4 steps to Get Rid of Twitter Spam
If you’re active on Twitter, then no doubt you’ve seen the recent increase of “Twitter spam” coming from hijacked Twitter accounts. Damian Davila Rojas let readers know that Twitter Spam happens when application developers abuse that access that you have granted them to your Twitter account. He also shares 4 simple steps to help protect yourself by auditing the connections to your Twitter account.

What Social Media Monitoring Won’t Get You
Monitoring your brand online and the plethora of tools available to select from are all the rage of late, while Facebook’s popularity as a place for brands to plant their flag has also exploded. This post from Jason Falls reminds us that access to the vital conversation behind Facebook’s “walled garden” are not accessible by social media monitoring tools.

Get Off Your Computer and Become a Better Blogger
Want to become a better blogger? This post from James Chartrand on CopyBlogger provides some great advice on how to do just that, and it starts by stepping away from the keyboard.

9 digital trends to watch in 2010
This fun read from Nuri Djavit  on iMediaConnection shares 9 interesting predictions for digital trends that “could be” in 2010. 

Create a Virtual Office
Last, but certainly not least is this guest post on WomenEntrepreneur by our very own Christine Perkett where she expands on how a virtual workplace can benefit your company.

Top 13 Guidelines for Commenting on Blog Posts
Commenting on blogs that are part of your vertical market can be a powerful way to share knowledge with community and build your reputation as an expert in your field. B.L Ochman shares 13 tips and best practices for commenting on blogs.

Customer Data via Twitter
Adam T. Sutton from the Sherpa blog recently interviewed Craig Greenfield, VP, Search and Performance Media, Performics, where they discussed how his team uses Twitter. The result was six takeaways that show how Twitter contributes to the Performics team’s success.

Privacy is dead, and social media holds smoking gun
Mashable’s Pete Cashmore guest posts on the CNN Opinion blog with this piece on how social media is changing the face of privacy.

Your Company May Own Your Tweets, Pokes, and YouTube Videos
Jermiah Owyang discusses content ownership between employees and companies and includes an attorney’s perspective on the topic.

The new rules of business-to-business marketing & PR
David Meerman Scott’s keynote from the Business Marketing Association’s annual conference has been made available online for the first time. Pop some corn and settle in for 45 minutes of great B2B marketing information.

No Kidding
I’ll start the picks off with some humor via Scott Monty’s revisit to a post he did a year ago, asking “How many social media experts does it take to change a lightbulb?” I think you’ll enjoy the creative answers he received.

Ways to Be Human at a Distance
Chris Brogan reminds readers of the importance of showing the human side of your business when engaging your online communities. Lots of great tips here along with many additional bits in the comments.

When social media attacks: learn from others’ mistakes
Henry Elliss from the econsultancy.com blog shares five great real-world examples of how companies have made mistakes in handling their brands online.

4 Lies about social media
Penelope Trunk sheds some light on four common lies that many people wrongly believe about social media. We’re fond of correcting beliefs about all of them, but especially #4: “Social media is no place for business.” (Still don’t believe it? Let’s talk – we can help you understand why it is and what ROI you can receive.)

10 Proven Applications For Social Media
No, Adam Singer from the TopRank’s Online Marketing blog isn’t running through a list of tools to start using, but rather a more helpful list of business objectives to which social media can be applied. Read on for inspiration.

Today we’re using our blog space to ask you something that has absolutely nothing to do with us, our clients or PR. Thanks in advance for reading.

National Breast Cancer Awareness month is nearing an end. We’re trying to help raise awareness for the thousands of women who have faced this challenge – and are fighting much bigger challenges than anything a day at work can throw our way. In particular, we’d like to call out two of our friends and their efforts to raise money to directly help women facing this relentless disease: Jeanne Fitzmaurice of Design Her Gals and the Gal to Gal Foundation and Alicia Staley of The Staley Foundation.

Both of these amazing women are trying to reach a certain goal this month (today, in Alicia’s case) to help others. Both have been touched by cancer and are inspirational women who remind us to keep going, never give up and to support each other. Will you please help our efforts to do so by taking just 15 minutes and $15 (skip two of those Starbuck’s lattes this week, perhaps?) today to help them reach their goals?

Alicia Staley, the Staley Foundation

Alicia’s birthday is today and her wish is to raise $1,000 in 24 hours for the Staley Foundation – money raised during her birthday wish challenge will be used to purchase books, journals, and JILLIES to include in new patient packs:

• $10 donation = a journal for patients in a support group!
• $20 donation = books for patients preparing for surgery!
• $45 donation = a brand new JILLIES garment for patients having radiation or chemo!

The Staley Foundation acts on its belief that cancer survivors need a strong fundamental base of education, advocacy, and assistance to persevere in their cancer battle and beyond to live their best lives. Alicia should know – she’s a three-time cancer survivor (read her amazing story here). She founded the Staley Foundation in 2007, a non-profit charitable organization dedicated to enriching the lives of people touched by cancer, including survivors, their families, and caregivers. The Staley Foundation fulfills its mission through cancer awareness education, survivorship education, community outreach initiatives, advocacy development, and patient assistance programs. You can help Alicia by donating, here.

Jeanne Fitzmaurice, Gal to Gal Foundation

Jeanne is in her third year of the Gal to Gal Virtual Walk – a fun, easy-to-join virtual walk through a different city each day, to help raise funds to grant wishes for stage IV breast cancer patients. Many organizations are dedicated to helping cancer patients during the early stages of diagnosis, but few are focused on stage IV – Gal to Gal is focused on helping women in this stage to maintain their dignity while receiving treatment through the progression of the disease. Walkers can choose who to “walk” with others – from celebrities like Larry King, Molly Sims and Kristin Chenoweth, to everyday neighbors and friends. You can create teams and invite others to join as well.

This year’s walk honors Dorit Shapiro, past President of the Gal to Gal Foundation, who lost her brave battle to Stage IV last October at age 38. You can listen to Dorit’s own story – in her own words – in the video below. Dorit spoke about last year’s Gal to Gal walk, just one week before her passing. We hope it will inspire you to spend just $5.00 to help Jeanne and her team reach this year’s goal of $250,000 (a figure that was Dorit’s personal hope for this year). You can create an avatar and search for the PerkettPR team to “walk” with us, or you can choose to simply just donate.

Thanks for reading, for donating and for your support through posting these efforts on Twitter, Facebook, your own blog and more. Not for us, but for the patients.

Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV is an inspiration, even if you do think his story of “follow your passion” stems from receiving just a wee more help (”quite a bit more than nothing”) in doing so than most of us get – as Bobbie Carlton wrote in her blog recap of Friday’s events at The Estate in Boston. We joined up with NomX3 to celebrate Gary’s Boston leg of his tour for the new book, “Crush It! Why Now is the Time to Cash in on your Passion.”

At the very least, while our economy continues to cause stress and anxiety – as reported today by the Boston Globe – Gary’s enthusiasm for chasing your passion is a message we can all benefit from hearing. He’s energetic enough to make us believe we, too, can cash in on our passion – yet wise enough to provide advice such as “it takes hard work and won’t fall in your lap” as well as “if you’re passionate about three things, choose one and go after it.”

Smart words – and a fun event. Thanks to Jeff Cutler and Mike Langford for inviting us to work with them on hosting this event. It was a pleasure to meet many of our Twitter friends in person and to hear Gary once again. Check out our Whrrl story below for more – or watch NomX3 or BelchingMonkey’s videos for the “I was there” effect – you’ll see PerkttPR’s very own Kim Kennedy and Crystal Macaulay in the latter!

And tell us, how will you “crush it” in 2010?

PR pros drank hard in the 1960s
Get a taste of the the “Mad Men” era and the “three or four” martini lunch with this Big Think video interview featuring The New Yorker’s Calvin Trillin. Trillin explains how the PR and journalism crowd engaged in a liquid lunch just as much as the ad-men did.

Social Climbing: Luxury Fashion Brands Must Embrace Social Media
This Forbes piece by Dana Gers shares her view of how luxury brands are still stuck in older traditional media modes and have yet to make the leap into social media and social marketing. She also provides a few points for brands to consider before rolling out their social media strategies.

The Average American is Gone – and so are Demographics
This post from Paull Young suggests that standard lines of demographics are blurred on the playing field of online social communication. Research results from Ad Age are included to back up his point of view.

7 Reasons Why People Comment on Blogs
Bloggers love when readers comment on their blogs, but what actually triggers a reader to make that response? George F. Snell III from the Hightalk blog suggests seven potential reasons that might send readers to the keyboard after reading a post.

Twitter Sputters Over Spammers and Spitters
If utilized properly, Twitter can be a powerful networking and communications tool, but at the same time it has become a new channel for spammers to run with their mind-numbing messages. This post from Renay San Miguel explains the state of spam (or “spit”) on Twitter and how SPAM legislation might need to be tweaked as result of this new annoyance.

Last night I had the honor of speaking on a panel to a group of women for Girls in Tech’s “Women as Entrepreneurs, Women as Leaders” event at Babson College. The discussion focused on leadership lessons and advice from – and for – women entrepreneurs in today’s technology and business communities. My co-panelists, Amy Cueva, Founder & Chief Experience Officer of Mad*Pow, Heather Margolis, Founder & President of Channel Maven Consulting, and Lynn Andres Stein of Olin College, were inspiring and thoughtful. They shared many tips with the audience based on various years of entrepreneurship – from nine months up to nearly 20 years. Some of my favorite tips, lessons and observations included:

• Don’t be afraid to be different – entrepreneurs are the core of innovation by thinking differently
• Women tend to be more emotional leaders – an attribute that can be both helpful and a hindrance
• Take time for yourself on a personal level – a personal life makes you a better business leader and a happier person all around
• Leaders make tough decisions every day (the right choices, not the popular ones) – you’ll never have everyone’s approval so stop waiting for it and trust your instincts
• Be definitive and decisive – know your values and stick to them
• Women are often their own worst enemies – support each other and our choices to work, to not work; to have a family or not. Only we can force the change we seek in respect for our gender’s choices.

What tough lessons have you learned that you’d share with other women considering the leap to entrepreneurship?

In addition, the audience was chock full of inspiring women. Two of my favorite were these brilliant ladies from Leotus Home Cooling. Katherine Harty, President and Beeni Mathew, VP, have created an innovative home cooling system with a few team members that is “the first effortless air conditioner — providing the comfort you want, without the compromises.” The design is sleek, innovative and sure to be a smash success. I’m sure these ladies will have many lessons of their own to share with future entrepreneurs. If you’d like to support their efforts today, be sure to vote for them in ideablob’s October sprint, where the participant receiving the most votes will win $10,000 from ideablob to further their business idea. (Although, unfortunately, I think requiring registration to vote is hindering the process.)

A special thanks to Kate Brodock of Boston Girls in Tech for asking me to participate.

What Do Clients Want Now? Six Top Companies from Tech to Travel Reveal the Biggest Opportunities for PR Firm Work in 2010
Brian Pittman from The Bulldog Reporter contributed this guest post to The Firm Voice, sharing perspectives from 6 top company execs including what they are now looking from their agencies in the upcoming year.

Rubbermaid Social Media Effort Thinks Inside the Container
Douglas Quenqua provides an interesting overview of Rubbermaid’s recent social marketing campaign that was the company’s first experience with “paid” social media.

The tacky techie conundrum
Seth Godin offers food for thought for marketers launching new technologies, hoping to gain the acceptance from the “top-right” demographic.

Integrating Social Into Traditional: 10 Tips For A Remarkable Blogger Event
Christine Whittemore provides some practical advice of what to do and not do when planning a launching for your own blogger-centric event.

It’s people not tools that matter
While its easy to be drawn towards all the fancy free tools for social media and PR measurement that keep popping up each month, KD Paine reminds us that only real human beings can help provide proper measurement in areas like reputation, relationships, brand health and brand strength.

