Philip R. Odegard

Why would a popular musician or singing group put a social media page together? After all, aren’t they busy enough without adding the interaction that seems to be required of a social media site?

In most cases these artists do not develop these pages as a result of having too much time on their hands. In fact, most of these artists do not have a significant amount of free time to devote to a social media site.

That being said the social media site becomes an incredible means of immediate connection with fans. The social media page contains audio streaming of popular songs, video streaming of current music videos, photo galleries and of course an online blog.

These tools provide a sense of immediate connection between fans and artist. Since the page development of social media sites is all online the artists can update their page from anywhere they can gain an Internet connection (often wi-fi hot zones).

Obviously there are those who have some help in getting everything online and keeping things updated, but the point is a majority of artists have gained a clear understanding that an online community provides an incredible mechanism for marketing to already motivated fans.

Links to a primary site can often result in additional product purchases. Even if the individuals have the most current audio products they may use a social media site as the first step in locating and purchasing items such as t-shirts, hats, sweat bands, posters, magnets and many other branded items from the artist.

A social media site allows these artists to let fans know of significant achievements, news or offer information on the pre-release sale of new audio projects.

Fans take the time to post replies, ask questions and send site-controlled messages to the artist.

In so many ways the world of social media has allowed the famous to be viewed as approachable and friendly. The mystery of the artist is less mysterious and concerts can be viewed by many concertgoers as something a bit like a gathering with friends.

In an odd way the use of social media levels the playing field of the famous and yet-to-be famous. This environment is an odd mixture of reality TV, entertainment report and fan site.

The success of pop culture as a historical phenomenon makes this up close and personal approach to artists and film stars something that is meaningful to fans.

Beyond the unusually profound cultural dynamics of social media, artists and actors understand that this genre provides marketing potential to a highly motivated group of individuals.

Marketing has always been about putting a product in front of people on a regular basis. Social media allows the famous to keep their projects (past, present and future) in front of fans.

The use of social media can render fan sites obsolete because the fans have access to the famous. In turn they also have access to each other.

The example of the famous using social media can provide a reason for individuals to provide a point of connection for their own group of family and friends in a one-stop shop of information and feedback.

I am sure you have heard the latest buzzwords, social media, social media marketing, word of mouth marketing, buzz marketing and web 2.0. Where did all these terms come from and will you find these terms in the English language dictionary is debatable. However these terms provide a serious benefit in the search engine optimization ranking services and should not be ignored.

Social media websites and networking web sites provide you an easy way to connect with people who share similar interests like you. Some social networking websites group people with common interests, but some websites are “traditional networking sites” and allow you to search for friends based on your interests. So now how do these websites really operate. In websites like MySpace users share music which was what helped rocket MYspace into the well renown place it is today and in Facebook, users create their personal information that they want shared and use pictures, software programs and audio, videos to display or depict their business environment. In websites like Fastpitch, Joe Popular and Adlandpro the users create product and sale pitches and work with each other. Promotiing your website using these new tools is termed social media marketing.

So how can you take advantage of this obviously new but what seems beneficial activity? When you use social media marketing and social networking , you have the opportunity to expose your website to a much larger group of people. When your site becomes popular in a social media site, people talk about your site and the post that becomes popular. Do this is taking advantage of a form of marketing that you may know it as word of mouth. The additional links means that as you grow these natural links from a large number of relevant websites, your rankings improve in the search engine due to increased organic search traffic.

Another advantage is that search engines programs that roam the web are keen on social media and networking websites and typically go after links on these websites. This means if you have your site link on social networking and bookmarking websites, your search engine optimization ranking is better and your website site will be indexed quickly. Getting bookmarked from different users and different social media websites will definitely help your site rank better on search engines.

Like it or not, social media websites have become an integral part of the internet because social marketing is easy to do, search engines love social links and hence your business by default will benefit. So if you are engaged in operating a website, and search engine optimization is important then you must realign your site to exploit the popular social media websites for increased traffic. To take advantage of this new method of building business you need to know what steps to perform? Well explore search engine optimization services. Also explore social media marketing and the difference to social networking websites.

At this juncture, you will have decided that you possess the skills necessary to be a great business manager. You may have read how you can lead large groups of employees. You may have found out that you will need to be great at getting people under you to do what needs to be done.If you have heard all of this and the job fits your personality, then you should be doing research on how you can be a business manager. When you are making plans for the career change, you will want to make sure that you know a lot about the field you are considering.

Some jobs look good but once you find out what they entail you will find they are not right for you. This is usually true in those coveted high paying careers. People usually get hung up on the prospect of making more money and they forget that they need to choose a career that is fun and interesting. If you dont want to make this mistake you will want to get a hold of at least one educational essay on your chosen careers in business management.

When looking for those essays that describe you career of business management, try to make sure it isnt by companies looking to hire new people because they tend to spin it towards thier business.Consider that if it sounds far too good, then throw the essay in the trash. Dont waste your time on pipe dreams, when what you need is the facts.

There may be a few great websites that will help you find information about working in those careers. You will want to try an essay about business management because the information will be unbiased.

Reading essays on careers on business management that has someone who may be bitter abut thier current position or even thier last one is just as bad as reading the one that is too much like an advertisement. If you look at the essay and it is unbiased you will know exactly what may happen in that kind of job.

Yes, you may see all the bad thing that could happen from the bitter person, but that only applies to the place he worked, making this essay totally useless.

I came across a video the other day that showed an animated twenty-something male sitting at his laptop and closing it up in disgust. Suddenly an icon that looked amazing like one of the social media company’s logo walks into the room and with a cartoon face begins inquiring why the main character left the social media site.

The man explains that he is tired of the site and needs to move on with his life. Suddenly the icon of another famous social media site arrives and then three more drop by. They all begin bullying the man to come back to cyberspace and play.

Finally the animated man says that he needs to get a life and move on. Although every cartoon icon begs him to come back the brave man walks outside and begins walking downtown. He sits at a pleasant sidewalk café, but no one will talk to him. This cartoon man tries virtually everything possible to enjoy life.

Suddenly he looks around to find no one paying any attention to him and says, “This is lame.” He then proceeds to walk home and open up his laptop as the video ends.

For many online users there may be more truth to this video than they want to admit. Some of the most engaging conversation many will encounter during a day will be online through social media.

I intentionally left out any specific social media page names because there are simply too many of them to list. Each social media page focuses on something specific and then provides some more generalized offerings.

It may be a sad commentary that for some individuals the online world may be preferred to real life, but this is often the truth.

This is why marketing to this genre is important. You see these individuals are extremely motivated to be online and engage others in the same way. These are not sideline players. These are the first string online users who eat, drink, breathe and sleep Internet.

When you market to social media you are not simply embracing a casual online user. These are hardcore users who often understand special coding issues for their social media page. They know how to add widgets and other interactive devices to their personal social media world. They have made the term geek cool.

This truth may be why Google has been so interested in developing advertising accessibility within social media sites. Their PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising can result in profits for virtually everyone involved.

Social media is a format that has found a future in spare parts. So many associate programs are being used to develop interactive content, personalized page design and secure music distribution. Because social media has left the door open we will likely see more and more mix and match options to drive future potential in social media.

Whether you are looking to develop a direct or indirect marketing campaign via social media it is a format that lends itself to reaching out.

So, ummmm, reach out already.

Quick, what single word that comes to mind when you try to describe social media? Authenticity? Immediacy? Participation?

What about meanness?

It seems the best way to drive traffic to your blog is to write that something or someone is:

• Lame
• Dead
• Irrelevant
• Clueless

It’s the social media version of the Mad Libs game. Title your blog post “[proper noun] is [adjective from above list]!” and watch the comments roll in!

The problem with this game is that often, innocent, or mostly innocent people are caught in the crosshairs, and exposed to undeserved risk to reputation and career.

Certainly public condemnation is called for in many situations, but where do you draw the line? Gross ethical misconduct? Easy call. But what about a poorly thought out business model, a bad user interface, or a momentary, innocent lapse in judgment? Do these kinds of situations deserve the social media equivalent of the public beating in the town square? Or is it that the risk to reputation and career of harsh public criticism directed at specific individuals and companies is outweighed by the usefulness of this kind or reportage in helping others avoid the same mistakes?

There are several things that encourage negative behavior in social media. The first is the idea that a good blog is one that gets lots of visitors and lots of links. That’s good if you sell advertising on your blog or if your ego demands it. So we write provocative headlines and we take on sacred cows. Because (mixing a few metaphors here) social media is like a day at the race track: some people come just to see the crashes.

Another more subtle factor is the need some of us feel, and I include myself in this category, to offer our professional wisdom to others in the industry. It’s often easiest to do that by commenting on a case study. Case studies involve real, identifiable people and their behavior, so it’s hard to write about them without naming the people involved.

In my journalism school days, during the Coolidge administration, we talked about the dismal failure of “good news:” print and broadcast news outlets designed to balance the doom, gloom, death and depravity highlighted every night on the evening news. The truth is, for whatever reason, bad news sells.

When I write about something I’ve read relevant to social media, PR or corporate communications, I try to base my analysis on the facts, and to avoid character assassination. I tend to stay away from the big four adjectives above, although I did call a couple of people “weasels.”

Lately, I have been giving a lot of thought as to whether all of this negativity is really necessary, and whether there is another healthier, more useful way to carry on these discussions.

This all started a few weeks ago when I left a comment on a blog in which I was critical of someone’s professional conduct. I soon realized that while I thought I was participating in an academic discussion on social media ethics, I was in fact unfairly questioning the integrity of a fellow professional based on only a handful of facts (those included in the blog post.) I did two things I have never done before. I apologized to this person, and I asked the author of the blog to delete my comment.

I then wondered, is it possible to talk about hypothetical conduct to avoid criticizing specific individuals, or is it only through “real life” case studies that we can understand difficult concepts, particularly in the area of ethics? What kind of conduct merits public disclosure? Where do we draw the line when it comes to criticizing the thoughts and deeds of others?

I’m not sure what the answers are. I’m still working through it. Until I figure it out, I have for the most part stopped using case studies on my blog, and have stopped criticizing people as a way to make a point.

And to help me establish my own rules of engagement, I decided to write my Social Media Love Manifesto. Despite the evidence that “good news” and kindness are not big sellers, I thought I would give it a shot.

While many claim that Web 2.0 and social media have brought with them new and uncharted terrain, where etiquette is defining itself with each advance and new rules are being written every day, the line between the online world and the real world was largely erased a long time ago, and there is no longer any reason for two sets of moral and ethical guidelines.

The people we “meet” in our online interactions are real people. They probably own a computer or two, write a blog or participate in a social network, and through the social media filter we see only glimpses of them, but that does not mean that they are not real, or that we are in any way excused from treating them like any other person we would meet.

I have therefore resolved that when writing on my blog, or when using any other form of social media, when calling into question the conduct of a specific, identifiable person, I will:

• Base my comments on the facts, and make reasonable efforts to gather all of the relevant facts before weighing in on a controversial discussion.
• Weigh carefully the value of any comments I choose to make against the potential for harm.

And I will not:

• Make assumptions about people’s motivations.
• Generate controversy for its own sake.
• Join others by superficially “piling on” when someone is under attack

I will always strive to:

• Treat people online with the respect and kindness I would extend to a friend or colleague.
• Take time regularly to leave a supportive comment on a blog or acknowledge someone positively in a public forum.

Maybe I’m naïve or foolish. If I come across as didactic, preachy or self-serving, I don’t mean to. But I’d like to think we could all be a little nicer. Since I have agreed to follow my Social Media Love Manifesto, I have found less to write about on my blog, and my position in the Advertising Age Power 150 list of media blogs, the only ranking I watch, has slid gradually downward.

I’m a writer, and I try to choose my words carefully. That’s why I called this “My Social Media Love Mainfesto.” I wrote it for me, and I intend to give it a try. If you like it, feel free to use it. If you want to add to it, leave me a comment. And if you don’t like it, feel free to tell me why, but please try to be nice about it.

1. Set goals.

The number one business management tool you can use to better your business is goals.  Long term goals, short term goals and mid range goals too.  In fact, when you started your business, you wrote a business plan right?  Did your business plan include your goals?

Business goals can include anything from how much you want to gross this year to how many hours you want to work.  In fact, it’s a common business management goal to work as few hours as possible and make a substantial income.  It’s one of the reasons many people start an online business in the first place.

So what are your goals?  As you write down your goals, take the time to make sure they meet the following criteria.  Are your goals measurable?  It isn’t enough to make a goal that you want to make more money or you want to work less.  How will you know when you’ve achieved your goal?  Quantify your goals so they’re measurable and you know when you’ve achieved success.

Make your goals timely.  What is your deadline for your goal?  If you don’t have a deadline for your goal, they’ll slip away and never get accomplished.  A deadline makes you accountable for your goals.  Along with timely is the ability to make your goals attainable.  There’s nothing worse than setting a goal that is so beyond your reach you end up feeling defeated.  Create your goals wisely, establish a plan to achieve them and you’ll create a pattern of success that will expand beyond your business and into your personal life too.

2. Set your business up the right way.

By setting your business up, we’re talking about both as an entity, LLC, sole proprietor, s corp. etc.., as well as setting it up separate from your personal life.  Get a separate business account.  Obtain a business address and phone number.  Separate and set up your business as an individual entity. This not only protects you legally it covers you with the government and tax system.

Take the time to meet with an accountant to get a best practices system established for accounting, this means all of your payables, receivables and taxes.  If you take these measures in the beginning, you’ll make your business life easier both day to day and in the long run.

3. Automate what you can.

The wonder of doing business online is that there are so many features and tasks you can automate.  Invoicing can be automated, shipping and fulfillment can be automated.  Email marketing can be automated, tracking your web statistics, advertising and even content distribution can all be automated.  Automate everything you can to enable yourself more free time to spend on tasks that generate profits or simply to give you more free time to enjoy your life.

4. Outsource well.

Speaking of saving yourself time.  Outsourcing is a fantastic tool to give your business a step up and to give you a little less stress.  Many self-employed business owners, work somewhere between 40 and 80 hours a week.  It can be a lot of stress to own a business and handle every single task and responsibility. That is just one reason to consider outsourcing – save your sanity and spend more time focusing on you and your family.

There are a number of tasks you may be considering outsourcing.  They generally fall into a few categories:

• Administrative tasks. These are often time consuming tasks that do not have a high hourly value, yet they need to be accomplished to make your business run effectively and efficiently.

• Professional tasks. These tasks often fall under the realm of copy-writing, scripting, managing an affiliate program, marketing tasks and the like.  They are important to your bottom line, however they can be effectively handled by an outside professional at a nominal hourly value.

• Technical tasks. These are tasks that may take you some time to learn how to do.  They often fall under the realm of creating software, databases, special web languages, and so on.  These are time “vampires” simply because of the time it would take for you to learn how to do these particular tasks.  Their hourly value can be quite high.  The impact on your bottom line varies from task to task.  If you’re creating a new web element, it may contribute directly to profits.

Take a look at your job description. What can you outsource to make your business run more efficiently?

5.  Tell people what you want, not how to do it – create systems and accountability.

Delegating responsibilities is good business.  Here are a few ideas on how to work with others for maximum results.

• Establish a system of communication that works for both you and your employee.  Use the system to include what you want accomplished and by when. Use the rules for goal setting; make the task measurable, timely, and attainable.

• Communicate the task clearly.  Make sure that all deadlines, resources, and task responsibilities are thoroughly communicated.  Ask your employee questions to make sure task is understood.  Once you assign the task, let it go.  When you let go, you can focus on tasks required to grow your business and improve profits.

• Upon completion of the task provide feedback to your employee.  If constructive criticism is required, sandwich it between positive feedback for best results and to ensure a quality working relationship.

