8 Social Media News Items You Need to Know
Welcome to our weekly edition of what’s hot in social media news. To help you stay up to date with social media, here are some of the news items that caught our attention.
What’s New This Week?
Facebook Beats Google: The social media giant is now the top source of U.S. web traffic, according to HitWise. Find out more about these stats and how Facebook achieved this here.
Reddit Reports Substantial Growth in 2010: Reddit benefited from the decline of Digg last year and made improvements that resonate well with its users. Is Reddit part of your social bookmarking plan?
Reddit's monthly pageviews tripled last year.
5 Ways to Use LinkedIn Groups to Build Influential Connections
If you want to build truly influential relationships online, you have to find places where you can consistently add value, spend quality time and have engaging conversations with members of your target demographic.
LinkedIn Groups offers one of the best ways to make the most of your social media engagement time, but you must adopt the right strategy to be successful. This article will show you how.
LinkedIn allows you to join up to 50 groups, but you can’t possibly be effective and spend enough time to make a difference in 50 groups.
What works best is to focus your time and effort on a deep and narrow approach in order to build influence within LinkedIn Groups, enhance your credibility and generate new connections. 
Is RockMelt the Social Web Browser of the Future?
Could your web browser replace the need to visit Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn on a regular basis? To find out the answer, keep reading…
Web browsers have changed considerably over the past 15 years. From Internet Explorer to the upstart Mozilla stealing their thunder and most recently Google rearing its head with an ultra-fast browser, Chrome, the field of play is starting to get crowded.
Obviously, that means it’s time for a new name to join the fray—and with a social twist.
Enter RockMelt.
The RockMelt browser window.
RockMelt is a different breed of browser altogether.
Internet Television: The Future is Now Here
In this video I interview Jim Louderback, CEO of Revision3, an internet television network. Revision3 produces 20 shows for 18-34 year old guys (think technology, music, and culture) which are distributed online.
Jim shares how Revision3 came about in 2005 and how the web allowed them to create television without the overhead of a cable network. You’ll hear how Revision3 uses the web and social media to find an audience.
Be sure to check out the takeaways below after you watch the video.
3 Ways to Close the Gap Between Social Media and Direct Response
Does the phrase direct marketer conjure up sleazy images? If you thought yes, you’re not alone.
Both social media marketing and direct response marketing place a focused pitch on the right list (prospects) and understanding what they want in order to engage them with relevant information that will get them to buy from you.
So why are social media and direct response considered mutually exclusive?
Jonathan Fields, author of Career Renegade, put a stake into the hearts of social media “purists” when he said, “Those making the most money with social media marketing today are doing so by turning it into direct-response 2.0.”
How to Use Blog Commenting as a Networking Superweapon
When it comes to driving awareness through social media channels, most marketers think about using tools like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube videos to reach key audiences.
But very few think of leaving a comment on a blog as a strategy to driving awareness—and potentially, down the road, garnering leads.
Wait, how can leaving a comment on a blog drive awareness (or leads) for your brand? You might be surprised at how effective this strategy can be, given the right circumstances. B2B organizations, for example, are often positioned well to capitalize on this approach based on their need to establish themselves as thought leaders on various topics.
But, before we get to the “how,” let’s talk a bit more about the “why.”
Washington Redskins Kick-Off Foursquare to Reward Loyal Fans
Washington Redskins fans are some of the most devoted when it comes to supporting their team, donning full Native American headdresses, painted faces and hog noses.
These loyal fans now have an arguably easier way of showing their support—and connecting with each other—through Foursquare.
In a pilot for the 2010 football season, the NFL team rolled out Foursquare as a way to reward fans for attending home games or rallies during out-of-town games.
The results beat expectations. By December, Redskins fans had logged more than 20,000 check-ins at the home stadium FedExField and tens of thousands more at venues across the D.C. metro area.
7 Ways to Improve Your Blog SEO with Inbound Links
Are you looking for innovative ways to improve your search engine rankings?
In an earlier post I talked about the need to fully optimize your website and blog posts for search engines.
However, content optimization will only take you so far. For a website to really take off in the search engine rankings, it needs to generate incoming links from relevant and reputable websites. And you have little control of incoming links.
To increase the likelihood of obtaining high-quality incoming links, here are seven things you can do:
The Best Ways to Make Your Brand Social
In this video I interview David Armano, Senior Vice President at Edelman Digital where he has worked with clients such as BlackBerry, eBay and MGM.
David explains why you need to become a social business before you can become a social brand. You’ll also find out where to start your social business planning and what to expect in the future.
Be sure to check out the takeaways below after you watch the video.
This Week in Social Media: The News You Need to Know
Welcome to our weekly edition of what’s hot in social media news. To help you stay up to date with social media, here are some of the news items that caught our attention.
What’s New This Week?
Yahoo To Dump Delicious: Yahoo is downsizing and looking to either shut down or get rid of Delicious, MyBlogLog, Yahoo! Bookmarks and Yahoo! Picks. If you are part of the active Delicious user community here’s a list of alternative bookmarking sites and how to download your Delicious bookmarks. Click here to read an update from Delicious.
The news of Yahoo dumping Delicious raises an outcry from its users.
