Another year, and an incredible 12 months its been in the world of social media too. Lots of businesses, solo entrepreneurs and marketers will be reviewing 2010 and looking on in amazement at the reach, influence, and increasing power of social media platforms. So, for the last look at the year, I was thinking: what can Christmas teach us about social media? * When you give, you receive

This week has been a rough week… lots of stress, lots of change, and mostly a lot of progress. At 42 years old, I’m pretty set in my ways but I had an event this week that really hit hard.

I’m going to kick the crystal ball way ‘cross the room.  Who in his right mind could have predicted last year that WikiLeaks would become a global brand, or that its founder would be facing charges of sexual assault in Sweden for failing to fix a condom?  (Where is James Ellroy on this?) That Sarah Palin would end up with over 340,000 twitter followers?  Or that Delicious would

I was originally going to write a Christmas blog post of my own, to thank you all for continuing to be part of this little part of the web, and for giving up the time in your day to be here when you could be somewhere else.But then I thought – it’s Christmas Eve, you’re probably busy preparing for tomorrow, and the last thing you want is another long-ass Christmas post to say what I hope you know I feel every other day of the year.

Not a tweeter was tweeting, not even the high Klouts. The iphones were hidden by Santa’s little elves,

A new StrongMail survey in late November, conducted by Zoomerang, reflects the attitudes of  business leaders in regards to their planned marketing budgets, priorities and challenges for 2011. The data reveals an optimistic marketing outlook, with half of businesses planning to increase marketing budgets, and another 43% keeping them steady. And, for the second year in a row, email marketing and social media marketing remain the top targets for increased spend. Survey Highlights

Your customers, prospects, and the people looking for you online don’t care about your company structure. If they find you on Twitter, or leave a comment on your blog, they’re looking for a response from anyone who can help, regardless of what department that person represents or what someone’s official job title is.

With 2010 coming to a close, it goes without saying that it has been a tremendous year for social media.Facebook and Twitter have both enjoyed explosive growth, a growing number of companies have attracted venture capital, and spending on social media marketing is expected to jump.