The holiday season is underway and we here at 451 Marketing have been talking about who has been naughty and who has been nice this year in the social media world. We recognize that even though there have been exhaustive lists put together about social media blunders (Mashable, Interactive Insights Group) no one has really put together a comprehensive list of all the naughty things we have done to each other in the social media space throughout the course of 2009.

We are looking for your help in putting this post together and we invite you to chime in with your thoughts. We promise to publish almost anything (as long as it’s somewhat clean/appropriate). This could include funny practical jokes, excessively mean blog comments, careless mishaps, rudeness, no-shows, blogger non-responsiveness, copying content without attribution, fake review writing, ANYTHING!

We invite you to also use this post to absolve yourself of something you feel guilty about doing in 2009 (Mea Culpa!). Or, feel welcome to vilify someone that you know has been naughty.

Have fun!

-Team at 451 Marketing

There are a lot of pr agencies out there that suck. Don’t get stuck with one! Watch this presentation to discover the tell-tale signs. Enjoy! From the PR team at 451 Marketing…

Our agency receives a decent number of requests for proposals (RFPs) each month for social media marketing campaigns and services. The RFPs we receive can vary greatly in length, scope, requirements, and style. Many of these requests are fairly comprehensive, while others are lacking.

What we have done below is take components from some of the best and most comprehensive RFPs that we have received in 2009 to help you build a comprehensive social media marketing RFP for selecting an agency for your organization. If there are components that you think would also be helpful, please feel free to add them to this list. Once we’ve gathered feedback, our team will put together a whitepaper, citing anyone who contributes to this post!

Here are what we believe to be the necessary components of an effective social media marketing RFP:

Background Information/Summary – These sections are primarily used to give agencies the “411” as to who you are, what other marketing activities you have going on (include your media mix), your objectives for using social media, and any necessary background information about your organization that potential partners may not find on your website.

Targets – Along with your background information, it is recommended that you define who your customers or prospects are. Many organizations have segmented target groups and those groups use a company’s product and/or services for many different reasons. The more information you can give about who you customers are, the reasons for using you (pain points), and what’s important to them – the better!

Competitors – Adding a section about your competitors is a great way for you to paint a picture about your competitive landscape. Even if a social media marketing agency does their necessary homework when preparing their proposal, this information may not be that apparent. An effective response to your RFP should consider the activities of others in your space. This is a way to help solicit more thoughtful responses from your prospective firms.

Goals for the Campaign – This section is a MUST. Often times, when we find that this section is not included in an RFP it’s because the organization supplying the document is not fully aware of why they should participate in a social media campaign (or possibly just the person writing the RFP). If at all possible, you should try to tie your goals to some sort of quantifiable metric. For example…

Our firm is looking to engage people on Twitter to find potential prospects in our space. We have set a goal of acquiring 450 new customers over the next 6 months.

One should remember that metrics can be tied to just about anything (e.g. referral traffic, downloads, demo signups, special offers, subscribers, fans, followers, events, etc.).

Process Timeline – It is important to let your prospective firms know when their responses are due. It is a common (and helpful) practice to also let them know when you will be conducting vendor interviews and an expected date for selecting a firm.

Scope – This is where you can separate an average firm from a great one. This section is more about you asking your prospective firms to detail how they are going to approach your campaign. This will ensure that you reach or surpass your stated campaign goals.

Questions that will help you make the best decision include the following:

• Ask them to detail how they would go about identifying where your audience and “influencers” are online.

• Ask them to explain in full detail what tactics they are proposing to help you reach your goals. This should include a strategy/action plan along with their tactics.

• Ask them what types of information they would need and/or consider if they were hired prior to beginning the campaign.

• Ask them to describe how they would measure each component of the social media campaign they are proposing, as well as the overall success of the social media campaign.

• Ask them to them explain how this campaign may potentially integrate with your master marketing plan and larger media mix.

• If your goals are tied to monetary or lead metrics, ask them to detail how they propose to convert a Twitter “follower” or a Facebook “fan” into a lead or a customer.

Bios – Ask the firms to include the project manager’s bio and those of any team members who will be working on your campaign. Specifically request their social media experience, tenure at the agency, and to list similar campaigns and clients that they have worked on.

Agency Background – Request general agency information from any submitting agency. This information should include core competencies, history, clients, and recognition.

Budget – We have never seen an RFP that doesn’t ask for agencies to detail fees and/or associated campaign cost, but we thought it never hurts to state the obvious!

Again, if we have missed anything above, please comment below and we will include you in the published paper!

AJ Gerritson, @ajgerritson

The 451 Team compiled the following list of the top social media strategists. We admire their work and look forward to what they’re going to come up with in 2010. This is not a comprehensive list of the great social media strategists out there, so we invite you to contribute with the names of any strategists you admire with a brief description of their work for us to post!

Chris Abraham (@chrisabraham) is the President and COO of social media marketing firm, Abraham Harrison LLC. He focuses on how memetics and emergence affect culture. Abraham specializes in Web2.0 technologies including content syndication, online collaboration, blogging and consumer generated media. He also works as an internet analyst, web strategy consultant, and adviser to the industry’s leading firms.

David Armano (@armano) is a senior partner at Dachis Group. His personal blog, “Logic + Emotion,” was ranked by Advertising Age as one of the top media and marketing blogs. Armano’s previous work includes leading creative strategy for agencies such as Digitas and Critical Mass.

Josh Bernoff (@jbernoff) is the SVP of idea development at Forrester Research. While at Forrester, Bernoff created Technographics, a system that groups customers by their use of technology. He is the co-author of “Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies.” Bernoff also contributes to the Forrester blog, Advertising Age and Marketing News.

Rohit Bhargava (@rohitbhargava)is a founding member of the 360 Digital Influence group at Oglivy. He wrote a guide called, “Personality Not Included,” which details how to use personality to reinvent marketing strategies. He continues to write the “Influential Marketing” blog, ranked in the top 50 marketing blogs in the world by Advertising Age.

Toby Bloomberg (@tobydiva) is the founder of “Diva Marketing Blog,” a fun and exciting outlet focused on marketing and social media. Bloomberg serves on the board of Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association, and is on the advisory board for DivineCaroline, an online women’s community.

Edward Boches (@edwardboches) is one of the original partners of Mullen and the founder of the blog/online magazine, “The Next Great Generation.” Boches is currently the Chief Creative Officer and Chief Social Media Officer at Mullen.

Jason Breed (@jasonbreed) is the senior director of business development at Neighborhood America, a consulting agency that focuses on social media strategies in business. Breed leads social media and online community initiatives on a corporate, media and government level.

Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan) has been working with social media to build digital relationships for businesses, organizations and individuals for the past 10 years. He is currently President of New Marketing Labs, a new media marketing agency that hosts Inbound Marketing Summit conferences and Inbound Marketing Bootcamp educational events. He helps large and mid-sized companies improve their marketing, PR and business communications through the use of social software, community platforms, and other emerging web and mobile technologies. Brogan’s blog, “chrisbrogan.com,” is among the top ten of Advertising Age’s “Power150.”

Christopher Carfi(@ccarfi) is the co-founder of Cerado, Inc, which helps companies understand how to reach their customers with marketing and social media software. Carfi was also one of the first members of the RosettaNet Board of Directors. He regularly writes on his personal blog, “The Social Customer Manifesto.”

C. C. Chapman (@cc_chapman) is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Advance Guard, a media consultant group. He creates radical marketing programs using emerging technology and community platforms. In his podcast and blog, “Managing the Gray,” Chapman provides new media strategies and information on technology in simple terms.

Adam Cohen (@adamcohen) is a partner at the digital agency, Rosetta. He currently works as the leader of the Search, Online and Social Media unit at Rosetta. For the past couple years, Cohen has tackled topics such as interactive marketing and social media in his blog. His blog, “A Thousand Cuts,” also discusses how businesses leverage technology to drive and sustain value, and provides tips on team building.

Mack Collier (@mackcollier) is actively engaged with social media as a consultant, trainer, and speaker. His blog, “The Viral Garden,” highlights his position as an expert on social media as it continually has a monthly readership of 175,000.

Angela Connor (@communitygirl) is the Managing Editor of User-Generated Content at WRAL.com. Her job includes managing day-to-day content direction, long term planning strategies and driving user engagement. Connor is the author of the book “18 Rules of Community Engagement: A Guide for Building Relationships and Connecting with Customers Online.”

Todd Defren (@tdefren) currently works at SHIFT Communications. The company is a hybrid PR firm in Boston that works with clients such as Club Med, Virgin Mobile, Bing and Wells Fargo. Defren is a co-founder and Board Member of the Social Media Club and an Advisory Board Member for the SmartBrief on Social Media. He is credited for creating social media releases and social media newsrooms, and his blog, “PR-Squared,” is a regular in the top 20 of Advertising Age’s “Power150.” Defren is also a “40 Under 40” honoree, a Fellow of the Society for New Communications Research and a frequent speaker on the topic of social media.

Dave Evans (@evansdave) is the co-founder of a strategic marketing service and specialized software application that supports social business strategy called Digital Voodoo. He is also the co-founder of HearThis.com, a podcast service firm focused on social media and marketing. Evans is the author of “Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day,” which defines guidelines for using and measuring social media as part of an integrated marketing plan.

Sally Falkow (@sallyfalkow) created the POWER branding formula, and is an accredited member of the Public Relations Society of America. Falkow is the author of the books “Your Brand of Expansion – How You Can Use PR Strategies to Expand Your Business,” and “WebSense: Effective Website Marketing Strategies.”

Jason Falls (@jasonfalls) gained his experience as a new media specialist by leading a national advertising agency’s interactive and social media efforts and working with various Fortune 100 brands. He is a social media strategist and an independent consultant in the social media industry. He is the Co-founder and President of Social Media Club Louisville, and currently serves an advisory role for Network Solutions, a leading domain name, web hosting and online marketing company.

AJ Gerritson (@ajgerritson) is a founding Partner at 451 Marketing (full disclosure, we work for AJ, but we truly believe he belongs on this list) and has been in the interactive strategy space for 12 years. In addition to overseeing the sales and marketing team at 451, AJ is a frequent speaker on the national circuit for social media marketing, social media strategy development, online lead generation, and search marketing. We expect him to lead 451 to big things in 2010!

Nathan Gilliatt (@gilliatt) is a Principal at Social Target, a consulting group focused on social media practices. Gilliatt is the author of the “Guide to Social Media Analysis,” a how-to on the tools and importance of listening to social media. Gilliatt also created the business blog, “The Net-Savvy Executive,” as a means for companies to explore new media strategies.

Paul Gillin (@pgillin) is a Research Fellow and a member of the advisory board of the Society for New Communications Research, as well as a co-chair of the social media cluster for the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council. He is the author of “The New Influencers,” and regularly writes for BtoB Magazine and Ziff-Davis Enterprise. Gillin is currently in the process of writing his new book, “Secrets of Social Media Marketing.”

Seth Godin (@sethgodins) is the CEO and creator of Yoyodyne, a leader in interactive direct marketing. Along with being an accomplished writer and the author of ten bestselling marketing books, Godin is a successful public speaker. He was ranked as one of the “21 Speakers of the Next Century” by Successful Meetings. Godin is a contributing editor for Fast Company Magazine, and created his own marketing blog, “sethgodin.com.”

Phil Gomes (@philgomes) is the SVP at Edelman Digital, where he advises on social media. He is also the Senior Advisor at the Society for New Communications Research. Gomes is considered the first person in the PR field to start a blog.

Beth Harte (@bethharte) is the Community Manager for MarketingProfs. She not only maintains a blog of her own called, “The Harte of Marketing,” but also she regularly contributes to Marketing Prof’s “Daily Fix.”

John Hingley (@crushdirect) is the founder of Andiamo Systems, a brand and media measurement company. He is also the CEO and founder of Crush Direct, a marketing and advertising agency for both B2B and consumer related services.

Jackie Huba (@jackiehuba) is the co-founder of the Society for Word of Mouth, which encourages members to embrace the power of word-of-mouth in business.  She is the co-author of the books “Citizen Marketers: When People Are The Message,” and “Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become A Volunteer Sales Force.” The blog, “Church of the Customer,” which Huba co-writes, is one of the world’s most popular business blogs.

Tom Humbarger (@tomhumbarger) is a social media and community strategy consultant. He gained his expertise in marketing, by working as the community manager for Catalyze Community, a B2B group for professionals who design software applications and websites. Humbarger has his own blog, “Social Media Musings By Tom Humbarger,” which he updates regularly.

Shel Israel (@shelisrael) is a senior fellow of The Society for New Media Research, and is on the advisory board of the Social Media Club. He is the author of “Twitterville, How Businesses Can Thrive in the New Global Neighborhoods,” and the co-author of “Naked Conversations- How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers.” Israel also started the consulting firm SIPR, which he ran for several years.

Mitch Joel (@mitchjoel)is President of Twist Image, an award-winning Digital Marketing and Communications agency. His book, “Six Pixels of Separation,” named after his successful blog and podcast, is a business and marketing bestseller. He is also a blogger, podcaster, passionate entrepreneur, and speaker on digital marketing and personal branding.  In 2006, he was named one of the most influential authorities on blog marketing in the world. In 2008, Mitch was named “Canada’s Most Influential Male in Social Media,” one of the top 100 online marketers in the world and a “Top 40 Under 40.”

Max Kalehoff (@maxkalehoff) is currently the Vice President of Marketing at Clickable. He is credited for starting the blog, “Attention Max,” and writes a weekly column in MediaPost. Kalehoff gained his marketing experience at Neilson BuzzMetrics and comScore Media Matrix.

Christina Kerley (@ckepiphany) is the Founder of CK Epiphany. She regularly contributes to MarketingProfs, an outlet that targets 270,000 marketers and professionals. Kerley created the first-ever marketing book club and her blog, “ck-blog.com,” ranks in Advertising Age’s “Power150” as well as in Viral Garden’s “Top 25.”

Peter Kim (@peterkim) is the Managing Director of the North America division of Dachis Group, a social technologies firm. Kim previously worked as an analyst at Forrester Research, where he won an award for his work on social technologies and marketing plans.

JD Lasica (@jdlasica) is president of SocialMedia.biz, and the co-founder of Ourmedia.org. He is also a member of the Intel Insiders social media advisory group, and a board member of the Media Bloggers Association. Lasica is the author of “Darknet: Hollywood’s War Against the Digital Generation.” He regularly contributes to SocialMedia.biz, Darknet.com, and Real People Network.

Justin Levy (@justinlevy) is currently the General Manager of New Marketing Labs, a new media marketing agency that specializes in helping businesses learn to use social media tools, blogs and community platforms. At New Marketing Labs, Levy teaches businesses about new media marketing and explains how to utilize listening tools to drive business value. Levy is also the General Manager of Caminito Argentinean Steakhouse. He routinely speaks and blogs about how new media has contributed to the success of the restaurant.

Charlene Li (@charleneli) is the founder of Altimeter Group, a consulting firm focused on new technologies and digital strategies. Prior to this she served as a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research. Li is the co-author of “Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies.” Her next book, “Open: How Leaders Win By Letting Go” is due for 2010.

Valeria Maltoni (@conversationage) is an expert blogger at Fast Company, a magazine focusing on the conversation between marketer and customer. She also contributes to websites such as Marketing 2.0, Social Media Today, and The Blog Herald; as well the eBook, “The Age of Conversation.” Maltoni’s marketing blog, “Conversation Agent,” is regarded as one of the best of its kind.

Ben McConnell (@benmcconnell) published two books on the strength of customer loyalty: “Citizen Marketers: When People Are The Message,” and “Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become A Volunteer Sales Force.” He is also the co-founder of the Society of Word of Mouth, and the “Church of the Customer” blog, which has a daily readership of over 120,000.

Marc Meyer (@marc_meyer) is a leader at Digital Response Marketing Group and co-founder of “hashtagsocialmedia,” a series of Twitter chats with social media gurus. Meyer consults with myriad of consumer product companies on how to achieve enhanced business results through marketing, sales and online efforts. Meyer previously worked as Director of Internet Marketing and Director of Social Media at Emerson Direct where he gained his background in social media.

Scott Monty (@scottmonty) is currently employed as the Global Digital and Multimedia Communications Manager at Ford Motor Company. Monty shares his knowledge about advertising, marketing, and PR in both his blogs, “The Social Media Marketing Blog” and “The Baker Street Blog.” Recently, Monty was named one of iMedia’s “25 Top Internet Marketing Leaders and Innovators.”

B.L. Ochman (@whatsnext) leads the creative team of whatsnextonline.com, and publishes the “What’s Next Blog.” She also created the blog, “Ethics Crisis,” which explores corporate ethics and global business practices. Ochman is the author of the books “What Could Your Company Do With A Blog,” and “Press Releases From Hell and How To Fix Them”.

Lee Odden (@leeodden) is the CEO of an online marketing blog called, “Top Rank” that serves companies with online marketing strategy, consulting, implementation and training services. In 2008, he was named #15 of “Top 100 Online Marketers.”

Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang)is a strategy consultant for emerging technology at Altimeter Group and previously worked as a Senior Social Media Analyst at Forrester Research. He writes a regular column for Forbes Magazine and regularly writes for his own blog, “Web Strategist.”

Shannon Paul (@shannonpaul) is the Communications Manager for PEAK6 Online, a parent company of OptionsHouse.com, OptionsNewsNetwork (ONN.tv) and WeSeed.com. She manages the integration of social media communication into PR and marketing strategies. She gained her experience in communications by designing the social media strategy for the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings. She currently has her own blog, “Shannon Paul’s Very Official Blog,” which she updates regularly.

Christopher Penn (@cspenn) is the Founder and Producer of the multi-award winning “Financial Aid” podcast and co-founder of the PodCamp New Media Community Conference. He currently holds the position of Chief Technology Officer at the Student Loan Network.

Jeremy Pepper (@jspepper) is Director of PR and Social Media at Palisade Systems. Pepper has spent over a decade working in integrated communications and has won two Silver Anvils. His personal blog was named top PR blog in 2006 by an advertising blogging network.

Joel Postman (@jpostman) is currently Principal at Socialized, a consultancy that helps companies make effective use of social media in corporate communications, marketing and PR. Postman is also the author of “SocialCorp: Social Media Goes Corporate,” a handbook targeted to corporate executive and large companies that want to adopt social media strategies.

Mike Sansone (@mikesansone) works as a ‘blog coach,’ by helping companies and individuals create and maintain successful websites. Sansone previously helped build various online communities such as America Online and the Real Fans Sports Network. He currently works through his blog, “ConverStations: Blogs and Social Media as Conversation Stations.”

Robert Scoble (@scolbleizer) currently works for the IT hosting company, Rackspace, where he created Building 43, a community for people who love the Internet.  He is the co-author of “Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers.” Scoble regularly writes for his personal blog, “Scobleizer.com.”

David Meerman Scott (@dmscott) gained his experience and familiarity on social media by working as Vice President of two publicly traded companies. He currently works as a marketing strategist, keynote speaker, and seminar leader. Scott just completed his fifth book, “World Wide Rave.” His third book, “The New Rules of Marketing and PR” was a BusinessWeek bestseller.

Peter Shankman (@skydiver) is the founder of Help A Reporter Out (HARO), the largest free source repository in the world and the CEO of the boutique Marketing and PR Strategy firm, The Geek Factory, Inc.. Shankman regularly updates his blog, “shankman.com,” and is the author of “Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That Work and Why Your Company Needs Them.”

Brian Solis (@briansolis) is a Principal of Future Works, an award-winning PR and New Media agency in Silicon Valley. Solis is also the co-founder of the Social Media Club and is an original member of the Media 2.0 Workgroup. Solis writes for his own blog, “PR 2.0,” which is among the top 1.5% of all blogs tracked by Technorati, and regularly contributes to TechCrunch, BrankWeek, and WebProNews.

Liz Strauss (@lizstrauss) is a social web strategies and community builder and works with businesses, universities and individuals to help them understand the world of the social communications. She is the Founder of the business bloggers conference, SOBcon. She was featured in the “Top 100 Social Media & Internet Marketing Bloggers,” the “Top 100 Most Influential Marketers of 2008,” the “50 of the Most Powerful and Influential Women of Social Media,” and NxE’s “Fifty Most Influential ‘Female’ Bloggers.” In addition, her own blog, “Liz Strauss at Successful Blog,” is listed on Alltop Social Media and Alltop Twitterati.

Greg Verdino (@gregverdino) is currently employed as Chief Strategy Officer at Crayon, a group that specializes in strategic marketing. Previously he served as the VP at both Emerging Channels Digitas and Aribitron NewMedia. Verdino produced studies on consumer online media usage behavior and the impacts of convergence of traditional media channels. Verdino’s blog, “gregverdino.com,” is known as being one of the most influential marketing blogs on the Internet and his book, “Micromarketing: A Breakthrough Approach to Building Brands by Thinking and Acting Small,” is set for release this summer.

Tamar Weinberg (@tamar) is a freelance writer and internet marketing consultant specializing in blogger outreach, viral marketing, and social media. She is also the author of “The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web,” a primer to social media marketing. Tamar is also Mashable’s Community and Marketing Director.  She has been recognized as one of the top most public influencers of the web in New York City by NowPublic, one of NxE’s most influential bloggers, and was featured in the “Top 100 Online Marketers” list. She blogs about her thoughts on social media at her personal blog, techipedia.com.

Lena West (@lenawest) is the CEO and chief strategist at xynoMedia, a web-development and consulting group dedicated to assisting women-led companies with social media and Internet based objectives. West has been honored with several awards, including The Network Journal’s “40 Under 40,” and the “Entrepreneurial Champion for Women” by The Women’s Congress.

Dan Zarrella (@danzarella) is a communications specialist with expertise in web development, social media and blogs. He is currently the Inbound Marketing Manager of HubSpot and considers himself a social, search and viral marketing specialist. He is in the process of finishing the book, “The Social Media Marketing Book.” Zarrella shares his comprehensive understanding of social media by contributing regularly to blogs such as “Mashable,” “Copy Blogger,” and “ProBlogger.” Zarrella is also credited for developing applications such as Link Attraction Factors, TweetPsych, TweetSuite, and TweetBrandSponsers.

Linda Zimmer (@lgzimmer) is president and CEO of MarCom:Interactive. She sits on the Advisory Board at Web Wise Kids and is a consulting council member with the Gerson Lehrman expert network. She regularly updates her blog, “Business Communicators of Second Life,” where she discusses topics such as social media and ethics for marketers, communicators and agency professionals.

Add your picks for top social media strategists below!

The 451 Heat team is excited to announce our new LinkedIn Q & A series! In this series, we will gather frequently asked social media questions on LinkedIn and answer them here on our blog. We hope you find this helpful. Part 1 features this week’s top four LinkedIn questions about SEO, Facebook, measurement of social media initiatives and blog traffic. As always, please leave your comments and questions for us below!

1. What are some basic SEO tips?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the best marketing techniques when it comes to increasing the online visibility of a website, and is critical to any company that wants their website to be seen and found by their target audience. The actual process of optimizing a website is long and involved, but here are 5 quick and easy ways to start improving your online visibility today:

1. Use strategic keywords to find your audience –When someone wants to find something they will search for it in Google, or another search engine, by using keywords to describe what they are looking for. You will want to pick strategic and relevant keywords for every page on your site that describe what your services are all about and how they provide solutions to your clients challenges.

2. Use your title tags –Title tags are what appear in the title bar of your browser, and are one of the many pieces of data that search engines scroll when determining what the content on the page is all about. Use the strategic keywords you selected and give each page a unique title. Try to limit your titles to only include one or two key phrases to avoid keyword saturation.

3. Don’t forget about your Meta information – Every page on a website should be treated individually and should have its own unique description and Meta tags. Write a sentence or two that best captures the content of that page, and try to include your keyword in it. Try to limit your descriptions to 180 characters or less— the shorter the better!

4. Quality Content – Ensure that constant generation of fresh, interesting and relevant content is one of your top priorities. Get your keywords into your content wherever and whenever it makes sense. The key here is to keep your user experience in mind; do not flood your content with keywords that do not fit logically.

5. Links, links, links…and more links – Think of a link as a vote of confidence or quality that search engines use to determine the relevance, and therefore page rank, of a page on your website. The more votes, the higher the rank. Good places for links are article and news sharing sites, directories, and other similar sites.

2. How can you use Facebook to increase your brand awareness?

Create a corporate Facebook Fan Page and be social. A Fan Page is a way to connect with clients, prospects, communities and stakeholders, as well as to extend your brand reach, but it has to be interactive to succeed. CC Chapman, a well respected social media strategist, explains this in his About Face white paper, “[Facebook Fan Pages] offer a unique opportunity for brands to engage consumers, providing viral hooks to recruit new Fans, and recurring opportunities for existing Fans to re-engage. But to take advantage of this, brands MUST be social – creating content, sharing status updates, posting photos, hosting events and making regular contributions to the Community.” Opportunities on Facebook Fan Pages allow companies to engage and interact with Fans in a meaningful way. The applications allow for brands to promote their brand in a way that users can connect with and appreciate. Facebook marketing is a combination of interacting with Fans and contributing to a community, rather than broadcasting promotional messages.

3. How are you measuring the effectiveness of your social media marketing initiatives?

Any social media effort should be tied directly to an objective or goal for using social media. These goals are measurable. For example:

1.  If you are using social media to increase awareness, look for online brand mentions, retweets, your increase in followers/friends/fans etc., back-links to your website of Blog, or website visitors/traffic.

2.  If you are using social media to increase sales, track purchases made online (consider running specific promos only offered through social media), the number of captured sales leads, the number of people that signup on your website for a product demo, the source of web visitors through a free service, like bit.ly (http://bit.ly/), and the number of people you get to signup for an event where there is going to be a sales opportunity.

3.  If you are looking to use social media to aid in recruiting, track the number of candidates hired by your company that had originated through using social media. Compare that cost to what you had previously paid (or currently pay) in agency or job board fees.

4. If you are using social media for customer service, calculate the cost of responding to a customer’s request through normal channels (e.g. response time, resolved requests, etc.) and compare that to the calculated cost of using a social media channel to do the same job (response time, resolved requests, etc.). Also, with the increased ability to respond to customer requests, consider factoring in the increase in brand approval ratings.

There are also ways to measure how social media can be effective in reducing operational costs, and for employee retention and trainings. Contact us directly for more of a detailed explanation of the above topic.

4. How do I drive more traffic to my blog?

These five basic elements are crucial to driving relevant traffic to your blog.

1. Design an engaging, organized and stimulating blog. Timely content and catchy titles are important, but remember that an image is worth a thousand words. Many people respond favorably to stimulating visuals, so if you can find colorful, unique graphics that compliment your blog posts, you can attract and retain more readers.

Separating posts into categories is crucial to your blog’s organization. Blog readers want to find good information quickly, so it’s important that your blog is easy to navigate. Having clear categories with your posts properly tagged and organized into categories will make it easy for readers to find the posts that they’ll want to read most.

2. Make sure your blog has clear, basic information that is visible to all visitors

You want to make sure that your brand (personal or corporate) is represented on your blog and that your background information accessible.

Imagine a person who doesn’t know your business, your industry or anything about you at all. Blog with that person in mind.

3. Write fresh compelling content. Your blog should highlight timely, concise and engaging information, and should invite visitors to provide their feedback. If you’re not writing material that your audience is interested in, and you’re not writing it clearly enough for them to digest it quickly, then your blog will not be an effective tool in reaching and connecting with your audience.

4. Make your contact page highly visible and user-friendly. If you want your blog to have a significant ROI, you need to make it easy for your audience to contact you. Ensuring that you are easily reachable is essential to maintaining an open dialogue and interacting with readers in a meaningful way.

