One of the most effective, lowest-cost ways to drive traffic and build awareness for your business is through content marketing: creating and distributing relevant content to attract, acquire, and engage your target audience. Content marketing can run the gamut from publishing status updates and photos on Facebook Pages and Twitter, to writing compelling blog posts and posting videos on YouTube. Popular types of content you can start with include how-to articles and videos, Q&As, behind-the-scenes looks at your business, photos and videos showcasing your work and first-hand accounts of your staff participating in local or industry events.

While many businesses have already tried a hand at content marketing, not all have been successful at getting their content found, consumed and shared. Those who have are applying a few key strategies that can dramatically improve the effectiveness of any content marketing program.

Here are five key content marketing strategies to boost your program success.

-------------------------

1. Plan Your Content Ahead of Time

-------------------------

Staring at a blank screen can be daunting, so consider planning out your topics ahead of time.

Ben Young, co-founder of digital marketing agency Young & Shand, recommends simply brainstorming titles to get the creative juices flowing. “We have brainstorm sessions with our clients just to come up with some titles. In an hour we can usually get up to 20 different titles. We then follow up to get the key bullet points for each piece of content,” says Young.

Amanda O’Brien, VP of marketing at Hall Internet Marketing, suggests that you “look at your website analytics to see which pages are most popular and check the referring pages to see how people are getting to those pages. This should give you a decent idea of what types of content your website visitors are looking for.” O’Brien also recommends checking out question sites such as Quora and LinkedIn Answers to see what questions people are already asking out in the wild.

Staying informed on the latest news can also help fuel new ideas for relevant content.

“One of the first things I do in the morning is catch up on email marketing blogs, newsletters and tweets,” says Lindsay McMurdo, VP of marketing at email marketing company Topica. McMurdo recommends using Google Reader to aggregate relevant news from your industry, and also searching Twitter for relevant hashtags.

Another helpful trick is to repurpose content. “If you take the time to put content together, make sure you are getting the most use out of it,” says O’Brien. “For example, if you put together a presentation for a speaking engagement, consider writing a blog post summarizing your key points and embedding your slides.” If you’ve authored an informative white paper, break it up into multiple blog posts and tweets. Other content that may be ripe for repurposing includes existing FAQs, customer service requests and even demos, says O’Brien.

Young also recommends that clients create a blog post “cache” of 12 weeks’ worth of posts. “When we get busy, it’s easy to get distracted and forget to write. Creating a blog cache gives our clients the first 12 runs on the board, makes them feel great and sparks off more ideas over the next 12 weeks,” says Young.

-------------------------

2. Create Content That Pops

-------------------------

Nielsen reports that users typically spend less than one minute on any given web page, so many experts recommend creating content that can be easily consumed in under a minute.

“Web users skim and prefer easily digestible bits of content. Endless paragraphs of text will only make their eyes glaze over,” says Tom Warthen, president of ProSite Web Design. Warthen recommends displaying small tidbits or a high-level overview before drilling down to more detail.

Andy Crestodina, founder and strategic director of Orbit Media Studios, suggests breaking up your article into short sections. This will not only make it easier to read for visitors, it’s also good for search engines, because the headers and subheaders are great places to include keywords and related keyword phrases. Crestodina recommends paying extra attention to text formatting, such as bolding and bullets — this makes it easy for busy readers to scan and get your message quickly.

McMurdo also suggests that you look to pop culture to punch up your content. “Everyone loves a pop-culture reference, as long as it is one that most of your audience will recognize or identify with,” says McMurdo. For example, McMurdo tied a character from a Dos Equis ad campaign to the topic of email marketing in her recent post, “5 Things You Can Learn About Email Marketing From ‘The Most Interesting Man in the World’.”

-------------------------

3. Search Engine Optimize Your Content

-------------------------

Once your content is ready to post, the next step is to optimize it for search.

Start by researching which keywords and keyword phrases get the most traffic for a particular topic, using Google’s Keyword Tool or another similar tool. Tasha Mayberry, founder of social media consulting firm Social Media 22, recommends that you then use these relevant keywords or keyword phrases in your content title, in the file names of the article and images, as well as throughout the entire article or webpage.

Joe Chernov, VP of content marketing at marketing automation company Eloqua, also suggests standardizing your keyword tags to ensure that the highest density of keywords is associated with your content. “When you distribute new content, pre-author the description and list of tags, then simply paste that copy into every outlet onto which you upload the asset,” says Chernov.

-------------------------

4. Create Backlinks to Your Content

-------------------------

The more backlinks that point to your content, the more value search engines will assign to it. To increase the number of backlinks to your content, Mayberry suggests responding and leaving comments in relevant articles, blog posts and forums with a link back to your website or blog URL. Just make sure your comment adds value to the conversation so it’s not viewed as spam.

Mayberry also recommends publishing your articles to sites such as:

* Yahoo! Contributor Network
* PublishMyself.net
* ArticleOnlineDirectory
* Author Palace
* Ezine Articles
* Buzzle.com
* Articlesbase

You should also create a Google Profile and list the URLs affiliated with your company, and claim and build out your listing pages on sites such as MerchantCircle and Yelp to maximize backlinks to your blog.

And of course, always look for opportunities to link to your existing content in your new posts.

-------------------------

5. Make Your Content Social

-------------------------

It goes without saying that you should promote any new content through social media channels such as your Facebook Page, Twitter and LinkedIn. But instead of just posting the title, consider pulling out a key point from the content or posing a relevant question to pique readers’ interest.

Becky Boyd, VP of marketing services at communications agency MediaFirst, also recommends posting to LinkedIn groups. “On LinkedIn, I belong to groups that focus on my clients’ target audiences. When my client writes a blog post, I submit the post to the groups’ News or Discussion section. This way, when a group admin sends an email update to fellow members, it will include a link to the blog post.”

Finally, don’t forget to make your content shareable using free social plugins tools such as AddThis or Wibiya. If someone shares your content, this will automatically create a back-link to your website and greatly amplify the reach of your content.

What other content marketing tips do you have for small business? Let us know in the comments.

More About: facebook, facebook pages, linkedin, MARKETING, quora, twitter, youtube

For more Business & Marketing coverage:
* Follow Mashable Business & Marketing on Twitter
* Become a Fan on Facebook
* Subscribe to the Business & Marketing channel
* Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPadThis post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

One of the most effective, lowest-cost ways to drive traffic and build awareness for your business is through content marketing: creating and distributing relevant content to attract, acquire, and engage your target audience. Content marketing can run the gamut from publishing status updates and photos on Facebook Pages and Twitter, to writing compelling blog posts and posting videos on YouTube. Popular types of content you can start with include how-to articles and videos, Q&As, behind-the-scenes looks at your business, photos and videos showcasing your work and first-hand accounts of your staff participating in local or industry events.

While many businesses have already tried a hand at content marketing, not all have been successful at getting their content found, consumed and shared. Those who have are applying a few key strategies that can dramatically improve the effectiveness of any content marketing program.

Here are five key content marketing strategies to boost your program success.

-------------------------

1. Plan Your Content Ahead of Time

-------------------------

Staring at a blank screen can be daunting, so consider planning out your topics ahead of time.

Ben Young, co-founder of digital marketing agency Young & Shand, recommends simply brainstorming titles to get the creative juices flowing. “We have brainstorm sessions with our clients just to come up with some titles. In an hour we can usually get up to 20 different titles. We then follow up to get the key bullet points for each piece of content,” says Young.

Amanda O’Brien, VP of marketing at Hall Internet Marketing, suggests that you “look at your website analytics to see which pages are most popular and check the referring pages to see how people are getting to those pages. This should give you a decent idea of what types of content your website visitors are looking for.” O’Brien also recommends checking out question sites such as Quora and LinkedIn Answers to see what questions people are already asking out in the wild.

