The 5 Top Social Media Blog Posts For 2010

Last year I listed The “Top 10 Social Media Blog Posts Of 2009″ and that proved to be very popular so instead of waiting to the end of the year I thought that I would list “The 5 Top Social Media Articles For 2010″ so that  readers could see what other readers are finding topical and interesting for the first quarter of the year.

In looking at the topics it does appears that case studies are still very much valued and also what the CEO thinks about social media is finding a sweet spot. So here are “The 5 Top Social Media Blog Posts For 2010″.

Number One: Twitter: 5 Business Case Studies (2,782 readers)

I am still hearing this deep and meaningful question at dinner parties, social moments and musings.

“I don’t understand this Twitter thing, isn’t it just people telling their friends what they had for breakfast or did last night , what’s the point of that!”

In fact, for a lot of people it is exactly that…a bit like a normal cross section of your average conversation to be frank, but Twitter is a whole lot more! (2,000 plus apps and counting), if you are willing to not just skim the surface but take a deep breath, dive deep and explore the Twittersphere.

So I thought it might be productive to look at some Twitter case studies and how different types of businesses are using Twitter to increase sales, drive traffic, use as a service tool and  add to their digital marketing toolbox… read more

Number Two:  The 7 Secrets to Ford’s Social Media Marketing Success (2,614 readers)

Last year I noticed articles and videos appearing online and on Social Media such as YouTube about the Ford Fiesta. So I decided to dig a little deeper to find out about what Ford were doing in Social Media to market their products.

Scott Monty is the Head of Social Media at Ford and has only been there since 2008 and put in place a Social Media strategy including multiple Social Media channels.

• Facebook
• Twitter
• YouTube
• Flickr

Scott said that his “Jewel in the Crown” is the Ford Fiesta Movement that involved selecting 100 socially vibrant individuals who were provided with the European version of the Ford Fiesta 18 months prior to it being manufactured and released in the USA. These socially media aware fanatics were encouraged to share their experience with the Ford Fiesta over the 6 months on their Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube channels.

What were the strategies that Ford implemented to create viral awareness without one dollar of traditional marketing spend? .. read more

Number Three: 30 Tips On How To Make Your Company’s Blog Rock (2,496 readers)

Writing an article for your company blog is not for everyone. Just trying to come up with ideas for the blog can be a challenge. At the end of the day there is one important element that is absolutely essential and its name is “Passion” with a capital P…. I couldn’t write about cooking, it bores me. ….Putting pen to paper about gardening would turn me to drink. So there you have it, it’s the one core ingredient required or else your blogging journey will not be a lifetime adventure but just a weekend away.

So you have the passion, you can spell, you don’t mind writing a few sentences and your grammar ain’t half bad, so what’s next. Well it helps to create the right mood, the right eco-system to help facilitate a creative writing head space.

Over at the inspiring Zen Habits blog to which I have my Google reader plugged into, I came upon an article titled “9 simple ways you can bring yourself into flow” which provided some great strategies on how to get into creative flow for writing. The 9 ways are below in simple format

• Pick a enjoyable, challenging activity – this means passion
• Eliminate distraction
• Think before you do
• Isolate yourself
• Let go
• Give yourself a time limit
• Keep moving
• Don’t think
• Practice

So we have laid the platform for a creative blog writing environment, what are some tips on keeping that blog post cupboard full of ideas and your company’s blog pumping out great content that will change your business… read more

Number Four: How To Manage, Measure And Monitor Twitter (1,995 Readers)

Twitter is one of the  “new media channels” that is challenging how we communicate, with whom we communicate and perhaps most fundamentally how we (Marketers) influence people.

The torrent of data that Twitter produces, especially as your Twitter follower count grows, challenges your ability to manage the noise.

So managing and monitoring that stream becomes a real challenge.

Twitter’s simple concept and interface (API) has provided third party software developers the opportunity to develop a whole range of tools to add deeper and broader functionality to Twitter. These “apps” for monitoring, improving efficiency for managing mutiple Twitter accounts, updating to other Social Media Platforms as well as measuring Twitter can assist, but the tools to do this are mutiplying and evolving rapidly.

So what are some useful and interesting apps that have emerged, both new and some not so new… read more

Number Five: 40 Reasons Why The CEO Still Uses The Yellow Pages And Not Social Media (1,912 Readers)

I was going to write something completely different than what turned up below but somehow this article emerged.

Over the last 12 months I have come up against a lot of reasons and excuses to  not use “Social Media”, “New Media”, Digital Marketing” or embrace the “New Rules of Marketing“. It certainly doesn’t mean that you have to discard what is currently working in your marketing program and it doesn’t mean throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

This list is a bit of a “Tongue in Cheek” look at why the CEO still wants to use the Yellow Pages and not embrace the “New Marketing” of the 21st century. I came up with 40, but feel free to add more in the comments. Hey… have a bit of fun… read more

So what types of information on social media would you like to read more of in 2010?