6.  Business plans and budgets.

It is a good business practice to have a business budget built right into your business plan. This is particularly important if you plan on seeking financing for your business.   Having an accurate and realistic budget will enable you to make educated spending decisions.

When creating a business budget your first step is often to determine your expenses.  Your expenses include operating costs, taxes, the costs of outsourcing, marketing, publicity and so on.  Make a list of all categories you anticipate having costs and all areas where you already know your expenses.

A budget is not a money diet, it is a spending plan and this is particularly important when it comes to your business.  You want to make sure you have enough money to pay your bills and grow your business.  Track your expenses and income and review your budget often.  If you find you’re spending more in one category, make the adjustments in your budget.

When it comes to owning and operating a business, a few good business management practices can go a long way.  Take the time to organize your life, outsource and automate what you can, establish processes to communicate your needs clearly, and structure your planning and spending in a way that makes sense for you.

-Philip Odegard

Generating a buzz to get massive amounts of traffic to your website is best done using social media websites?

The easiest way to accomplish this is to leverage the clout of influencers within the social media community.

Influencers are people within a social network that are respected and liked by others in that community and are able to popularize discussions on topics of interst in that community. 

Influencers stimulate the conversations, connect people to ideas and can capture the mindshare or opinion of an audience within a social sphere. All social media websites have a few select individuals who stand out for their activity within the community and their expertise has gained the trust and support of the social media users.

These are the people you are are looking for and the ones you want to influence.

There are so many social media sites and the points we make in this article can be applied to any of them. We’ll be studying how to develope your own strategy for targeting the influencers of these sites to engage  their social network with your content.

Let’s look at a social news site like Digg for example. Digg and other sites like it allow the audience to vote on the value of content with a simple thumbs up and thumbs down vote. By actively participating in the community you can develope a following and become and authority and with that comes influence.

Over time supporters will share your content with friends or add it to their websites and blogs. Social media users can be pitched just like a blogger or writer can be pitched with a simple introduction at first gradually building a relationship that’s mutually benefitial. The goal is to leverage their brand of influence by influencing them to promote your website content within their community.

The main steps are Targeting, Networking and then Pitching the influencer in question.

1.Targeting
Finding a social media influencer that shares your point of view about your content and is relevent to their website or sphere of influence is most important. Making your content in-line or coherent with the influencers interests makes it much easier to get them to promote or agree with your content.

Go to the public user ranking list of the social media site in question, in this case Digg, and visit each profile on the listed looking for who has influence and also who resonates with what you’re promoting. Get a feel for what interests them. You can also do a keyword search on the social media site looking for content based on your keywords and find the users that rank high within the site on those keywords. If they have consistently submitted content around those keywords they are likely to be open to suggestions of simular content. You can also do a URL search of your keywords to find people that may be open to more content of that type.

Using the site yourself will help you discover little details about the user you’re targeting that can help you reach them and develope rapport. For example, while top Digg user MrBabyMan submits a great amount of stories, most active Diggers are familiar with his avid interest in Cracked.com, a popular pop culture/men’s portal/magazine.

2. Networking
After you’re done targeting a specific social media website you need to contact them and develpoe a relationship. You can get in touch with them from their contact info in their user profile and join the site as a registered user. If contact info is not available Google them by their name and user name to see if you can find it elsewhere. Look for their blog or other profiles they may have listed on other sites.

Once you have their contact details initiate a conversation by just send them a note and thank them for their contributions. Trying to pitch to promote your content right away is very bad etiquette and annoying. You can stand out from the crowd of self-interested crowd by genuinely showing your appreciation for their contributions.

Take a genuine interest in them and engage them in a dialog of common interests and do so continuously until you have a good idea what material they would support and do favors for the user by giving them publicity or links to free resources and interesting content (not your own).

Real social media users are always interested in buzz-worthy news or opinions that can boost their own authority within the social media community. Your content or anything else you offer should not only meet the integrity of their personal brand, but it should improve it and the reputation of the user within the community.

