While most marketers have now embraced social media for monitoring and participating in brand conversations, questions still abound. Sure, online video is hot, but how you optimize video assets? How are b2b buyers actually using social media in their research and buying decisions? What's the best method for approaching social media marketing? Which sites are most important to participate in? What tools are available for cost-effectively monitoring brand conversations across social media sites?

Discover the answers to these questions and others here in more of the best blog posts and articles about social media marketing so far this year.

Video search 101: Marketing and optimization by iMedia Connection

Noting some statistics on the explosive growth of online video, David L. Smith explains how marketers can use video search engine optimization (VSEO) and video search engine marketing (VSEM) to maximize both the organic and paid search value of video assets.


Forrester: B2B Marketers Need To Keep Up With Business Technology Buyers On Social Media by Forrester Research

It's pretty rare to include a press release in a best of list here—actually, this is probably the first time ever—but this one includes key statistics on how b2b buyers use social media on the job. As the release notes, "Despite the fact that 77 percent of business technology decision-makers engage with social media on the job, most B2B marketers are not effectively using social technologies to influence the purchasing decisions of their customers." For those marketers, reading this announcement is a starting point.


6 Steps for Creating a Social Media Marketing Roadmap & Plan by Social Media Today

Lorna Li provides an outstanding roadmap for b2b social media marketing, starting with an understanding of what social media is and what it can and can't do. She explains how to use tactics like blogger outreach, social networking and social news marketing to create engagement with prospects and move them toward your solutions. Another noteworthy post from SMT is Social Media ROI - a financially sound method. After noting that no "even 'somewhat' acceptable method for calculating marketing ROI" exists, Axel Schultze goes on to propose a formula for measuring the ROI of social media interactions. But measuring the return from social media investments is problematic for several reasons, and the notion of being able to do so with any accuracy remains controversial, as indicated in the large number of comments generated by Axel's post.


Top 25 Social Networks by Navel Marketing

Brian Critchfield reports on the top social networks ranked by traffic. The list also shows previous rank—indicating which networks are growing and which faltering. While most of the sites on the list are hardly surprising (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn), there are a few unexpected results, like Tagged at #6 and Yuku at #16.


Top 10 Free Tools for Monitoring Your Brand’s Reputation by Mashable

Noting that "Depending on how popular and well-known your brand is, there may be few or many people talking about it," Dan Schawbel recommends setting up an RSS feed reader and Delicious account, then using free monitoring tools such as Google Alerts, Technorati, Twitter and Social Mention to keep tabs on discussions of your company and products across social media platforms. For those marketers more serious about social media engagement, and a budget to back it top, Dan wrote a follow-up post detailing the Top 10 Reputation Tracking Tools Worth Paying For, including Buzzlogic, Radian 6 and Cision.


5 forces that are strangling conversational marketing by iMedia Connection

Tom Hespos warns marketers against five practices that can damage a brand in the social media sphere, like failing to think about conversational marketing strategically, or flooding Twitter with brand messages rather than engaging in true dialogue.

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Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom