Interactive Insights Group

It’s a brand new year! Want to get more social media savvy in 2009?

It’s easy to get lost and confused with the ever-changing stream of information and advice about social media.  I’m a big collector and bookmarker of social media and web strategy articles.  Here I’ve tried to pull together the best advice and tips I’ve found from from the past year or so from credible experts in social media -  high-quality articles from well-regarded blogs like chrisbrogan.com, Mashable.com, ReadWriteWeb.com, DoshDosh.com, Problogger.net, MarketingProfs.com, Copyblogger.com, Webstrategist.com and from a few other less-known but excellent blogs.

I’ve organized the selected articles into key categories such as General Social Media Strategy, Blogs, Twitter, Social News and Bookmarketing, Traffic Driving & Link Building, etc.

If you’re still struggling with the basics, check out our Social Media Beginner’s Guide or see what others are doing by reading our Social Media Case Studies Superlist.

Are there any areas of social media you’re still struggling to get a handle on?  If so, let me know in the comments section of this article below.  Perhaps I’ve got some answers in my stash of bookmarked articles.

If You Read This, Please Tweet This To Your Followers (just copy and paste the following into your Twitter bar): 100+ Resources to Boost Your Social Media Savvy in 2009 http://tinyurl.com/8kqnjg

1.   Social Media Strategy and Planning

• Social Media Starter Pack
  From Chris Brogan: Advice on the most important social media tools you’ll want to use when getting started in social media.
• 50 Ways to use Social Media, listed by Objective
  From Forrester Analyst Jeremiah Owyang: 50 ways marketers can use social media to improve their marketing segmented into Forrester’s 5 social computing objectives (e.g. Listening, Talking, energizing, supporting and embracing).
• 35 Tips for getting started with social media
  From Mike Fruchter’s blog- My Thoughts On Social Media: Useful steps and advice for those just getting started with social media.
• 40 Key Elements to Getting Started In Social Media
  From Louis Gray: Social media is more than just the tools, it is about the human element. This post touches upon 40 key elements to aid your success.
• Social Media Marketing – Who, What, When, Where, Why and How?
  From Louis Gray: Another great getting-started post from Louis….if you’re just looking to get started in social media or deciding if it’s right for you and/or your business, he helps you ask the right questions to make your decisions.
• The Essential Guide to Social Media
  From Brian Solis: Download this comprehensive PDF ebook that provides an executive guide to Social Media for PR, Customer Service, Product Development and Marketing.
• Social Media Marketing Campaigns: How to Set Goals and Define Your Target Market
  From DoshDosh: This article talks about the most common goals for social media marketing and includes suggestions on how you can determine your target audience.
• 10 Secrets of the Best Social Media Users
  From Digital Labz: Here are 10 steps to creating a successful social media marketing strategy.
• Starting a Social Media Strategy | chrisbrogan.com
  From Chris Brogan: Solid advice and ideas on things to consider when starting to plan your social media strategy.
• Best Practices in Social Media
  From the Society for New Communications Research: 6 Best Practices Tip Sheets for: Developing a Social Media Policy , Corporate Blogging, Co-creation, Blogger Relations, Online Press Releases and Using Social Networks
• Social Media Strategy- The Planning Stage
  From Chris Brogan: Good list of elements to consider when building a social media strategy for your organization
• Five Ways to Use Social Media to Reach People Who Don’t Use Social Media – ReadWriteWeb
  From ReadWriteWeb blog: Great advice on five strategies for using social media to reach people who don’t use social media along with a list of specific tools you can use to do it.
• How To Identify & Target The Right Niche Social Media Sites
  From Search Engine Land: How to identify these sites and make sure that you won’t just be wasting your time.
• Superlist of What Not To Do In Social Meda
  From our own collection of casestudies and articles about what not to do in social media- mistakes, blunders, failures, etc. .
• Comparing Six Ways to Identify Top Blogs in Any Niche
  From ReadWriteWeb: A comparison of the pros and cons of six different services to identify top blogs for your business.
• The Top Ten Reasons for Building an Online Community in 2009
  From Vovici: If you don’t currently have an online community, and you are not thinking of building an online community next year, you should be. Here’s the Top 10 reasons why.
• How Do You Build An Online Community?
  From Feverbee: Fantastically rich post on getting an online community up and running successfully with hyperlinks to detailed information.
• 50 Ways Marketers Can use Social Media to Improve Their Marketing
  From Chris Brogan: List of 50 solid ideas of ways companies can use social media to enhance their marketing and PR efforts
• 10 Ways to Spy on Your Competitors
  From Sitepoint: How to Use the Internet and tools like Twitter, Blogs and Bookmarks to spy on Your Competitors
• 25 Ways to Build Your Community
  From Chris Brogan: 25 solid suggestions for building your blog and community.
• Comparing Six Ways to Identify Top Blogs in Any Niche
  From ReadWriteWeb: How then can you identify the top blogs in a particular niche field? There are paid services you can use to identify influencers online but they are expensive and not appropriate for quick hits in a new topic. Here’s a comparison of the pros and cons of six different options that are fast and free.
• 18 Ways To Engage Users Online (A Guide for Community Managers)
  From Angela Connor: A Free PDF ebook with advice on how to get people to engage and interact with your community.
• Social Media Marketing Tactics By Site
  From SEOmoz: Review of the benefits and drawbacks of 30 of the top social media sites
• Social Media Strategy – Aligning Goals and Measurements
  From Chris Brogan: Discussion of importance of aligning goals and measurements to social media strategies.
• The Social 7
  An informative (and fun!) weekly video newscast/conversation that covers the week’s top 7 stories in social media marketing from Nick Mendoza, Alex Miller and Andrea Nowack.
• Secret Underground Guide to Using Social Media for Organizations
  From Colin McKay of Canuckflack.com: A free PDF guide for exploring the world of social media and building support for social media in a large organization.
• How to: Build a Social Media Cheat Sheet for Any Topic
  From ReadWriteWeb: Step-by-step instructions, with screen shots, for a process to get up to speed on the social media activity in your field or market as fast as you can.

