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The Social Media Handbook

[updated: Oct 16, 2009] 

Also see Bighow Online Journalism Handbook, Bighow Twitter Handbook , Twitter for Education Handbook and Twitter for Business and Career Handbook

If you want to share your Social Media tips, or a link about Social Media Guides, use the tag 'social media' when you submit.

200+ Social Media Tools and Guides

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA
49 Amazing Social Media, Web 2.0 And Internet Stats
Seth Godin's Web 2.0 Traffic Watch List From Statsaholic.com: List of 952 Web 2.0/social media sites and their traffic rankings.
State of the Twittersphere - Q4 2008 Report
The Top 20 Social Networks of 2008
A Collection of Social Network Stats for 2009
State of the Blogosphere 2008

WHY SOCIAL MEDIA?

"Marketers don't understand channels where you have to talk and listen at the same time... The marketing industry's idea of a two-way communication is to put an 800 number or a web address in an ad and take orders."

- Josh Bernoff, Forrester
 

Ten Common Objections to Social Media Adoption and How You Can Respond - ReadWriteWeb
20 Reasons Why You Cannot Ignore Social Media
20 Reasons Small Businesses should be Using Social Media
New Study Finds Correlation Between Social Media and Financial Success
 

How people are using social media
Spectators 91%
Critics 58%
Joiners 55%
Collectors 48%
Creators 43%
Inactives 5%
- Forrester Research

Which social media outlet is best?
Depends upon your needs and goals.

- Who is your audience? Media? Analysts? Auto mechanics? Web designers? Healthcare professionals?
- What kind of content do you want to share with your audience? Video? Slideshows? White papers? Podcasts? Webinars? All of the above? Different social media sites specialize in different media formats.
- How much discussion do you want? Most of the various social media and new media technologies give you power over commenting.

How much time it will take?
Depends upon you needs and goals - Depends upon how long does it take for you to:
1. Identify appropriate social media outlets and establish accounts
2. Establish a track record of participation - make friends, create a following etc.
3. Create buzzworthy content and admirable company actions.

Example of social media outlets
Twitter - narrate your work
Blog - part product, part big ideas
FriendFeed - tracking the flow
SlideShare, Scribd - the post-webinar bang-for-your-buck
YouTube, Google Video - incremental exposure

16 Social Media Facts that show how important Social Media is coming to be

A. 3 out of 4 Americans use Social Technology, (Forrester Research)

B. 2/3 of the Global Internet population visit social networks. (Nielsen)

C. Visiting Social Sites is now the 4th most popular online activity, ahead of personal e-mail. (Nielsen)

D. Time spent on Social networks is growing at 3X  the overall Internet rate accounting for  ~10% of all Internet time. (Nielsen)

E. 93% of Social Media Users believe a company should have a presence in Social Media (Cone, Business in Social Media Study, September 2008)

F. 13 Hours - The amount of video uploaded to YouTube every minute.

G. 412.3 Years - The length of time it would take to view every YouTube video.

H. 3,600,000,000 The number of photos archived on Flickr.com as of June 2009.

I. 1382% The monthly growth rate of Twitter users from January to February 2009.

J. 3,000,000 The average number of Tweets per day on Twitter.com

K. 5,000,000,000 The number of minutes spent on Facebook each day.

L. 1,000,000,000 The amount of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) shared each week on Facebook.

M. MySpace apparently reaches 30% of UK adults aged 15-24 - it's been suggested that its as common to have a MySpace account in the UK as it is to own a dog.

N. Hitwise recently reported that one out of every 350 website visits in the UK is via Twitter, but barely 5% of users currently go to an online retail service through the medium.

O.14,200,000 The number of views Barrack Obama's career making "Yes We Can" video got on YouTube.

P. If Facebook were a country, it would be the 8th most populous country in the world, ahead of Japan. - Mark Zuckerberg  

Q. If YouTube were a country, it would be the third most-populated place in the world.

Read More

How do I start with Social Media

10 ways to jumpstart your social media thinking

10 of the Smartest Big Brands in Social Media
 

PERSONAL BRANDING Using Social Media
10 Step Beginners' Guide to Blogging Your Personal Brand
25+ Ways to Manage Your Online Identity
20 Ways To Aggregate Your Social Networking Profiles
67 Social Media/web/reputation management tools and sites
HowSociable? - This sites Measures a brand's visibility across some 22 social media sites. Enter brand name and see results for sites such as Technorati, Facebook, Twitter and more.

Finding People on Social Media
15 Websites to Trace People Online
Top 237 Twitter Users Who Will Follow You Back
5 Ways to Find More Friends on Twitter
 

Most Useful Guides to Using Social Media
 

HOW TO: Use Social Media for Enterprise Business
Step 1. Build a reputation of expertise
Step 2. Research your customers - Know what your customers are saying. Know what your customers are saying Track industry trends
Step 3. Ramp up your networking
Step 4. Learn from others
 

Starting out with Social Media

Ten tips for companies on Twitter

300+ Cases & Examples of Social Media Marketing

35+ Examples of Corporate Social Media in Action

12 Social Media Companies that Kick Ass
110 Ways Retailers are Using Social Media Marketing

40 Key Elements to Getting Started In Social Media

50 Ways to use Social Media, listed by Objective
50 Ways Marketers Can use Social Media to Improve Their Marketing
18 Ways To Engage Users Online (A Guide for Community Managers) -PDF

