Megan Risley's blogshttp://www.justmeans.com/editorials/socialmedia/3204.htmlFri, 25 May 2012 00:43:46 GMThttp://www.justmeans.com en hourly 1http://www.justmeans.com/Better-Blogging--Part-6--Other-types/40725.htmlThu, 23 Dec 2010 21:56:51 GMTMegan Risley Because social media is such a cultural centerpiece, social media content is critical to how a business fares. Blogging is a major piece of the social media content pie, and so, in improving business blog content, businesses improve business. Business bloggers knows the interview is an integral part of improving their content. Good bloggers will understand the different types of interviews and utilize them effectively. After mastering the basics (like all good writers must do as a prerequisite), Read Full Article ]]> Because social media is such a cultural centerpiece, social media content is critical to how a business fares. Blogging is a major piece of the social media content pie, and so, in improving business blog content, businesses improve business. Business bloggers knows the interview is an integral part of improving their content. Good bloggers will understand the different types of interviews and utilize them effectively. After mastering the basics (like all good writers must do as a prerequisite), bloggers will incorporate resource and personal types of interviews in creating their content.There are yet more ways to conduct interviews and format information from them for compelling content. In addition to asking your interviewee for her or his personal list of resources they have gathered over the years concerning the topic at hand, an interesting angle would be to ask about a particular piece of material. It could be an official resource such as a published book or endorsed article. What might be more relevant - and thus, catchy - in this culture, though, might be a blog article or other piece of social media reading. The chances that your readers will have read it are higher if "it" can be found online somewhere, especially if it is in any way linked to the major social media sites. Ask your interviewee his instinctive reactions to this article, provided that they have read it (or include its reading in your interview) and use their reflections as fodder for a blog post.Another way to capture readers, is through the discussion of potential failure. Perhaps it is "in the air" to be afraid to fail, or perhaps we genuinely do want to excel at everything we put our hands to, but there is no better way to find common pitfalls of a particular industry or area of business than to ask a person who has been involved long enough to have made mistakes personally. To probe their experiential knowledge and gain your own "takeaways" that you can then report to your readers who are no doubt wondering how to avoid as many mistakes as possible, ask a long-timer in a relevant field about his own personal mistakes. Another way to go about gathering lessons so that people don't make the same mistakes is to ask your interviewee what they might think common mistakes are in the field, even if they haven't made them personally.Speaking of expert, you could formulate the interview questions and then a blog post as a sort of "guide" or "how-to" in your field. Instead of asking the generic "what tips do you have" questions, ask if they have any tips they'd only tell a close friend. Of course, they may not tell you since you're not a close friend, but it can't hurt to ask. The better business blog content you could get out of it is worth it!Photo Credit: Flickr]]>http://www.justmeans.com/Better-Blogging--Part-5--Personal-Interviews/40722.htmlWed, 22 Dec 2010 22:09:45 GMTMegan Risley Because the interview is such a powerful way to better business blogging, it is crucial for the blog (and thus social media) content writer to learn as many ways to conduct and incorporate an interview as possible. The whole reason interviews are powerful in the first place is because of their ability to tap into emotions and form connections between human beings, making people feel like they are part of a larger story instead of the isolation our culture (read: social media) seems to be manufac Read Full Article ]]> Because the interview is such a powerful way to better business blogging, it is crucial for the blog (and thus social media) content writer to learn as many ways to conduct and incorporate an interview as possible. The whole reason interviews are powerful in the first place is because of their ability to tap into emotions and form connections between human beings, making people feel like they are part of a larger story instead of the isolation our culture (read: social media) seems to be manufacturing by the second. So, utilizing the types of interviews that draw from a person's own story or life are probably going to be especially intriguing to readers of most any type of business blog, no matter the field, since that is what people seem to be hungering for the most.Asking interviewees to share from their own lives around a theme related to your business not only honors them, but also illuminates ways in which people have been personally helped or been able to improve their lives using your services. You can, with their permission, use it as a case study of sorts in your blogging, sharing from their lives real affects your business can have - something any reader (especially of social media content) longs for these days. You'll also be able to capitalize on the power of human connection and built an emotional rapport with your readers, which alone will keep your readers coming back for more.If you want to access an interviewee's most impactful moments, simply ask them about their (three or four) most prominent memories. The reason we remember things, even from long ago, is because they changed us irreversibly, or taught us something valuable that we have applied ever since (and maybe could not have learned any other way). Hopefully, the research you do in picking particular people to interview will prove worth your time and there will be ways you can present this as relevant content for your business blogs' readers. Other biographical information can be interesting as well, but it's best to steer clear of a "timeline" format, or a chronological re-telling of a person's life. No matter how interesting that may be to your interviewee (who isn't interested in their own story?), your readers, who have shorter attention spans than they did a generation ago anyway, are going to need to know why you're telling this story in the first place, and that usually starts with action.You can also use your interviewee to help you craft an inspirational story. Different than a case-study, which does take biographical information into account and exemplifies a certain point with it, inspirational stories usually look at one piece of a person's story, either a major turning point, or an event with an unexpected outcome. The events don't necessarily have to be good to be inspiring, but what the person did with such events does.For better business blogging, play on the power of personal stories; get your interviewees to share from their own life and then, relate it to what your readers are interested in.Photo Credit: Flickr]]>http://www.justmeans.com/Better-Blogging--Part-4--Resource-Interview-Types/40719.htmlTue, 21 Dec 2010 20:35:35 GMTMegan Risley While numbered lists and benefit explanations better any business blog, there are many more ways to gather information and present it to readers. For example, ask an interviewee about their favorite books that deal with something related to your business. Or, ask them for a review of a particular one that you have read as well. Hopefully, you'll also have read some of these books they might name so that you can discuss the material in deeper detail - both to your benefit as a blogger with an eye Read Full Article ]]> While numbered lists and benefit explanations better any business blog, there are many more ways to gather information and present it to readers. For example, ask an interviewee about their favorite books that deal with something related to your business. Or, ask them for a review of a particular one that you have read as well. Hopefully, you'll also have read some of these books they might name so that you can discuss the material in deeper detail - both to your benefit as a blogger with an eye out for facts and for the reader who may be interested in the subject, but has little time to read up on it (hence why she or he is reading your blog and not a book). Hopefully, though, you won't have read (or even heard of) some of what the interviewee might mention; you can then add it to your "resource list" (again, both for your personal collection and for the reader you are writing