2.   Blogs

• A Guide to Breaking Into the Technorati Top 100
  From Skelliewag: Advice regarding what is required to break into Technorati’s Top 100 most linked-to blogs in the world.
• Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog — Condensed from Dozens of Bloggers’ Experiences
  From I’d Rather Be Writing – Tom Johnson: 20 worthwhile priniciples to consider based on lessons learned posts by bloggers.
• Killer Flagship Content: How to Create and Promote Truly Compelling Blog Resources
  From Chris Garret’s blog chrisg.com: Download this free PDF e-book that introduces the concept of Flagship Content and provides all the information you need to create, package and promote compelling resources that attract more attention to your blog
• Blogging Tips for Beginners
  From ProBlogger: Links to a series of blog tips written with blogging for beginners (and ‘Pre’ Bloggers) in mind. It unpacks the basics of blogging and a lot of the decisions and strategies that you’ll want to consider when setting up and starting a blog.
• Test your Website: A 57-Point Checklist for Maximum Usability
  From Virtual Hosting Blog: So you’ve got a website (or blog), but do you know whether it’s usable or not? The answer to this question can make the difference between a successful site and one that’s just ignored. Go through this checklist to make sure your site is up to snuff.
• 69 Questions to Ask to Review Your Blog
  From Problogger: List of questions your should ask yourself about your blog’s performance over the past to capitalize upon and build upon lessons learned.
• 40 Ways to Deliver Killer Blog Content
  From Chris Brogan: Advice for producing compelling content for your blog.
• Ten Elements Every Company Blog Should Have
  From Marketing Profs Daily Fix Blog: essential elements that you should incorporate into your company’s blog
• How Bloggers Should Inspire Retweets
  From Web Strategy by Jeremiah: A piece of simple advice that every blogger should follow.
• 10 Mistakes That Could Be Killing Your Blog
  From Write to Done: Overview of some common mistakes many blogs make that turn off new readers (and even regular readers oftentimes) … mistakes that could be killing your blog.
• 27 Blogging Secrets to Power Your Community
  From Chris Brogan: A solid list of 27 things you should do to boost the performance of your blog and community – Starter Moves, Technical Stuff and More
• 10 Rules for Corporate Blogs and Wikis
  From Marketing Profs: 10 rules for using blogs and wikis to achieve your branding goals
• 31 Days to Building a Better Blog
  From Problogger: Month long series of posts designed to walk you through 31 tasks that you can do to make your blog better
• How to Create a Successful Business Blog: 9 Steps to Implementing
  From MarketingProfs: Nine tips for implementing and launching a blog
• HOW TO: Get the Most Out of Technorati
  From Mashable: Technorati with its search engine, tags, feeds and rankings has become the go-to source for all things blog. The site has undergone several makeovers over the years with the most recent changes drastically simplifying the design with more of a focus on search. But all the basic functionality still exists in addition to numerous other new tools to scour the web and advance your position in the blogosphere. Whether you’re new to the service, or quite familiar with it, here’s a guide to getting the most out of Technorati.
• 16 Effective Strategies to Expand Your Blog’s Reach
  From DoshDosh: Solid strategies for those wanting to expand the reach of their blog.
• 50 Ways to Take Your Blog to the Next Level
  From Chris Brogan: Good ideas for those who want to focus on improving their current blog.

