Social Media Industry Marketing Report

Michael A. Stelzner has published the Social Media Marketing Industry Report: How Marketers Are Using Social Media to Grow Their Businesses. The report, based on responses from nearly 900 marketers, is available free. Here is a sampling of the findings:

Marketers are mostly new to social media: 88% of marketers surveyed are using social media to market their businesses, BUT 72% have onlybeen doing so for a few months or less.
How much time does this take? 64% of marketers are using social media for 5 hours or more each week and 39% for 10 or more hours weekly.
The top benefit of social media marketing: The number-one advantage is generating exposure for the business, indicated 81% of all marketers, followedby increasing traffic and building new business partnerships.
The top social media tools: Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn and Facebook were the top four social media tools used by marketers, in that order.
Social media tools marketers most want to learn about: Social bookmarkingsites were ranked of highest interest, followed closely by Twitter.

How to develop a Facebook site

Ever wonder how companies/organisations should maximise the potential of a facebook site?


"Over the past few years Facebook has witnessed a dramatic rise in new user adoption and with that rise has come the opportunity for brands to interact directly with existing customers and engage new ones. At the end of 2007, Facebook announced the launch of Facebook Pages and last week they launched a revised edition which includes a number of significant upgrades. This week, those pages will be going live for all. There are numerous ways for brands to leverage Facebook but the overall branded experience is becoming increasingly integrated into a single offering as the new Pages product highlights. So what are the primary benefits and changes for the new branded pages?"

Hee are the tricks, in a post called "How to develop a Facebook site", by Nick O'Neill. Gives 10 strategies every brand should know and take account of. Here are the top five :

Develop Custom Tabs for Custom Ads
Don’t Let New Users Land on the Wall
Create a Unique Page Image
Integrate Applications To Increase Engagement
Join the Conversation, It’s Not Optional Anymore

e-books in schools

e-book users are certainly looking younger....

Article from Times Educational Supplement ( 20.02.09 ) about their increasing use in the classroom....