RADIAN6 BLOG — The social phone. It seems like a fairly simple concept, right? That’s essentially what a phone is, a tool or channel that allows people to connect to one another. We look at social media as the social phone – it’s the place where people can "call up" the brands and companies they want to talk to, to chat customer service and much, much more. And right now, it’s the responsibility of brands and companies to answer the social phone and talk with their customers over the channels they choose to use to communicate. The good folks at The Social Customer put together a comprehensive ebook that hones in on the essence of customer service and the idea of answering the social phone, and we’re glad we could be a part of its creation...

TECHCRUNCH — Two years ago customer support startup Get Satisfaction turned its ear to Twitter to help its clients monitor Twitter for mentions of brands. Get Satisfaction makes a network of customer support forums where customers can post their own questions, ideas, problems, or conversations about a product. Companies can also claim their board and put their own employees on to moderate the boards. Tapping into the conversations taking place Twitter and other social media sites is now integral to brands and customer support, as we’ve recently seen with Southwest Airlines. Get Satisfaction is extending its social media coverage today by rolling out the ability to add a support tab to Facebook Fan pages...

DAVE FLEET.COM — Radian6 has announced a new tool that has the potential to be a paradigm shift in how companies manage their social media monitoring programs. The Radian6 Engagement Console combines two of the best tools out there – Tweetdeck and Radian6 – in an Adobe Air-based desktop tool. In doing so, the console makes radical improvements to the workflow process for Radian6 users. We’ve been test-driving the console in our office for a little while now, and I’ve been very impressed by the utility – and future potential – of this new tool. Some of the key features of the console...

PR SQUARED — I dove into my "Big Thinking" folder recently and emerged with a slide from the "Social Media Trends for 2010" deck created by Jeremiah Owyang of the Altimeter Group, discussing organizational models for corporate adoption of Social Media. Who is in control of this Social Media stuff?  What are the best practices? These questions come up a lot, particularly amongst large brands...

MARKETINGSHERPA — Summary: We wanted to find out the effectiveness of social media in terms of achieving various target business objectives, such as increasing brand or product awareness and increasing sales revenue. See the responses we received from more than 2,000 marketers in this week’s chart...

Rating the Effectiveness of Social Media in Terms of Objectives Achieved