MYCUSTOMER.COM — An increasing number of businesses are now using social network Twitter to engage with customers. But exactly how? Follow this guide to tweeting success. 1. Don't be cryptic: With only 140 characters at your disposal, it's often tricky to get ideas across, but being clear and concise is crucial in keeping your followers engaged. 2. Give followers a reason to click your link: Include a link in your tweets whenever possible and keep your tweets interesting to encourage click-throughs...

FORRESTER RESEARCH — Google has said nothing about their rumored social networking offering, but it may be that the company has just revealed their secret weapon to take on Facebook. The new Priority Inbox feature in Gmail hints at Social Media’s next great battleground: Relevance! Facebook itself inadvertently demonstrated the value of relevance and what is most wrong with the current Facebook user experience. The Facebook Places announcement event two weeks ago was the geeky event you’d expect, but there was an unexpected moment of clarity and beauty in the midst of the typical discussion of APIs, partners and functionality. Facebook VP Chris Cox told a story set in the future that defines the true promise that social networking has yet to fulfill...

WEB STRATEGY — Although social technologies have been capturing marketers time for over four+ years in corporate, they’ve often been operated in a silo as experimental, or a separate deployment from traditional marketing. Yet the savvy marketing leader knows that reaching customers is increasingly becoming challenging as their touchpoints continue to fragment. To reach the fragmented customer, marketers must apply an integrated approach. As an industry, we should dispel notions that social marketing and it’s subsequent tools should operate in a silo, but instead sit horizontally in the marketing organization as they impact so many different forms of marketing tactics, approaches, and mindsets...

SOCIAL MEDIA EXAMINER — I recently interviewed Andy Sernovitz, founder of the Social Media Business Council, an organization that includes many of the world’s largest brands such as Cisco, Coca-Cola, General Motors, Microsoft, Proctor & Gamble and Wells Fargo, just to mention a few. Andy is also author of the book Word of Mouth Marketing and founder of GasPedal, a group that advises big brands such as TiVo, Dell, Sprint and Kimberly-Clark. During this interview, you’ll gain insight into how large corporations are employing social media and you’ll also gain Andy’s insight into word-of-mouth marketing...

NEW MARKETING LABS BLOG — Professionals are always talking about the business implications of social media and digital campaign efforts. Questions like "How do I measure success?" and "What is the ROI?" are common and often debated questions. What I am seeing less and less of though is discussion and understanding of the culture of social media and the people that are active participants in online communities. It is said that the massive majority of individuals using sites like Facebook, Flickr, Friendfeed and Twitter are merely observers. They use the channels for news, a bit of photo viewing and may post an occasional update to friends. This leaves a very small percentage of us that are in the heavy-to-power user class. These are the people that not only consume massive amounts of content but also produce the majority of the content the community sees. They are also often the people in the crosshairs of businesses trying to get the word out about their brand, product, launch or initiative. In the article today I’d like to share 4 cultural factors and tips that businesses need to be thinking about when creating campaigns or initiatives within the social media space...