Today’s Social Media Links

Worthwhile reading for Monday:

Here Comes Twitter Spam and How to Fight It:

A spam-less Twitter feed might just be too good to be true. Spam is becoming an increasing problem on Twitter and something has to be done to separate the wheat from the chaff. Spammers are using Twitter as a tool by replying to your @username, which then causes the Tweets to show up in your timeline. There isn’t really a way to filter Twitter spam directly from a Twitter client. But there may be soon.

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Twitter Marketers: Why You Don’t Need to Mass Follow Users

A few days ago Twitter announced on their status blog that all Twitter users are only allowed to follow a maximum of 1000 people a day. This rule was designed to cut down on ‘follow spam’, the act of following many Twitter users in order to get them to follow you back or click on your links.

When combined with the already existing limit based on follow ratios, this means that it will be more difficult for marketers or self-promoters to rapidly increase their Twitter follower count by following many people. The old days of following thousands of users a day to get thousands of followers back are gone.

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25 Must Read Social Media Marketing Tips

The benefit from a firm grasp of social media for companies is impossible to ignore. Whether you work in marketing, advertising, public relations or interactive, there are distinct competitive advantages for both individuals and businesses from a better understanding of the social web.

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Do You Know Where Your Audience Is?

One key reason companies fail in social media is because they don’t know where their audience is. Too many times, overexcited CEOs, CMOs, and business owners see the latest and greatest social media tools talked about on the cable news channels and think, “we have to be there.”

That kind of thinking and knee-jerk reaction can be a detriment to a business of any size. Social media isn’t about the latest bleeding edge tools or sites. It’s about starting conversations that lead to building relationships, and eventually conversions.
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The Coming Social Media Train Wreck:

Everybody likes a good train wreck.

Hopefully, of course, those where nobody gets hurt.

But when I was a kid, growing up in the sticks of north Texas, I’ll never forget the first train wreck I stumbled upon.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to actually see the cars come crashing down off the railroad trestle.

But the aftermath was pretty powerful, in and of its own right.

Twisted steel, splintered and broken railroad ties, spilt cargo… it was awesome.

Of course, I’m sure Southern Pacific didn’t agree, and heaven help them, it was a mess to clean up afterward that took them weeks.

That’s what I expect the coming social media train wreck is going to look like.
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The Future of the Social Web: In Five Eras

Expect the Groundswell to continue, in which people connect to each other –rather than institutions. Consumer adoption of social networks is increasing a rapid pace, brands are adopting even during a recession, so expect the space to rapidly innovate to match this trend.  Clients can access this report, but to summarize what we found, in the executive summary we state:

Today’s social experience is disjointed because consumers have separate identities in each social network they visit. A simple set of technologies that enable a portable identity will soon empower consumers to bring their identities with them — transforming marketing, eCommerce, CRM, and advertising. IDs are just the beginning of this transformation, in which the Web will evolve step by step from separate social sites into a shared social experience. Consumers will rely on their peers as they make online decisions, whether or not brands choose to participate. Socially connected consumers will strengthen communities and shift power away from brands and CRM systems; eventually this will result in empowered communities defining the next generation of products.

We found that technologies trigger changes in consumer adoption, and brands will follow, resulting in five distinct waves, they consist of:

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The Five Eras of the Social Web:

1) Era of Social Relationships: People connect to others and share
2) Era of Social Functionality: Social networks become like operating system
3) Era of Social Colonization: Every experience can now be social
4) Era of Social Context: Personalized and accurate content
5) Era of Social Commerce: Communities define future products and services

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The 7 Ways to Approach Twitter

There are plenty of strategies for approaching Twitter. It’s getting more complex each day, but in the end it can be boiled down to a few simple approaches.

From Twittering on behalf of yourself to Twittering for a company, playing the part of a classic character to being a robot, here are seven ways users approach Twitter.

Introduce yourself and tell us about your Twitter approach in the comments.
1. You are yourself

You are on Twitter for the community, the knowledge you get and give, and the sharing of resources – whether it’s for professional or purely personal reasons. Twitter is your communication device.

I can go on all day providing examples of people who Twitter for their own enjoyment or just business networking but not specifically to promote anything or anyone in particular. Here are a few of my favorites that I follow:

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