How can you make a big splash in social media without a huge budget? Use Facebook fan pages to help with SEO? Attract lots of targeted Twitter followers in a short time? Turn your social media contacts into leads, and ultimately customers? Take advantage of new tools to raise your own profile by commenting on existing content?

Discover the answers to these questions and others here in the penultimate list of the best posts on social media marketing from the past year.

Three Ways People Who Aren't Running for President Can Make Social Media Pay by HubSpot's Inbound Marketing Blog

Rick Burnes explains three ways that even organizations which don't have tens of millions of dollars to spend and thousands of volunteers can use social media for marketing and PR, and measure the return.


Facebook Steps Up SEO for Brand Pages with Millions of New Indexable Links by Inside Facebook

Justin Smith shows how Facebook's indexing changes, designed to make it easier for potential friends to find each other, will also benefit corporate SEO efforts—at least for companies that can attract lots of fans on Facebook. In Facebook Adding 'Fan' Pages To Public Search Listings, Mark Walsh of MediaPost provides additional detail on this announcement and its implications for marketers.


How I attracted 8000 Twitter followers in 14 weeks! by Jim's Marketing Blog

Though the title may sound spammy, Jim Connolly isn't hawking some bogus "Internet marketing" software here. Instead, he offers a positive philosophy and thoughtful approach to attracting worthwhile, like-minded Twitter "associates" (like many Twitters, Jim finds the term "followers" a little creepy).


9 Methods to increase your relationship with your online relations for lead generation or sales by LEADSExplorer

This excellent post a great set of tips (such as "try to meet in real life" and "ask for help") for turning passive social media connections into active relationships that lead to additional online exposure, leads or sales.


What Companies are Missing in Social Media Marketing by Pravda on Media and Technology

Kfir Pravda explains—concisely, thoughtfully and somewhat acerbically—why social media isn't a magical marketing tool and why "a brand or a political candidate has a Twitter account that is operated by a communication studies freshman" is unlikely to make a difference. He explains how social media, to be effective, requires a significant commitment of time and effort.


Are Comments the Next Social Layer? by Social Media Today

Martin Edic shows how tools like Disqus, IntenseDebate and BackType take commenting out of the narrow realm of specific blogs and enable the commenters themselves to get much wider exposure. They turn commenting on various blogs into a form of microblogging, but "unlike Twitter, commenting has a threaded context (the post that started the conversation) and no limits on length. It includes the discourse elements of Twitter but goes further."

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
Best of 2008: Social Media Optimization, Part 3
Best of 2008: Strategy and Branding, Part 2
Best of 2008: Cool Web Tools, Part 2
Best of 2008: Social Media Optimization, Part 4
Best of 2008: SEO Guidance, Part 5
Best of 2008: Amusing, Creative and Just Plain Odd, Part 1
Best of 2008: Random but Interesting, Part 2

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Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom