Imagine your online community is a group of hungry people who walk up to a table where you have a spread of finger foods and appetizers. That’s your online content.

By watching which items disappear quickly, you learn what your audience truly wants. That’s the content that satisfies their hunger. And that’s what you need to give them.

In this article I’ll show you 8 ways to discover what topics satisfy the hunger in your online community.

#1: Ask your community

Most businesses assume that they know what their online community wants to hear from them. There’s nothing like doing a reality check by asking your community directly. What you learn might surprise you.

Start by creating a list of 10 topics you believe your audience wants to hear. Use your list to create a survey and collect their opinions using one of these strategies:

• Ask them to say “yes” or “no” for each topic.
• Ask them to rank the topics in order of interest.
• Ask them to pick their 3 favorite topics.

Always include an option for “other” so they can fill in any topics that you didn’t include in your list. Pay careful attention to these topics. If someone goes to the trouble to write in a topic, it’s very important to him or her.

There are several popular services that allow you to create a free survey including SurveyMonkey, Free Online Surveys, Zoomerang and Bzoink.

You can easily create smart professional surveys.

You can add your survey to your website, highlight it in your email newsletter and promote it on Twitter and Facebook.

#2: Check your blog comments

Which blog posts get the most comments?

Most bloggers will tell you that their most popular blog posts often surprise them. It’s usually not the post that they like the best.

When you write a post that gets many comments, you know you have struck gold. Review the comments to see what about this post inspires your community.

• Are people interested in this topic? Write more blog posts about it. You might even create a new category for these posts to make them more visible to your visitors.
• Did people like the post format? Did you make a list? Did you review an article or a tool? If the format was a hit, then consider starting a series of similar posts. You can even make this a recurring feature on your blog.

Tip: If most of the comments on a blog post are questions, it means that your audience is looking for more information on this topic. You can become their go-to source by providing detailed answers to their questions.

#3: Check your retweets

You post things on Twitter that you believe are useful and interesting. However, value is always in the eyes of the reader. When your Twitter community loves the information in your tweet, they retweet it to their communities. Check for your most-loved tweets and turn them into important conversation topics.

The new Twitter makes it easy to find your retweeted items and how many people retweeted each one.

1. Open Twitter.com and log in (if necessary).
2. Click Home in the top menu (if necessary).
3. Click the Retweets tab (in the left pane). Twitter displays the retweets menu.
   

   The Twitter Retweets menu options.

4. Select Your Tweets, retweeted. Twitter displays a list of your tweets that other people have retweeted in chronological order.
5. Hover the pointer over the first tweet, and click the flyout button to see the retweet details.
   

   Click the flyout button to see the details about this tweet in the right pane.

   Twitter displays the retweet details in the flyout (right pane).

6. Locate the retweeter list for this tweet.
   

   Twitter tells you how many people retweeted this tweet and displays their profile pictures.

To analyze your retweets:

1. Write down the number of retweets for each individual tweet in a month.
2. Group together tweets into topics or categories.
3. Add the individual retweet numbers to get a topic or category retweet total.
4. List the 3 most popular topics based on retweets. Plan to talk more about these topics in the next month.

#4: Check your URL click-throughs

When you share a link on Twitter, you probably use a web address (URL) shortener to save space. Most of these services provide statistics about each shortened link. You can use these numbers to see which links people clicked most often. These are the topics that captured their interest.

The popular URL shortener services include Bit.ly, Goo.gl, Tiny URL, Cli.gs and Is.gd:

You can collect, organize, shorten and share links.

HootSuite, the popular Twitter client (software that lets you use Twitter with additional features), provides two URL shorteners with statistics and detailed reports.

Users can now choose between two flavors of links—one with a social bar and one without.

The statistics on these services show you the number of times someone clicked through each link. Use this information to determine the most popular links. Group your links into topics or categories and get a total number of click-throughs by topic.

An example of Bit.ly statistics for a blog post about Cherry Street Coffee House.

Tip: Twitter.com uses its own shortening service, http://t.co, which doesn’t provide any statistics. You can use another service to shorten URLs before you paste them into Twitter if you want to get click statistics.

#5: Check your Facebook engagement

Facebook Insights provides details for page administrators about how users interact with their business page. It’s easy to see which status updates received the most feedback and interaction.

To display the interaction details for the previous month:

1. Display your Facebook business page.
2. Click View Insights (right column).
   

   Click View Insights to display the page administrator's statistics.

3. Locate the Interactions graph in the bottom half of the page.
4. Click See Details.
   

   Click See Details to get information about individual status updates.

Facebook displays the interaction details for the previous month.

The chart provides detailed information about your status updates and how your community interacted with each one.

Use the detailed information to find the popularity of each status update.

• The top graph provides the total count of likes and comments for each day of the month.
• The middle chart provides details about individual posts. Click on the column headings to sort the data by column.

Group your status updates into topics or categories. Talk more about the topics that get the most likes and comments.

#6: Ask Facebook questions

The Facebook Questions feature makes it easy for you to ask questions to anyone in your online community.

Before you start, write out your question with multiple-choice answers. Each community member must choose one answer to your question.

1. Display your Facebook business page.
2. Click Question.
   

   Click Question to start creating your Facebook Question post.

3. Facebook displays a blank question form.
   

   The Facebook Question form before you type any information.

4. Type your question.
5. Click Add Poll Options.
   

   The Facebook Question form before you add the poll options.

   Facebook adds blank poll options to the question form.

6. Type each multiple-choice option to answer your question. Facebook automatically adds blank options as you type.
   

   Complete the question options and click Ask Question.

   Tip: Leave the check for “Allow anyone to add options” so your community can add options you did not consider.

7. Click Ask Question. Facebook posts your question on your wall and distributes it to the news feed of people who like your page.
   

   An example Facebook question on a business page wall.

#7: Check Twitter favorites

Twitter’s Favorites feature lets you mark a tweet in your timeline that you like or want to be able to find again.

You can use Favstar to find which of your tweets people have marked as favorites. This gives you insight into which topics resonate with the people who follow you.

To review your tweets marked as favorites by other people:

1. Display Favstar.fm.
2. Click Sign In With Twitter.
   

   The Favstar front page before you sign in.

   Favstar displays the Twitter sign-in page.

3. Click Sign in Now.
   

   Twitter requires you to sign in and authorize Favstar before Favstar can find your tweets marked as favorites.

   Favstar takes you to Twitter.com.

4. Click Authorize app.
   

   Twitter explains what Favstar can and cannot do after you authorize it for your account.

   Twitter authorizes Favstar to look for people who marked your tweets as favorites and displays your customized Favstar page.

5. Click My Tweets.
   

   Click on the My Tweets button here.

   

   Favstar displays your tweets marked as favorites with the most recent on top.

Scroll through your most recent tweets. Group them into topics or categories. Calculate a total favorite count for each category. Talk more about the topics that get the most favorites.

#8: Check your email newsletter click-throughs

If your business has an email newsletter, it’s another great resource for tapping into what people really want to hear from you.

There are many useful email services such as AWeber, Constant Contact and Mail Chimp. While they offer slightly different services, they all let you track the clicks from your newsletter to your website or blog.

An example report from AWeber showing the links clicked in an email newsletter.

Reviewing the most clicked-through links gives you insight into what people found the most interesting in your newsletter. Talk more about the topics represented by your most popular links.

It’s Your Turn

What do you think? What strategies does your business use to get inside the head of your community members? Has your research provided you with surprising results? Share your experience in the comments box below.

So instead of playing by the old rules, he made new rules. He started blogging and he created profiles on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

He also hired the co-founder of Facebook, Chris Hughes, to be his Internet strategist. And he won the Democratic presidential nomination even though he spent a lot less money than his opponent.

At the time of the election, Obama had five million fans on Facebook—over four million more than Clinton. On MySpace, the numbers were approximately 800,000 and 200,000, respectively. On Twitter, he had over 100,000 followers and his opponent had about 5,000.

And he did all of that by following the principles of inbound marketing.

If you still market your business the old-fashioned way, you’re using outbound marketing techniques. Outbound marketing is throwing your message into the public arena and hoping the “right people” see it. Inbound marketing is creating a message that only the right people would be interested in, and then helping them stumble upon it.

If you have trouble seeing the difference, consider this:

Outbound marketing—You spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to advertise the 2012 Lexus LFA during the Super Bowl. Only a tiny fraction of that audience would qualify financially.

Inbound marketing—You help people who have the income and the desire for the 2012 Lexus LFA to find your website, your blog and your YouTube channel.

Consumers Revolt Against In-Your-Face Marketing

I think I’m not the only one who’s fed up with traditional marketing techniques.

Many people have turned their collective backs on traditional advertising and ask their friends and family members for advice instead. They know any ad they see is just a sales pitch. And they probably don’t need whatever is being advertised.

But when they do need a product or service, they know their friends and families can give them unbiased testimonials about the products and services they like. And tapping into those conversations is one of the new rules of marketing.

So if spam-blockers, TiVo and mute buttons have convinced you to reconsider expensive outbound marketing techniques, have I got a book for you! It’s Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah.

Getting found doesn’t mean spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to create a prime-time commercial that most viewers will mute. Or putting an online banner ad for an arthritis drug in front of a 21-year-old woman.

Getting found means writing extensively about your solution to someone else’s problem. And then helping people with that problem find your online documents. “In order to move from outbound to inbound marketing,” write Halligan and Shah, “you need to stop interrupting people in your target market and ‘get found’ by them instead.”

So these two MIT MBA grads wrote a brief manual to teach you the fundamentals of inbound marketing. “We have seen inbound marketing work first hand for hundreds of companies in a myriad of different industries. We’re confident it will work for you if you persevere and continually learn.”

Market the Way People Search for Information

“To be successful and grow your business and revenues, you must match the way you market your products with the way your prospects learn about and shop for your products,” write Halligan and Shah. “The era of interruption-based marketing is coming to an end because people have become much more efficient at blocking out these traditional methods of marketing and have become equally as efficient at finding trusted information online.”

Yes, you may have to forget everything you know about marketing. But Halligan and Shah will take you by the hand and teach you a brand-new set of marketing techniques. Their book has a companion website that includes the following resources:

• A forum where you can ask and answer questions about inbound marketing
• A directory of marketing service firms that can help you implement inbound marketing
• A collection of marketing news to keep you current
• A database of inbound marketing jobs for job-hunters and employers

Many of you may already know how to optimize your website, use an RSS reader and set up a YouTube channel. This book will teach you all of that and much more. You’ll also learn how to:

• Hire employees who understand inbound marketing principles
• Hire service providers using inbound marketing principles
• Use bivariate and multivariate testing to see which landing page draws more leads
• Grade leads so you spend more time on the ones who will become customers
• Create a lead-nurturing program so you don’t lose promising leads
• Analyze your competition using inbound marketing principles

If this sounds like a lot of work, it is! Did you think inbound marketing would be easy? Did you think all you had to do was set up a Google Alert to monitor mentions of your company name?

This book contains many tips for startups too. If you’re starting a business, you have one major advantage over established businesses when it comes to inbound marketing—you won’t have to “unlearn” anything!

“You no longer need to spend tons of money interrupting your potential customers. Instead you need to create remarkable content, optimize that content, publish the content, market the content, and measure what is working and what is not working,” write Halligan and Shah. “A savvy inbound marketer is half traditional marketer and half content creation factory.”

In fact, you can think of inbound marketing as the “Five C’s”: you’re Converting Creativity, Content, and Conversation into valuable Customers.

If you’re still clinging to traditional outbound marketing techniques, consider this final quote from Halligan and Shah: “On average, inbound marketing leads are 61 percent less expensive than outbound marketing leads.”

I thought that might get your attention.

So take a tip from Barack Obama. Pick up a copy of Inbound Marketing, cut your marketing bill in half and start a conversation with your customers. They’re waiting to hear from you.

Social Media Examiner gives this book a 4-star rating.

The other day I drove past a local convenience store that makes most of its profit from beer, Slush Puppies and beef jerky (not that there’s anything wrong with that). A big sign out front asked passers-by to Like them on Facebook.

“It’s official,” I thought. “Now every business in America has a Facebook page.”

Unfortunately, few businesses actually have a strategy for their Facebook page, or for the rest of their social media activity. They tweet, blog and set up a Facebook business page out of fear of being left behind, rather than as a way to engage their audience.

If your social media engagement is reactive rather than proactive, it’s time to step back, take a deep breath and develop a content strategy that will engage your community.

A content strategy doesn’t end with good signage.

What Is a Content Strategy?

Last year while doing some research into what certification organizations were doing in social media, I interviewed Susan Cato, Senior Director of Web and New Media Strategies at CompTIA, who said,

“You can’t have a social media strategy without a content strategy.”

I thought this was brilliant. She clarified far more effectively and in fewer words what I had been saying. But what does it mean to have a content strategy?

There are three important elements to developing an effective content strategy.

• You need to know what your customers, audience or community want to talk about and be willing to engage in those conversations.
• You need to know where your audience wants to have these conversations; in other words, where they “hang out” online.
• You need to measure the results of your conversations to see which ones catch fire.

Let’s start with what your customers want to talk about.

Knowing Your Audience’s Pain Points

Developing a content strategy often starts with a keyword analysis. Now, you may think of a keyword analysis as a tool for blog posts or blogs for SEO, and you’re right. However, it will also help you uncover the language that your audience or community is using while on the social web.

For example, if you’re a plastic surgeon and you’re putting out some great content about “rhinoplasty” but everyone’s talking about “nose jobs” you’re not reaching anyone. Likewise, if the conversation is about “curb appeal” and you’re talking about “landscaping,” the conversation may pass you by.

A keyword analysis begins with a list of words or phrases that you believe your audience is using to find products or services like yours. There are a number of software tools that you can use to determine how often your phrases and related phrases appear in searches, which provides insight into which you should use in your content strategy.

Some popular keyword analysis tools include:

• Keyword Discovery or WordTracker: two popular paid tools
• Google AdWords: a free tool that uses Google AdWords data to determine what phrases are popular.