Offer them free invites to unrelated websites, give away exclusive information on certain topics. Share some links to excellent websites. Do little favors without asking for anything in return at all. Give them a reason to be interested in you.

Networking is really just about making friends. It’s that simple. This will gradually lead you into the third and final stage: Pitching the influencer.

3.Pitching
So now that you’ve built a rapport with this person what next?

A. Ask Casually. Do your pitching in a light hearted and casual manner and do not
aggressively push the user to promote your content. This is a huge turnoff and
you should understand that the user has a perfect right to refuse you.

B. Disclose Your affiliation. I would recommend letting the user know that you
are affiliated with the specific website, particularly if you plan to have a long
working relationship with the user. He or she will appreciate your honesty and it
will also make it easier for you to ask the second time round.

C. Space out your pitches. The biggest mistake you can make is to ask the influencer
to promote every single piece of content that comes out on your site. This is a major
irritant so only offer the user your best work, while pitching your material only once
per week or every two weeks.

Continue to keep aclose contact after they are promoting your site. Building a long-term relationship will have longterm results and targeted in-bound links to your website for years to come.

Good Luck!

Talk soon, 

Frank Tocco–Marketing Mentor

Do you know what social media marketing is and to go about making money with social media?

First of all before you can make money at something you need to know what it is. Once you are educated on the subject then you can start to make money.

So what is social media marketing?

Social media marketing is promoting and trying to sell your product on social networking sites. For example a couple of different social networking sites would be Facebook, Twitter, and You Tube, just to name a few.

Some other forms of social media are blogging and forums. With blogging you can write about your products and reach thousands of people. I would suggest this blogging blueprint for making money if you want to get serious about it.

On forums you can have links to your website abd tell others about your products. You can also talk to people and create relationships with them by answering their questions on your products. You can find forums relating to the theme of your business at Big-Boards which is the largest message board and forum site on the web today.

So how do you use social media to make money?

By having links to your website on many different kinds of social media websites then you can potentially increase traffic to your website resulting in many more customers which will result in many more sales.

If you are doing this for internet business reasons it can lead to you making money.

With so many different forms of marketing on the Internet, making money with social media is an easy and fast way to get in front of potential customers. There is no reason you could not start a new blog and be getting 500 visitors a day in less than 2 months if you work at it.

To find out more about making money with social media you need to further your research and decide which social media sites are best for you and the customers that you are trying to reach.

You can find many websites online that offer excellent training on social media including ebooks, and blogs specificially about it.

To make money with social media you have to work hard at it all of the time, just like any other form of internet marketing. If you are willing to do this you can start and run any business you want online and use socail media to promote it.

To start a business and have it up and running successfully, you will need to think of some realistic business management plans. With these plans and your dream in mind, you will have to work through the initial difficult stages to build up good business management strategies and the ways to achieve them. Your business-management skills may be the crux between mediocrity and success.

The first and most important step in a good business management plan is to set clear specific goals and objectives. It is easier to achieve goals or objectives that are distinctive and focused. In addition, it will take lesser time but produce better results continually. As such, design your strategies to achieve your objectives. It makes good business sense to organize the “to-dos” for each day so that there is better focus on every task.

Another important business management trait is align your own personal goals and objectives with that of the company’s and give them full focus until each task has been completed. The more time you spent on perfecting a skill, the lesser will be the time taken to complete the task.

Another purpose of setting goals and objectives is to create a way to measure performance and track accomplishments. Such goals and objectives have to be challenging but achievable. You need to be creative and innovative in order to achieve the specific goals and strategic objectives set up in the business management plans.

At the same time, create your company’s mission and vision statements and find solutions on how to implement or accomplish them. Outline the performance targets and the ways to achieve them. This is to avoid going in different directions. Define the company’s passion and the methods to excel in it. Such business management strategies will strengthen the company’s competitiveness in the industry. In addition, setting up long-term goals will determine the company’s position in ten years’ time and mark out the path to achieve them.