5. Your RSS and ‘Share This’ features should be highly visible to visitors

You’re starting a blog with objectives in mind and you know that it is going to take some time to gain a following of trusted readers. You need to make it as easy as possible for others to find you. The best way to start that process is to make it as easy as possible for people to subscribe to your blog via RSS. Social bookmarks increase your reader’s participation and allow them to view themselves as part of your “community.” Once you’ve gained their trust, and their “buy-in” to your blog’s message, they will start to share your thoughts with their peers and your readership will continue to grow.

-AJ Gerritson

If you haven’t heard about the T-Mobile Sidekick disaster from Perez Hilton’s tweets, or the thousands of angry Sidekick users sharing their feelings on social networks, here’s a little background: T-Mobile USA and Microsoft found themselves in a PR crisis after T-Mobile Sidekick users lost all of their personal data (calendar, contact information, etc.) because of data storage and connectivity problems related to Microsoft’s servers. Sidekick users battled these issues for over a week. Microsoft and T-Mobile USA warned the loss could be permanent. Now T-Mobile has recovered some users’ missing Sidekick data, and announced that customers who experienced a “significant and permanent” loss of data would receive a $100 customer appreciation card. T-Mobile said it has restored data services to Sidekick users.

Perez Hilton, one of the Internet’s most notorious gossip columnists, has been an influential figure throughout this whole mess. He roused followers with angry tweets and helped boost #TMobileSucks to the number one trending topic on Twitter. Other users chimed in on Facebook and MySpace with angry status updates and notes. T-Mobile USA and Microsoft found themselves in the middle of a PR and customer service crisis.

Let’s look at some things the companies did right:
- Halted sales of Sidekicks: While Microsoft and T-Mobile tried to recover lost data, they halted sales of Sidekicks. They showed their commitment to customers by focusing their time and effort on trying to recover Sidekick users’ personal data, instead of trying to make more money off the device.
- Let furious Sidekick users ditch their contracts: T-Mobile recognized the problem with Sidekicks and offered subscribers new contracts with different T-Mobile phones. This allows them to retain furious customers who may have otherwise ditched the subscriber all together.

And now for what the companies did wrong:
-$100 dollar apology and month’s free data service: This was not enough for the angry Sidekick users who lost all of their contacts, calendar appointments, irreplaceable pictures, etc. T-Mobile should have offered more to show how apologetic the company was for the data storage failure.
-Did not give out replacement phones: T-Mobile should have given Sidekick users replacement phones until they could sort out the data loss. This would have helped ease the backlash of angry customers obsessing over their incompetent phones.
-Did not encourage regular backups of data: All carriers should promote and remind customers to backup data regularly.
-Banned angry customers from T-Mobile’s online forum: Banning angry customers only produces more angry customers. T-Mobile should have set up a separate forum for Sidekick users who were affected by the data storage lost and responded with swift customer service especially to those who were angry because of a significant loss.
- Did not alert customers via social media channels: Did we learn nothing from the Motrin Moms crisis?  T-Mobile should have made announcements via Twitter and other channels instead of directing customers to their website to find the information they needed. Providing updates directly to users would have helped to contain the intense backlash on Twitter and other social networking sites. Quick and informative messages broadcast on Twitter would have eased tension and customers’ anger.

Every company should include a social media plan for responding to and informing customers in the event of a crisis. The goal should be to keep open communication with customers and maintain any negative backlash. Roles and messages should be mapped out and flexible.

To avoid becoming a case study of what not to do in a crisis (like T-Mobile), start listening and engaging on social media channels now. Determine what tools you’re going to use to monitor and manage your brand. You don’t want to find yourself in the middle of a social media crisis without a plan.

How do you think T-Mobile and Microsoft could have handled the crisis differently? Did they do enough for customers? Tell us what you think!

-Cristina Lepore

Making your website friendly to search engines is absolutely critical to improving your website’s online visibility. By increasing your natural rankings in search engines like Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and Bing you will increase the visibility of your website, while simultaneously increasing the quality of your web traffic. Natural rankings are the results search engines generate by using their various algorithms, without taking into account any paid search (PPC) efforts.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the best marketing techniques when it comes to increasing the online visibility of a website, and is critical to any company that wants their website to be seen and found by their target audience. The actual process of optimizing a website is long and involved, but here are 5 quick and easy ways to start improving your online visibility today:

Use strategic keywords to find your audience – This is easily the most important step in any SEO campaign. When someone wants to find something they will search for it in Google, or another search engine, by using keywords to describe what they are looking for. You will want to pick strategic and relevant keywords for every page on your site that describe what your services are all about and how they provide solutions to your clients challenges. But that’s not it; you need to make sure that the keywords or phrases you select are words that your target audience will actually search for. Put yourself in the shoes of your target audience. What are their needs, challenges and pain points? What specific terms would they search for to help them find solutions. You can even ask your neighbors, co-workers and friends what they would search for too; you’ll be surprised what they will come up with!

