Yesterday, LinkedIn made a variety of 8 different applications available that add so much-needed functionality to the platform.

Anyone who is unfamiliar with LinkedIn should check it out; it’s a very business-oriented social networking site that allows you to connect with other business, share ideas, and keep up with new trends in your industry or in other industries. The site is aimed at business professionals so it has some unique benefits over other social platforms that are geared towards dissimilar interests such as MySpace or Facebook.

According to LinkedIn, their applications “enable you to enrich your profile, share and collaborate with your network, and get the key insights that help you be more effective. Applications are added to your homepage and profile enabling you to control who gets access to what information.” The new apps give you the ability to link other social media sites such as your blog, SlideShare, or Google Presentation; as well some apps that give you that ability to use LinkedIn as a shared workspace. Huddle Workspaces app gives users private and secured online workspaces with a whole set of collaboration tools for team projects.

If you check out my LinkedIn profile, you’ll see that I’ve integrated our blog as well as our Slideshare account.

This is another example of the power of social media and the ability to tie updates and information into a variety of different sources to expand your reach. Definitely worth checking into!

I gave a seminar last Friday at Emerge Memphis for one of their Brown Bag lunches, which are just lunch-and-learn type events. I was asked to speak about Internet Marketing, and I chose to give a broad overview because it seems that so many companies that we talk to (including our fellow companies in Emerge Memphis) have very little idea of what it takes to have a successful website.

For those who aren’t familiar with Emerge or the Incubator concept, I recommend looking into it because they are doing some great things for Memphis business.

So I put together a simple presentation on the basics: how does a Search Engines rank a website, what can you do to influence how they rank your site, and I also ran over all of the various methods for marketing a site online. We also did some screen captures from Camtasia that did a great job of showing how Google Analytics works. In my opinion, nothing will illustrate the power of marketing online more than showing how detailed the reporting packages are that are available. Google Analytics never disappoints in that regard, and I think that we made some headway on getting many of these people to start thinking about their Internet marketing plan.

Here’s the SlideShare of the presentation, however the movies that were embedded did not convert so you don’t get to see how Analytics, Emma, or Google Trends works. If you really want to see if then let me know.

I was checking out Livingston’s blog and he drew my attention to this article from by Jason Baer of Convince and Convert and thought it was a great piece that deserved some additional attention (apparently so did 50+ other people as evidenced in the comments section). Jason lists six fallacies of social media and explains as to why they are false. There are good and bad points to his arguments, and I’d like to delve further into his analysis.

1. Social Media is Inexpensive Social media tools are inexpensive. They are generally open source and shareable. Monitoring is free (unless you use a professional tool). I agree that engaging in effective social media campaigns is extremely time consuming (and therein lies the cost). Factor in hours of research, diving into communities, participating, commenting, reading, reading, and more reading. To ease the pain, consultants and agencies embracing social media as a tactic to add to their overall PR and marketing counsel should develop strategies and clear tactics. Develop clear metrics to determine viable and influential sources. Work hard, work smart, work strategically. Over time, you will identify methods of searching and pulling out the best information for your client or company’s goals, while saving valuable time and endless hours searching through infinite web content.

2. Social Media is Fast
Social media IS fast. It takes mere seconds for a blog post to go up about your company or client, for comments and responses and conversations to take place about your brand. Without effectively monitoring and participating in relevant communities, it’s very easy for things to quickly get out of hand (especially in a situation with an unhappy customer or other crisis).
Getting yourself out there is fast. It’s the follow-up and overall social network engagement that is slow. However, if you have the right research in place from the start and know exactly what people you need to contact for your client or company’s business goals; it can go a lot faster. Spending time reading and contributing to 100 social networks and blogs where only 20-50 of them may be extremely relevant is time consuming. Focusing on just those 20-50 and hitting them hard makes a lot more sense.

3. Social Media is “Viral Marketing”
Social media, at the core, is viral. It allows for interactive conversation. Blog posts, YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, Utterli…all these sites provide easy ways for your content to be shared and discussed.
Whether it’s a blog post or a video, the first thing to remember is that viral material starts with great content. If the content is clever AND meaningful, it will spread like wildfire. However, just because something is socialized and has gone “viral” does not mean it will necessarily have the desired outcome. Take Sarah Silverman’s “The Great Schelp” video. Viral, yes. Results, eh.

4. Social Media results can’t be measured
Social media can be measured. Like any metric the ROI is determined by the relation to the company or client’s goals. Is it sales? Is it media coverage? Is it brand reputation or recognition?
Let’s take reputation management for example. A company that is seeing multiple online conversation from unhappy customers through a high percentage of negative blog posts, Twitter updates, and message board comments has a problem. After a few months of addressing those issues directly, participating in conversations, offering customer service support, and providing value to those communities…the negative discussions decrease. That’s a social media campaign result every company would like to see. Just ask Comcast or Dell.

5. Social Media is optional
Chances are your company or client is being discussed online. But, before deciding to engage in a social media campaign simply because of that fact, consider your audience. Your audience may be online, but that does not mean they are on Facebook, on Twitter, or commenting on message boards and blogs.
It’s more important to make establishing an online brand and persona part of your business plan, a necessary part. As Andrea mentioned yesterday, a web presence is a must for any business. It’s time to stop thinking about whether or not to go online. Instead, start considering what is already being said online about your company or client. Take that knowledge and manage your online brand, whether you choose to use social media tools or not.