Red leather jackets were probably more popular when "Beverly Hills Cop" came out.

A keyword analysis will only start you on the path to a content strategy. Once you’ve identified some of your key phrases, you need to get to work on where your community wants to have these conversations.

Knowing Where Your Audience Hangs Out

Once you have a general sense of what’s important to your audience, you need to determine where to have these conversations. Most businesses, non-profits and individuals would best be served by focusing on one or two platforms… going deep rather than going broad to start.

Where your audience is can depend on their age and gender, as well as your offerings. There are plenty of statistics that break down social media sites by demographics. Flowtown has a great infographic on social media demographics on their site.

LinkedIn can be a powerful tool for B2B (business to business) companies. Facebook does well for B2C (business to consumer) offerings. Blogs and online video-sharing sites like YouTube can work for any audience, but may be blocked by corporate firewalls.

You can also use “listening tools” to see if the conversations are already taking place across social media. There are a number of free and paid tools for listening for specific terms in social media.

• Google Alerts: This free tool will send you daily emails of news, blog posts, tweets and more around any keyword you’re following.
• TweetDeck: With this popular Twitter app you can set up a column to follow the conversation around a specific topic.

You can follow conversations around your key terms by creating a search column in TweetDeck.

• Radian6 and Sprout Social: These are two examples of paid social media monitoring services for companies that need more robust tools.

Here are some ways in which you can begin to implement your content strategy through different social media tools:

Blogs: Blogging is a powerful method for engaging your audience; it has both SEO and social media benefits. Blogging around your keywords is an essential piece of a content strategy.

One of my favorite new tools for developing blog content is the Keyword Questions tool at WordTracker Labs. Enter a key word or phrase and it will return related questions people have asked at partner search engines.

People have questions; now you can blog the answers.

By typing in “BBQ,” you see questions like “how to make BBQ ribs in the slow cooker” and “how to BBQ corn on the cob.” In other words, you have the topics and titles for your next two blog posts.

Note: this technique works equally well for YouTube and SlideShare.

LinkedIn: Try searching through the Answers section in LinkedIn to answer questions around your keywords. For example, an accountant might search for “profitability” or “capital tax issues.”

An HR consultant can answer questions on “employee retention” to establish credibility with her audience.

Facebook: Ask questions on your Facebook business page that build on your content strategy. Of course, this will work better once you’ve built a following on Facebook. Be sure to check out 10 Ways to Grow Your Facebook Page Following and 4 Proven Steps to Facebook Page Success for more on that.

Mint does a great job of asking questions that engage their target audience and start a conversation.

Twitter: Check out Twitter’s search function or the Advanced Twitter Search if you need to filter your phrase to a geographical location or by attitude.

Are you running a Mexican restaurant near Portland, Maine? This is your search.

Measuring the Results

A keyword analysis and some social media demographics will get you started, but you need to measure the impact of your conversations to see if you’re making headway. I recommend—at least at the beginning—to keep this as simple as possible. Some suggestions:

• Track how many comments and Likes your Facebook post gets.
• Track monthly how many followers, retweets and mentions you or your brand gets.
• Measure how many comments your blog posts get and how much traffic they receive.
• Measure social media referral traffic to your website; in other words, how much traffic is sent from Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn?

In Google Analytics, check your “referrers” to see which sites are sending you the most traffic.

A note for small businesses: many of the articles you read on social media metrics focus on how often people are talking about your brand on the social web. If you run a specialty grocery store in Bangor, Maine, chances are you’re not going to be trending on Twitter anytime soon. Instead, pay attention to your influence locally, or your depth of engagement with your audience.

Content Strategy Takeaways

Some final thoughts on developing a social media content strategy:

• Listen. Having a content strategy isn’t always about talking. It’s about listening and understanding.
• Be patient. Putting up one tweet with a keyword in it doesn’t make a content strategy. A content strategy is about building trust with your audience, your community or your customers. That takes time.
• Be flexible. A keyword analysis and social media demographics will only take you so far. You’ll need to evolve your content strategy over time, based on what’s going on in your industry, with your audience and in the world around you.

Your Turn!

What strategies or tactics have you used to engage your customers or community with social media? What’s worked and what hasn’t? What platforms have you used that weren’t mentioned above? Leave your comments and suggestions in the box below.

After all, would YOU do business (knowingly) with a sketchy person?

But with the rise of social media comes new challenges for businesses of all shapes and sizes, especially when it comes to reputation: Who knows you and what do they know you for?

Are you helpful? Are you a great person to do business with? Are you a trusted resource or a product pusher?

More importantly, in the transparent business world we now live in, are you AWARE of your reputation… and are you doing something about it?

Which One Are You?

There’s good news and bad news. The bad news is if you ARE Sketchy Sam and don’t want to change, there’s nowhere to hide and social media might end up being a big nightmare. The good news is you have the power to control your reputation through taking action, and this is how you do it.

Imagine that you’re interested in buying an exotic car but know very little about the industry. You decide to go online, Google around, kick out questions about exotic cars on social media sites and two names pop up:

Sketchy Sam

Sam says he’s the best in the world at what he does on his website—which is basically a brochure trying to get you to buy or go away. Sam is always selling and doesn’t see the point in delivering value. There are no interesting articles, advice or videos on his site—unless you pay him first! He’s always wearing a neat suit and acting “nice” in public.

But when you Google him, the only thing that comes up is “Sam’s blog” which was last updated on January 9, 2007 with the title “Buy A Car!!! Now!” and recent information on a lawsuit where he sued his mom for the family cat.

When you search social networking sites, you see that all he’s doing is shouting at people about how awesome and amazing his products are. Anytime someone mentions Sam or his products (positively or negatively), Sam is nowhere to be found. He isn’t a part of the conversation. Plus, when asking around, you quickly find out that not only is he a jerk but he doesn’t follow through on promises.

OR

Likable Laura

Laura doesn’t need to brag about how amazing she is. Others are doing it for her. When you Google her, you find a smattering of interesting information. Links to her web show where she offers tips, interviews she has done with major media sources on- and offline on the car industry, guest articles she has written for other blogs about exotic cars and other great stuff.

On her site, you find all kinds of free amazing content, including the “exotic car race off” with videos of cars racing and “pimp my car” articles on customizing exotic cars. On social networking sites you find her to be helpful, sharing interesting links and content, interacting and (ahem) being a human. Anytime she’s mentioned online (either herself or her products), she jumps into the conversation. If you ask around about Laura, you’ll hear about how she’s “great to work with,” “very authentic” and “recommended.”

Dan Schawbel always jumps into the conversation.

Who Would You Rather Do Business With?

The better question is, of course, how do YOU become Likeable Laura? How do you manage your reputation in the transparent business world?

After all, reputation is everything (well, almost everything). When it comes to marketing, your reputation can either be your champion or your worst enemy. Why? Because it matters. It used to be someone with a big mouth could tell…

…10 people about you?
…100 people about you?

Now an individual can tell thousands of people by using social media, blogs and more simply with a click.

Reputation isn’t just ONE static thing, but a sum of many things, including:

• Being likeable, friendly and kind
• Being known for delivering great service and taking care of clients
• Being a trusted content source; i.e., offering relevant and valuable content
• Being active and engaged—joining in the conversation vs. one-way communication

Plus, when it comes to reputation, search engines have big transparent mouths.

Think about someone telling all of your dirty online secrets (hopefully you don’t have any) to ANYONE who asks. Now that’s something to think about, especially because search engines spill the beans on pretty much everything you’ve been doing online.

When you hear someone’s name for the first time, what’s your natural instinct? In many cases, we rush to our computers or phones and type that person’s name into a search engine.

Is there something you can do about your online reputation? You betcha. Here are five tips for managing your online reputation:

#1: Get Busy Creating Relevant and Valuable Content

Everywhere—on your website, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Every piece of content including photos (and even videos now) is crawled by search engines.

When you create educational or inspiring content (and mention your name or your company’s name somewhere within), you’re essentially controlling your own destiny when people search for you.

Here’s the secret (come a little closer). The content can’t be ABOUT you. Helpful content wins. Think about the interests/passions/needs of your target community as opposed to your own.

Who does this extremely well? HubSpot. To put it nicely, HubSpot isn’t in the sexiest of industries. They create lead generation software, but they’re a content machine. Their Internet marketing blog is extremely popular with millions of page views per month. They even have their own online web show where they go over marketing news and opinions each week.

Go ahead and search for HubSpot. Not only will you find a link to their website, but you’ll find delicious content, links to social media sites, upcoming webinars, YouTube videos and more.

Check out HubsSpot's Internet Marketing Blog.

#2: Alert Yourself and Then Join the Conversation

Set up a Google Alert for your business, your name, other key people’s names, your competitors and any key phrases. I add my Google Alerts to Google Reader so I can check them out at my leisure as opposed to getting an email anytime my Alerts are mentioned.

Setting up an alert is one thing; RESPONDING is the key. If you see something, good or bad, jump in and comment on the blog or source. Become a part of the conversation.

Responding to good comments doesn’t have to be rocket science. At the very least, a simple thank you goes a long way if someone mentions you on their blog or website. Negative comments of course can be a little trickier and emotional, but don’t shy away from them. Participate. Take the higher road. Address the concerns. Don’t ignore.

Plus, every little comment you leave is a chance to do good and build your brand. It is also a chance to be a jerk and hurt your reputation.

#3: Watch and Listen From Every Angle

That’s another way of saying that Google isn’t the only answer when it comes to managing your online presence. In fact, there are many other places worth checking out, including:

Google Blogsearch: Blogs move quicker than Google (Google is trying to catch up with Real-Time Search), but to check what is going on with you, your business, competitors, etc., check out Google Blogsearch.

Search.Twitter.com: The hub of the real-time web. Nothing gets closer than up-to-the-literal-second updates. You can also take an RSS feed for keywords, your business, your name, people you want to stalk, etc., and put them into Google Reader (similar to the Google Alerts example), making even more info available to you on ONE screen.

Advanced Twitter Search: That little button on Search.Twitter.com. Allows for better geotargeting and a host of options you’d expect with the word “advanced.”

Ice Rocket: Well-designed search site to help track blogs, the web in general, Twitter, news, etc.

Backtype: Lets you track comments left on blogs and forums as well as on social sites. This is often overlooked, yet extremely important.

Video search: Videos are important and YouTube is the second-largest search engine to Google. Search there for videos about you and the competition. Other video search engines include Google’s Video Search, Yahoo’s Video Search, Blinkx and my new favorite: Truveo (very slick).

#4: Be nice: Taking the High Road vs. Negabots

I know this seems a little ridiculous, but it is so true. Negative people online are annoying—I get it. And most negative people fall into two categories:

• People with legitimate concerns/opposing views (we can all respect that, right?)
• Negabots. You know the type of person. It is 85° and sunny out and he’s complaining it isn’t 86°. Give him $100 and he’ll complain it isn’t $101.

Kill with kindness. Confrontational and overly sensitive are two qualities that often lose online. If you’re nice to people, people will be nice to you. Sure, it’s common, and yet it can be difficult to do.

The master of this is Gary Vaynerchuk, the outspoken creator of Wine Library TV and author of Crush It! Gary has lots of fans and friends, but of course some of those people wake up and drink a cold glass of hatred. Does Gary ignore them? Nope. On any given day, you can find him responding kindly to negative criticism on his blog, Twitter and Facebook accounts and even his Amazon book page where the occasional negative review pops up. Gary responds once nicely and then it’s done. He told me an in interview, “taking the high road is undefeated.” Very true.

Gary Vaynerchuk takes the high road when it comes to dealing with negative people.

#5: Build Relationships With the Likeable Lauras of the World

We become like the company we keep, right? Are there other people in your niche who:

• Have influential blogs (or up-and-coming blogs) that allow for guest posting?
• Have an interview series you can be a guest on?

Remember these delicious pieces of content will do all kinds of good for you, including:

• More traffic to your site (and really… who wants less traffic?). Even if it is just a few people, it’s a win.
• More content created that search engines can index with your name (especially if it’s an interview).
• Association/relationship with other trusted people online.
• A great marketing/promotional opportunity to share this content with your networks.

But here’s an interesting challenge: What can you do to offer them value? This isn’t just about taking. This is about giving value first. This is about building LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIPS.

Start digging around. Search Alltop.com, Google Blogsearch and Twitter. Ask around and start identifying media sources in your niche. Start small with perhaps a few passionate up-and-comers who are more easily accessible than the really big guys and gals.

Start helping them by tweeting about them and sharing their content on Facebook. Leave thoughtful non-promotional comments on their posts that resonate with them. Be helpful as opposed to pushy.

A perfect example is Elena Verlee, a PR specialist, entrepreneur and creator of PR In Your Pajamas. I met Elena because she relentlessly helped me without asking for anything. She offered me an interview on her blog. She consistently tweets my shows and content. She has personally introduced me to lots of great people who were guests on my show.

And guess what happened? I invited her to be a guest and we had a great interview that was seen by thousands of people. She got on my radar screen by being helpful.

Whose radar screen would you like to be on?

At the end of the day, managing your online reputation is really just being you—your best you. You can’t fake being nice to people. There are no “tricks” to make sure you’re seen as the best person/company in the history of mankind. But by working on your likeability, making an effort to engage and offering valuable content, you can certainly stack the odds in your favor.

Take a moment and Google your company. Do you like what you see? What strategies have worked for you? What have we missed? Give us your comments and feedback in the box below.

This is not a post about social media marketing. I’m not here to give you hints on how to increase your friends, fans and followers.

Nor will I say that it’s time for your business to “join the conversation” and I promise not to overuse the word transparency either.

I believe that most brands (large and small) get it.

Friends, fans and followers are important, yes. And brands increase their social equity by engaging in two-way dialogue with their constituency, yes. And transparency is key to these external engagements, yes.

But there’s an underlying challenge that’s not being addressed as it should be.

You see, years ago when Facebook and Twitter exploded and there was an expectation from the “social” community that brands should create blogs and communities; the brands listened.

And what you’ll find today is that most brands are doing a really good job on these channels engaging with their customers.

They’re listening to the conversation using social media monitoring tools such as Radian6 and Meltwater Buzz. They’re hiring community managers to empower and interact with the communities. And, while many still make minor mistakes here and there, they’re becoming more intelligent at adapting to this changing landscape. Most organizations are well on their way to becoming a social brand if they aren’t one already.

Social business is not a trend; it’s a forced evolution.

A social business deals with the internal transformation of an organization and addresses key factors such as organizational dynamics, culture, internal communications, governance, training, employee activation and much more.

Organizations need to get smarter, acquire new technologies, intelligence, talent and motivation to become more open and transparent. They need to create processes and establish governance models that protect the organization, yet empower their employees.

I’ve been fortunate to witness firsthand how organizations are evolving from businesses that merely engage in social behavior into social businesses. There’s a huge difference.

Social business is built on three pillars – people, governance and technology.

The first pillar deals with the people of the organization. It addresses the need to drive organizational change in an effort to break down organizational silos and get internal teams to communicate. It’s also about activating the organization’s most import assets, its employees.

The second pillar deals with governance. This simply means that organizations need to put processes in place to manage the chaos that exists from behind the firewall. Training, social media guidelines and policies are imperative for organizations to monitor and roll out across the organization within different teams and geographies. It ensures consistency; it protects the organization and at the same time, empowers its employees.

The third and last pillar deals with technology. Organizations have to invest in platforms that facilitate internal collaboration. This is essential to ensure proper communication. External campaign management tools like Sprinklr are also essential to scale, especially if an organization has multiple Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Social CRM plays a significant role within this pillar. My definition of social CRM is that it’s just one component that helps organizations fully evolve into a social business. It’s a strategic business initiative that considers technology, intelligence and process; so when organizations communicate with their customers they know what to say, how to say it and when to say it in order to provide a more relevant customer interaction.

What’s not visible to most, unless you’ve worked in the enterprise, is the anarchy, conflict, confusion, lack of communication and organizational silos that exist behind the firewall. This makes the process of becoming a social brand much more difficult and less effective. So this quest to become a social brand and a social business is one of simultaneous effort.

The conversation is happening.

A study back in 2008 showed that 55% of consumers want ongoing conversations with companies and brands. The study investigated how brands and consumers interact and how consumers want brands to engage with them. And the results were awesome.

In addition to the 55% of people wanting an ongoing interaction, 89% of respondents said they would feel more loyal to a brand if they were invited to take part in a feedback group.

A more recent study in 2009 (you can download here) found that 85% of Americans using social media think companies should have an active presence in the social media universe.

What’s even more interesting is that those users actually want interaction with these brands. Here are some other data points you might find useful:

Out of the 85% of people who want companies to be present in social media:

• 34% want companies to actively interact with them
• 51% want companies to interact with them as needed or by request
• 8% think companies should only be passively involved on social media
• 7% think companies should not be involved at all

This is all really good data. However, I believe that businesses cannot and will not have effective external conversations with consumers unless they can have effective internal conversations first. And when I refer to internal conversations, I mean much more than a few monthly conference calls and a collaboration forum.

Has your organization evolved into a social business? Please give us some examples in the comments box below.

However, there’s uncertainty around how to create a sustainable social media campaign, although the tools are plentiful and often free.

Here are 21 ways non-profits can leverage social media:

#1: Use a blog to tell your story

Treat your blog like the digital printing press that it is. Use text, photos and videos to tell stories of the people you’ve helped, those who are still suffering and the impact you’re having on the community or the world.

Engage your audience with storytelling on your blog.

#2: Make sure your stories are shareable

Use tools like the retweet button, Facebook like button, and Share This to allow your blog visitors to quickly share your story with their networks.

#3: Make it easy to subscribe to your stories

Make your RSS feed impossible to miss by putting it “above the fold” and highlighting it. Since RSS isn’t as widely adopted as it could be, make sure you use a third-party RSS feed provider with RSS to email options like Feedburner, Feedblitz or AWeber.

#4: Use video to tell your story

Videos of volunteers building a house or driving a school bus to collect school supply donations can be incredibly persuasive. Be sure to leverage YouTube’s Nonprofit Program that offers such benefits as call-to-action overlays, listing on the nonprofit channels and the ability to drive fundraising through a Google Checkout “Donate” button.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv1V5gV_nRQ

#5: Create a Facebook page for your non-profit

Organizations doing good works are infinitely more “likeable” than traditional businesses, so get involved with the half-billion–plus people currently using Facebook. Make your page more engaging by including a custom-designed, branded landing page that includes photos and video. Make sure your wall is set to show posts not just from your organization, but also from your fans so they’ll be more likely to engage you.

For more detailed information on tricking out your Facebook page, read How to Customize Your Facebook Page Using Static FBML.

#6: Get into the Facebook news feed

“The future of Facebook is the feed,” says social media consultant Jaica Kinsman. In other words, people may not visit your page every day, but they may see your news in their news feed. Getting people to like or comment on your Facebook content improves the chances that more people will see it in their feed, an algorithm referred to as “EdgeRank.” TechCrunch goes into more detail about Facebook’s EdgeRank here.

#7: Post photos or videos, and “tag” volunteers

You can take photos of fundraisers, blood drives and bean suppers (popular here in Maine!), post them to your Facebook page and tag volunteers to thank them for their help. This will draw attention to their good work and spread your message to their friends. Use this strategy judiciously. This can also work on Flickr, but it doesn’t have the same reach as Facebook.

Tagging volunteers shares their contribution with their friends.

#8: Create a Facebook Group for your cause

Facebook Groups have some advantages over Fan pages, such as the ability to send emails to members. Although there’s some chance you might be diluting your non-profit brand, you could create a group around your cause, whether that cause is to end poverty, feed the homeless or support women’s rights worldwide.

#9: Use Facebook ads to raise awareness

Goodwill Industries of Northern New England used targeted Facebook ads using gender, age and location filters to affordably promote new store openings. Calvin Gilbert, who runs much of Goodwill NNE’s social media, reported that they used Facebook exclusively to promote the opening of a store in South Portland. The ad campaign netted them 929 new fans, 2,776 clicks to the Facebook page, and created a record turnout at the grand opening.

#10: Use Facebook Events and LinkedIn Events to spread the word

Events are easy to share and get further promotion as people RSVP.

These powerful social networks allow you to promote your events for free and make it easy for people to share events with friends and colleagues.

#11: Use Foursquare, Gowalla or Facebook Places to promote your events

Alex Steed, a consultant to non-profits, recommends creating events on popular location-based apps and having volunteers check in as they arrive. This is a good idea for conferences, but also for things like clearing trails, purpose-driven marches and volunteer beach cleaning events.

For more advice on promoting your event, check out 12 Ways to Promote Your Event with Social Media.

#12: Go local with Twitter’s advanced search

Since many non-profits do their best work close to home, it’s important to listen to local conversations. Use the Advanced Search at Twitter to find, listen to, and engage with nearby “tweeple.” At a meeting with a non-profit organization last year, one of the board members told a story where someone he was following on Twitter was sharing how he was being unfairly evicted from his apartment. The board member reached out to him and got him the information he needed to avoid eviction.

#13: Start conversations around hashtags

If your audience is active on Twitter, start a conversation around a hashtag to get people talking, whether it’s #climatechange, #endhunger or #beatcancer.

#14: Ask for the retweet

Metrics show that when you end a tweet with “please RT!” you’re more likely to get people to retweet your message. Since most non-profits are cause-based, a “please retweet” request seems less self-serving. Still, use judiciously.

#15: Create a banner that stakeholders can add to their avatars

Let your followers carry your message forward with every tweet.

Whether adding a green tint to support democracy in Iraq, the yellow LIVESTRONG banners or ribbons of every color for every cause imaginable, people love to wear their causes on their sleeves or at least on their avatars. Services like Twibbon make it easy to jump into.

#16: Use Eventbrite to handle event registration and money collection

Although there are many event marketing tools out there, Eventbrite has one of the easiest-to-use interfaces out there, and has plenty of built-in social media sharing tools. They also offer a non-profit discount.

Take advantage of Eventbrite’s non-profit discount and put the savings to good use!

#17: Find potential board members on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is full of successful entrepreneurs with non-profit board experience. Be sure to join local or cause-based LinkedIn Groups and start engaging with future board members now.

#18: Improve conversations and collaboration with a wiki

Many non-profits must overcome the challenge of an all-volunteer board whose members are spread out through the region or even throughout the country. Other non-profits struggle without a physical office space. By using a free or inexpensive wiki, board members can be kept up-to-date on changes and work collaboratively from remote spots.

#19: Put your presentations online with SlideShare

Your presentations can be viewed, shared and embedded through SlideShare.

If your organization puts on presentations to raise awareness and increase donations, make that work go further by posting your slides to SlideShare, the “YouTube of presentations.”

#20: Get more out of your photos with Flickr for Good

Get more out of Flickr for your non-profit with a free Pro account.

Flickr, the popular photo-sharing site, is donating 10,000 one-year Pro accounts to non-profits. You can learn more at their Flickr for Good page.

#21: Use Google Grants to drive traffic to your website, blog and other social media presences

Laura Quinn of Idealware recommends that non-profits apply for Google Grants, a program from Google that gives approved non-profits thousands of dollars of free sponsored ads in Google search results. She goes into more detail in How Non-Profits Can Promote Themselves Online.

These are just a few ideas to get you started. If you’ve been using social media to promote your non-profit or cause, please share your success with the non-profit community in the comments box below.

In honor of this special day, I would like to help you grow your blog by sharing some tips we have learned over our last 12 months of explosive growth.

Before I share my tips, I would like to reveal the name of our mascot…

Our Mascot Is No Longer Nameless

Over the last few weeks we asked you (and your peers) to help us name our mascot.  Now that today is his first birthday, he finally deserves a name!

More than 500 names poured in, we narrowed down our top 5 favorites and then more than 650 people voted.

And the new name of our mascot is…  Well, you’ll need to watch this video to find out:

Congratulations to Dawn Barclay for suggesting the winning name!

Okay, so here are our tips for achieving successful blog growth…

#1: It’s All About Community

In the beginning, we had the mistaken notion that all that mattered was great content.  Don’t get me wrong, content is essential and always will be (see Tip #2).

Things really took off the moment we integrated our Facebook page into our blog.  Almost overnight, what I call “lurkers” (those people who read but don’t interact), came forward en masse.

At first they told us how much they appreciated our site.  But then they began to interact with each other, support one another and connect.  It was an amazing community that was building right in front of us.

This is a great example of community in action as readers are helping readers.

Here are some pointers when trying to build a community on your blog:

• Set up a Facebook page and be sure to actively engage folks as they write on your wall.
• Try to respond to as many comments on your blog posts as possible.
• Create events on Facebook that encourage folks to come together, like Expert Fridays, virtual happy hours or other Facebook experiences.

When people who share a common interest can come together on your site, you’ll be one step closer to explosive blog growth.

#2: Great Content Is Essential

I believe outstanding content is essential to ongoing growth.  But great content tied to a great community is the key to explosive results.  In the beginning, you might need to get your great content on someone else’s platform to ultimately grow your own.

Before this blog, I was a regular contributor to Copyblogger.  Brian Clark’s amazing site helped me build up my prior blog and set the stage for Social Media Examiner.

I’ve also seen many folks who write for Social Media Examiner achieve amazing results (like book deals).  So, great content in front of the right audience is really critical.

Here are the key components to great content:

• Your writing should be conversational and easy to read.
• Use lots of subheads, bold text and visuals to accommodate skim readers.
• Make sure each of your posts looks good to the eye.  If it looks appealing, people will consider reading it.
• Work on a compelling opening… That means you should master the headline process and create alluring openings to all your posts.

Notice the way the headline and opening were crafted for this post…

#3: Go Beyond Just Text and Pictures

Great content doesn’t need to be limited to the written word.  We discovered that there are plenty of people who prefer to learn by watching or listening.  Try mixing up your media.

From the beginning we invested in video.  We took a camera crew with us to major trade shows and interviewed experts from big brands like Starbucks.

We also did recorded phone interviews with high-profile experts.  We transcribed the content and provided audio recordings.

This interview with Chris Brogan is one of many we did over the last year.

Here are a few video tips:

• You don’t need a video crew. You can start out with a simple Flip video camera for on-site interviews.
• Consider doing live video broadcasts.
• Conversational video between two people is often more interesting than a talking head.

Here’s to Another Great Year!

Thank you so much for being an integral part of the Social Media Examiner growth story!  We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for faithful readers like you.

I don’t know what our second year has in store, but I’m excited to see what will unfold as we journey together through the social media jungle.

What are your thoughts about these tips? Do you have any to add? Please leave your comments in the box below.

This can be considered one of the best ways to beat a case of old-fashioned writer’s block.  You just need to know where to look and set up some channels to provide at-your-fingertips-access when you need it.

Here are nine ways to use social media to find writing inspiration.

#1: Use Twitter for Monitoring Discussions

An example of keyword tracking using advanced Twitter search queries in HootSuite.

I personally like my inspiration in short, 140-character bites, as it provides the spark to think about a topic. If you use a Twitter management tool such as HootSuite, Tweetdeck or CoTweet, you can easily monitor conversations on any given topic by simply setting up searches for particular keywords.

My personal tool of choice is HootSuite, because you can have many tabs, each with 10 columns of searches. You can use the keyword searches simply to see current conversations on that topic, or go further with advanced Twitter search queries, such as:

• Keyword filter:links for people discussing a topic with a link in their tweet so you can see a news item, article, or blog post on the topic. -filter:links removes the link so you can see people just talking about something.
• Keyword ? for people discussing a topic and asking a question – this can be a great way to generate writing ideas because you know people will be interested in your writing if you answer most-asked questions.
• Keyword for people discussing a topic that they like, or Keyword for topics that they dislike – a great way to come up with a top 10 list of things people like or don’t like about a certain subject.

#2: Use Twitter for Monitoring Industry Leaders

Another way to be inspired is to simply see what leaders/authorities in a certain niche are talking about. But first, a good question is how do you find industry experts?

• If you’re looking for experts who blog, try out the Technorati search – just switch the slide over to Blogs and search for a keyword. The results will bring you the highest authority blogs related to that topic.
• Twellow directory allows you to search by keywords found in Twitter profiles. The results are sorted by the people with the most followers, which is not always (but is usually) a sign of an expert in that niche.
• Wefollow allows you to search Twitter users by particular keywords, and you can look at the people with the most followers or those who are most influential. Surprisingly, you will find that the results vary between the two lists.
• Listorious lets you search among Twitter lists for particular topics. Check out the top 140 lists which have the most followers for collections of industry experts.

Once you have found some people who are leaders in your area, create or follow an already-created Twitter list of the top writers in your niche and keep an eye on the things they talk about. Sometimes you may find that you have a little extra to add to what they say, or maybe you disagree and have a better alternative to something they write about. This is a perfect topic to write about in your own blog or article network – just be sure you mention the person who gave you the idea.

Another way to combine the world of experts with the above-mentioned keyword/question searches is to set up a search of questions being asked of industry experts. You would be amazed by the writing topics that can be inspired by simply setting up a search for @expert ? -filter:links to find any mentions of an expert’s Twitter username including a question but excluding any results with links. This limits the number of results in which someone is asking questions about a particular website or a retweet of the expert’s articles. Considering that some people have thousands to millions of followers, imagine how many questions are just waiting to be answered.

#3: Use LinkedIn Answers

Use the simple LinkedIn search box for queries.

Speaking of questions, another great place to find out what kinds of questions are being asked in your niche or industry is within the LinkedIn Answers section. Once you’re signed into your LinkedIn account, simply use the search bar at the top right, select Answers from the dropdown and enter your keyword.

If just reading questions doesn’t inspire you, why not try answering some? Use the Advanced Search option to find keywords specifically in questions only, and check the option to look for only open questions.

Use the Advanced Search for more specific LinkedIn Answer queries.

I’ve found that answering questions on LinkedIn, Yahoo Answers and even within blog comments has a tendency to inspire a new article idea.

#4: Facebook for Monitoring Discussions

Would you like to monitor topics being discussed on Facebook the same way you do on Twitter? There’s a site for that too, although it’s not as advanced as the Twitter search queries (which means no filtering links or finding only questions). Kurrently lets you monitor up-to-the-minute status updates made from public Facebook profiles.

Search real-time Facebook status updates with Kurrently.

Although you can’t do a search for questions only, you can include question phrases in your search, such as “How do I” keyword. But even if you put the words in quotes, Kurrently will pull any status update with those words contained anywhere in it.

#5: Niche Networks

If your niche or industry is super-specific and has networks that are narrowly focused on that area, why not check out the networks that cater to that specific audience? Some ideas on niche networks include:

• Active Rain for real estate professionals.
• Dogster for dog owners.
• Ballroom Dance Channel for dancers.
• Tennisopolis for tennis fans and players.

To find more niche-specific networks, just Google your keyword and “social networks” or visit websites where you can create your own network (such as Ning) and search for networks built with their platform.

Inspiration for Writing on Popular Topics

What if you’re not necessarily looking for just any topic to write about, but the topics that are going to be most well-received by your target audience? The best way to find out the most popular subjects is simply to look at what’s popular and trending right now. Here are some ways to find some great topics that are more likely to go viral.

#6: Social Bookmarking Networks

If your aim is to get a lot of votes on Digg or similar social bookmarking networks, why not check out what has recently and historically gained a lot of votes in your niche? The Digg search box allows you to look up any topic, then sort it by the Best Match, Most Dugg or Newest results.

Search results for "social media" in the new Digg platform.

You can also use the sidebar to get results only from a certain date range (today through the last 30 days), narrow it down to items that have received 50+ to 5,000+ diggs, and sort by a particular media format – in the case of article writing, you will want to go for News. You can also use advanced search queries such as -term to remove unwanted related items from your keyword search.

If Digg doesn’t cater to your industry, you should look at social bookmarking/voting networks that are more niche-specific such as:

• Sphinn for SEO to social media themes.
• Tip’d for financial news.
• Design Bump for design and freelance articles.
• Dzone for developers’ posts.
• BizSugar for small-business topics.

#7: Find Out What’s Most Popular on Twitter

If your goal is to have the most tweets, you will want to check out the following sites to learn more about topics that get retweeted the most.

TweetMeme

Tweetmeme lets you see what topics are tweeted about the most on a variety of channels such as comedy, entertainment, business, technology, sports and more. You can view items most retweeted today through the last seven days and sort the items by news, images and videos.

Example search results for "social media" on Tweetmeme.

You can also do a keyword search and sort by the highest number of tweets, age of the tweets (from the last day, week, or over a week old), search within categories and filter items with 100+ or 1,000+ tweets.

Topsy

Topsy is a search engine powered by tweets. Simply enter any keyword. Like the Google search box, it will also suggest specific ideas or phrases for you to get started, or you can just enter a more basic keyword. You can search within the last hour, day, week, month or all recorded tweets for a given keyword, and see the number of times those items have been retweeted.

Topsy uses a suggested search popup similar to Google.

Although you can’t sort items by the number of retweets, what I find particularly useful on this network is the piece of information you can find when you click on the number of times the item has been retweeted.

Example search result on "social media" in Topsy.

Hover over the Twitter username for more stats and the ability to follow.

On the next screen, you can either see all of the retweets for a particular item or you can see just the retweets by influential users.

This little piece of information helps you get to know not only what’s popular throughout the mainstream Twitter community, but what topics are likely to get retweeted by the bigger players on Twitter. Hovering over a user’s name, as shown above, shows the user’s stats as well.

#8: Most Popular on Facebook

It’s Trending is a great site to find out what’s being shared the most on Facebook. Although it doesn’t have a search feature for particular topics, if your niche falls under Sports, Tech, Gaming, Entertainment or Comedy, you can see the most shared items on Facebook in those areas.

ItsTrending.com shows popular shared items on Facebook.

You can also see what’s most popular on particular featured site, so if your writing subject is social media, you can see the topics on Mashable that have been the most popular on Facebook. See our review of It’s Trending for more details.

#9 Most Popular on Authority Blogs

Are you looking to secure a guest posting gig on a major blog, or simply looking to see which posts by authority bloggers in your niche or industry are the most popular? Check out PostRank, which gives posts a ranking based on their audience engagement through comments and tweets.

PostRank displays social engagement ratings for individual blog posts.

You can do a search for Great or Best Posts to receive the top content by particular blog.

Hovering over the engagement score shows social sharing details.

By hovering over the score, you can quickly see how that particular post was shared the most (Twitter, Delicious, Facebook, MySpace, etc.).

Your Use of Social Media for Writing Inspiration

Do you use social media, networks and tools to get you through writer’s block or to find the topics that are going to be most popular? What other suggestions do you have for writers in any industry on finding topics to write about?

