Business Review addresses the mortality of business in tough economics times and discusses three ways companies can establish meaning and value, including forming unique relationships with customers.

Why Twitter’s New Ads Are Ingenious: Mashable CEO Pete Cashmore talks about Twitter’s new “Promoted Trends” ads and why they will help Twitter grow without filling your news feed with unwanted ads.

We had a great time presenting at the SCORE Social Media for Small Business seminar last week. With 135 inquiring minds in the room, we saw a lot of business owners and non-profits getting it – social media works! Here are the slides from our presentation.

As we prepared for our first conference last November, we recorded local user statistics for a handful of the most popular social networking sites. Out of curiosity, we pulled the same statistics late last month – only six months later. Even we were surprised with the growth and diversity in those participating in social media. But we knew we couldn’t keep all this information to ourselves. So we produced a special report: The State of Social Media in Corpus Christi.

Click here to download your copy.

Inside, you’ll find charts showing the rise in participation in social networking sites over the past six months, how much of the Corpus Christi area population is participating, which sites capture older demographics, which the college-educated prefer, and which networking sites singles prefer.

You’ll also hear from local business leaders about their thoughts and experiences with social media. And we also included case studies on a handful of local businesses that stand out as models of what successful social media marketing looks like.

We hope this report is a great resource for you to learn more about the state of social media in our market. We see the current state of social media in Corpus Christi as one of expansive growth and opportunity.

Technologically, we are a city moving forward.

Download your copy now.

We decided to change the price of our upcoming Social Media for HR & Employers conference from $99 to free. That’s right – free. I know this has to be leaving some people scratching their heads, and others wondering if attendees are in for a 3-hour long pitch. That is not the case, let me assure you. We’re simply not that kind of company.

Kendra and I attended SXSW Interactive earlier this week, an annual conference for social media folk such as ourselves. We sat in on a talk by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, the authors of Trust Agents. Brogan’s description of his business model blew our minds: give away 94% of it. The other 6% are people who want custom work, are willing to pay for it, and, in my mind, are the ones who are actually going to listen to your recommendations.

We walked out of the room and into the conference halls with a world of ideas swirling in our heads. “Let’s make the conference free,” Kendra says. “We won’t have to beat our heads against the wall getting people there, and we’re only minus the room fee.”

I think it’s genius.

So, no, we’re not going to pitch you for three straight hours. Yes, we think this content is worth paying for. No, we’re not charging you. Why? Because we want you to know what it is we do. We want you to know that we really know our stuff. We want you to go back to your companies and organizations and start changing things. We want you to realize that social media isn’t a fad. We want you to know that blocking Facebook and Twitter does not constitute a social media policy. We want you to start thinking about how social media can make your employees productive.

In short, we want you to get it. And we hope that 6% of you will want to hire us for that gorgeous custom work we do.

Here are the details & registration information for the conference. Hope to see you there.