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I’ve read a lot about how to use social media to gather market research – as a data person, something I cherish. So, in a rare moment of free time I decided to test out the Linked In poll feature. It is really cool – you should try it out. To find where to create a poll in Linked In, just go to the “More” navigation tab at the top of your page, click it and you will see a link to Polls. Linked In has done a great job with this tool as it is easy to use, flexible and very intuitive.

What are companies finding to be their most effective sales and lead generation activities? That was the objective of a recent survey conducted by Web-Marketing 123, a California based, nationally recognized online marketing company. They surveyed over 500 US companies. About two-thirds of respondents operated in the B2B space (marketing to other businesses) with the remainder marketing directly to the general public (B2C). The participating firms were of all sizes, from firms with fewer than 10 employees to those with more than 1,000, and the mix was pretty even, making the results representative of the business community.

Social media has “a new sheriff in town” called Google +. Google has gotten into the social media space in a huge way recently and in only 3 weeks has amassed about 20 million users. What is it? How is it different from Facebook, LinkedIn and some of the other social networks? Is there a business application for this? How will it affect online marketing activities? There are many questions about Google + and this post is only an intro to this exciting new online network.

Companies are talking a lot about social media marketing and trying to figure out what to do. Many think having a Facebook page is the biggest priority. No doubt Facebook is important – after all 600 million users ain’t bad. But what many lose site of is their reputation online and what people are saying about them online. This IS social media and many call it Online Reputation Management (ORM).

Question: Is Web Social technology consuming us, pulling us away from traditional/physical sociology? If so, is this a bad thing?

Social media marketing has so many new and emerging opportunities. One of the most popular these days are the daily deal sites - Groupon and Living Social being the most prominent. However, there are more deal sites popping up all the time targeting more niche spaces. These properties have brought many great deals to consumers, including me, but are they working for the merchants? This post provides some suggestions about how to make one element of social media marketing, the daily deal sites, work financially for the business.

A recent survey by American Express and SEMPO revealed that small and mid-sized businesses (SMB’s) are investing more in social media than in search engine optimization. Considering the challenges in measuring social media ROI, I was ambivalent about this finding. I mean on one hand I am not surprised businesses are really interested in social media. After all, it is what everyone seems to be entranced by. On the other hand, search engine optimization is such a powerful tool to actually generating leads and it can be more easily measured.

GroupM Search and comScore, two reliable sources of research about online buying behavior, recently released findings of a new study that focused on the impact and search and social media, and the synergy of each channel. The results were quite interesting and may provide insights that could alter your current search and social media strategies. A meaningful excerpt from the study revealed the following:

While social media is still as popular a networking concept as ever, social technologies have developed as a broader approach to leveraging your network for maximum effect. Networking is no longer just about handing out business cards at a work function or tweeting about your daily activities, it’s much more these days. After studying the marketplace and taking inventory of the many online social tools and trends that have emerged recently, we developed a comprehensive process for integrating social technologies into your operation to enhance revenue and dominate your market.

2010 was an exciting year in the world of online marketing. The Bing and Yahoo search alliance, Google Instant, new mobile devices and even a major motion picture about the rise of a social network. While it's hard to tell what the next year holds, I don't think anything is slowing down - in fact, I see momentum building even more and more.