Best of Social Media Tools, Tips & Resources

Venessa Miemis is a pioneer and change agent, and every one of her posts is part of a mindset that is essential for anyone who wants to thrive in this new world.  I selected this piece because it is something that I am struggling with now, perhaps you are too.  There are great insights, and suggestions on how to create relationships that are empowering and productive.

Here's an excerpt:

**we embrace the gifts, skills and capacities of the individuals in the community

**We pursue common goals and not the goals of just one or two people who come forward but find a way to let everyone be heard

Only in the past few months have I heard this term “asset mapping” as a needed tool to surface hidden but available value, bootstrap communities, and get things done.

I could go on and on but want you to read the article.

My commentary:

I personally belong to private groups on Facebook, have various affiliations on other networks and I am continually struggling with the following:

**the ability to manage time constraints,  (how can I possibly be on 10 networks, be on tweetchats at night)

** do my work which is very time consuming

**find time to eat and sleep and still have time for my wonderful life offline

**come together with these people and create something meaningful. I'm living in the question, what comes next........

I feel a responsibilty to other members to do my part and contribute in ways that I feel can help move things forward.

**As a content curator, I can bring articles like this to the attention of others

**It is my hope this will stimulate discussions

**introduce new ways of looking at things 

**create tools and resources for us to function in a more cohesive manner

**make a difference in whatever way we see fit and create dynamic, meaningful relationships both within and outside of these communities

**Work together to help others grow and change

Selected and curated by Jan Gordon covering "Exploring Change Through Ongoing Discussions"

Read full article here: [http://bit.ly/AsGHY2]

Brand Focus: Interactive Videos As A Social Media Marketing Campaign http://t.co/HOiB0SEK...

Dr. Rachna Jain has a short, valuable article on content curation and its benefits up on his blog. 

In particular, he is good in highlighting the fact that there is more than one approach to curation, a superficial-one geared to just shoot out more content while having an easier life at it, and another one geared to provide a true service to a specific tribe's interest.   

Dr. Rachna also shares simple and good advice at the end of his article, on what are the key ingredients that are critical to those who want to develop greater authority and reputation by becoming effective trusted filters for those who follow them. 

Key highlights from the article:

>> "...you can gain some measure of influence and leadership over a community, simply by being a very strong filter of information specific to that community."

>> "While curation seems to have initially begun as a way of rapidly creating new content, it also represents another way to build influence."

>> "By curating content, you are subtly allying yourself with the original content producer.

By reintroducing content in a new form or as part of a new conversation, you are directing where attention and focus goes.

And, when you can direct attention and focus, you clearly have influence...."

>> "your goal is to create content that begs to be shared.

[How?]

a) Make it interesting [editorially].

b) Have an opinion.

c) Use graphs, images, infographics to make your point.

d) Make your content captivating to your target market.

e) Highlight what they absolutely must know and

f) Give them guidance on what is not that important."

Read the full article: http://profitablepopularity.com/blog/content-curation-for-influence 

(Curated by Robin Good) 

Social media marketing is steadily growing to be the most important portable media channel for dealers throughout the world. However, shown how new social website is, there are a variety of business owners who know they ...

The purpose of this article is to give you a few tools to kick start you next small business marketing campaign ...

Handpick is a great new service which allows you to curate a set of selected links to send out each day/week to your favorite groups of fans.

Though the use of a simple browser bookmarklet you can easily pick and save all of the most interesting resources and then have them sent out to your relevant subscribers.

How it works: "When you find a link you want to share, you click it, and it pops up a simple form for a title, link, description and a checklist of recipient groups you've created.

When you click 'share,' it doesn't buzz all your friends' phones right away. It collects links for you all day and sends an email digest to each group in the evening."

"Recipients of your Handpick links only get one message, and it arrives late in the day, when there's more time for thinking.

You create groups of contacts using whatever criteria you choose, and each group gets one message around 5 p.m. Pacific Time.

It has support for desktop and iPhone browser bookmarklets, a Chrome extension, and it can link with Instapaper."

Read the full review from ReadWriteWeb here: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/handpick_selective_social_sharing_without_the_nois.php 

Sing up for the beta here: http://handpick.me/