Staying informed on the latest news can also help fuel new ideas for relevant content.

“One of the first things I do in the morning is catch up on email marketing blogs, newsletters and tweets,” says Lindsay McMurdo, VP of marketing at email marketing company Topica. McMurdo recommends using Google Reader to aggregate relevant news from your industry, and also searching Twitter for relevant hashtags.

Another helpful trick is to repurpose content. “If you take the time to put content together, make sure you are getting the most use out of it,” says O’Brien. “For example, if you put together a presentation for a speaking engagement, consider writing a blog post summarizing your key points and embedding your slides.” If you’ve authored an informative white paper, break it up into multiple blog posts and tweets. Other content that may be ripe for repurposing includes existing FAQs, customer service requests and even demos, says O’Brien.

Young also recommends that clients create a blog post “cache” of 12 weeks’ worth of posts. “When we get busy, it’s easy to get distracted and forget to write. Creating a blog cache gives our clients the first 12 runs on the board, makes them feel great and sparks off more ideas over the next 12 weeks,” says Young.

-------------------------

2. Create Content That Pops

-------------------------

Nielsen reports that users typically spend less than one minute on any given web page, so many experts recommend creating content that can be easily consumed in under a minute.

“Web users skim and prefer easily digestible bits of content. Endless paragraphs of text will only make their eyes glaze over,” says Tom Warthen, president of ProSite Web Design. Warthen recommends displaying small tidbits or a high-level overview before drilling down to more detail.

Andy Crestodina, founder and strategic director of Orbit Media Studios, suggests breaking up your article into short sections. This will not only make it easier to read for visitors, it’s also good for search engines, because the headers and subheaders are great places to include keywords and related keyword phrases. Crestodina recommends paying extra attention to text formatting, such as bolding and bullets — this makes it easy for busy readers to scan and get your message quickly.

McMurdo also suggests that you look to pop culture to punch up your content. “Everyone loves a pop-culture reference, as long as it is one that most of your audience will recognize or identify with,” says McMurdo. For example, McMurdo tied a character from a Dos Equis ad campaign to the topic of email marketing in her recent post, “5 Things You Can Learn About Email Marketing From ‘The Most Interesting Man in the World’.”

-------------------------

3. Search Engine Optimize Your Content

-------------------------

Once your content is ready to post, the next step is to optimize it for search.

Start by researching which keywords and keyword phrases get the most traffic for a particular topic, using Google’s Keyword Tool or another similar tool. Tasha Mayberry, founder of social media consulting firm Social Media 22, recommends that you then use these relevant keywords or keyword phrases in your content title, in the file names of the article and images, as well as throughout the entire article or webpage.

Joe Chernov, VP of content marketing at marketing automation company Eloqua, also suggests standardizing your keyword tags to ensure that the highest density of keywords is associated with your content. “When you distribute new content, pre-author the description and list of tags, then simply paste that copy into every outlet onto which you upload the asset,” says Chernov.

-------------------------

4. Create Backlinks to Your Content

-------------------------

The more backlinks that point to your content, the more value search engines will assign to it. To increase the number of backlinks to your content, Mayberry suggests responding and leaving comments in relevant articles, blog posts and forums with a link back to your website or blog URL. Just make sure your comment adds value to the conversation so it’s not viewed as spam.

Mayberry also recommends publishing your articles to sites such as:

* Yahoo! Contributor Network
* PublishMyself.net
* ArticleOnlineDirectory
* Author Palace
* Ezine Articles
* Buzzle.com
* Articlesbase

You should also create a Google Profile and list the URLs affiliated with your company, and claim and build out your listing pages on sites such as MerchantCircle and Yelp to maximize backlinks to your blog.

And of course, always look for opportunities to link to your existing content in your new posts.

-------------------------

5. Make Your Content Social

-------------------------

It goes without saying that you should promote any new content through social media channels such as your Facebook Page, Twitter and LinkedIn. But instead of just posting the title, consider pulling out a key point from the content or posing a relevant question to pique readers’ interest.

Becky Boyd, VP of marketing services at communications agency MediaFirst, also recommends posting to LinkedIn groups. “On LinkedIn, I belong to groups that focus on my clients’ target audiences. When my client writes a blog post, I submit the post to the groups’ News or Discussion section. This way, when a group admin sends an email update to fellow members, it will include a link to the blog post.”

Finally, don’t forget to make your content shareable using free social plugins tools such as AddThis or Wibiya. If someone shares your content, this will automatically create a back-link to your website and greatly amplify the reach of your content.

What other content marketing tips do you have for small business? Let us know in the comments.

More About: facebook, facebook pages, linkedin, MARKETING, quora, twitter, youtube

For more Business & Marketing coverage:
* Follow Mashable Business & Marketing on Twitter
* Become a Fan on Facebook
* Subscribe to the Business & Marketing channel
* Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

Original Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/8SQdsoyRsbk/

Chris Heuer, Founder of the Social Media Club and Panel

The Social Media Club of San Francisco had its first event of the year on Tuesday, January 25, 2010 at the newly opened shared office space, RocketSpace.  A panel consisting of industry thought leaders, known as Influencers in Social media circles, included Sol Lipman, Director of Mobile at AOL and formerly of 12Seconds, Harry McCracken of Technologizer and Time.com, Auggie Ray of Forrester and Shel Israel, a Social Media Consultant and co-author of the book Naked Conversations.

It was a full house and it was quite apparent that this was the Social Media Club by the name-tags featuring just one’s Twitter Handle. Chris Heuer, Founder of the Social Media Club started off the event with a video featuring Social Media professionals from Adobe, Facebook, Research in Motion, Intel and Sony Electronics at CES who spoke about what they thought was in store for 2011. The common themes that emerged were the hopes for more content creation, scaling, community and more, oh please, more attention to Social Media to get consumers to use their products.

Shel Israel

Israel spoke first about the trends of social media in 2011. He talked of normalizing social media so that success isn’t measured by the number of people that follow you. He feels the question of ROI will be all about good business and using the right tools to get the job done well. He sees a future where the ability to easily translate and communicate around the world will become a reality along with the Internet becoming truly ubiquitous. He also summed up his thoughts regarding 2011 trends in his blog, Global Neighborhoods.

Harry McCracken

McCracken sees the social mobile web as the new frontier similar to how it was for the web back in 2005. “The social mobile network is doing well now and will continue to do so in the future.” He sees Facebook as something that people will use without even thinking about it as a social network. He is seeking clarity in the future of the dominance of the mobile social network, the dominance of Facebook and how companies will control the social aspects of the web. His blog Technologizer features his thoughts about the mobile social network in-depth too.

Auggie Ray

ROI to Ray will no longer be the focus of social media. ”Its not the year of the ROI obsession where one needs to provide it in order to get financing. It is also not the year of Facebook or Four Square.” He sees FourSquare as limited by handsets carried and not all have location-based services needed to use them. Proving his point, he conducted a survey of the audience asking how many are on FourSquare and most raised their hand. When asked how many check-in as frequently as they did when first on the service, less than a third raised their hands. Additional great insights are found in his blog, Auggie Ray’s Blog.

Sol Lipman

Last to speak and also most entertaining was Lipman, who talked of trends in terms of what the new and hip AOL is seeking when hiring a Social Media guru. They are interested in someone who is all about niche social networks, personalization and building social connections, about content that appeals to all audiences and one who will focus on iPad devices. If you have what it takes, you should contact The Solster.

If you have not already joined the Social Media Club, you can do so here and connect with others who are passionate about learning and sharing what social media can provide to your organization and community. You can also join the conversation about this event at #SMCSFOBy Julie Blaustein

Chris Heuer, Founder of the Social Media Club and Panel

The Social Media Club of San Francisco had its first event of the year on Tuesday, January 25, 2010 at the newly opened shared office space, RocketSpace.  A panel consisting of industry thought leaders, known as Influencers in Social media circles, included Sol Lipman, Director of Mobile at AOL and formerly of 12Seconds, Harry McCracken of Technologizer and Time.com, Auggie Ray of Forrester and Shel Israel, a Social Media Consultant and co-author of the book Naked Conversations.

It was a full house and it was quite apparent that this was the Social Media Club by the name-tags featuring just one’s Twitter Handle. Chris Heuer, Founder of the Social Media Club started off the event with a video featuring Social Media professionals from Adobe, Facebook, Research in Motion, Intel and Sony Electronics at CES who spoke about what they thought was in store for 2011. The common themes that emerged were the hopes for more content creation, scaling, community and more, oh please, more attention to Social Media to get consumers to use their products.

Shel Israel

Israel spoke first about the trends of social media in 2011. He talked of normalizing social media so that success isn’t measured by the number of people that follow you. He feels the question of ROI will be all about good business and using the right tools to get the job done well. He sees a future where the ability to easily translate and communicate around the world will become a reality along with the Internet becoming truly ubiquitous. He also summed up his thoughts regarding 2011 trends in his blog, Global Neighborhoods.

Harry McCracken

McCracken sees the social mobile web as the new frontier similar to how it was for the web back in 2005. “The social mobile network is doing well now and will continue to do so in the future.” He sees Facebook as something that people will use without even thinking about it as a social network. He is seeking clarity in the future of the dominance of the mobile social network, the dominance of Facebook and how companies will control the social aspects of the web. His blog Technologizer features his thoughts about the mobile social network in-depth too.

Auggie Ray

ROI to Ray will no longer be the focus of social media. ”Its not the year of the ROI obsession where one needs to provide it in order to get financing. It is also not the year of Facebook or Four Square.” He sees FourSquare as limited by handsets carried and not all have location-based services needed to use them. Proving his point, he conducted a survey of the audience asking how many are on FourSquare and most raised their hand. When asked how many check-in as frequently as they did when first on the service, less than a third raised their hands. Additional great insights are found in his blog, Auggie Ray’s Blog.

Sol Lipman

Last to speak and also most entertaining was Lipman, who talked of trends in terms of what the new and hip AOL is seeking when hiring a Social Media guru. They are interested in someone who is all about niche social networks, personalization and building social connections, about content that appeals to all audiences and one who will focus on iPad devices. If you have what it takes, you should contact The Solster.

If you have not already joined the Social Media Club, you can do so here and connect with others who are passionate about learning and sharing what social media can provide to your organization and community. You can also join the conversation about this event at #SMCSFO

Original Link: http://bub.blicio.us/social-media-clubs-trends-of-2011/

The tools represent a renaissance in many ways for how we make sense of our information culture. They provide context and meaning to the often baffling world of big data.

Sponsor

This is a snapshot of what is available. We are relying on the work done by Paul Bradshaw, whose blog is an excellent source about the new world of data journalism.

Factual

Factual provides simple APIs for building web and mobile apps. For instance, it provides data on local geographies. According to Facual, the datasets include businesses and points of interest (parks, airports, theaters, tourist attractions, etc.), and attributes include: name, address, phone, category and latitude/longitude."

How To Create a Table With Factual on Howcast

Socrata

Socrata is one of a handful of companies and organizations that are forming the open data movement in government. The company provides ways for federal, state and local governments to make data available online in a simple to use way.

Google Fusion Tables

Google Fusion Tables is a Google Labs project. It is data management tool to host, manage, collaborate on, visualize, and publish data tables online.

WikiEDData uses Google Fusion Table to map poverty levels in the state of Washington school districts:
"Yellow indicates the latest district poverty levels are below state average, orange means the levels are above state average, and red means that the poverty levels are 10 percentage points or more above state average. Clicking on a district will bring a link to the district along with the poverty data over time. "

Yahoo! Pipes

Yahoo! Pipes is a tool that can make anyone a data plumber. You can aggregate feeds and mashup information from around the Web. This Pipe shows U.S. population by state.

OpenHeatMap

OpenHeatMap is another example of how to turn data into maps.

These are five tools that can be used for online journalism or any online research project. They once again show how ingrained data has become in our lives and why they are so valuable in defining who we are and the stories we want to tell.

DiscussIn our last post on data journalism, we ran across a number of tools that would be helpful for anyone really who is interested in how to make sense of data.

The tools represent a renaissance in many ways for how we make sense of our information culture. They provide context and meaning to the often baffling world of big data.

Sponsor

This is a snapshot of what is available. We are relying on the work done by Paul Bradshaw, whose blog is an excellent source about the new world of data journalism.

Factual

Factual provides simple APIs for building web and mobile apps. For instance, it provides data on local geographies. According to Facual, the datasets include businesses and points of interest (parks, airports, theaters, tourist attractions, etc.), and attributes include: name, address, phone, category and latitude/longitude."

How To Create a Table With Factual on Howcast

Socrata

Socrata is one of a handful of companies and organizations that are forming the open data movement in government. The company provides ways for federal, state and local governments to make data available online in a simple to use way.

Google Fusion Tables

Google Fusion Tables is a Google Labs project. It is data management tool to host, manage, collaborate on, visualize, and publish data tables online.

WikiEDData uses Google Fusion Table to map poverty levels in the state of Washington school districts:
"Yellow indicates the latest district poverty levels are below state average, orange means the levels are above state average, and red means that the poverty levels are 10 percentage points or more above state average. Clicking on a district will bring a link to the district along with the poverty data over time. "

Yahoo! Pipes

Yahoo! Pipes is a tool that can make anyone a data plumber. You can aggregate feeds and mashup information from around the Web. This Pipe shows U.S. population by state.

OpenHeatMap

OpenHeatMap is another example of how to turn data into maps.

These are five tools that can be used for online journalism or any online research project. They once again show how ingrained data has become in our lives and why they are so valuable in defining who we are and the stories we want to tell.

Discuss

Original Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/xvJxZemFTmo/10-tools-for-online-journalism.php

While both the Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes sample sizes are currently small, The Social Network joins The Godfather and Lawrence of Arabia (re-release) as one of the universally highest rated movies of all time.

But will critical acclaim put butts in seats?

Box office success doesn’t seem such a farfetched feat. By now each of you have probably been assaulted countless times by Columbia Picture’s obnoxious and relentless marketing campaign but your desire to see the film has most likely not yet waned.

And Hollywood is sure banking on drawing in at least part of Mark Zuckerberg’s captive audience of 500 million — the movie’s budget was rumored to be in the more than modest range of $45 million to $52 million.

Those interested can read more in “Zuckerberg, ‘The Social Network’ And The Rise Of The Terror Nerd” and watch more recent The Social Network clips inexplicably and exclusively released on the disaster that is Yahoo! Movies.

CrunchBase InformationFacebookInformation provided by CrunchBasePremiering at  New York Film Festival yesterday and coming to theatres October 1st, the world’s first Hollywood movie about the founding of a social network can now also claim the bragging rights of a solid 100 score on movie review aggregator Metacritic as well as a 9.9 score on Rotten Tomatoes.

While both the Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes sample sizes are currently small, The Social Network joins The Godfather and Lawrence of Arabia (re-release) as one of the universally highest rated movies of all time.

But will critical acclaim put butts in seats?

Box office success doesn’t seem such a farfetched feat. By now each of you have probably been assaulted countless times by Columbia Picture’s obnoxious and relentless marketing campaign but your desire to see the film has most likely not yet waned.

And Hollywood is sure banking on drawing in at least part of Mark Zuckerberg’s captive audience of 500 million — the movie’s budget was rumored to be in the more than modest range of $45 million to $52 million.