This week we’re busy merging our online and offline worlds with other marketers and business executives at two key events. We kicked off Wednesday at Boston’s Internet Marketing Summit with a fun and interactive booth – check out the activity on our Whrrl story – where we helped the crowd connect with their “inner social media guru.” We also took away invaluable tips, tricks and lessons from the numerous panels. You can catch a lot of those tidbits by following the aggregated Twitter feed on our #IMS09 landing page (where the “inner social media guru photos are featured) or on Twitter.

Today I have the pleasure of attending (and speaking at) Open View Venture Partners Content Marketing Workshop. It’s only 10 a.m. and I’ve already learned plenty of new tips for great marketing, digital content and promotion. Being in a room with a group of energetic, eager and smart entrepreneurs is one of the best ways to spend the day. I look forward to applying some of these lessons for both PerkettPR and our clients in the future. And, while right now I need to pay attention and take notes, I’ll look to share some of the best tidbits from this event – and IMS – through our social networks (here, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn). If you have any specific questions that you’d like us to raise while we’re here, drop us a line!

What are your biggest marketing challenges?

I hesitate to admit at all on this blog that I actually have any time to watch TV, but nonetheless… while watching CBS’ The Amazing Race on Sunday evening, I noticed some interesting dynamics of the teams that could apply to business and how you work with your agency partners. Most specifically, how you treat your agency partners and whether or not your management style is helping you to get the most out of such an integral investment. Let’s take a look at some of the team dynamics at play:

The “you can do it” partner – encouraging and supportive, yet from a distance – not getting involved but cheerleading all the way.

The “blame” partner - when anything goes wrong, despite knowing that you played a roll in the outcome, you blame the other party.

The “all for one” partner – truly working with your team members to share information, provide  positive feedback and encouragement, and sharing in both the accomplishments and the challenges.

Herbert Lang and Nathaniel Lofton - Harlem Globetrotters - came in first Monday night through supportive team work and cooperation. Definitely "all for one" partners!

The leader/other half to a “yes man” partner – i.e., you provide all of the guidance and direction and your teammate just follows along.

The “naysayer partner” - any suggestion provided by your team members is met with instant doubt or a flat out “no.”

Each of these types of partnerships are on display on this show – and we’ll find out in the end which method ultimately equals winners. It may seem obvious why one works better over another – but if you don’t stop and think about what kind of partner you are, and what kind of partner your agency vendors are, you could be wasting valuable time and money. Partnerships work best when they consist of mutual respect, trust and a sense of camaraderie – i.e., we’re all here working towards a mutual goal. After all, you’ve put the work into researching and choosing the best agency partner (you did put that work in, right?!), so trust them, involve them and respect them. If you don’t, you might want to consider a new teammate.

Google Wave Hits Shore. Flash Flood Warning In Effect.
This week marked the first round of invites to Google Wave. Just 100,000 invites have been handed out so far – making the topic a top-trend in no time flat. This post from Louis Gray gives a good run-down of his first impressions.

He Said, She Said: Google Sidewiki
We’ll continue with the Google theme with this post from Beth Harte on MPDailyFix, featuring the lesser-hyped Google Sidewiki. Businesses and web site owners should note the paragraph on “claiming your site.”

Social Media Tools that Save Lives
Arnold Zafra from the RotorBlog share some interesting examples of how social media tools have been used to save lives in the wake of recent disasters around the globe.

5 Twitter Tips for Staying Authentic and Transparent
Michelle Bowles shares some tips for adding to your success on Twitter, but these straight forward and useful gems can (and should) be applied to your activity on all social networking platforms that are integrated into your overall social marketing strategy.

Five sure-fire ways to fail at social marketing
Helen Leggatt provides five tips on avoiding failure when you are preparing to take your first dip into social marketing waters.

I had an interesting conversation the other day with an industry colleague who used to be a community manager and is now building his own social media training and speaking consultancy. We got into the usual topic of social media and how businesses are still learning to adopt it in their communications programs. We also discussed his past life running online communities for businesses and the differences between managing a purpose-built community and navigating a community like Twitter.

I asked the question, will branded online or topic-specific online communities suffer because of the popularity of general communities such as Twitter and Facebook? For example, will you still participate in communities built around TV shows like LOST, life experiences like motherhood, brands like Kodak, or user communities for products such as Quickbooks or even EMC’s ControlCenter Community? Or has the ability to follow and hold such conversations simultaneously on Twitter taken your attention away from such communities?

Are you more likely to participate in one over the other? Do you get enough of what you need from a brand you admire on their Facebook fan page (ex: Avelle) or Twitter account (ex JetBlue), or will you still join an online community built for their customers? Is there one kind of online community that you prefer over another?

If you have an opinion will you please take our poll and/or leave a comment here with your opinion? Thank you in advance! We’re very interested to see how the future of online communities evolves over the next 6-12 months.

]]> http://perkettprsuasion.com/2009/09/23/the-new-community/feed/ 12 http://perkettprsuasion.com/2009/09/21/computerworld-takes-a-look-at-the-value-of-social-media-featuring-two-perkettpr-clients-their-roi/ http://perkettprsuasion.com/2009/09/21/computerworld-takes-a-look-at-the-value-of-social-media-featuring-two-perkettpr-clients-their-roi/#comments Mon, 21 Sep 2009 15:32:55 +0000 Christine Perkett http://perkettprsuasion.com/?p=1454

Whether you call it social media, new media, social marketing or another moniker, the big question remains the same – how do you measure its value? We’ve been able to measure value from day one of jumping into the social marketing world here at PerkettPR, and now we’re thrilled to be helping clients to do the same. Reality Digital and Litle & Co are both featured in a series of articles on Computerworld today regarding the value and ROI they’ve seen with their social media efforts.

In “One Company’s ROI Tally for Social Media,” Reality Digital’s CEO Cynthia Francis says calculating return on investment starts with understanding what you want to accomplish. She includes a breakdown of investment vs return, including:

• Total investment for social media programs (including technology costs and PR agency hours): roughly $3,000 per month
• Total sales leads generated in April, May and June: 72
• Average sales leads per month: 24
• Average cost per sales lead: $125
• Lead conversion to sales opportunities: 11.1%
• Lead conversion to closed deals: 1.4%

In “What’s your Twitter ROI? How to measure social media payoff,” our client John Stevens, director of corporate content and communications at Litle & Co., says the company has seen “six-figure revenue come in because of the connections made through social media.” He discusses the need for firm ROI figures and future decisions around using public sites such as Twitter or building proprietary systems.

What’s your return been on social media investments to-date? Do you expect the ROI to increase, decrease or remain the same in the next 6-12 months? How are you using social media in your business? CMOs and marketers, what kind of help you do plan to enlist for PR, social marketing and advertising in the next year? Please take our survey – it’s only two questions and we’d love to hear from you. Thanks!

Why corporate blogging is like selling uncut cocaine
Ok, you got me. This post came out last week. But, how could it not be a pick with an eye-popping title like that. Oh, and our own Fred Han interviewed David Spark a while back as well – in case you missed it.

A need for social media etiquette
So you’ve made that first step into the world of social media and it’s beginning to get exciting. AP business writer Barbara Ortutay shares this post on The Tenessean.com that advises readers to use a little restraint and put more thought into what they share on social networks.

Social media – PR’s new BFF
Do PR and Social Media go together like chocolate and peanut butter? The results of a recent study posted on bizcommunity.com seems to point in that direction. Read on for more.

The 10 Myths of Social Media
This post by Mikal Belicove on the Entrepreneur.com blog reiterates “10 Social Media Myths” by Eric T. Bradlow, co-director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Interactive Media Initiative. Bradlow recently presented these myths to B2B marketing and advertising professionals at the Lift Summit.

Why B2B Companies Have a Distinct Advantage Online
Another great post from Valeria Maltoni that includes additional links to helpful information for B2B’s.

Over the last year I have sat across many-a-Starbucks table from social media and marketing consultants of all types. I have given advice on job hunting, standing out from the competition and more, and I’ve asked a lot of questions, such as, “What makes you an expert above and beyond the next guy/gal?” A lot of times, the answers were vague.

But one of those times, I sat with Rachel Levy (@bostonmarketer). Rachel has a very interesting story to tell – she recently became the Director of Marketing and Social Media for Second Time Around, a chain of contemporary, designer, consignment clothing & furniture stores. But prior to that, she spent a year off – networking, job hunting and ultimately, with the intelligent use of social media (as well as some tenacity), reinventing herself. (See her recent blog post about this.) In our conversation Rachel stood out – she’s smart, insightful and most of all, she was enthusiastic about finding the right position with the right company.

I’d say she’s found it.

Last night I attended #ShopUp, a shopping event that Rachel planned to help raise awareness of Boston’s Second Time Around (the company has 21 shops in cities around the U.S.). Now, I’m a rabid fashion fan and involved in the industry as a Board Advisor to New York City’s Style Coalition, but last night I wasn’t paying attention to the fashion. I was paying attention to the social marketing of this event – Rachel did an amazing job.

I sat down with Rachel today to ask her about the event. I was so impressed with it, I wanted to share it as a great case study in how social marketing can help any business – when done well. I’ve heard a lot of people claim social media expertise – but anyone can pull off tactics like running a Twitter account. Integrating them into an overall strategy is a different story.

PPR: What was your overall strategy for #ShopUp?

RL: Mainly, I wanted to spread the word about who we are and what we do – specifically, create regional awareness for the Boston store through word of mouth. A specific part of that goal was to get people to interact with the product. Having a party and getting them into the store was the best way to do that. Consignment shopping is a different experience than shopping for new retail – I wanted people to experience it first hand. Lastly, while this event was held in Boston, I also wanted to use it to create national awareness for our 20 other stores – creating curiosity for shoppers to find out about the store near them.

PPR: What was the event?

RL: ShopUp was an evening of shopping and schmoozing. We encouraged shoppers to come by for appetizers and drinks, a little shopping and, in honor of New York Fashion Week, a fashion show. Held at our store, we provided shoppers with 20% off during the event, and handed out 10% off coupons for future shopping. We also encouraged shoppers to bring in any designer clothes to consign that evening.

Christine Perkett (@missusP), Michael Durwin (mdurwin), Carissa O'Brien (@carissao)

PPR: How did you use social media to promote and run ShopUp?

RL: Pre-event promotion included a community contest through Twitter, where our followers nominated the models for the fashion show part of the evening. We created the hashtag #ShopUp for easy tracking of the conversations taking place around nominations and the event itself. Once we had nominees, we had people vote for the four models who would be in the show. This process proved to be very viral – people were really interested because they had a part in creating the show. We also posted news about the event on Facebook. During the event, we had guests vote for the best outfit and model – again, via Twitter. The model who received the most votes for a specific outfit got to take the clothes home. To share the event with those outside of Boston, we streamed live video through UStream, Twittered during the event (using TweetDeck and CoTweet) and we’ll be featuring a compilation video of the entire evening on YouTube. Our photos are also up on Flickr, and many people sent TwitPics during the event as well. Lastly, today we issued a post-event survey through a BostonTweetUp twtpoll.

The runway (photo by Pamela Rosenthal)

PPR: What was the ROI? Did you reach your goals?

RL: Oh yes! About 75 people attended the event and our sales were positively impacted. We experienced a positive return on our investment in regards to revenue vs expenses as well. Although I don’t yet have figures to share around the specific number of impressions driven by the event, I can say that we drove new business – 50 percent of the people who attended had never shopped here before… but either did last night or intend to return, I’m sure. (PPR: Rachel incorporated a smart strategy to ask attendees two questions at the registration table; 1) Have you shopped with us before and 2) Can we add you to our mailing list?)

Congratulations to Rachel and Second Time Around on a terrific event – and to the lucky model/winner (Manolo Blahnik shoes, Escada sweater, jeans & accessories!), Carissa O’Brien.

Yeah OK, So Facebook Punk’d Us
Facebook’s PR team gets some fun revenge on TechCrunch by pulling a fast one on Arrington & Company by subtly revealing a new “feature.”

Gaffe by Tweet: Top 10 Social-Media Slip-Ups Musicians, movie stars, professional athletes and now, even politicians are flocking to Twitter. Some use it well. Some don’t. Newsweek shares 10 slip-ups from the political camp.

Social Media for B2B
Socialnomics author, Erik Qualman gives some insight and advice to B2B companies looking to wrangle their social media strategies… by reviewing the way B2C’s have been doing it.

The new PR: Nimble Twitter responses make grass roots easy (or hard)
Sarah Gilbert shares a few stories showing the importance of listening, responding and acting quickly to customer comments on social media channels.

How Customer Support Organizations Must Evolve
Along the same lines of the previous pick, Jeremiah Owyang expands on how customer service organizations must evolve and adapt to survive the rapid changes in customer communication. Slides from Jeremiah’s recent presentation on the topic are included in the post.

Yesterday’s Boston Globe reported that the jobless plight continues: “5 million Americans have been out of work for more than six months, a record number that forecasts a slow, difficult recovery and a long period of high unemployment, according to Northeastern University’s Center for Labor Market Studies.”

If you are fortunate enough to have a job or a healthy customer list, are you making yourself invaluable to your employer? To your customers? Are you striving to do everything possible to move prospects from viewing your company or products as a “nice to have” to a “must have”? Are you doing everything possible to ensure your name never appears on the “short list” when management has to think about cost cutting? If not, why not?

Even if you believe that you are in a comfortable place with your job or customers, you should be striving to do everything possible to be seen as invaluable. Invaluable means it would hurt to lose you and – as much as one can be -  that you are irreplaceable. As an employee, you should especially drive to be irreplaceable because with the job market as it is, there are plenty of available workers who will line up to fill your shoes should they become vacant.

A few esy ways to become invaluable:

• Don’t do what’s asked. Do more without having to be asked.

• Go beyond the obvious. Attending a networking event? Reading a book? Joining a webinar? How can you bring lessons, leads or other value back to your organization or to your clients?

• Pay attention to the competition (even if it’s not “your” job). Whether it’s another vendor or an industry colleague, know what they’re doing. Then strive to do more, better. Make suggestions to management to keep the entire company ahead of the curve.

• Be visible. Visit your clients, ask your boss to lunch, send one new idea a day to your managers.

• Don’t miss a brainstorm. In fact, suggest them yourself. And speak up during every single one. (Meetings, too!)

• Be selfless. While it’s hard to think of others during a time when “personal branding” is all the rage, don’t forget about your existing employer or customers. Be sure that your efforts can be seen as mutually beneficial – to both you and your organization (or clients/customers).

• Forget about your job description. Or at least don’t stay within its boundaries. Offer to take on new projects, grab assignments normally reserved for others when you see staff shortages, etc.

• Improve, innovate, inspire. The recession can be tough on everyone – including your boss. While it can be hard to stay positive and upbeat, doing so will help you to stand out as a leader. A negative, controversial attitude will only make the situation worse – and it will be remembered. But working hard to improve everything you do, innovate in the way you do things, and inspiring others to do better will help you to be invaluable now – and well into the future.

What’s your advice for becoming invaluable?

Why You Should Stop Sleeping With Your Laptop
B.L. Ochman lends some sound advice to the current generation of web-workers in this entertaining post that serves as a wake up call to unplug and get a life!

Are you a social media addict?
Following along with a similar topic to my first pick, Scott Kleinberg from the ChicagoNow’s Redeye blog shares five fun signs that you might be a social media addict.

A Framework for Branding Through Social Media
Jordan Julien suggests five methods of communicating with your online communities to better map out your social media strategies.

7 Reasons Social Media Is A No-Brainer For Passionate B2C Brands
B2C brands that are still hesitant to make the plunge into social media might benefit from Adam Singer’s seven reasons to jump in sooner rather than later.

