Social media isn’t just a “place for friends;” it’s a place for business. In fact, solid proof exists that social media campaigns grow more than leads or traffic, but increase sales as well.  (I recently wrote an article documenting increased sales as a direct result of social media campaigns.)

As more success stories are published, companies that haven’t already gravitated toward social media will begin to do so. This will increase the need for social media managers

There’s only one university of which I’m aware that offers a social media degree. The one-year, full-time, $6,500 program will get you a Master’s degree. However, some online sources doubt the program’s depth. A smattering of online colleges offer social media degrees (i.e., University of San Francisco), but I wasn’t able to find any data on the programs’ success (or lack-thereof).

The problem is multi-layered, the first hurdle being a shortage of  social media “masters” capable of teaching social media engagement in-depth; according to Traffickd, there are at least 475 active social media sites (ironically, two sites that I use regularly aren’t on the list…). Complicating matters further, social media is like shifting sand; a course curriculum in February is obsolete as soon as it’s printed.  These are endemic issues with tech companies, and until there’s a standard, companies that wish to increase their social media prowess will struggle to find knowledgeable social media managers who can not only drive results, but also add value to the organization. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m a self-confessed social media amateur and a twitter addict. It started when I started hanging around with a techy crowd and now it’s taken over. We live in the instant age. Message and branding has to have instant impact, websites are dated in a week and it’s a full time job just keeping up with the terminology. We now speak a whole new language and have had to learn on the hoof how to communicate a clear message.

In my business I’ve been developing the SM channels for the last 6 months and have managed to integrate this as central to our sales, marketing and delivery plan. (We deliver consultancy and training to recruitment Businesses.). From this I have 10 commandments to pass on when deciding on social media strategy that I hope will help you in choosing your path: Read the rest of this entry »

Monitoring your brand or website on Twitter is crucial to the success of any person or business.  One problem everyone has is figuring out who or what is being tweeted about your site.  Nearly all tweets on Twitter contain shortened URL’s which makes it difficult to keep tabs on what is being tweeted that concerns your site.

Everyone Tweets Differently

While there are common tweeting formats that are followed by most Twitter users, such as using “@yourusername” in a tweet referring to you or your site, there are many who simply add or create their own text or response, then post the link to your site.  If these users choose to use their own URL shortener and also fail to put “@yourusername” in the tweet, chances are you will not have any idea something has been tweeted about your site. Read the rest of this entry »