Those interested can read more in “Zuckerberg, ‘The Social Network’ And The Rise Of The Terror Nerd” and watch more recent The Social Network clips inexplicably and exclusively released on the disaster that is Yahoo! Movies.

CrunchBase InformationFacebookInformation provided by CrunchBase

Original Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/_Aga8O5Lano/

I'm a big fan of what Cisco has done with its communications. Cisco was the inspiration for my "Every company is a media company" mantra.

More than five years ago, Dan Scheinman was running Cisco corporate communications and also head of Cisco's M&A strategy, a multi-billion dollar a year war chest for acquisitions.I met with him and was amazed by what I heard, that News@Cisco, the company's corporate newsroom, was getting more traffic than the top industry trade publications at the time. Cisco had more than 200 RSS feeds, and was employing a cadre of top journalists and editors to help tell its story and that of its customers.

Cisco now planning to extend its News@Cisco site and make it less about Cisco and more about the industry and SIlicon Valley. There will be articles on collaboration, social media, virtualization, video, network technology, and culture.

"Cisco is already producing a lot of content from its different divisions. We will be curating a lot of that work but also adding new content by commissioning work from outside of Cisco," said Ms. Truong.

The relaunch is planned for November of this year and it has been in preparation for about five months. It is part of a team project managed by John Earnhardt, Director of Social Media Communications at Cisco. More details to come...

- - -

Please see: Meeting Cisco's M&A Chief And Realizing Every Company Is A Media Company - SVWYesterday I met with Autumn Truong, Senior Social Media Strategies for Cisco Corporate Communications, and she told me about plans to relaunch the pioneering News@Cisco site.

I'm a big fan of what Cisco has done with its communications. Cisco was the inspiration for my "Every company is a media company" mantra.

More than five years ago, Dan Scheinman was running Cisco corporate communications and also head of Cisco's M&A strategy, a multi-billion dollar a year war chest for acquisitions.I met with him and was amazed by what I heard, that News@Cisco, the company's corporate newsroom, was getting more traffic than the top industry trade publications at the time. Cisco had more than 200 RSS feeds, and was employing a cadre of top journalists and editors to help tell its story and that of its customers.

Cisco now planning to extend its News@Cisco site and make it less about Cisco and more about the industry and SIlicon Valley. There will be articles on collaboration, social media, virtualization, video, network technology, and culture.

"Cisco is already producing a lot of content from its different divisions. We will be curating a lot of that work but also adding new content by commissioning work from outside of Cisco," said Ms. Truong.

The relaunch is planned for November of this year and it has been in preparation for about five months. It is part of a team project managed by John Earnhardt, Director of Social Media Communications at Cisco. More details to come...

- - -

Please see: Meeting Cisco's M&A Chief And Realizing Every Company Is A Media Company - SVW

Original Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SVWatcher/~3/zzJMEIeW_cY/cisco_plans_rel.php

The scope of this matrix “Social Business” is when a company and their employees engage with customers in the social web, where customers, competitors, and prospects are already talking. In 2010, it’s assumed the conversation in your market in the social web is already happening.

Like all investments, there are risks and rewards, use this matrix to help decision makers understand the downsides and upsides by participating.

For more like this, see all my posts tagged ‘matrix’. Feel free to use this matrix in your work, kindly provide attribution.At a recent engagement, I was asked to list out the benefits and risks for companies to participate and not, as you know, from our research on how companies connect with customers, the Engagement DB research found there are four types of companies: Wallflowers, Butterflies, Selectives and Mavens –clearly not all are doing it.

The scope of this matrix “Social Business” is when a company and their employees engage with customers in the social web, where customers, competitors, and prospects are already talking. In 2010, it’s assumed the conversation in your market in the social web is already happening.

Like all investments, there are risks and rewards, use this matrix to help decision makers understand the downsides and upsides by participating.