3.   Twitter

• Twitter for Business Reading List
  From Pistachio: Excellent selection of articles covering toipcs you need to know about Twitter for your business.
• How Companies Use Twitter to Bolster Their Brands
  From BusinessWeek: Good article that is part of Business Week’s CEO Guide to Microblogging.
• Building an Effective Business Profile on Twitter
  From TwiTip: As the popularity of micro-blogging continues to grow, it’s going to become a tool used by advertisers and marketers. In the same way that running a corporate or business blog is different from running a personal blog, running a corporate or business twitter profile is different from running a personal twitter profile.
• Twitter Handbook
  From Deb Micek and Warren Whitlock: Get this free PDF e-book, a comprehensive introduction and overview on Twitter and how you can use it to improve the way you do business and market online.
• Developing Your Twitter Muscles
  From Twitip: A few easy ways to bulk up your Twitter presence that don’t require much, if any, heavy lifting.
• Your Brand’s Checklist for Twitter
  From A New Marketing: A few things that every brand can do to enhance their Twitter account and make sure that they reach their goals with the program
• How to Use Twitter to Grow Your Business
  From Copyblogger: Article reveals how bestselling authors and business professionals use Twitter to grow their business and offers advice on how you can use Twitter to achieve your goals.
• Why Brands ABSOLUTELY DO Belong on Twitter
  From Mashable: Article discussing the benefits and value of brands using Twitter.
• Use Twitter for your Business the Right Way
  From Twitip: Some tips to rub your Twitter followers the right way. Soon you’ll find out how loyal and supportive these people can be if only you took the time to get to know them.
• Defining Twitter Goals: A Tip for Successful Use of Twitter
  From Twitip: Useful advice and thoughts on setting specific goals for your use of Twitter.
• 10 Easy Steps for Twitter Beginners
  From Twitip: Not sure where to begin with Twitter? This article provides simple step by step advice to become Twitter savvy.
• Practical 101s: Tips For New Twitter Users
  From Dave Fleet: 8 suggestions for how to get the most out of Twitter.
• HOW TO: Win Friends and Twinfluence People
  From Mashable: 10 tips on winning friends and twinfluencing people using for those still somewhat new to the service.
• Develop a Twitter Landing Page
  From Problogger: A twitter landing page is a page on your blog or website that is specifically written for those arriving at your blog having clicked on the link in your twitter profile. Advice on why and how to develop one.
• Free Report: Twitter Jump Start – The Twitter Guide for Small Non-Profits
  From CorporateDollar Blog: Download a free comprehensive guide to Twitter for non-profits.
• A Minimalist’s Guide to Using Twitter Simply, Productively, and Funly
  From Zen Habits: Advice regarding different ways you can use Twitter without spending too much time doing it.
• HOW TO: Build Community on Twitter
  From Mashable: 10 tips for using Twitter to grow a community which benefits you (and your audience)
• 10 Traits of Highly Effective Twitter Users
  From Twitip: Some habits of effective Twitter users that beginners can use to help expand their network.
• FOLLOW FAIL: The Top 10 Reasons I Will Not Follow You in Return on Twitter
  From Mashable: List compiled by a Twitter “power user” regarding the major reasons why he will or will not return a Twitter follower’s follow when it happens.

4.   Social Media News and Bookmarking

• How to Play the Odds Game and Win With Digg
  From Skelliewag: Advice on how you can give your content the best possible chance of making it to the front page of social bookmarking site Digg.
• Practical 101s: Social Bookmarking With Delicious
  From Dave Fleet: Great introduction and advice on using the Delicious social bookmarking site.
• 6 Ways To Make Life Easier With Del.icio.us
  From Dave Fleet: More great advice on using the social bookmarking site Delicious more effectively
• How to Use StumbleUpon Like a Pro
  From Mahalo: Comprehensive guide to using social bookmarking site StumbleUpon.
• How to Use Digg Like a Pro
  From Mahalo: Comprehensive guide to using social bookmarking site Digg.
• HOW TO: Get the Most Out of Digg
  From Mashable: A quick guide for users of all levels to help you get the most out of Digg.
• How to Use del.icio.us Like a Pro
  From Mahalo: Comprehensive guide to using social bookmarking site Delicious.
• 10 Tips for Making Your Blog Posts More del.icio.us
  From Vandelay Website Design: Steps to take to make the most of social bookmarking site Delicious to drive website traffic.
• HOW TO: Get the Most Out of StumbleUpon
  From Mashable: A guide for users of all levels that will help you get the most out of StumbleUpon

5.   RSS

• Top 5 Reasons to Use RSS
  From MarketingProfs: Five key reasons for adopting RSS as part of your communications strategy
• 50 Simple Ways to Gain RSS Subscribers
  From Daily Blog Tips: Advice and ideas on increasing the number of RSS subscribers for your blog or website.
• HOW TO: Use Google Reader Like A Rockstar
  From Mashable: Quick how-to guide for using Google’s popular RSS reader- Google Reader.