to).Speaking of gathering resources for yourself as well as for your readers, another way to frame an interesting blog post is to ask an interviewee about his own list of resources that pertain to your field. This will inject fresh resources into your list; there are likely scores of lists online that all have the same or similar items. Asking people for their own list, while won't completely avoid the problem of overlap, will broaden your resource horizons. You can then present these to your readers in such a way that remains connected to your business. This way, you're showing your readers that you are not myopic in view: you are knowledgeable about the subject matter (which will engendered trust) but you are not exclusive (remember, tooting one's own horn is a turn-off even in the business world).Another angle to take with interview subjects is to ask them to use their knowledge, however limited, and predict three to five years into the future. Ask interviewees to expand on the present trends they see in your business's particular field, then probe deeper to find out what they think about where they might go, or what they might mean for the future. This can help you know what you should be paying attention to as a writer or blogger, and help your readers know what to look for, and how to be smart about using the current resources your business offers. This interview style might best be utilized by interviewing multiple people - either a number of people well-versed in the same area or discipline, or a number of people from different aspects of your business - and providing a synthesis of viewpoints.Better blogging for business will constantly be finding and producing new resources related to your particular field as well as using the new knowledge gained through these resources to make informed predictions about the future. The best way bloggers get better at this is, of course, to ask other people who have expertise in your area.Photo Credit: Worldfitness.com]]>http://www.justmeans.com/Better-Blogging--Part-3--Basic-Types-of-Interviews/40715.htmlMon, 20 Dec 2010 22:57:56 GMTMegan Risley Better businesses understand the power of the interview to transform otherwise parched social media and blog content into compelling reading material. Business blog writers will learn and master suggested techniques and tips for how to successfully interview - that is, how to get what you need from an interviewee and how to honor her or him in the process. Now, business bloggers need to know how to best use the information gathered in their interviews: it's not as simple as writing down verbatim Read Full Article ]]> Better businesses understand the power of the interview to transform otherwise parched social media and blog content into compelling reading material. Business blog writers will learn and master suggested techniques and tips for how to successfully interview - that is, how to get what you need from an interviewee and how to honor her or him in the process. Now, business bloggers need to know how to best use the information gathered in their interviews: it's not as simple as writing down verbatim what an interesting person said, it's crafting it into solid content that will propel your blog to the top of the social media charts. It's not as difficult as it sounds, either. It just depends both on your subject matter and your audience (hopefully these two are, by now, related.)Because it seems most obvious, a lot of bloggers (and writers in general) tend to focus mostly on flashly items: hot features, statistics and other measurements and what their business has accomplished. While measurements are good for businesses to use for themselves, readers have a difficult time relating to them. To capture your readers' attention for more than a cursory glance, find out from interesting, intelligent people (in interviews, of course), what the benefits are of partaking of whatever your business does. Don't assume anything is obvious - the more light you shed on what's in it for people who use your good or service, the more people will begin to consider these benefits for themselves. Asking an expert who understands the target audience's needs and hopes will bring to the fore just how good your business is. It might be even more powerful to find a person who has been a satisfied recipient of your product for extra emphasis.One way to access the priorities of your interviewer (and thus, if you picked well, your business' area of interest) is to ask them to give you a numbered list. By asking a "top ten" type question, you are forcing your subject to pick the most important items and rank them, giving you a window into the minds of customers, or at least people interested enough to read it. Meanwhile, you will also gain insight into markets you wish to enter, or audiences you wish to target. Numbered or ranked lists reveal what's important to the interviewee, and give suggestions for what might be important in the field as a whole. Presenting "top ten" lists to readers will also ask them to consider how they might be able to relate personally with your business, and they won't have to read a lot of convoluted copy to do it.These two styles are arguably of the most easy to master for the writer; starting with one of these will give blog writers time to sharpen their skills while still informing readers. Once writers achieve comfort here, they will be able to better their blogs by utilizing more kinds of interviewing styles (to be explored later).Photo credit: WYSIWYG Sapphire]]>http://www.justmeans.com/Better-Blogging--Part-2--How-to-Conduct-Interviews/40471.htmlSat, 18 Dec 2010 14:26:12 GMTMegan Risley The value of the interview for good content is obvious. The intricate how-to details might not be, especially for the novice business blogger. Before leaping right into the formatting of interview content, it is vital to actually have content to work with, and that requires, not surprisingly, strategy. The best interviews will be planned out beforehand because that, ironically enough, is the way to get a good - honest, compelling, and even surprising - story.Many people who you'd want to intervi Read Full Article ]]> The value of the interview for good content is obvious. The intricate how-to details might not be, especially for the novice business blogger. Before leaping right into the formatting of interview content, it is vital to actually have content to work with, and that requires, not surprisingly, strategy. The best interviews will be planned out beforehand because that, ironically enough, is the way to get a good - honest, compelling, and even surprising - story.Many people who you'd want to interview have likely been asked to be interviewed before. This is not advice to attempt to track down someone famous for every story you want to post, but it is to say that there are some principles to be garnered from those that do that for a living. That is, interviews are best conducted "journalist" style. Unless you're meeting your best friend from kindergarten over a cup of apple juice and coloring books, you're going to want to be professional. Not only are you representing your business (which hopefully would be compelling enough reason to act professionally), but you're also asking to represent the person you are interviewing...on paper...or worse: the technology age's equivalent, the World Wide Web. Because it is much easier to get things on the Internet than it is to get them off, people - at least people who are aware of the life-and-times we live in - will be understandably wary of giving out personal information.So, it's your job as the writer of interesting info (for the web, no less) to provide a professional atmosphere: that is, the reassurance that you will be discerning with any information they provide you, that you, though you may be an amateur, understand what you are doing when you are asking for another person's story, and that you aren't just "in it" for you. People's stories are practically sacred; it is a honorable thing to be told another person's story, so don't give the air that it's "just" for a blog. Even a blog is a publication, and it's especially important for those you've gathering story from to be confident that they are making a good choice to tell their story - however small a piece of it - to you. So, be professional, be private, and be prepared.Think about your story angle ahead of time so you know what you're wanting to hear about from them. Formulate as many questions as you can beforehand. Set a time limit and keep to it. Thank them for their time - by sending a snail mail thank you card afterwards, as well as a firm handshake at the end of the actual meeting. Communicate that you are sincere, or you won't get a sincere, honest (and thus compelling) story back.(Oh, and after you've gathered the makings for your story, be sure to check the copyright laws for blog writers. Copyright law is tricky, especially when it pertains to blogging and publishing on the web!)Photo Credit: Derek Brower]]>http://www.justmeans.com/Better-Blogging--Part-1--The-Interview/40467.htmlFri, 17 Dec 2010 13:17:42 GMTMegan Risley Businesses will have learned by now how important good content is to their success and improvement. To achieve consistently good content, businesses need to - through research and measuring their own efforts - create strategies. The mind-boggling advancement of technology and the Internet to bring us what we now all know as social media today has, however, masked a secret that, if utilized, would drastically improve business' blogging (really, all writing in general). It doesn't require extensiv Read Full Article ]]> Businesses will have learned by now how important good content is to their success and improvement. To achieve consistently good content, businesses need to - through research and measuring their own efforts - create strategies. The mind-boggling advancement of technology and the Internet to bring us what we now all know as social media today has, however, masked a secret that, if utilized, would drastically improve business' blogging (really, all writing in general). It doesn't require extensive programming knowledge or even any knowledge of computers whatsoever to create a good story.The most effective way to improve blogging is also the oldest: the interview. In a way, this really only makes sense. Social media is called such for a reason, even if it doesn't quite feel like it behind that computer screen or mobile phone or other non-human interface. It is because the way we get connected and feel personally involved as human beings is still through other human beings (hence the "social" in social media). Hearing another human being's story or experience is the arguably the most powerful way to affect another person. It evokes feelings of sympathy. It resonates personally. It reminds us all of the fragility of our own lives and the lives of those we love, calling us out to greater and greater heights of kindness and compassion for all on this little blue planet.And, of course, it makes people famous: it's what turned Oprah (who is, in fact, a real human being) into a brand and Barbara Walters into a household name. And it can turn your business blog from a boring "have-to" to a spicy must-read. Social media is, on one level, all about the latest and greatest, the most up-to-date news and info on friends, family and the world. This doesn't mean, though, that the rules of good content don't apply, and one of these is "timeless" content. What makes a piece of writing so compelling is that a person can relate to it, anytime, anywhere. Social media provides the anywhere, anytime: it's up to businesses to provide the "relating." And this is best done through other human beings and their stories.So, to inject a little humanity into that otherwise probably dry (at least to the outside world who isn't yet gung-ho about your product or service) blog, find people who are as excited about your subject matter as you are, but who aren't directly involved in your particular operation. No one likes an obvious toot-your-own-horn stunt, but they do like a good story, anytime, any place. At least, they can't seem to help it.Finding someone with a good story that relates to your business won't be as difficult as you think. Giving the impression of professional journalism, asking the right questions, and actually formatting a blog post about the juicy info you've gathered - well, that's another story (to be told soon!).Photo Credit: Link Information Technology]]>http://www.justmeans.com/Social-Media-Content--Part-5--Summarizing/40026.htmlTue, 14 Dec 2010 22:32:06 GMTMegan Risley When it comes to social media content, it's trickier than you might think to at the least not look like a hacker, and at best stir up some serious activity for your business. As we've seen, the social media world is much more nuanced than even the face-to-face world: at least in the real world, there is body language, tone, and the like that helps form and shape discussions. Online, you need other tools to discern conversations, and there is the added element of even finding them in the first pl Read Full Article ]]> When it comes to social media content, it's trickier than you might think to at the least not look like a hacker, and at best stir up some serious activity for your business. As we've seen, the social media world is much more nuanced than even the face-to-face world: at least in the real world, there is body language, tone, and the like that helps form and shape discussions. Online, you need other tools to discern conversations, and there is the added element of even finding them in the first place.Obviously, it takes strategy. Knowing who your audience is is the first step to not only keeping it, but expanding it. But, it does no good to broaden your audience if you can't communicate in their language. Finally, and not just as an optional or congratulatory measure, tracking progress is beneficial to a business. Analyzing your efforts can help you mold future efforts and contribute to the learning process. Of course, all of the above is much more intricate and complicated than a mere summary reveals, but those are the essentials of building a social media content strategy.Some final advice for those pursuing a content strategy: it is important to be consistent. Frequent the same social media sites - people can recognize a flake even on the Web (and the result is the same as in real life: a turn off!). Post in the same voice and, if possible, the same times of the week. For example, if you're hosting a blog on your site, choose the amount of times you will post a week and stick to it. Expectancy of new content will itself create small but real bonds of loyalty with your readers; sporadic posts are more likely to be missed than regular ones.Good content, just like anything else, takes time (and mistakes) to develop. Effective businesses will see problems as opportunities to learn and grow, and will understand that social media, as instant and whirring as it all seems, requires patience to participate in professionally and effectively. Business would do well to be flexible with their ideas and strategies, being willing to use the data they gather from their self-evaluations and make changes when necessary. After all, even though it doesn't feel like it, social media implies interactions with people, and on an enormous scale at that! Finally, with all this talk about how to talk social media style, it isn't all about that. Everyone has a story, and everyone has a need to be heard. It's just as important to listen in social media relationships as it is in real life.Effective social media content takes work, but it will (eventually) reflect that you have done your homework: that you know where your targeted audiences are having their conversations, how to converse with them and that you care about their worlds, too.Photo Credit: Fotolia]]>http://www.justmeans.com/Social-Media-Content--Part-4--Measuring-Your-efforts/39947.htmlMon, 13 Dec 2010 22:35:19 GMTMegan Risley Social media is difficult enough to keep up with, businesses really can't afford to be wasting their time. To build an effective social media content strategy, seeking and building audiences and learning their language is key. But, if you really want to make progress, it's important to check up on yourself. In a way, this is saying not to trust your efforts in employing all the recommended tools to locate potential audiences, engage them in conversation, and expand your horizons, at least not in Read Full Article ]]> Social media is difficult enough to keep up with, businesses really can't afford to be wasting their time. To build an effective social media content strategy, seeking and building audiences and learning their language is key. But, if you really want to make progress, it's important to check up on yourself. In a way, this is saying not to trust your efforts in employing all the recommended tools to locate potential audiences, engage them in conversation, and expand your horizons, at least not initially. But, it could also be admitting the obvious: that the social media world is tricky to navigate and will take practice and refining efforts.Not surprisingly, just as there are tools for every step of creating a social media strategy, there are tools for measuring your progress in doing so. If you're just starting out, the best way to measure the headway (or lack thereof) you're making is to keep it simple. Count the number of "likes" and comments your Facebook profile gets. Track the number of followers your Twitter posts and page(s) garner. If you have a blog (and it's a really good idea to), keep a record of how many comments each post receives. Take an inventory of these monthly. Pay attention to the traffic funneled to your website(s) from social media sites - as in, how many hits is your actual business website getting from either your or other activity on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Youtube, etc.?Something that all businesses, particularly small businesses, should note: it is most telling to look at the influence you are having locally first. Especially if you are a small business, or a business in a small town, you're probably not going to making headlines on Facebook or topping the Google Trends list. That doesn't mean, though, that you're failing. It just means that there are probably pockets of untapped audiences yet to be reached - or, even better, that you are reaching them and not knowing it! And there's little more frustrating that having an effect but not knowing it (so feeling like you're not) aside from just not having an effect at all.Once you've mastered the art of comment counting, Google Analytics offers a tool to help you gain insight into your website traffic. Google Analytics guides you in goal-setting and helps you measure desired results against actual outcomes, providing useful data for shaping new marketing techniques and social media content. It has a tool to track mobile web activity, an important and growing facet of social media. Additionally, Google Anaytics helps businesses find and utilize popular keywords about your particular service, locate and effectively target the best markets, and provide feedback about how such efforts are faring. With the complicated nature of social media (and it is bound to only get more complex as time goes on), and the simultaneously importance of it for businesses, the businesses that will improve will be the ones measuring their efforts.Photo Credit: Teresa Basich]]>http://www.justmeans.com/Social-Media-Content--Part-3--Talking-the-Talk/39828.htmlSat, 11 Dec 2010 03:11:52 GMTMegan Risley Social media is a world all its own, and thus requires a language all its own. It's hard to expand audiences or conversation if you're not speaking the same language as those you want to reach. The social media world is a lot more, well, social than the business world, despite its changes in the professional direction, but it is also constantly changing. Businesses need to learn fast and be willing to adapt and change if they are to keep up.So, businesses need to learn more than just what they'r Read Full Article ]]> Social media is a world all its own, and thus requires a language all its own. It's hard to expand audiences or conversation if you're not speaking the same language as those you want to reach. The social media world is a lot more, well, social than the business world, despite its changes in the professional direction, but it is also constantly changing. Businesses need to learn fast and be willing to adapt and change if they are to keep up.So, businesses need to learn more than just what they're audiences are talking about and where they're having these conversations but also how they are having these conversations. Perhaps the most effective way to do this is through keyword analysis. Business can utilize this tool most popular with bloggers for SEO to understand how their potential audiences are using language in the social media scene. For example, the lingo common to your business may not be the colloquialisms used to talk about your products or services. And, just a rule of thumb, the more technical you are, the less likely you are to reach people.Thus, you need to learn what keywords social media users are entering into their search engines about your business. If you're putting out content that's talking about "meteorology" when everyone else is talking about "weather", your content won't come up very far in the search engine list. There are several tools that have been designed to help businesses learn which keywords are being used. If you want to pay 9and thus get more tailored services), two popular sites are Keyword Discovery and WordTracker. Keyword Discovery runs searches on search engines for the most commonly entered words and phrases. You can set up "targets" by building a custom list of words you think may be being used about your business. If you're not clear on what the general jargon is about the goods or services you provide, Keyword Discovery is powerful enough to grab words that are close, or even somewhat related to the words you've entered into your target list. Similarly, WordTracker researches what is being used in the most popular search engines. It has the additional feature of being able to track popular links being used in blog, micro-blog or other social media posts.While both of these are good investments for marketing professionals and those super serious about vamping up their social media strategy, there is another (free) option for those who are just looking to get their feet wet. Google has developed a tracker of its own: GoodleAdwords is a mini search engine for the search engine giant.Though it only runs on Google's searches, Adwords tells you what words are popular searches, and how popular they are, much like the Trends feature, which does the same thing for topics. So, for businesses to move from the periphery to the center of social media activity, keyword familiarity is key!Photo Credit: Rehan Asif]]>http://www.justmeans.com/Social-Media-Content--Part-2--Expand-Your-Audience/39825.htmlFri, 10 Dec 2010 02:06:02 GMTMegan Risley Because the social media world is a tricky place (to be complicated by its fast pace), it's worth going over 'how to's' a few times. In the social media world, it is imperative to know your audience. The process of getting to know your audience is made exponentially more complex than it would otherwise be in real life if you were simply meeting someone face to face. Social media allows anyone from anywhere to access overwhelming amounts of information about your business. This means that, unless Read Full Article ]]> Because the social media world is a tricky place (to be complicated by its fast pace), it's worth going over 'how to's' a few times. In the social media world, it is imperative to know your audience. The process of getting to know your audience is made exponentially more complex than it would otherwise be in real life if you were simply meeting someone face to face. Social media allows anyone from anywhere to access overwhelming amounts of information about your business. This means that, unless you know what you're doing, it will not be immediately obvious who your audience is, or even what they are reading about you (since we all know by now that there is far more posted online about us - whoever we are - than merely what we post).So, what can businesses do besides use social media to track certain kinds of conversations about their brand, business or service? First, those tracking services are only as helpful as what they are applied to, and it's sometimes impossible to know where likely "hang out" spots for people who are either already or could be interested in your business. Scouring the thousands of posts from the hundreds of social media outlets every day is impossible for any human; scanning the results from having a machine do that sort of thing for you may not be too much more manageable, so it can be useful to narrow it down a bit, if possible.A study done earlier this year by the Nelson group confirmed what we all probably already suspect: Facebook is the most-used social media site, and Twitter is a (not so close) second. Although Twitter's growth has seemed to plateau a bit since 2009, but Facebook's user base is global, over 12 million and growing. This suggests that businesses might want to put a good many of their efforts towards both their own Facebook profiles and messages, but towards "data sampling" from Facebook's (12 million) pages.Facebook is also the top online brand as well, which is a bit surprising, considering how omnipresent Google has become, and how popular Mac products are these days. Despite Facebook's raging popularity, businesses would wish to do better in the coming year should be broadening social horizons. While a lot of focused attention should be put towards a Facebook strategy, Yahoo, Youtube, and Wikipedia all made the top ten "most popular online brands" list. For businesses, this means that, in this "branching out" to find new clientele, businesses could also begin to dabble in these other smaller-but-still-enormous social media