Here's some helpful tips for thinking through social media policy in your organization.
Even if you're not in a position to create one yet, this is a good set of tips on what should be in one. "While there are many benefits to using social media, having a Facebook page, a Twitter feed, and/or a Google+ account and regularly posting to them does not guarantee your small business social media success — that is, more customers and sales. You want to know the real secret to Facebook and Twitter success? Absorb these 6 Inconvenient Truths About Social Media." 
From janigordon:
"I selected this post written by Elad Gil because not only was it interesting and timely, but the comments from his readers were equally as valuable. So many different social curation platforms emerging, Pinterest is one to watch.......
Excerpt:
Social Content Curation As The Next Big Thing
The most interesting wave hitting the social web in 2012 is social curation. This was kicked off in 2011 as Pinterest's growth was noticed by Silicon Valley and a number of companies quickly followed suit -
**Snip.It launched as a social information curation platform, Quora adopted boards for a similar purpose, and Fab.com launched a structured social commerce feed.
There's so much information in this post, here's the takeaway. I would love to hear your comments about this next wave......
Takeaway:
2012 Will Be The Year of Curated Sets
**Just as the first wave of social media has transformed the consumption of information, this next wave of social curation will fundamentally change how users find and interact with content over time.
Curated by Jan Gordon covering "Content Curation, Social Media and Beyond
Read full article here: [http://bit.ly/lK0ZHi]" Via janlgordon 
Here are 5 Tools to ensure you're getting the maximum ROI from your social media efforts, and they won't break the bank! 
A comprehensive article on the subject, "how to create a Blog post." It gives you the procedures to be adopted to produce structured and professional articles... an amazing post! [note: Martin Gysler]
Content
This is the most important part of you blog post because it’s what your visitors have come for, so if you want them to enjoy it and come back, you need to make sure it’s up to a good standard. Having amazing knowledge is one thing, but if you can’t manage to organize it in a way that is easily understandable to your readers, then it’s completely wasted.
Planning
Before you even open up your website, you need to get yourself some good fashion pen and paper and start taking notes. Even if you don’t know the exact title of your post, you should atleast know what it’s going to be about, so put that in a circle in the middle of the page and work out from there with a spider diagram... Via Martin Gysler 
Customer support platform Zendesk has released some interesting details in a 2011 study and infographic. The study shows that businesses and consumers are both using the social media platforms to communicate and customer support. Via Jonha Revesencio 
With so many Twitter tools out there, it's hard to know which ones to trust with your Twitter account management. So why not take a look at what the social media and industry experts are using! Via Daniel J Smith, ABroaderView.org 
One of the most prevalent excuses I hear from people not engaged in social media is the lack of provable ROI. Traditional marketers just can’t seem to get their collective heads around how social media can be monotized.
...
"If I had to pick a reason that many social media strategies fail I’d pick this. You’ll fail if you can’t give your customers something they need. You’ll fail if you can’t engage your employees. You’ll fail if your entire company is not onboard with your social media campaign and you’ll fail if you’re not 100% committed to forgetting the traditional role of ROI in your company’s balance sheet.
That said, social media has it’s own ROI. Great news huh? And oddly enough, that ROI often ends up giving those bean-counters exactly what they wanted in the first place." 
"It’s easy to get tweeting, but is anyone actually reading?
I came across a study performed by Leo Widrich of Buffer that indicated that the answer is, generally, “yes.” That is, if you know when to tweet." 
"Marketers still focusing on soft metrics, can’t gauge ROI." 
Google+ had a hot start, but has since cooled down. For a lot of people, that means ignoring Google+. I want to warn you that is a bad idea.
Although the lights are on and it seems like nobody is home, trust me: there are people there. And they are the very people who can have a huge impact on your blog and business.
Why Google+ isn’t going anywhere
Google+ is designed to draw you away from both Twitter and Facebook. And in time, it could do this.
Yes, Facebook has over 800 million users. People like to state that number and then say “Facebook isn’t going anywhere.” Fair enough. But people do migrate. It happened to AOL. And it could happen to Facebook. In fact, former Facebook president Sean Parker says influencers are already moving from FB to Twitter and Google+. Via Martin Gysler 
Increasing your Social Media ROI is vital and you should be asking:Are you converting leads? Are you increasing following? Is your engagement going up? 
Do you want to improve your Twitter listening skills? Here’s a closer look at how to monitor your brand, yourself or your competitors using Twitter (and you don’t need to be a big business!).
With these points in mind, simply follow these guidelines to grow bionic listening ears. # 1: Decide What You Want to Monitor... # 2: Find the Best Real-Time Monitoring Tools... # 3: Track With URL Shorteners... # 4: Follow Hashtags... # 5: Monitor Trends When It’s Appropriate... # 6: Use Twitter Lists to Monitor People on Twitter... # 7: Set Up a Listening Plan... # 8: Build Relationships... Via Giuseppe Mauriello, Martin Gysler |
This is a great post by Nick Horton not only for the example R (and SAS) code, but also because of the useful statistics lesson. Here's his intro:
"Simpson's paradox is always amazing to explain to students. What's bad for one group, and bad for another group is good for everyone, if you just collapse over the grouping variable. Unlike many mathematical paradoxes, this arises in a number of real-world settings." ![6 Social Media Networks to Watch Now + [ Infographics] | Social Media Return on Investment | Scoop.it](http://img.scoop.it/rh6cH0Qs2DVTgP-xZqvNwjl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVaiQDB_Rd1H6kmuBWtceBJ)
"This piece was put together by Jeff Bullas and selected by maxOz, a fellow curator.
I chose to post this piece today because as Jeff says "the social media ecosystem is now so extensive and encompassing that it would be best to stand back and reflect on some significant events and evolutionary social networks that could make a difference this year that are impacting how we communicate and connect. The comments from readers are just as interesting.
**It's important to stay abreast of these different enviornments where we blog, curate consume content and information. Knowing the landscape and understanding how to communicate in each one network is a whole other conversation.
Here's an excerpt:
The Social Media Universe
Perspective is hard to find unless you take the time to sit back, reflect and take the time to view a “Landscape” or “Universe” from a distance.
The larger the view the further back you have to stand to see the depth and breadth of the scenery and ecosystem.
Selected by maxOz and Jan Gordon covering "Content Curation, Social Media and beyond"
See article and infographics here: [http://bit.ly/zGYnAN]" Via janlgordon 
Are you wondering how Twitter’s changes will impact your use of its network?
Recently, Twitter got a complete revamp that changed things drastically. Interestingly, it didn’t pump the social network with more and more features.
Ryan Sarver, Twitter’s head of API, explained it crisply: “In a world where Facebook and Google are competing on features, Twitter wants to focus on being simple.”
This article will review all the changes, from user interface changes to Twitter brand pages, what the new changes mean and how you can best use them. Via Martin Gysler 
Read 10 tips new community managers should use to ensure they maintain a good balance between internal and external responsibilities. 
Southwest Airlines, Whole Foods and Best Buy have built very different Twitter strategies. Who would have thought typing such short messages could be so tricky?
Via maxOz 
Best books of 2011 for social media, including social media marketing, content marketing, social CRM, B2B social, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, job search, and more. Via Erin Boykin Here are some good simple tips for best practices in managing your social media channels. 
"Social media is no longer thought of as an “experiment” but as a new communication platform that businesses can use to connect to their customers, prospects, partners and employees. According to a 2011 study from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth (http://bit.ly/v3Vk9R), the majority of the Fortune 500 companies have incorporated social media across multiple channels (blogs – 91%, Twitter – 62% or Facebook page – 56%) into their marketing mix. The positive impact of these “experiments” has subsequently increased social media budgets – approximately 10% according to the August 2011 CMO Survey (http://bit.ly/uRDdwA) – for additional community managers, content services and social media tools.
"When getting started with social media, it's fun to watch your follower and fan count grow, see how many retweets you're getting, and watch how much people are commenting on Facebook posts. Look at all that reach! Look at all that engagement! This is how you get your content into cyberspace!
That's all true, and all important to monitor. But how does it fit into your larger sales and marketing strategy? If you -- or your boss -- is starting to ask that question, it's time to start analyzing some more data points in your social media strategy and integrate that information into the bigger smarketing picture. Let's take a look at 5 crucial pieces of data you should collect when measuring and evaluating your social media strategy to help you achieve your sales and marketing goals." 
Today at Google, the Think with Google team known for The Google Think Quarterly has launched its next project: Think Insights.
In an effort to position itself as a thought leader, Google’s Think Insights is a one-stop shop for consumer trends, marketing insights and industry research. The site includes statistics, a research library including videos and infographics, planning tools, and a section for emerging digital trends.
If you only have a few minutes to spare, try playing with its Real Time Insights Finder tool, which lets you spot emerging trends and gain valuable consumer insights, all in real time.... [read full article http://j.mp/sHIrmW] Via Giuseppe Mauriello, Phillip Andrew Dodd "By not spending more on marketing, but rather reallocation to increased digital presence, content, and lead nurturing/marketing automation, increased revenue is generated, increased profit, lower cost-per-lead, and increased marketing ROI.
The point here is, by putting funds, effort, and resources to a viable lead nurturing program, you’ll receive quality leads and higher close rates. That’s according to the metrics as detailed above. If you can go through this exercise with your own numbers, you’re likely to see the benefits of lead nurturing as well." 
Do you participate in so many different types of online marketing strategies that when your boss asks you which one is the most effective, you don’t know what to say? Sure it’s easy to spot the top referring traffic source in Google Analytics, but you won’t be able to say what overall online marketing method is really working as a whole unless you want to start adding up different referral sources with a calculator and then cross reference them with goals, demographics, and other data.
This is where Google Analytics Advanced Segments come into play. Using these, you can create different segments for different groups of referral traffic – traffic from social media, article marketing, link building, directories, local search, guest posts, and so on. You can then see everything including demographics, conversions, and top content for each group of referral traffic and compare them against each other to know which ones are the best. Via Martin Gysler |
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