6.   Other Social Media Tools

• How to Master Screencasts in Seven Steps
  From Mashable: Making screencasts (also known as “video tutorials”) is already easy, and becomes easier with better tools and broadband proliferation. This article provides practical tips and tricks on some best practices for making screencasts that are more effective.
• Podcast FAQ
  PodcastFAQ.com is a website committed to providing everything you need to know about podcasting. This site aims to contain the most up-to-date information for podcast creators, consumers and businesses. The content is intended to be easy to find, to the point, and without clutter.
• HOW TO: Create Online Video That Works
  From Mashable: Six steps to creating online video that works
• 15 Secrets of FriendFeed’s Power Users
  From Louis Gray: Fifteen ways that other users are making FriendFeed a more valuable tool for all of us.
• How Brands Will Use FriendFeed
  From Web Strategy by Jeremiah: Ideas on how Friendfeed can become a tool for brands to further their social media efforts.
• The Wiki Toolbox: 30+ Wiki Tools and Resources
  From Mashable: Wikis, sites that can be collaboratively edited, are among the most popular tools for groups working together online. We’ve rounded up 30 of the best sites and resources – most of them free or low priced.
• Tipsheet: CEO Guide to Wiki Etiquette
  From Business Week: Etiquette tips drawn from Wikipedia
• HOW TO: Get the Most Out of FriendFeed
  From Mashable: A few tips for both beginning and more advanced FriendFeed users that can help you make this service as useful as possible
• HOW TO: Save Time With Website Registration and Profiles
  From Mashable: Here are some simple steps that you can use to smooth the form-filling process, and each subsequent time you sign up for a site, think of the following as a handy checklist that ensures you’ve got everything ready

7.   Facebook

• 30+ Apps for Doing Business on Facebook
  From Mashable: Here are over 30 Facebook applications to help promote, network, communicate, collaborate and accomplish more with your business.
• The Facebook Marketing Toolbox: 100 Tools and Tips to Tap the Facebook Customer Base
  From Inside CRM: long list of 100 tools and tips for leveraging Facebook as a business tool.
• Facebook Group and Brand Pages Best Practices
  From Social Media Explorer: Review of best practices for organizations who want to create group and/or brand pages on Facebook.
• The Facebook Marketing Bible: 24 Ways to Market Your Brand, Company, Product, or Service Inside Facebook
  From Inside Facebook: Review of different Facebook opportunities for marketers, advisers and application developers.
• How to Build an Impressive Social Networking Presence, Beginning with Facebook
  From Social Media Power: Advice on how to build your presence on social networking sites starting with Facebook.

8.   Driving Traffic and Building Links

• The Resource Linkbait – Using Lists to Build Authority, Traffic and Links to your Website.
  From DoshDosh: Advice on using resource pages and articles to get people to link to and visit your website.
• Using Competitor Analysis to Build Referral Traffic and Links
  From DoshDosh: Advice on how you can perform competitor analysis to help identify opportunities for building traffic and links to your own site.
• HOW TO: Boost Your Blog Traffic
  From Paul Stamatiou: Advice on generating traffic for your blog.
• 10 Effective Ways to Get More Blog Subscribers
  From Copyblogger: 10 specific strategies you can begin to implement today and start getting more blog subscribers right away.
• How To Promote Other People’s Content and Drive Traffic to Your Own Blog
  From Problogger: Interesting advice on how submitting other people’s posts to social media sites can actually end up driving traffic to your blog.
• Five Link Building Strategies That Work
  From Copyblogger: 5 effective ways to go about building links back to your website or blog.
• How to Influence Powerful Social Media Users for Traffic and Attention
  From DoshDosh: Advice for targeting and influencing those social media users – the mavens and connectors- who can help grow your traffic and brand.
• How to Set Up a Domino Effect of Traffic
  From Vandelay Website Design: Ideas about strategically using second tier social media sites or niche sites to drive website traffic.
• 27 Secrets to Linking Like a Master Networker
  From Personal PR: Here are 27 secrets to linking that will help you build lasting relationships, increase your Personal PR, expand your network, and increase your presence online.
• Social Media Daily
  From Michele MacPhearson: Register and receive a free PDF e-book with a step-by-step checklist and comprehensive advice on how to market your website with social media, social bookmarking, social networking and other Web2.0 vehicles
• Why No One Links to Your Best Posts (And What to Do About It)
  From Copyblogger: Advice on building a popular blog and getting people to link to it.