sites.Getting to know your audience in a social media world is difficult but crucial. Expanding your audience in the social media world is easier, if you know where to look.Photo Credit: Amy Porterfield]]>http://www.justmeans.com/Social-Media-Content--Part-1--Strategy/39703.htmlThu, 09 Dec 2010 09:48:26 GMTMegan Risley It's one thing to encourage businesses to come up with fresh, catchy content to plaster all over the profiles they've no doubt construed on the "Big 5" social media sites. It's entirely another thing for businesses to actually do it. Perhaps the reason why less than five percent of businesses involved in the "Big 5" study have been actively engaged in social media is because it's utterly confusing exactly how businesses as such should engage. On the professional level, you can't just spew the la Read Full Article ]]> It's one thing to encourage businesses to come up with fresh, catchy content to plaster all over the profiles they've no doubt construed on the "Big 5" social media sites. It's entirely another thing for businesses to actually do it. Perhaps the reason why less than five percent of businesses involved in the "Big 5" study have been actively engaged in social media is because it's utterly confusing exactly how businesses as such should engage. On the professional level, you can't just spew the latest gossip like the next tweeter, nor post status messages about how the weather affected your commute or your roommate's snoring habits. On the social side, you can't simply flood your social media profiles with advertisements about your business, no matter how "newsworthy" the may seem to you.So, what's a business to do? Again, business would do well not to avoid social media altogether, but there are better ways to go about not avoiding - that is, interacting with and through - social media. Businesses who wish to better will arm themselves with a social media strategy. The first step towards a social media strategy is content: human generated content, lest you get confused with the apparently countless hackers who have recently been coming out of the wood works. And, not surprisingly, the first step to creating content is having a content strategy.This is not as unfamiliar as it sounds. All marketing advice will tell you to "know your audience." Social media content is no different. In fact, it's even more imperative that you know what your audience is talking about and wants to talk about, what with all the tracking (in the form of "follows" and "likes") social media enables users to do these days. The goal is not only to capture attention like it was in the simple days of image marketing (like billboards, zine ads, etc.), but also to involve them in conversation.Social media has added an intermediary step between a customer seeing an ad and a customer purchasing the product: conversation. What's perhaps most important for businesses, though, is that they monitor their conversations - both the ones they generated and the ones about them. Social media has, of course, produced numerous sites and applications to aid in the tracking process. Socialmention scours the scores of social media created daily and puts together a list of alerts which you can set up to have emailed to you on a regular basis. Twazzup, Twitter's version of a search engine, does the same sort of searching, but just on Twitter. And Addict-o-matic, aside from perhaps unwittingly confirming the state of our relationship to social media, tracks how you and/or your brand present on the social media sites of your choice.And, lastly, there's the good old market research tactic. Businesses wishing to begin developing a social media - and thus a content - strategy will afford some leisurely reading time to browse the general content being posted on social media sites daily.Photo Credit: Socialmediafactory]]>http://www.justmeans.com/Social-Media-Trends--Can-You-Hack-it/39589.htmlThu, 09 Dec 2010 00:31:33 GMTMegan Risley Apparently, hacking has become a social media trend as of late. Not only have a strangely high number of personal email accounts been compromised by foreign sources, but major credit card and payment sites have been bombed due to the Wikileaks fiasco breaking the news this week. As far as the current email account situation goes, there doesn't seem to be one particular target: Gmail, Yahoo (nevermind that Yahoo has been struggling with its spam filters for quite some time now), Hotmail and other Read Full Article ]]> Apparently, hacking has become a social media trend as of late. Not only have a strangely high number of personal email accounts been compromised by foreign sources, but major credit card and payment sites have been bombed due to the Wikileaks fiasco breaking the news this week. As far as the current email account situation goes, there doesn't seem to be one particular target: Gmail, Yahoo (nevermind that Yahoo has been struggling with its spam filters for quite some time now), Hotmail and other services have experienced the utter violation of a hack, the opportunistic strike of an unknown foe, the untraceable parasite that leaves a contact list ravaged, an inbox untrusted and a username black-listed. All this for, in recent cases, a misplaced advertisement that doesn't even include relevant pricing information. There are better ways to snag potential customer's attention.The referent, of course, is social media. The ways of the billboard have passed on, the catch of a radio soundbite more a cultural relic than culturally relevant, even the flash of tele commercial is likely to soon be 'museumized.' And, since the archaic is viewed more as asinine than apt, businesses will need to use multiple inputs to create interest in their goods and services. Sure, mobile app ads and mini-interactives will cut it for a while, but businesses, in order to stay on top of the pack, are going to need to consider sustainability on all fronts (environmental, financial and consumer attention span).Enter, stage center, social media. Most (though not all, yet...) social media trends are pointing to the importance of social media itself, which makes social media content all the more important. Of course, a guestimated 50% of all social media content is, frankly, drivel, the fact that social media has taken such a spotlight in this culture is one of many reasons not to write it off. businesses should assume its important, and develop more than just a social media policy. It requires, believe it or not, more than a Facebook page and an encouragment to customers to "Follow", "Find", "Like and whatever else on Facebook. It requires strategy and planning.In a way, that's like saying that businesses will only improve as their Facebook page improves, but, to some extent, that's true. If businesses don't have a strategy for their updates - and not just on Facebook - then they may actually be turning their customers off. That is, as a business (who wants to better), you've got to give your customers something to Find, Like, or Follow on Facebook. Now that every since business in America (and more and more elsewhere) have Facebook profiles, the social media mega site is just one more place you've got to stand out and rise above the rest. Otherwise, you really do look like just another spammer. Even though that's a social media trend of late, business who want to improve will appear legit "on paper" because they're legit in life.Photo Credit: Socialmediaexaminer.com]]>http://www.justmeans.com/Social-Media-Trends--Where-does-your-business-fit/39345.htmlSat, 04 Dec 2010 15:48:21 GMTMegan Risley It's ironic that at the same time developing a social media policy is a social media "trend", social media usage trends are showing that businesses - at least the ones surveyed by a Smartbrief and SummusLimmted partnership - are still new to social media. Not to blame them, of course - social media is a frightening, daunting whirlwind of a world - but it is to surmise that businesses are entering the social media worth either with a policy already in place, or one in the works. While this is pro Read Full Article ]]> It's ironic that at the same time developing a social media policy is a social media "trend", social media usage trends are showing that businesses - at least the ones surveyed by a Smartbrief and SummusLimmted partnership - are still new to social media. Not to blame them, of course - social media is a frightening, daunting whirlwind of a world - but it is to surmise that businesses are entering the social media worth either with a policy already in place, or one in the works. While this is probably a good thing overall, there are some limiting impacts this can have.That is, many businesses are probably under the impression that Facebook is a vital, though somewhat scar