Use your title tags – I constantly come across websites that are not using their title tags to their advantage. Title tags are what appear in the title bar of your browser, and are one of the many pieces of data that search engines scroll when determining what the content on the page is all about. Use the strategic keywords you selected and give each page a unique title. Try to limit your titles to only include one or two key phrases to avoid keyword saturation.

Don’t forget about your Meta information – Every page on a website should be treated individually and should have it’s own unique description and Meta tags. Write a sentence or two that best captures the content of that page, and try to include your keyword in it. Try to limit your descriptions to 180 characters or less— the shorter the better!

Quality Content – Ensure that constant generation of fresh, interesting and relevant content one of your top priorities. Get your keywords into your content wherever and whenever it makes sense. The key here is to keep your user experience in mind; do not flood your content with keywords that do not fit logically. This looks messy, confusing and lends to a very poor user experience on your website. Your user is always your top priority, so only use keywords in your content that make sense.

Links, links, links…and more links – This is one I can not stress enough. Think of a link as a vote of confidence or quality that search engines use to determine the relevance, and therefore page rank, of a page on your website. The more votes, the higher the rank. Good places for links are article and news sharing sites, directories, and other similar sites. Links are critical to the success of building your online visibility, you can never have enough!

Anything else to add? Have some great success stories? Share your comments here!

-Louisa Plank

With over 45 million users representing more than 130 different industries around the world, LinkedIn is one of the fastest growing networking sites on the web. The best part about the site is that it enables users to build their professional profile and expand their network by making strategic connections, seeking recommendations from colleagues and participating in interactive polls and discussions.

As traffic on LinkedIn continues to rise, it becomes increasingly clear that the site will become a necessary tool for even the most passive job seekers and networkers. To help promote the existence of your profile and make it easier to connect with colleagues, contacts, industry leaders, clients and potential prospects or employers, follow these simple steps to learn how to insert a LinkedIn button into your personal email signature.

Step 1- Log-in to your LinkedIn Account

Step 2- Go to your “Accounts and Settings” option

Step 3- Click on your “Public Profile” (Halfway down the “Accounts and Settings” page)

Step 4- Under the “Public Profile” go to “Promote Public Profile” and click on “Customized Buttons”

Step 5- Copy the entire code for this button

Step 6- Open Notepad on your computer and paste the code into the document

Step 7- Under “Save As”, save the file name as “LinkedIn.html”, and change file type to “All Files”

Step 8- Open Outlook, go to “Tools” and click on “Options”

Step 9- Go to “Mail Format” and click on “Signatures”

Step 10- Click on “New”

Step 11- Click on “Use this file as template,” then select your saved file. Next, add your contact details as you would like them to read over your LinkedIn button.

Now you are done!!

We would like to know how inserting a LinkedIn button to your email has helped increase your connections on LinkedIn or otherwise helped to get you noticed. Please share your success stories.

-Brie Bellefeuille

I first recognized the importance of texting when I realized it was the only way I could reach my teenage son. I discovered through a lot of trial and error that he couldn’t be bothered answering his cell phone, but that a text message would bring a rapid-fire response. I was also dismayed (I mean, enlightened) when his older sister gave him a congratulatory high five when he hit 3000 texts in a month.

Just last week a Boston daily newspaper ran a timely piece titled, “Mobile Madness Growing in Hub.” The article included a quote from a 17-year-old who admitted that she would be lost without her iPhone. Her favorite uses included transferring money into her bank account, looking up train schedules and using Google Maps for directions. She commented, “I once went for a day without it and it was the most painful day of my entire life.”

When my teenage son sits down to relax in front of the TV he is surrounded by technology: TV, laptop and cell phone. He’s watching, updating social media accounts and texting at the same time. He’s not alone. According to Nielsen, 57% of viewers are browsing the web while watching TV. Welcome the new and improved TV experience.

At it’s root, the experience refers to the integration of the web and other emerging technologies into the television experience and how this integration has helped to further personalize and socialize the medium.. For example TiVo has integrated web content and user control into their products (and vice versa) while social media platforms like MySpace have added TV streams to their sites.

With these trends in mind, if I were a TV executive now, I would take note to avoid being left on the sidelines. The future is clear for TV, mobile, the internet and all technologies: convergence. No more desk tops, mousses or dedicated pieces of technology. Users will continue to expect immediate information that, powered by connectivity, eventually becomes ubiquitous. As our real world and virtual worlds continue to meld, our social connections will expand further. Over time, the interests and social interactions that we consider our own, are destined to become part of a shared history.

- Sage Peterson