9.   Content and Writing

• Blogging Tips – Hundreds of Resources for Finding Content for Your Blog « Lorelle on WordPress
  From Lorelle on WordPress: A huge list of possible content resources for possible blog content
• How to Create Cornerstone Content That Google Loves
  From Copyblogger: 5-step strategy for developing cornerstone content and getting it to rank well.
• 5 Simple Ways to Open Your Blog Post With a Bang
  From Copyblogger: 5 ways to open your post that will capture the reader’s imagination and pull them deeper into your content.
• How Web Is Different from Print
  From Gerry McGovern: Of all the things that make the Web different from print, linking is the most important. Are we tool-making animals or are we animals made by tools? It’s an old question. How much did the quill shape our minds and worlds? We invented the printing press which then invented a new society, a new way of thinking.
• 40+ Topics for Corporate Bloggers
  From Mashable: Excellent resource with more than 40 topics for corporate bloggers to help provide that much needed inspiration

10.  Social Media and SEO

• Keyword Research for Bloggers: A Comprehensive Guide
  From Copyblogger: Keyword research is a fundamental part of online marketing of all kinds, and that definitely includes blogging. Blogs are famous for ranking well in search engines thanks to their structure and frequently-updated content, but if you don’t use the words people are actually interested in and actively searching for, you’re missing a lot of traffic. Here’s a comprehensive guide to doing keyword research well.
• Comprehensive Guide to Keyword Research, Selection & Organization
  From Search Engine Guide Blog: 12-part series of posts (later to be put into a single downloadable e-book) that will be our new comprehensive guide to keyword research. This series of posts isn’t so much about individual tactics and strategies as it is a start to finish guide on how to find, analyze, prioritize and organize your keywords. The goal is create a solid keyword foundation for your SEM campaigns, whether SEO or PPC, that will put you in a much stronger position for success and give you a significant advantage over your toughest competition.
• 15 Tips on Improving Search Engine Visibility
  From Louisgray.com: Advice on boosting your sites visibility in search engines.

11.  Social Media/Reputation Monitoring

• 12 Reputations Every Company Should Monitor Online
  From Marketing Pilgrim: Advice on the 12 pieces of information (e.g. Company name) that you should be tracking online.
• Five Tools I Use for Listening | chrisbrogan.com
  From Chris Brogan: Advice on five key tools to listening to conversations in social media venues that are relevant to your business.
• Top 10 Free Tools for Monitoring Your Brand’s Reputation
  From Mashable: Brand monitoring has become an essential task for any individual or corporation. This article outlines a process for montoring your brand online and a list of the top 10 free tools for doing this.
• Online Media Monitoring: 26 Free Social Media Tracking Tools
  From Marketing Pilgrim: Review of 26 freely available buzz monitoring tools

12.  Social Media Measurement and Analytics

• How to Measure Social Media ROI for Business – Mashable
  From Mashable: In the absence of any accepted metrics, businesses still need to be able to determine whether or not a social media program is moving the needle, moving product or otherwise making an impact. This largely depends on the company’s social media objectives. Because these dramatically differ based on the organization, it’s impossible to agree upon standards. That doesn’t mean we can’t measure ROI at the company level, though. With that in mind, here are a few ways to consider measuring social media ROI for your business.
• 10 Free, Innovative Web Analytics Tools
  From ReadWriteWeb: When most people think of free web analytics, they immediately think of Google Analytics. But there are many other free, innovative statistic tools available on the web. These tools measure everything from user behavior, to search engine traffic, to real-time visitor tracking, and more. The following ten products may provide valuable data when analyzing your website traffic.
• Social Media Measurement- Metrics, Analysis, Growth, and Adoption
  From 123 Social Media: A handful of presentation that offer some different insights into to social media measurement and analysis.
• Tools and Metrics You Need to Measure and Monitor Social Media Success
  From Jacob Morgan on Social Media Today site: Good overview and discussion of of the key tools required to measure the success of your social media campaigns.

January 5th, 2009

Tags:   Blogging · delicious · digg · facebook · links · Marketing · marketing strategy · Monitoring · RSS · seo · socialMedia · traffic · Twitter · web content · wikis29 Comments