tool (though they're not quite sure for what) and that everybody who's anybody is registering with LinkedIn. It's true, the "big 5" in social media are (in order from biggest, to "smallest"): Facebook, Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn and Youtube. These are the major sites providing the forward momentum in the social media world, and most businesses are doubling their efforts to get involved in at least one of these social media giants because that is where their current customers are.The only problem with that is if you want to improve - and this often means growing your customer base - you're going to need new customers, not just the loyalty of your old ones. Less popular sites like Flickr and other media-sharing digital "co-ops" have, in many cases, just as big a user-base as the social media Neanderthals, but are, for whatever reason, less popular. The "most important" designation doesn't always mean that it's most important for businesses. It's vital to have a good working understanding of Facebook and Twitter, and it would do wonders for businesses to have at least one small video clip that is searchable on Youtube, but the more social media savvy of businesses - that is, the ones who will grow the most in the near future - will be the ones who are branching out into other social media platforms that may not be making headlines as much, but have just as much user activity and just as much potential to spread information. It's hard to know all that, though, when you're only 7 months to a year into the game, as over 20% of businesses are. Almost tenpercent of those businesses surveyed don't even know how long they've been engaging in social media (and only five percent have been using social media for more than five years), so don't worry if you're still a little clueless about this world. Perhaps the best thing that businesses can do in the coming months is become educated about the latest in social media and its use this knowledge to inform how they do business.Photo Credit: Scott Rich]]>http://www.justmeans.com/Social-Media-Trends--Mashups/39252.htmlFri, 03 Dec 2010 18:00:13 GMTMegan Risley The art of combining ways to engage in the social media world is itself becoming a social media trend, and one with a somewhat ambiguous name. Web 2.0 has the mashup to thank for its shaping - that is, the concept of a web page or application that utilizes something (data, function, looks) from two or more services to make new services. With the myriad of services out there - and more every day, it seems - mashups are an almost inevitable result of all the frenetic Internet, and especially socia Read Full Article ]]> The art of combining ways to engage in the social media world is itself becoming a social media trend, and one with a somewhat ambiguous name. Web 2.0 has the mashup to thank for its shaping - that is, the concept of a web page or application that utilizes something (data, function, looks) from two or more services to make new services. With the myriad of services out there - and more every day, it seems - mashups are an almost inevitable result of all the frenetic Internet, and especially social media, activity. They have a driving role in the development of social media, as well as social software, so they are a social media trend with which to become familiar.While social feeds are a wildly popular social media trend, they're not quite ready for (successful) business use. Mashups, however, are primed for the business exploit. The concept of a mashup implies easily "togethered" ideas - that is, this really works best with two ideas that already sort of fit together both in terms of software and in terms of marketing strategy - but the mashup world is unpredictable. A mashup is volatile in that it can combine two ideas that originally have nothing to do with one another into something completely different than - even unrelated to - the intents and purposes of its two sources. The potential here for "new" and fresh ideas is daunting.One way to improve your business's online presence is to make your own mashup. Since it behooves businesses to be following social media trends anyway (social media's not going away any time soon, remember?), you should already be well versed in the comings and goings of social media and its users. This means that you can pick and choose from any two or more popular social media trends (like location-based services and mobile app ads, for example) into a creative and compelling ad campaign or business web page. The more interaction you invite users into, the better.Most current mashups are client applications - that is, applications that allow remote access or enable multiple-user use. This is useful for businesses, but the mashup world could be taken much further, especially since the creation of mashups does not require extensive software, code knowledge, or programming skills. Mashups, rather, are predicted to be used in the casting of a new vision for the Web, since one of their primary uses is visual presentation. Businesses who are on the front-end of such a monumental project as re-designing the Web - which is a likely implementation of the mashup concept, whether consciously or not - will be sure to improve in the coming year. How do businesses get such an edge? Starting mashing up now!Photo credit: WebGlue ]]>http://www.justmeans.com/Social-Media-Trends--Social-feeds/39269.htmlThu, 02 Dec 2010 20:37:25 GMTMegan Risley Everyone probably knows them best as "news feeds" and that's probably because of Facebok. Facebook was the social media site that brought news feeds to the fore in the social media world, making them a popular, even addictive trend. A few years ago, to a distinct public outcry, Facebook decided to aggregate all status updates into a list that would be its new home page. Since then (and users have grown accustomed to, even fond of, the new arrangement), Facebook has continued to cause discomfort Read Full Article ]]> Everyone probably knows them best as "news feeds" and that's probably because of Facebok. Facebook was the social media site that brought news feeds to the fore in the social media world, making them a popular, even addictive trend. A few years ago, to a distinct public outcry, Facebook decided to aggregate all status updates into a list that would be its new home page. Since then (and users have grown accustomed to, even fond of, the new arrangement), Facebook has continued to cause discomfort in its users. The important result from all of this, though, besides Facebook users admittedly being happier with the news feed system than having to click on individual friends' profiles to see an update, is that Facebook put the news feed on the map.Not only does Facebook have a streaming list of constant updates as their main page, but many other social media sites do as well. (It's almost bizarre to find a social media site without one, in fact.) Twitter is exclusively a social feed, and you can even get apps and widgets just for managing your social feeds. Sites like Twitter and Facebook are how many people are getting their information, staying in touch with one another and communicating about their lives. Chats around the dinner table or walks in the park - basically anything face-to-face - are becoming an archaic form of communication.This could be because social feeds always have something new, thus keeping users forever entertained. Since they aggregate multiple people's inputs, users are constantly coming into contact with new information. Social feeds could be so popular, also, for the very reason that you're feeling like you're staying in touch with multiple people at once. In today's face-paced world where it's possible to have friends all over the globe, maybe the all-for-one approach to staying in touch is the only way people can keep up with their relationships. As disheartening as this may seem, it is becoming more and more the trend, so businesses should pay attention.Because social feeds are becoming the default way people are staying in touch and what they are depending on for information, businesses need to be very careful how they employ the social feed in their marketing. Social feeds are still at the personal communications stage - they are so vital that they are starting to replace even email, and phone conversations and texting even more. People may be counting on these feeds for personal, social and relational information, and it can be jarring to find a piece of advertising thrown in the mix. It's just not "natural" yet...So, what are businesses to do with the social feed? Like any social media trend, businesses can use social media sites with social feeds to sample their current and potential clientele. Although businesses should