Using Classic PR Techniques To Support Brands In Social Networks
Marty Weintraub shares seven existing PR channels that can be leveraged to help feed information into a social media presence on a regular basis.

I recently spoke at the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce breakfast where I discussed the need for a dedicated social media manager to help strategize, launch and manage a social media program.

Since many of the attendees were from smaller companies, I stressed that any business – big or small – could benefit from implementing some form of social media strategy into their organization. An example I used to help make my point was to compare Starbucks with the Crème Brulee cart in San Francisco. Both businesses are using Twitter and seeing great results to drive business to their location, but one is a multi-national chain and the other is a small food cart roaming around San Francisco. They couldn’t be more different, yet they are using the same tools to connect and engage with their loyal fans.

If you don’t think you need help managing your social media efforts, you might want to take a closer look at the time investment required to ensure it’s done well. Sure, some of you may be able to manage it all while also running your business, but to do it right, it needs to be more than an afterthought – and most executives just don’t have the bandwidth to focus on doing both jobs effectively at the same time.

You also aren’t likely to have the time to “be everywhere” – listening, engaging, responding – but a dedicated social media professional can do this for you. Consistency is crucial to ensure results. A dedicated focus on social media efforts = a quicker time to value.

You also don’t want to have a “Nelson” moment by not paying attention to your brand online. Some examples I used during the Chamber Breakfast included Domino’s Pizza and United Airlines to show the difference between a brand listening and responding immediately (Domino’s) and another that chose to ignore for more than a year (United).

So, what should you look for in a social media professional? We asked David Meerman Scott this question while attending SXSW Interactive earlier this year. You can check out the video here, but I summed it up with this intricate graphic I call “The Anatomy of a Social Media Professional.”

As David also pointed out in his interview with us, when you are seeking help with your social media efforts, it’s important that you do your homework and make sure whoever you hire has the qualifications needed to get the job done. If they aren’t out there practicing what they preach, or if they can’t point to any ROI as a result of their efforts, than you might want to keep searching.

What do you think? Do you think a dedicated social media professional is necessary in business? What qualities do you think a social media professional should have – did we miss anything in our anatomy slide? We would love to get your thoughts in the comment section below.

Twenty-One Top Twitter Tips… from Forbes

Still not convinced of the business value of Twitter? Forbes understands your concern and did some research for you – canvassing scads of businesses and pricey social-networking gurus looking for honest answers on how to make money – if you can make money – with the microblogging service. Their answers may surprise you, as they share 21 ways Twitter can have an impact, and not just as a marginal marketing tool.

College Optional?

Larry Cheng, Partner at Fidelity Ventures wonders aloud if college is necessary for a true entrepreneur. “Sitting in a classroom listening to a teacher every day for four years in so many ways is exactly the opposite of what someone with an entrepreneurial DNA should want to do.” In this post, he outlines what he sees as a “blueprint to success” for those with no degree. First lesson? Take $1.00 and turn into $1.10 by this time next week.

Use Teamwork to Tackle Problems

Of course you know that teamwork is important, but in this Marketing Profs Daily Fix post, Paul Williams outlines in detail – complete with instruction template – how to create a GroupChallenge. Beyond basic brainstorming, a GroupChallenge is a simple and inexpensive way to―on an ongoing basis―inspire creativity and teamwork to generate ideas and solve problems.

Group Challenge Setup - Image from Marketing Profs Daily Fix

Why Waltham Doesn’t Matter

For those on the East Coast, this piece by Scott Kirsner of the Boston Globe has created quite a stir. Will it be the new turf war? Kirsner claims, “The new core of Boston venture capital has moved in closer to the city, toward Copley Square and Harvard Square,” and that “as a group, they [Waltham venture capitalists] represent the worst of the old-school business culture.” He has some great viewpoints on risk taking, the innovation economy and what he terms “the vibrant new culture of entrepreneurship.”

Should PR Professionals Use Social Media to Build Their Personal Brand?

PR Week takes a look at two opinions on one of the hottest debated topics in our office. How do you balance personal brand with your corporate brand? Should you? Two PR professionals weigh in.