The Corporate Twitter Awards List
List of 75+ Big Brand Corporate Blogs  

Top 100 Social Media Tools

A Wiki of Social Media Marketing Examples
How To Do Almost Anything With Social Media  

Social Media Starter Pack: most important social media tools you will want to use when getting started in social media

The Ultimate Social Media Etiquette Handbook

Social Media Case Studies SUPERLIST- 23 Extensive Lists of Organizations Using Social Media

Toolkit - Networking for the Shy Entrepreneur - NYTimes.com

PR and Social Media

Social Media Press Release Template (pdf)
Reinventing the Media Interview - Steve Rubel

Ten online PR disasters to avoid

What not do with Social Media

The Seven Deadly Sins of Social Media
25 Most Shocking Crimes in Social Media History

10 Social Media Blunders that Can Destroy Your Brand
4 Signs You are a Social Media Failure

Top ten viral marketing mistakes
5 Top Twitter fails

Superlist of What Not To Do In Social Media

Building and Nurturing Communities using social Media
40 common elements for community-focused websites
25 Ways to Build Your Community

Secret Underground Guide to Using Social Media for Organizations PDF

Social Media How Tos

How to listen in a bad economy
HOW TO: Plan and Promote Events With Social Media

How To Identify & Target The Right Niche Social Media Sites
10 Ways to Spy on Your Competitors
How to Master Screencasts (aka "video tutorials") in Seven Steps

HOW TO: Create Online Video That Works
HOW TO: Save Time With Website Registration and Profiles

12 Inspiring Stories of Successful Social Networkers
25 Must Read Social Media Marketing Tips
 

HOW TO: Survive a Social Media Revolt
HOW TO: Deal With Social Media Conflict
1. Do not take it personally
2. Find something to agree with

More How tos

15 Secrets of FriendFeed's Power Users
100+ Smart Ways to Use LinkedIn
50 Useful Social Networks for Business Travelers
Top 21 Social Media Super Stars Under 30 In 2008
Top 200 Social Networking sites
Social Bookmarking List over 120 sites with Page Rank
115 Social News and Bookmark Sites Ranked and Rated
50 Top Niche Social Media Sites, and Their Power Accounts
17 Rules of Social Media Optimization (SMO)
The 23 Types of Social Media Users
15 Ways to become a Digg Power user in only 48 hours
65 Must Read StumbleUpon Articles
StumbleUpon's Top 50 Stumblers Analysis

Top blogs for social media tips

Jeremiah Owyang - Social media for business

Beth Kanter - Social Media for Non-profits
John Bell - Social media for Business

Church of the Customer - Social media for Business

Hitwise blogs - Social Media Data

Chris Brogan  - General Purpose Social Media Tips

Seth Godin - Online Marketing Thinker

Steve Rubel - PR Man

Darren Rowse  - Blogging Expert

Gary Kawasaki  - Entrepreneur/Marketer/Writer

2 Free Apps to check social Media username availability across all sites at once
namechk - (free)
Friends Call Me - (free)

How to succeed as a Non-Profit Success In Social Media
1. Have a compelling story to tell.
2. Make a specific ask or establish a specific goal to reach.
3. Make it astonishingly easy to give. - using easy widgets like those available at ChipIn  or JustGive, you are allowing people to donate with a couple of clicks and a few keystrokes.
- Source

Building your Social Network from scratch

Nine Ways to Build Your Own Social Network
 

The simplest way is to use sites that let you host a social network - Use Ning , CrowdVine

Building using open source software on your own domain

Elgg

Dolphin

Phpizabi - works fine for a small network, but could become buggy as your network get bigger.
Aroundme

Lovedbyless  ROR based
Xoops  with Yogurt extension

Social Media Usage Guidelines worth learning from
List of 40 Social Media Staff Guidelines
BBC Staff Editorial Guidelines Personal use of Social Networking and other third party websites

Finding Information on Social News, Bookmarking and Other Social Media Sites
Search Digg With Google
monitorThis - With MonitorThis you can search in 26 different search engine feeds at the same time including blogs, microblogs and more.
Social Mention - Social Mention is a social media search engine that searches user-generated content such as blogs, comments, bookmarks, events, news, videos, and microblogging services.
BoardTracker.com A forum search engine
Omgili  Omgili is a specialized search engine that focuses on "many to many" user generated content platforms, such as, Forums, Discussion groups, Mailing lists, answer boards and others.
BackType  BackType is a service that lets you find, follow and share comments from across the web.
 

Do More With Social Media
10 Ways to Change the World Through Social Media
Take Social Actions
Twitter with a purpose
Visit White House 2.0
Choose your cause
Host a social media event
Travel the world - social media has enabled each of us to have an audience.
Unite the world through video - e.g. Matt dancing around the world
Rate a company -Publish a collective, simultaneous blog post on a universal topic

Tipsheet: CEO Guide to Wiki Etiquette
7 Secrets to Getting Your Next Job Using Social Media
http://mashable.com/2009/01/05/job-search-secrets/

Reputation Management Using Social Media Tools
12 Reputations Every Company Should Monitor Online
Online Media Monitoring: 26 Free Social Media Tracking Tools

ROI/ROE On Social Media
15 Ways to Measure Return on Engagement (ROE) of Social Media
Social Media Metrics Wiki
10 Free, Innovative Web Analytics Tools
Analytics Toolbox: 50+ More Ways to Track Website Traffic
27 Resources for Evaluating Blogging ROI