For more like this, see all my posts tagged ‘matrix’

Original Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WebStrategyByJeremiah/~3/0GOhNacExiI/

The app, which launched in July, lets users find out where friends are working or have worked in the past. If friends have the app, users can also see where friends of friends work. Like LinkedIn, BranchOut connects people for professional purposes, but BranchOut leverages a user’s already existing Facebook friend base. Users can also list job postings on BranchOut for free.

Based in San Francisco, the startup was founded in 2008 and was previously self-funded.

Companies: Accel Partners, BranchOut, linkedinBranchOut, a Facebook app for career networking, has raised $6 million in a first round of equity from Accel Partners, according to a filing with the SEC.

The app, which launched in July, lets users find out where friends are working or have worked in the past. If friends have the app, users can also see where friends of friends work. Like LinkedIn, BranchOut connects people for professional purposes, but BranchOut leverages a user’s already existing Facebook friend base. Users can also list job postings on BranchOut for free.

Based in San Francisco, the startup was founded in 2008 and was previously self-funded.

Companies: Accel Partners, BranchOut, linkedin

Original Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Venturebeat/~3/4aRj7XOkVSw/

There’s been plenty of debate lately about whether Twitter has become “mainstream” or not, but examples continue to pile up of how the social network/microblogging platform has worked its way into our lives, to the point where it has become a form of media unto itself. Whether it will ever become mainstream in the sense that it gets used by your aunt or grandmother is almost irrelevant — the reality is that, for all its flaws, Twitter is a publishing tool, and an increasingly powerful one.

Read the rest of this post on the original siteBy Mathew Ingram, Senior Writer, GigaOm

There’s been plenty of debate lately about whether Twitter has become “mainstream” or not, but examples continue to pile up of how the social network/microblogging platform has worked its way into our lives, to the point where it has become a form of media unto itself. Whether it will ever become mainstream in the sense that it gets used by your aunt or grandmother is almost irrelevant — the reality is that, for all its flaws, Twitter is a publishing tool, and an increasingly powerful one.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Original Link: http://voices.allthingsd.com/20100910/like-it-or-not-twitter-has-become-a-news-platform/?mod=ATD_rss

Chris' insight into the opportunity for my6sense's ability to prioritize and personalize content from all streams on the Web is especially important for me, given his background as a geek and his dedication to data portability, open standards, and his day job, working for Echo, where they aggregate reactions of all types. With Echo becoming the back-end conversation repository for major media sites, it's of course possible those discussion areas are ripe for personalization and prioritization...

This and all other EdgeTheory conversations can be found on the dedicated ET Conversations site.

Listen to the full recording below:

More: louisgray.com | RSS | Buzz | E-mail | Cell: 408 646.2759As word of my joining my6sense as vice president of marketing broke late last night, Chris Saad (@chrissaad) put on his journalism hat, and the two of us recorded a quick Edge Theory Conversation to explain the opportunity ahead, and what this means for all the other roles I have been carrying.

Chris' insight into the opportunity for my6sense's ability to prioritize and personalize content from all streams on the Web is especially important for me, given his background as a geek and his dedication to data portability, open standards, and his day job, working for Echo, where they aggregate reactions of all types. With Echo becoming the back-end conversation repository for major media sites, it's of course possible those discussion areas are ripe for personalization and prioritization...

This and all other EdgeTheory conversations can be found on the dedicated ET Conversations site.

Listen to the full recording below:

More: louisgray.com | RSS | Buzz | E-mail

Original Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LouisgraycomLive/~3/El8h49yf998/edge-theory-conversations-talking.html

Trend Stream’s “LITE” two-step tool lets users pick a country and define a specific audience — by gender, age and attitude — to pull up social media behavior and attitude analysis. The tool will then return a bevy of stats encompassing social media motivations, activities and brand perceptions for the selected audience and the entire country.

The idea behind Global Web Index LITE is to give brands and marketers a snapshot of the social media preferences and motivations of their online audience. Try it out above and let us know what you think.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, VallarieE

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Original Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/irz5KLO7m_M/