For a clue to social media’s future, we need not look much further than Washington. On the one hand, you have “Weinergate,” former NY Senator Anthony Weiner’s Twitter fiasco, which was essentially user error. He failed to negotiate the thin line between digital communication and social communication, between private and public.

On the other hand you have President Obama’s announcement that he will do his own Tweeting. I’m fairly confident that while Obama may be the one that hits the “Tweet” button, it’s highly unlikely that his tweets will go out into the wild without planning and, for the lack of a better word, design. He’s no Anthony Weiner.

These two events signal the shift that’s coming. The age of social media as something spontaneous that reflects how we behave in the real world (the Weiner approach) is coming to an end. We are entering an age of social business: a purposeful, planned, orchestrated, and integrated way of doing business in a social context which may feel personal to the outside world but combine complexities internally within organizations that will need navigating. As further evidence to the shift, one can look to technology for yet another clue. – Why Social Media Will Evolve into Social Business

Here are the top Internet strategy, marketing and technology links for the week of July 8, 2011… [Read more...]

Social media has had a dramatic impact on the life of the agency business development executive over the last several years, particularly when it comes to prospecting, doing market research and gaining industry intelligence.

Whether it’s zeroing in on marketing decision makers at companies on LinkedIn, or learning what’s on the mind of that individual through his Twitter feed, we use social media on a daily basis to bolster new business. What I’ve learned most over the last year is that, along with many benefits, social media can actually work against your agency.

Let me share a few risks you might not be aware of — as well as how you can capitalize on them. – How Social Media Can Derail Your New-Business Efforts

You may think the most important person in your organization is the CEO or CFO. Or maybe you’ve read about the coming data deluge, and you think the most important person is now your CIO. While these powerful individuals certainly have the most influence over where your organization puts its efforts, the people most likely to determine whether those efforts succeed or fail may be the “information managers” that sit within various corporate departments. Why? Because without effective information managers, no one — not the CEO, CFO, CIO, CTO or anyone else in your organization — will be able to achieve their objectives or reach their goals. – The Most Important Person in Your Organization … Is Not Who You Think It Is

Most disciplines, at some point in the course of their development, fall prey to their very own articles of faith. This is true of all things man is passionate about, from spirituality to war, from politics to mathematics, from geostrategy to literature and art: All develop different schools of thought, many of which eventually evolve into rivals.  Hence we invariably arrive at Catholics vs. protestants, liberals vs. conservatives, nationalists vs. federalists, Macs vs. PCs, Pepsis vs. Cokes, Xbox360s vs. Nintendo wiis vs. Playstations 3, etc. Social media, if indeed we can call it a discipline (perhaps digital social communications is a better term for it, since “social media” describes the pipes, not the activities themselves) is no different: Some believe that the DSC discipline is purely about content (the “content is king” crowd). Others believe that the DSC discipline is a (digital) marketing function, while others still, view it as a PR function. And on and on and on. – The petty tyrannies of social media

The new emphasis in the world of individual professional business development is the use of social media to build ones networking presence. Sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook currently dominate the world of social media while literally hundreds of others are available with more sites and the development of applications (apps) by companies and businesses appearing on an ever increasing basis. In fact, according to Grabstats.com, the use of social media has grown 93 percent since 2006. Yet, there are still those who have not jumped on the bandwagon of connecting online or are not using the power of this medium to its fullest extent.

Most business professionals have come to understand that having a presence online is important. Company websites abound with individual profiles, v-cards, and the latest information on business deals, educational backgrounds and the obligatory memberships in professional/civic organizations. Yet, these pages are static and unless the individual or someone in the marketing department takes the time to update, the information is not pushed forth to those who would find it interesting or pertinent. On the flip side, for those seeking new opportunities, demonstrate an expertise on a particular subject, connecting to other professionals in a similar industry or recognizing the latest company success, social media has become a gold mine as an easy, yet effective medium through which to spread the word. – Social Media for Introverts – By Paul Grabowski

Here are the top Internet strategy, marketing and technology links for the week of July 8, 2011…

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