How can you make more efficient use of social media? What are the best examples of organizations using social media for marketing, promotion and interactive PR? How can you optimize your use of social networking tools like Twitter and LinkedIn?

Find those answers and others here in more of the best articles and blog posts about social media marketing from the last year.


5 Daily Social Media Builders In Less Than 10 Minutes (Total!) by Conversation Marketing

Proclaiming himself "sick of social media," Ian Lurie provides a list of quick but powerful steps for taking advantage of it in "a total of 10 minutes a day, because that’s all I can stand." Okay, even this brief regimen would probably take a bit more than 10 minutes, and he notes that this is a minimum level of participation, but the list is a good starting point and Ian is always an entertaining read.


A List of Social Media Marketing Examples by Being Peter Kim

In this truly amazing resource, Peter Kim lists and links to examples of how more than 300 brands are using social media, from Abbott Labs on Facebook to Zappos on Twitter. Looking for ideas on how your company could expand its use of social media? You'll find examples here that serve as a great inspiration and starting point.


Social Media Marketing best practice even used by Google by LEADSExplorer

A brief post that makes a solid point: blogs have become a primary conduit for corporate announcements and news releases. Got something to tell the world? Pitch an influential blogger on the story. Just make sure you can articulate the news in way that's interesting to the blogger and his or her readers.


Is Social Media Passing Your Business By? by OnlineMarketerBlog.com

If your boss is a social media ostrich who still thinks social media is a fad, show him or her this post. DJ Francis outlines why social media is important for business and how to approach it. As DJ notes, "Some people think this new way of doing things is bogus. But as General Eric Shinseki said, 'If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.'”


5 marketing tips for tackling Twitter by iMedia Connection

Though the statistics quoted here by Steve Mulder are already quaintly out of date (remember when Twitter had only one million users?), but his advice stands up to the test of time. Steve details helpful tools and techniques for monitoring buzz, sharing information, promoting your product or service (carefully), and using Twitter as a platform for conversations—not monologues.


5 Ways to Maximize Your LinkedIn Profile by Social Media Musings

Tom Humbarger offers helpful tips for those who aren't yet experts in social networking, such as "LinkedIn lets you add up to 3 links to your profile. Many people add their company website and/or blog. The trick is to select the Other option because this lets you label your link instead of using the default name provided by LinkedIn. You can get more visibility for your website by customizing with your name instead of the default 'My Website.'"


Oddly, Frank Levert had an outstanding list of do-follow social networking sites on his blog, but the URL for that post now just redirects to his marketing site. You can still find his list of 55 Do-Follow Social Networks on Google's cache for now, however.

Previous posts in this series:

Best of 2008: SEO Guidance, Part 1
Best of 2008: Interactive PR, Part 1
Best of 2008: SEO Tools, Part 1
Best of 2008: Search Engine Marketing
Best of 2008: Web Analytics
Best of 2008: Email Marketing Tips
Best of 2008: SEO Keyword Tips & Tools
Best of 2008: Sales & Marketing Copywriting
Best of 2008: SEO Link Building
Best of 2008: Website Design
Best of 2008: WordPress Tools and Tips
Best of 2008: Web & SEO Copywriting
Best of 2008: SEO Guidance, Part 2
Best of 2008: Social Media Optimization, Part 1
Best of 2008: AdWords Tips and Tactics, Part 1
Best of 2008: SEO Tools, Part 2
Best of 2008: SEM Landing Pages
Best of 2008: Blogging for Business, Part 1
Best of 2008: Interactive PR, Part 2
Best of 2008: SEO Guidance, Part 3
Best of 2008: Social Media Optimization, Part 2
Best of 2008: AdWords Tips and Tactics, Part 2
Best of 2008: Strategy and Branding, Part 1
Best of 2008: Cool Web Tools, Part 1
Best of 2008: Blogging for Business, Part 2
Best of 2008: Random but Interesting, Part 1
Best of 2008: SEO Guidance, Part 4

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Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom