This vids been doing the rounds of the net for the past couple of days. There are some amazing facts and figures that should make any social media skeptic change their mind. Having watched a similar video about Internet usage with the same music (I can’t find it now) It feels a bit cliche but nevertheless the figures are incredible.

http://techfluff.tv

Corporate giants are losing power to communities of consumers–and your company can benefit.

When it comes to the evolution of the Web and of social media, keeping up seems like an impossible task for most business executives.  Nonetheless, keeping up is critically important in order to remain relevant.  The good news that I take away from a recent study by Forrester Research, is that the evolution of the “social Web” will help level the marketing playing field between large and small organizations.  The report was written by a Forrester senior analyst, Jeremiah Owyang, who, not so coincidentally, has a terrific blog, Web Strategy.

In the past, large companies had all the cards.  They had lots of money, lots of people and lots of intrusive but effective messaging.  In the old era of in-your-face marketing, corporate giants could control results in many cases by simply outspending smaller rivals.

Continues @ http://contentmarketingtoday.com

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There are hundreds of thousands of ways you can use social media.

Facebook… Twitter… Vimeo… YouTube… LinkedIN… SmallerIndiana… Plaxo…
They go on and on and on and on and on.
The tools are becoming universal. They are becoming secondary. The learning curve is dissapearing.
continues @ http://kylelacy.com/i-dont-care-if-you-are-on-facebook-and-twitter/

It seems that for many, this thing or shall I say buzzword we call social media has become strictly a numbers game. He who has the most followers wins. We are seeing this time and time again,  on Twitter, Facebook and so forth. It’s at a point where it’s out of control, I feel. The true value of social media or conversational media has been lost for some, including myself.

The power of one-on-one relationships has been lost:

It’s been lost due to the popularity game of who can acquire the most followers on any given network. Take Twitter for instance, while it’s clearly gone mainstream, it’s also the number one haven for drive by spammers.  The service is riddled with marketers attempting to make a quick buck.  When I mean marketers, I don’t mean responsible corporations who are  using Twitter for customer outreach.

I’m a list builder, look at me!

Then you have the mass list builder crowd. These people follow anyone and everyone just to build a massive following. These people make no attempt to have a conversation or get to know the people they are following. They simply create lists. I don’t see the purpose of this. What’s the point of saying I have 10,000 followers on Twitter? In the real world it means absolutely nothing, these are not bragging rights to be proud of.  Again, I’m strictly referring to the list builder crowd, not anyone else.

Continues @ http://michaelfruchter.com

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A simple story that illustrates the forces shaping social media. This video comes in an unbranded “presentation quality” version that can be licensed for use in the workplace.http://www.commoncraft.com/store-item…