6. Social media is hard
Without the correct research, clear goals and strategy in mind, social media is hard and overwhelmingly complex. However, it’s not hard when you erase all the technical jargon and consider that the main benefit of engaging in social media comes down to the “humanization” factor of your company or client.
Social media is an extension of community involvement. It involves seeking out community members that share your interests and passions. It’s about talking to them, learning from them, getting to know them. It’s about connecting with them and joining together for a common cause. It’s about sharing your view with others, and listening to theirs.
The only difference between those ideas for community involvement and social media, is that these conversations and connections are taking place online. Participation and authenticity in personal relationships is easy to translate online if you change the way you think about it. There goes the neighborhood.

[From Social Media Myths and Reality]

The first time I wrote about a three-step process for organizations to participate in social media was in February of 2007. While my thinking on how it works has gotten much more complex over time, it still is a simple framework by which a company can start think about social media strategy.

I would love to hear what others think each of these steps should entail. What does it mean to listen? How can you participate? What can a company do to contribute?

I will be covering these concepts and more at my upcoming half-day seminar at the PRSA International Conference in Detroit, Building Integrated Social Media Campaigns: How to Leverage New Media in Existing Communication Plans. I will also be doing a master class on the Strategist and Social Media during the conference itself, so your advanced input is welcome. [From Three Steps: How Companies Can Participate Successfully in Social Media]

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When I talk to my PR industry colleagues, there’s a fair bit of trepidation about all the economic woes.

We’ve been here before. We’ve seen the bloodletting. We’ve seen corporations slash marketing budgets at the exact moment when they should be pushing more of their chips into outbound efforts.
In fact, the Harvard Business Review noted earlier this year:

“It is well documented that brands that increase (marketing) during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share and return on investment at lower cost than during good economic times.”

Still, sure, we all worry about the headlines. Even the marketers who know better can’t seem to resist cutting their budgets (as seen in the graphic above). No one will be immune from a truly vicious economic hit.

Smart agencies took a hint from the last downturn. For our part, having been founded in the fiery ashes of the Dot-Com Debacle, much of our own strategic planning has gone into hardening ourselves for the next recession. And meanwhile, I can’t help but wonder: Perhaps Social Media will provide some additional protection for forward-looking PR agencies?

A recent CMO Study by Epsilon (covered in MarketingVox) provided some insights that support this hypothesis. While 2/3rds of the CMOs acknowledged that the recession will ding their budgets, “digital marketing” was a bright spot:

Social computing (including word of mouth, social networking sites, viral advertising, etc.) was the most popular emerging channel with 42% of marketing executives expressing interest in adding it to their marketing mix.

When the going gets tough, the tough start talking. Despite the recessionary climate, most of the marketers surveyed viewed Social Media as a worthwhile addition to the mix. They know that now is the time to rally and reassure customers and prospects.

That’s the critical factor to remember about Social Media: it is not only helping brands spread the word; it also helps the brand to shore up support among its current customers.

The agencies that survive the coming crapfest will be actively helping their own clients realize the benefits of socializing through the recession.

How about you? How are YOU feeling about the economic news? Do you expect it to affect you and/or your agency?

[From Will Social Media Help PR Weather the Storm?]

Are bloggers members of the “media?” That’s a tough question.

The blogging trend is still fairly new (in the grand scheme), and bloggers are as often considered “snarks in bunnyslippers” as they are legitimate information sources. In a recent tweet, Paul Gillin (who has the credentials to know) made a compelling distinction: “Most bloggers know more about a topic than reporters, who switch beats all the time. Reporters are resourceful; bloggers are knowledgeable.”

Geoff Livingston agreed: “Bloggers are not media, and should be treated differently. Different goals, readership, rules.”

In other words: the question of whether bloggers are media is moot.

Bloggers are DIFFERENT from the mainstream media. They are smart, expert, passionate, independent, talented, and cantankerous. They have their own agenda, whereas journalists (while they share many of the traits listed above) are beholden to a publisher’s agenda.

More to the point: whatever else ya call them, bloggers are influential.

We’ve evolved (quickly!) from a situation in which the mainstream media complained about having their content “scavenged” by bloggers, to an era in which reporters look to the blogosphere to vet the facts, themes & memes of their own prospective stories.

A so-called “hit” in a blog is often as valuable as a “hit” in a mainstream publication. (In fact, we recently placed a client story in a national morning show AND in the Perez Hilton blog, and consumer response to the latter outstripped traffic gains from the “big” hit in the mainstream outlet!)

So – no, most bloggers are not media. (I would argue, however, that blogs like TechCrunch, Huffington Post, etc. do meet that gold standard.) But, they are just as important as media. From PR pros, bloggers deserve and require different approaches that are more creative and respectful than anything that’s gone before.
The most common area where this “bloggers as media” question comes up is at trade shows. Do you give ‘em a press badge?

Yea, you set some minimum requirements for longevity and authority, but you do give them a press badge. They have knowledge, enthusiasm, a publication (of sorts) and readers. Those characteristics alone may not make them “press” in the traditional sense, but these are untraditional times: rather than penalize someone for not fitting established norms, why not encourage their passion and creativity, which only help promote the industry and the event?

Are bloggers media? Maybe not. Maybe they’re better. [From Are Bloggers "Media?"]

Your site advertising is a wonder to behold and you re attracting plenty of traffic. Strangely though you don t seem to be getting any more conversions than you did before your campaign. What s the problem Sad to say your problems could be deeper than marketing. Keep reading for some tips on where to look…. [From The Most Important Nine Word Sentence in Advertising]

Starting with semantic HTML, and layering enhancements using JavaScript and CSS, is supposed to create good experiences for all. Alas, enhancements still find their way to aging browsers and under-featured mobile devices that don’t parse them properly. What’s a developer to do? Scott Jehl makes the case for capabilities testing. [From Test-Driven Progressive Enhancement]