Location Based Social Networking

Check out “checking in.” With the advent of smart mobile devices that are GPS-enabled (“location aware”), a whole new class of social networking tools have arose.

Social Gaming and Virtual Goods
Zynga, the maker of the popular Farmville and Mafia Wars software games, is expected to surpass $400 million in revenues in 2010 — up from an estimated $200 million in 2009.

Group Buying
Three years ago, Groupon did not exist. Today, it is a 3,000-person organization with a presence in more than 50 cities around the globe that Google is slated to buy for as much as $6 billion and spawned over 100 competitors.

Facebook domination
In 2010, Facebook users topped 500 million, greater than the population of the many countries combined. Their 2010 release of the Open Graph that allowed users to “like” products, Web pages, and blog posts across the Internet solidified their omnipresence.

Mobile First
According to the Pew Research Center, use of mobile phones for “non-voice” purposes has “grown dramatically” over the last year and more than half (55 percent) of mobile phone users go online from their mobile phone on a daily basis.

source: http://www.kctv5.com/news/26188278/detail.html

SOCIAL MEDIA Related Articles:

Stanford Professor Uses Social Media To Draw Marrow Donors
“When you learn about something from your friends or people you trust through email or Facebook, it’s much more persuasive than a message coming from a corporation or someone you don’t know,” said Aaker, who teaches at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

Aaker is now working with students from Stanford’s Haas Center for Public Service, using social media to get 100,000 people signed up with the national bone marrow registry.

Aaker got the idea from her former student Robert Chatwani, who used social media to find a bone marrow match for his friend, Sameer Bhatia. Bhatia had a 1 in 20,000 chance of finding a donor.

source: http://paloalto.patch.com/articles/stanford-professor-uses-social-media-to-draw-marrow-donors

How Travelers Use Social Media
A survey conducted by StudyLogic for Sheraton Hotels & Resorts examined attitudes toward social media for business and travel use and found that 72.7% of US social network users accessed the sites at least daily while they were traveling. Young adults ages 25 to 34 checked social sites most often, with nearly a third using them multiple times an hour.

Social media use should mirror face-to-face patient dealings
o help walk that fine line, the American Medical Association recently enacted policy that provides physicians with guidance on social media conduct. The recommendations were approved during the AMA House of Delegates Interim Meeting in November.

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With 500 million users worldwide on Facebook, for example, social media can be a great way to meet your patients and colleagues where they already are, and to spread messages about yourself, your practice and the health issues you care about.

source: http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2010/12/20/edsa1220.htm

1. If Twitter is your social media drug of choice, be everywhere all the time by using hashtags and schedulers

Hashtags: If your event budget has taken a nosedive like many others, use the advanced search feature on Twitter to research what events your competitors and/or prospects will be attending. Be careful not to blast the conference hashtag with commercials but instead post insightful responses and informative resources for the hashtag followers. The idea here is to put yourself in front of a captive audience and drive qualified traffic by sharing thought leadership and educational assets.

Schedulers: In the “How to grow your Twitter following” post, research shows that a vibrant Twitter account updates more than 20 times a day. As a B2B marketer, be direct (use @ replies) and establish yourself as the subject-matter expert in your field (i.e., share educational articles and links in between your branded tweets). To update your timeline about once every hour, try using a free scheduler like Twuffer, SocialOomph, HootSuite, or TweetDeck.

Also monitor Twitter for customer care inquiries and negative sentiment directed towards your competition. If someone is having an issue with your competitor’s product, this is a good time to step in and showcase your differentiators.

Participate in industry Tweetchats. This is a great way to directly engage with prospects, potential partners, and other thought leaders by asking and answering questions related to a certain topic. For a Tweetchat directory listing, start at Twitdom.com. One of its Twitter application directories—“What the Hashtag?”—is a user-editable encyclopedia for hashtags found on Twitter.

2. Use the advanced search feature on LinkedIn to find prospects that fit your buyer persona.

First research the connects and then outreach in a non-aggressive manner, offering your expertise around a specific business challenge of theirs you may have uncovered.

While on LinkedIn, establish yourself as a thought leader by answering user questions. If prospects know you are willing to answer inquiries from the general public, they may be willing to ask you questions directly—which may open up a selling opportunity.

Join a few LinkedIn Groups specific to your industry. These groups help you keep your pulse on the marketplace and in touch with people who share your interests (i.e., who could also benefit from your solution).

3. Use Facebook to establish the culture of your brand

4. Mobile: Use SMS short codes (EX: Text “ELAvate” to 247365) to give prospects a green way to opt-in for additional content. Use it as another touch point and reason to push out differentiators about your brand.

5. YouTube: Increase your search engine ranking + brand awareness online by tagging your videos appropriately. Try connecting your corporate videos to topic-specific landing pages, especially since YouTube is the #2 search engine.

6. Leverage the WOM value on social bookmarking sites like Digg and Delicious

7. Online Community and Chat

Source: http://blogs.imediaconnection.com/blog/2010/10/26/how-to-use-social-media-to-generate-b2b-leads/