Draft Chapters of My New Book Now Available It wouldn't be fitting to attempt to write a book about social media without seeking feedback from readers, so I've started posting the draft chapters from my forthcoming book, Secrets of Social Media Marketing, online for your review and comment. The introduction and first four chapters are available at www.ssmmbook.com and I would be pleased to have your input! The entire book - consisting of 10 to 11 chapters and about a half-dozen "vignettes," will be posted during the next three weeks.

I posted drafts of my first book as blog entries, but this time I've selected a wiki from Wetpaint.com. With the wiki approach, you can actually edit the text and make changes as you see fit. I'll consider all contributions for inclusion in the final manuscript, which is due to the publisher on May 1. If you care to make significant contributions, you'll be credited with a byline or credit line.

The blog approach worked wonders with New Influencers. While I didn't get a lot of changes, I got plenty of positive feedback that gave me encouragement to forge ahead. Please be brutally honest in your edits. This book will work best if it reflects the wisdom of all of you, which most certainly dwarfs my own.

Labels: book, research social_media

  ¶ 8:45 PM 0 Comments

  Please tell us how you use social media

The Society For New Communications Research, of which I am a research fellow, has launched an important project to explore changes to the media and communications landscape resulting from social media and how organizations adopting social media programs are identifying and addressing the phenomenon of the "new influencer." (As far as I know, any relationship between the title of this survey and that of my book is purely coincidental!)

Two anchor elements of this research are surveys of marketers and users of social media. Please take the survey! The more response we get, the better we can share with everyone the current state of social media awareness and usage in organizations.

If you’re a PR or marketing professional, please take this survey first.

If you use blogs or other social media in any context, please take this survey.

The results will be paired with case studies and analysis and presented in a package underwritten by the Institute for Public Relations and Wieck Media.

Labels: research social_media, SNCR

  ¶ 4:55 PM 0 Comments

  Social Media is real in the Inc. 500 Two researchers at the University of Massachusetts has just published an interesting study documenting that small business is far along the learning curve in awareness and usage of social media.

In their summary report, The Hype is Real: Social Media Invades the Inc. 500 Eric Mattson and Nora Ganim Barnes report that 42% of the Inc. 500 companies they interviewed claim to be "very familiar" with tools like social networks, blogs and podcasts. A third of the companies use message boards and one in five blogs.

Perhaps the biggest news is that 26% of the small businesses say social media is "very important" to their business/marketing strategy. With less than 5% of the Fortune 500 blogging, you can assume that small businesses are way out front in this area.

Updates and analysis to the survey of 121 members of the Inc. 500 list will be published as the year goes along.

Labels: research social_media, social_media

  ¶ 10:09 AM 0 Comments

  The Center for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School has released its sixth annual "Surveying the Digital Future" report and the findings validate the momentum of social media communities. Among the highlights:

• More than a fifth of online community members take some kind of offline action related to the community.
• Two-thirds of people who are active in social causes online say they were unfamiliar with those causes before learning about them online.
• People reported meeting an average of 1.6 people in person whom they originally met online.
• "Almost all users report that the Internet has no effect on the time spent with close friends or family face-to-face."

That last point is important because online communities are frequently criticized for making people less socially interactive. In fact, 43% respondents to the survey said the Internet has increased the number of people they stay in contact with.

I expect this last number to grow as social media proliferates. The first decade of the Web was mostly a read-only affair. With one in eight Americans now maintaining a website, you can expect interaction to drive the next phase of growth. The belief that the Internet makes people more isolated is a myth.

Labels: research social_media

  ¶ 8:51 AM 3 Comments