use extreme caution when attempting to enter the social feed stream, they can use, albeit somewhat opportunistically, what users are posting to form and inform their next marketing and media campaigns. Photo Credit: Blackberry ]]>http://www.justmeans.com/Web-2-0-Trends--Widgets/39160.htmlThu, 02 Dec 2010 01:29:39 GMTMegan Risley Many main social media websites are saying the same things about social media trends; in summary, the best businesses will incorporate as many of them as possible into their marketing, advertising and overall strategies if they hope to improve in the coming year. We're all aware by now how permanent the ever-changing world of social media is (you could even say that social media is a cultural trend), but perhaps less is widely known is what enables social media in the first place.Web 2.0 - as op Read Full Article ]]> Many main social media websites are saying the same things about social media trends; in summary, the best businesses will incorporate as many of them as possible into their marketing, advertising and overall strategies if they hope to improve in the coming year. We're all aware by now how permanent the ever-changing world of social media is (you could even say that social media is a cultural trend), but perhaps less is widely known is what enables social media in the first place.Web 2.0 - as opposed to Web 1.0 - was arguably the first step in getting the social media world where it is today. Web 2.0 is not actually a new version of the World Wide Web, but a shift in the way the Internet is being used. But, probably all you savvy business who are on top of the latest trends (as any good business would be) already knows this.One of the important things to know about Web 2.0 is how it is affecting the technological advances related to social media trends, and thus, how it's affecting the way we conduct (better) business. Although not new, one of the rising Web 2.0 trends is none other than the widget. Named probably for its diversity and versatility, the widget is a vital appendage to any form of social media. Technically, a widget is simply a small program that can be installed or embedded on a desktop, web page or mobile phone. Those of you who have been blessed with Macs will note the widget screen when you move your mouse to whichever of the four corners triggers the dashboard. You'll find your widget calculator, widget clock and widget calendar, with plenty of room to install more (such as a "word of the day" widget, or a weatherbug widget).But, what's most interesting about these widgets is their use socially (at least, in terms of media use). While delivering instant ads is a neat new(er) marketing tool, it's almost become mandatory if a business is to stay afloat in today's insanity-paced consumer culture. What's even better (in terms of business - that is, marketing) is an interactive ad. Imagine if you could engage your customers immediately by giving them a taste of your product or service right on the spot, at little to no cost to you.In this way, widgets can be like little digital hour'd'oeuvres for customers. What makes this Web 2.0-enabled technology such a strategic marketing ploy is that, if used correctly, businesses can develop micro-samples of what they have to offer, thereby asking a small but significant investment of time (and possibly self) of a potential customer. And this, as we all know by now, increases a business' chances for customer loyalty - all because of a little widget.Photo Credit: Techhelpvideos]]>http://www.justmeans.com/Social-Media-Trends--Facebook-Credits/38471.htmlThu, 25 Nov 2010 10:54:24 GMTMegan Risley Akin to one of Murhpy's Laws, one unofficial social media trend might be that everything that starts out simple becomes much more complicated at an unpredictable rate. Facebook is, of course, the perfect example. What started out to be a digital yearbook for college kids morphed into a worldwide networking scheme to make somebody rich. (Well, why else is there advertising threatening to take over the news feed from every square inch of side bar space now - and there wasn't a couple of years ago? Read Full Article ]]> Akin to one of Murhpy's Laws, one unofficial social media trend might be that everything that starts out simple becomes much more complicated at an unpredictable rate. Facebook is, of course, the perfect example. What started out to be a digital yearbook for college kids morphed into a worldwide networking scheme to make somebody rich. (Well, why else is there advertising threatening to take over the news feed from every square inch of side bar space now - and there wasn't a couple of years ago?) What started out to be fun little applications and causes designed to (or claiming to) help the rainforest, the environment or animals is now being "Americanized" into the practice of turning a profit.Remember the good old days when you could rake your own virtual garden for free? Maybe not, they only lasted for the social media equivalent of a week. Either way, the gardening app, similar to the aquarium and farming app, was a way to donate to the good cause of saving the environment - at least that's what the application claimed. For every plant "planted" in your virtual garden, somehow a tree would be saved in the real world. Whether that's legit or not isn't the question. What's happening now is that Facebook isn't really even trying to put up a philanthropic front anymore.Now, to play your favorite apps (that you're no doubt addicted to by now), you're going to have to use "Facebook Credits." It's the "safe, easy" way to exchange fake money for Facebook's fake goods and services: its applications and games. What was once free still technically is (since the currency is, of course, merely virtual), but if you don't have the credits, you can't do much. Your (fluff)Friends are affected, just like your fish and farms. There are over 50 Facebook apps and games that now incorporate Facebook Credits into their "play." You can even "purchase" "gift cards" for other users.And, if that's not taking it a bit too far (as if we don't have enough money woes in the real world), this is predicted to blossom into a social media trend. That is, some are saying that Facebook Credits are going to be the virtual credit of the future, and that other social media outlets are going to begin adopting them, or similar ideas. Facebook made an agreement with Zynga, a site dedicated to connecting the world through games, to begin using these credits in nearly all their games; soon, they are expected to be the e-currency of choice across the web.Bettering business does naturally mean increasing revenue. It also, in this socially-conscious, activist-aware culture mean more than that. Businesses can't (like they and many governments the world over are attempting to do) simply focus on money (thereby cutting out programs that support the poor and needy). Facebook Credits doesn't take it that far, but who's to say the social media equivalent of that isn't the next step?Photo Credit: Stepchangegroup]]>http://www.justmeans.com/Social-Media-Trends--Playing-Games/38396.htmlWed, 24 Nov 2010 20:28:26 GMTMegan Risley We're all familiar with the marketing ploy of collectible toys in Happy Meals. As if a friendly clown and golden arches weren't enticing enough, getting the next toy in the series is a brilliant business strategy - albeit a little sneaky and questionable, ethically - by the world's largest fast food chain. Perhaps less familiar but still just as brilliant were (are?) the Monopoly pieces taped to giant coke (only) cups. The collectible nature of the game Monopoly elicited a commitment on the cust Read Full Article ]]> We're all familiar with the marketing ploy of collectible toys in Happy Meals. As if a friendly clown and golden arches weren't enticing enough, getting the next toy in the series is a brilliant business strategy - albeit a little sneaky and questionable, ethically - by the world's largest fast food chain. Perhaps less familiar but still just as brilliant were (are?) the Monopoly pieces taped to giant coke (only) cups. The collectible nature of the game Monopoly elicited a commitment on the customer's part: when making the decision about where to buy the next Coke, the fact that they were "playing" Monopoly (and the shot at winning, ahem, real money) influenced them to be faithful to McDonald's. Health did not seem to be a factor in this decision (referring either to drinking coke or eating at the fast food chain who includes some of the same ingredients in silly putty in some of their meals), but that's what makes this "gaming" marketing technique so genius: if you can keep customers committed despite health risks, you're probably doing something right...at least in the "good business" (read: profit) strategy.This seemingly unrelated discussion of McDonald's toys and games is actually illustrative of a small but growing social media trend. McDonald's picked a cultural familiarity and incorporated it into their business. Monopoly, already a popular "past time" in America, became associated with a quick and easy food choice, and McDonald's won customers for life. A social media trend that is just starting to emerge is showing signs of this very thing. That is, over the past five years, gaming has exploded in popularity - they even have orchestrated Nintendo music (that young children can recognize!) - and gaming is becoming a cultural relic, if not centerpiece, at least among younger populations. (It was popular enough even ten years ago that the local media of Colorado blamed violent video games for the Columbine High School shooting.)A predicted social media trend is that, more and more, we will start to see gaming aspects incorporated in social media sites. Because the social media trend of using such outlets as a way to advertise to thousands of potential customers daily is already present, this "gamification" of social media will greatly influence marketing and advertising strategies. Games have an addictive nature - as many Facebook app users will tell you - and so, if you can get your brand associated with a gaming platform of any kind, you're likely to be all over the map, not to mention constantly in people's minds.For businesses, marketing is no game. But, there are certain ways to increase the "fun factor" in and of any business, product or service. The better businesses of the next year will follow the social media trend, and "gamify" up.Photo Credit: Dru]]>http://www.justmeans.com/Social-Media-Trends--Narrowing-Down-Location/38271.htmlWed, 24 Nov 2010 01:40:53 GMTMegan Risley While location is something of a social media trend, still only about 5% of users are employing location-based services. It is still in business's best interests to try and incorporate this capacity in some way or another: the smaller the business, the more low hanging fruit can be gathered from the social media trend of and capacity to pinpoint locations.And yet, another social media trend, slightly contradicting the buzz about location, is emerging, and in the form of curation and news feed cu Read Full Article ]]> While location is something of a social media trend, still only about 5% of users are employing location-based services. It is still in business's best interests to try and incorporate this capacity in some way or another: the smaller the business, the more low hanging fruit can be gathered from the social media trend of and capacity to pinpoint locations.And yet, another social media trend, slightly contradicting the buzz about location, is emerging, and in the form of curation and news feed customizing. That is, social media users are starting to feel the discomfort of overexposure - no doubt no thanks to Facebook's privacy setting faux pas's - and are starting to rein in their usage. Or, at least the subject matters about which they post. Some of this may be due to yet another social media trend businesses are showing: that of having a social media policy. But, a lot of it may also be because Big Brother is watching. This is the way many users are starting to feel about the Internet and social media sites. And so, influenced by their fears of bugged wires and hidden surveillance (or social media's equivalent), users are starting to become very selective about what they consider to be newsworthy, and who they consider to be a good source.This is one reason why the already common (but often under-regarded) concept of niche markets is a valuable asset to businesses. As users "specialize" in their social media engagement patterns, the better businesses will be ready with specific, custom-made marketing plans for these new niche groups that are already forming. Overall social media usage certainly won't go down, of course, but the way it is used will radically change over the new few years. As social media usage gets more narrowly focused, so will location-based services in order to accommodate. This means that, instead of broad location engagement - like posting where you are tweeting from, perhaps - specific apps tailored to specific industries and interests will start popping up everywhere.Shopkick, for example, kicks in as you walk into a store, and provides deals and information about that store only. When a user enters a different store, Shopkick pulls up that new locations information, as well as any relevant sales, deals or coupons. Foodspotting does the same thing for a foodie. Xtify is a location-based service that helps businesses target their preferred demographics with mobile advertising. These custom ads are triggered by a mobile phone user's location, which makes them very timely indeed.What all this essentially means for businesses is a speedy, location-based marketing campaign that zeroes in on one or two target audiences. Since one of the business-impacting social media trends is information selectivity and specialization, better businesses will be there (each for their own chosen target group), popping up at just the right time.Photo Credit:Pradeep Kumar]]>http://www.justmeans.com/Social-Media-Trends--Curation/38177.htmlTue, 23 Nov 2010 00:20:56 GMTMegan Risley The marketing question going into the new year (yes, 2011 already) is shaping up to be: "Are we in the stream?" Social media trends towards streams anyway: streams of news, streams of status messages, streams of constantly updated information, but what businesses looking to better their marketing strategy should be keeping their eye on is the "stream" of consumer-generated information. Social media has made it possible for anyone to be a reporter, so brands, deals, and news are flying from (Face Read Full Article ]]> The marketing question going into the new year (yes, 2011 already) is shaping up to be: "Are we in the stream?" Social media trends towards streams anyway: streams of news, streams of status messages, streams of constantly updated information, but what businesses looking to better their marketing strategy should be keeping their eye on is the "stream" of consumer-generated information. Social media has made it possible for anyone to be a reporter, so brands, deals, and news are flying from (Facebook) wall to wall, and iPhone to iPhone.Aside from having a social media policy that pertains to employees, businesses should also be looking at the current consumer behavior. Facebook and Twitter are two obvious social media choices for broadcasting anything business related (or not), but they are becoming so massive that users are actually starting to trim down their follows and profiles. Sure, Twitter posts great deals, and Facebook's side modules are chalk full of personalized ads, but consumers are starting to seek out the even-more-personal approach. Speaking of Facebook, users are beginning to turn off brand posts on their Wall, pay attention only to their "real" friends and re-post only when something is really interesting.The trend is reversing: it used to be that a friendship or relationship was only "official" once it was secured on Facebook. Now, users are starting to only follow or pay attention to the Facebook profiles of those with whom they are real-life friends. This means that news of any kind - business-related or not - is traveling by word-of-mouth, or its many social media equivalents. A social media trend, even beyond the start-up to help people deal with social media, is to help people deal with the information social media outlets are producing. Cadmus is a Twitter news feed curator: that is, it filters your Twitter follows based on patterns in Twitter usage. It tracks the most relevant posts and accounts since the last time a user logged in, and funnels that information, personally filtered, straight to your Twitter home page. Paper.li's goal is to turn Twitter into a newspaper.And, because the majority of the world is mobile, other start-ups have developed the same ability as Cadmus, but for your iPad or iPhone. Flipboard claims to scour Twitter for what it has learned through analyzing your clicks and followsis most relevant to you. This social media trend of filtration means two things for businesses. First, to get noticed - that is, to get "in the stream" - and not lose pace with the rest of the business world, businesses will have to generate social media and online content. But, this day in age, that's a given. Second, this content must be dazzlingly above the rest of the content out there: the social media trend of curation favors the big, the bold and the better!Photo credit: Social Marketing Tricks]]>