ION Digital

Every day I marvel at the tidal wave of postings, news, comments and observations about social media. Out of this stream I handpicked a few samples of blogs this month I thought were particularly good, either because they provided useful tips, insights, or understanding—or I just liked them for other reasons. So this is far from a scientific sampling but a great array of postings by any measure.  I also threw in some misc favorite articles and blogs, such as one looking at Apple in a post-Jobs world.

My next piece will focus on my favorite postings about Twitter, a platform that is exploding in popularity. 

Social Media

• Obama’s social media toolkit and strategy (Edelman)
• Why companies should embrace social media, the good, the bad and the ugly (w/ an example of the ugly)
• “PR 2.0: Social Networks Grow Up: More Adults Connecting Online” Strong growth numbers as adult pop moves online
• Mashable’s top social media posts of the week: good slate of stories from one of social media’s top websites and industry watchers
• “49 Amazing Social Media, Web 2.0 And Internet Stats” Stunning growth numbers (13 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every min).
• Paul Gillin’s Best of 08 Social media is a good read: Best new app: Tweetdeck;Best new face(surprise) Chris Brogan:
• “Coming to search results near you: corporate blogs worth reading | ZDNet.com
• Best Internet marketing posts of 2008-an extensive list covering SEO, social media strategy, Facebook, Twitter and much more. This one will take awhile but it’s worth exploring.
  
• The Future for Social Networks (Charlene Li slideshare) Solid predictions about where social media is going by the co-author of Groundswell.

How To

• Good piece:How to use links and linking effectively

• Good video primer: HOW TO: Create Online Video That Works
• Louis Gray does this so well, providing a one-stop shop for blogging, Twitter & more: 40 key elements for getting started in social media
• Robert Scoble’s tips on using/maximizing Friendfeed, a powerful and robust (if sometimes complicated) platform (Ok, I cheated–this ran in late Dec but it’s too good to miss)

Tools, Apps

• Cool Facebook biz apps
• social media reputation management tools
• “Top 10 underhyped web apps: http://tiny.cc/QNerP”

MISC

• Story on Cisco’s collaborative management approach and why it works.
• Best small business books of 08–pretty good list (Small Biz Trend)
  “Planet Google: Great tools for Google maps. How to find food, entertainment, solar maps, weather and more:
  “I’m always amazed when decent sized co’s want to create a logo for dirt cheap. Here’s tips on how not to design a logo
• Book lover’s heaven: 50 sites for book lovers
• “How Apple Could Survive Without Steve Jobs - WSJ.com”