Some entrepreneurs may confuse activity with productivity. Most of the entrepreneurs who succeeded have the ability to identify and categorize specific activities that are extremely crucial or create an extraordinary significance that will contribute towards the overall success of the business. More time will then be allocated to ensure that these are carried out thoroughly and effectively. A successful entrepreneur also has an in-build drive that motivates them to persevere and make things happen. This is one of the most important business management traits.

Another business management characteristic is to know how to respond to industry changes and market conditions. A successful entrepreneur will learn through other people’s knowledge and efforts especially those of their clients or competitors. Capitalize on these new ideas or concepts and your business may expand with lesser efforts contributed and within a shorter period of time.

Due to continuous changes, good business management is an ongoing process to constantly evaluate strategies and monitor performance to see if there are better ways to accomplish the goals and objectives or whether improvements and adjustments need to be made. This may even lead to changing the company’s mission or vision statements.

As budgets are drying up entrepreneurs are turning, yet again, to technology, social media comes to the rescue. Words such as YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn would have been considered typos not too recently have become part of our corporate success dictionary. Social media offers companies inexpensive ways to improve their customer service, ramp up their customer service, learn more about their market, reduce their expenses, and more.

Improve your customer service

Having a conversation with your customers through social media is a new business skill. In an effort to improve its public image, Dell has made a conscious effort to connect with its customers through various social media channels such as blogs, forums, and various third-party websites. Dell had to appreciate that customers talked about their products online, and the company was forced to become part of the conversation. With a little help from their social media friend Dell managed to make improvements to its Latitude laptop. Note: It was a Dell laptop that exploded into flames at a conference in Japan.

Social media is the great equalizer as the story of Jeff Jarvis, an unhappy Dell customer, shows. Jarvis took on this giant of a company using his own blog. He managed to create awareness about customer concerns that had reached an international audience. Initially, Dell had ignored the blog voicing Jarvis’ concerns until his blog became the outlet for public conversation of customer issues. His blog, the BuzzMachine, has become the focus of Dell’s mistakes, poor customer service and flawed products.

The blogosphere doesn’t create the problems it simply brings them to light, and it makes it possible for business to address the issues at hand. Now, the CEOs of companies don’t have to take customer service managers word for it, they can learn about customer issues directly from the source. Some might argue that somehow this is a bad thing. On the contrary, with social media, companies and consumers can realize problems that need to be addressed. Customer engagement through social media could only hurt a company in the long run that is not interested in positive change. Instead of creating a problem social media brings a new level of efficiency to the corporate world.

Do more research

Market research is no longer a luxury only large companies can afford. Social media is the market research alternative for small and mid-size businesses that don’t have money to burn. Especially in a recession, market research is an essential part of a winning corporate strategy. Using social media, companies can carry out their own market research, and the best part is that it’s free.

Search for the topic of your choice on StumbleUpon and learn what people say. One of the greatest aspects of StumbleUpon is that marketers can easily find websites related to their market that they would never find on their own. Businesses can use this website to get instant feedback. The community is continually engaged providing constant opinion that result in a better product. A company might be developing new packaging for a product and get instant criticism from the online community. Something that might have taken weeks and months using traditional methods can be done in a matter of days or even hours. This method is not only fast, but it is also free.

LinkedIn, the social media outlet for grownups, is a rich and dynamic database, which can be searched, mined, and yield insightful and useful information to you and your business. Through its “Answers” feature LinkedIn serves as a valuable market research tool because it enables users to ask questions on virtually any topic, and expect to get answers quickly from the community. Executives can ask questions about products, services, trends, or any topic that might be useful to gain a better insight into their market. You can use the search feature to find people by industry, job title, company, or geographical location. The search results include vital corporate information.

Twitter, a micro blogging service, with its millions of users, offers a world of market intelligence for your business. Twitter is the killer app for marketers that are dying to become the fly on the wall as they are given the opportunity to listen in on public conversations about their market, social issues, products, services, or industry trends. Twitter provides near-real time intelligence on virtually any market.

Should StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Twitter, or other social media applications going to be your only source of market research? Of course not, but social media offers an abundance of honest conversation from which business can gather a wide range of vital information.