Watch the video blog below or visit the original post at his blog.

An Industry Viewpoint: Social Media Services

The POST Method: A systematic approach to social strategy

Here are a few of my top reads over the last week:

Mint Blogger’s: Why you need a customized theme
A great topic on my list of things to blog about. Rajeev suggests “a custom theme is necessary for every professional blog.” I would go so far as to add you should have a ‘premium’ theme that is customized He mentions Blog Branding, SEO, and features in an easy to understand way for even the newest bloggers.

ZDnet: Engineers are from Mars, Marketers are from Venus written by Oliver Mark

“Enterprises who do not use all the tools at their disposal, sometimes formally taking risks with IP protection with full knowledge and approval by senior management, risk becoming secure fortresses which are increasingly uncompetitive.”

This rings true for me.  Development is important but your marketing personal KNOW your audience and your tech team needs to develop FOR your audience.  The answer for me is to get your marketing team involved in the development planning, testing, and evaluating. You can lay as many eggs as you want but if you can’t sell them they will soon start to stink

Web Users Shaping Consumer Opinion: Jack Loechner’s discussion on Netpop Research’s report “Media Shifts to Social”.
A few key items:
# 105 million Americans contribute to social media
# Social networking has grown 93% since 2006
# 7 million Americans are “heavy” social media contributors (6+ activities) who connect with 248 people on a ‘one to many’ basis in a typical week

When everything becomes social, what is “social media? : Techno Marketer Matt Dickman
“instead of taking a narrow, short-term view of “social media”, we need to step back, look at all media and see what the social technology potential is and look at how to take advantage of that to deliver more relevant experiences.”

Your Only as Good as the Monitoring Tool You Use:
Blending  the Mix: The importance of metrics and evaluating your Social media real time

Ten things you could do better today
Chris Brogan: A great reminder for those of us in the online world.

The Onsite Offsite Debate:
Conversations Matter, Bob Duffy:  “rarely should you establish a program that is focused on one or the other.  Meaning if you’re building a social media program it should include a branded community component, the kind that has your company logo proudly in the upper corner of the page, AND activity where most the people go, where the  logo isn’t on the page.”

My top Social media read of the week is the Onsite OffSite Debate post by Bob Duffy. Which so eloquantly explains what I may have failed to explain  successfully to a client or two Thanks Bob !

25 Ways to Build Your Community by Chris Brogan

Chris’s blog is fast becoming daily sustenance for my mind. This blog post is from last month, sometimes digging back through an incredible blog is worth it when you find a great gem of a post.

Number24 is one we all need to be reminded of; “Keep your eyes on the STRATEGY of what you’re doing. Otherwise, there are tons of ways to fall into rabbit holes.”

FaceBook Page SEO on David Berkowitz’s Marketing Blog

“The impetus for the latest discussion is that Facebook now will include links to Pages (the stuff you say you’re a fan of) in public profile listings. Public profile listings are indexed by Google. Google likes links. More links means (to oversimplify it) better search rankings. Do the dots all connect?”

A little thought provoking …. is it not ?

Here is a random thought generated by an ongoing trend I’ve noticed while browsing through my Google reader:

I have noticed that many bloggers share what blog posts they are reading using Delicious bookmarks. I took a moment to consider doing the same. Being beyond busy in my life automation is generally a good idea. However, isn’t the reason we read blogs to not just gain the knowledge one offers but also to interact with the blogger. The Blog is an extension of the unique personality of the blogger is it not ? So for now I will continue to share a few of my favourite weekly reads with you enclosed within my personal chatter.