In its first month alone, the iPad had already racked up a million units sold. There’s so much online chatter about it, as of this writing a Google search on the name alone generates 107 million search results. The hype and the sales are soaring.

But what does this mean for social media and the way people use the Internet? Are there just a million new Apple toy owners out there or is this the beginning of a broader, more meaningful shift?

In short, this is a shift, or at least the early indicators of a shift.

Here’s what appears to be happening: the iPad has introduced a new category of media consumption. Whether it’s browsing a Facebook news feed, watching YouTube videos, checking in on TweetDeck, or reading a blog, the iPad is a content consumer’s dream device, and that’s a shift away from what we were using before.

A New Posture for Using the Internet

If you think about the way people have been engaging social media to this point, it’s been either on a computer or a mobile device. You were either leaning forward toward your laptop or desktop computer or hunching over a small mobile device. The iPad introduces another posture: leaning back. This may seem insignificant, but it’s not.

Because online engagement is increasingly integrated into everyday life, the iPad provides a more comfortable, engaging opportunity to do all of the things you want to do anyway. Why would I hunch over an iPhone to view a YouTube video when I can lean back and watch it on a device four times the size? Why would I lean forward to read a long blog post (like this one, for instance) when I could kick back and enjoy it with my feet in the air and a beverage in my hand?

If connectivity to the Internet is equal, the iPad provides a superior experience for consuming media and connecting with friends than a laptop or a mobile device. It’s the very reason people sheepishly admit, “I gotta get one of these” once they try an iPad for the first time. It’s a new experience that they didn’t know they wanted and now they want it.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-YAQ1wfNqc

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9NP-AeKX40

5 Ways to Incorporate the iPad Into Your Strategy

If we’re seeing the early signs of a new way for people to engage the Internet and consume media, how do we as marketers take advantage of it? Here are five ways to incorporate the iPad into your social media strategy:

#1: Start Fresh With Apps

Although the iPad plays all iPhone apps, don’t assume that just because you developed an iPhone app that iPad users will like it. The iPad is an entirely different experience and you’re missing a chance that comes with a bigger touch surface if you don’t rethink your app strategy when you move to the iPad.  Beyond the sheer surface space difference also consider that the iPhone serves a different function than an iPad and renders some things unnecessary.

For instance, the Facebook app for the iPhone works perfectly on the iPad but you don’t really need it because you can just use the web browser in Facebook for a much richer experience. Developing iPad apps is going to require a good understanding of how people use the iPad. Remember this is “lean back” technology, not “hunch over” technology, so make sure there’s an app for that.

#2: Live in the Background

Later this year Apple will release an upgrade to the iPhone and iPad operating system that will allow multitasking. This means certain apps can keep running in the background while the user continues whatever he or she was doing already. What can your business create to run in the background on the iPad so you’re retaining users’ attention while they do something else? These background services may be sparse early on, so anyone who has something interesting when the new operating system rolls out will have an advantage.

#3: Keep Your Facebook Strategy Focused on Conversation

Facebook is a conversation tool first. If you’re not using it for that you’re probably experiencing some frustration with Facebook. If mobile device usage is any indication , people who use the iPad will be on Facebook more than the average Internet user. Focus on conversation that has value and you’ll win with Facebook both on the iPad and everywhere else.

#4: Don’t Be Scared of Text

Contrary to some commentators, blogs are not dead, especially with the iPad. One of the features of reading blogs or websites on the iPad is that you can zoom in on a section of text with a simple pinch of the fingers. That means even the oldest of eyes will be able to read text online because they can blow the words up as large as necessary. Reading on a large screen just became more portable and personalized. Now you just have to put something out there worth reading.

#5: Double Down on Video

Watching video on the iPad is wonderful. Some of the highest praise for the iPad is coming from people using it to watch video. Online video sites like YouTube and Vimeo are already converting videos to play on the iPad. By putting good video on either of those sites, you’ll be ensuring that your video will be available to this new video consumer base.

The iPad isn’t the only device in this new segment of “lean back” media consumption. Several other companies will roll out similar devices that will only broaden this new category. If your content and conversations aren’t worth leaning back to enjoy, you can count on an entirely new segment of people ignoring you altogether. If, however, you can earn attention by providing valuable content and conversation, there’s a new audience waiting for you.

What’s your experience with the iPad? Do you find you’re consuming more media on it than before? If you don’t have an iPad or other tablet computer, are you planning to get one? Why or why not?  Let us know your thoughts below.

When a service launches with millions of users right out of the gate, we need to take notice. That said, it’s still the early days for Google Buzz. It might be a bit premature to be jumping on this bandwagon with both feet. So what should you do?

In this article I’ll reveal what you need to know about Google Buzz.

The good news is Google Buzz is not particularly complicated or new. Google has used the most basic features from other popular platforms: friends and status updates.

You can post short messages, comment and “like” other people’s messages, plus share links and photographs. All familiar stuff. Your initial friends will be from your Gmail address book and you can find other people with the usual searches for email address and name.

Here’s Google’s launch video for Google Buzz:

What follows are the basic facts and tips so you “know enough” not to get left behind, but not so much that you need to spend the next week learning yet another social networking service!

#1: Got Gmail? You Have Google Buzz

If you have an existing Gmail account, you’re likely either all ready to go or about to be. Google Apps email users are still waiting, unfortunately.

Luckily for me I already had a Gmail account from a while ago that was still working. To get started, you’re going to need that Gmail account, even if you only want it for Buzz.

#2: Get Your Personal Profile

It seems that Google Profiles will be more important going forward.  Profiles is the other service that’s heavily tied into Buzz. You can find mine and fill out your own here.

#3: If You Use Facebook, Buzz Will Be Familiar

As mentioned above, it’s very much like FriendFeed and Facebook.

You add status update messages, links and photographs, and people can comment on them or “like” them. You can comment and like other folks’ stuff in return. It’s all very easy.

#4: Import Your Other Social Sites

In addition to posting links and messages, you can import your blog posts and photographs. You can even import your tweets.

That’s how I find most people are using the service right now. They’re importing their other stuff and spending just a few minutes in conversation and so on, while still dedicating most of their time to Twitter and Facebook.

#5: Listen and Friend First

While you can import all your other content, it might be worth holding off.

Add your friends, browse around and get familiar with the service before rushing headlong into importing all your stuff. Some people are already unfollowing “noisy” people.

It’s going to be a while before the “rules” of this community are ironed out. The best use you can make of it right now is connecting, conversation, and finding cool content.

Interestingly, while most excitement is about Google SEO and sharing content, a lot of people are complaining that conversation threads are moving off blogs and Twitter into Buzz, which makes it a whole new important place to listen to what people are saying.

What I Like About Google Buzz…

1. Buzz is lending itself to real in-depth conversation threads (like in FriendFeed), rather than fleeting but snappy chats like in Twitter.
2. Better signal-to-noise ratio. So far it is growing like Facebook without the “Farmville” rubbish.
3. It’s all very familiar … but does that mean Google has no innovation in Buzz?

So far those three items do not add up to a hugely compelling reason to make this your primary social tool, but it is worth a look.

What do you think about Google Buzz so far? Please share in the comments field below…