Social Media Best Practices | 60 Second Marketer

March 28th, 2011

Social Media ROI: How to Tell if Your Social Media Campaign is Making Money

If you’re like a lot of marketing directors, you’re probably still trying to wrap your mind around this whole social media ROI thing.

After all, it’s not all that difficult to launch a Facebook/YouTube/Twitter/LinkedIn campaign. But it is hard to calculate the success of your campaign on an ROI basis.

You can see the entire presentation in the viewer below. Or, just click here to download it directly from SlideShare.

With that in mind, I created a 1950s-style cartoon story that walks people through the entire ROI calculation process. (You’ll have to excuse my sense of humor in the cartoon — it can get a little sketchy at times.)

My intent was to create a document that people would want to share with co-workers.

Better still, I wanted to walk people through some of the more complex issues like Customer Lifetime Value, Cost Per Sale and the Hub-and-Spoke model. (All of which are covered in-depth in “How to Make Money with Social Media,” the book I co-wrote with Dr. Reshma Shah.)

In any case, I hope you enjoy the presentation below. Feel free to click the little buttons at the bottom if you’d like to share it with others via Twitter, Facebook or email.

Thanks!

Social Media ROI: How to Tell if Your Social Media Campaign is Making Money

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Posted by Jamie Turner, Chief Content Officer of the 60 Second Marketer, the online magazine of BKV Digital and Direct Response. Jamie is also the co-author of How to Make Money with Social Media.

Social Marketing, Social Media | 6 Comments »

Tags: How to make money with social media how to tell if your social media campaign is working Jamie Turner Social media best practices Social Media Case Study social media measurement Social media metrics social media ROI The 60 Second Marketer

March 16th, 2011

When Is Social Media NOT Right for Your Company?

A few days ago, I started a discussion on the 60 Second Forum that asked the question, “When is social media NOT right for a company?” The discussion stirred up a good amount of interest and feedback, so I thought I’d continue the conversation here.

(If you’d like to be part of the 60 Second Forum discussion on LinkedIn, click here. Or, you can simply leave a comment below.)

In the 60 Second Forum discussion, I said there are some businesses where a social media marketing campaign is not the right choice. The example I used was a friend of mine who owned a auto windshield repair store. He called me to ask my advice on launching a social media campaign for his business.

After asking him a series of questions, I came to the conclusion that social media would not be right for his business.

Just because social media is the bright, new tool in the marketer's tool kit doesn't mean it's the right choice 100% of the time.

Why not?

Because for a social media campaign to work, you have to have a topic or a product that people are interested in being part of.

In How to Make Money with Social Media, we call this phenomenon “social media magnetism.”

Some companies, organizations or causes have a great deal of social media magnetism. Other companies have a little bit. And still other companies have negative social media magnetism. In other words, no amount of noise or promotion will ever get people to become part of some companies’ social media campaigns.

My friend who owned the windshield repair franchise had a business that had negative social media magnetism. Despite the clear need for businesses like his, nobody really thinks about windshields or windshield repairs until they have a cracked windshield. And when that happens, they simply do a search for the nearest windshield repair stores and then select the one with the lowest price.

(Sorry, Dave.)

All that said, there are times when social media is GOOD for a company. In fact, assuming that your product or service doesn’t have negative social media magnetism, social media can be right for you if:

You want to attract new customers to your business
You want existing customers to come back more frequently
You want an inexpensive way to connect with customers
You want customer feedback on a new product or service
You want to cross-promote one part of your business with another part of your business
You want to increase brand loyalty
You want to differentiate your brand from your competitor’s brand

All this leads me to my final question — Is social media all it’s hyped up to be?

No, social media isn’t all it’s hyped up to be. It’s just one more tool in the marketer’s tool chest. Yes, it’s a bright, new shiny tool, but no, it’s not always going to be the right tool to use 100% of the time.

When you’re analyzing your marketing strategy, remember that there are a number of perfectly viable alternatives to a social media campaign — print, radio, TV, outdoor, collateral, direct mail, paid search and email marketing are just some of the other tools that come to mind.

The bottom line: Social media is a terrific tool … some of the time.

What are your thoughts on all this? You can join the conversation, either on our LinkedIn discussion or in the comments section below.

P.S. If you like what you read today, you can have these blog posts delivered to your in box each morning by clicking here. Or, you can sign up for our free weekly e-newsletter by clicking here.

Posted by Jamie Turner, Chief Content Officer of the 60 Second Marketer, the online magazine of BKV Digital and Direct Response. Jamie is also the co-author of How to Make Money with Social Media.

General Marketing, Social Marketing, Social Media | 2 Comments »

Tags: How to tell if social media is right how to tell if social media is right for my business Social media best practices social media case studies

January 14th, 2011

Harvard Business Review Social Media Article Snapshot

One of the key ideas behind BKV’s 60 Second Marketer is that we do some of the hard work for you.

By that, I mean that we read and analyze lengthy articles and white papers, then distill them down to 60-second summaries on your behalf. That way, you can get in, get out, and get back to work.

With that in mind, here’s a 60-second summary of an article from Harvard Business Review called Social Media and the New Rules of Branding.

The key idea behind the 60 Second Marketer is that we read lengthy articles for you, then distill them down to 60-second blog posts.

Key Take-Away:

Consumer behavior models are evolving. Today, consumers engage with brands after purchase almost as much as they engage with brands before purchase. Brands that understand this can use these third-party endorsements to grow market share and improve their marketing ROI.

Fascinating Factiod:

More than 60% of consumers of facial skin care products conduct online research after their purchase. This is a touch-point entirely missing from the classic consumer behavior models.

60 Second Article Summary:

The old consumer behavior models were based on a process where consumers evaluated many products, considered a handful and then purchased one
The old model puts too much emphasis on the consideration and the purchase phases
New research shows that consumers have an extended evaluation phase where they continuously add and subtract brands from their considered set of alternatives
Most importantly, consumers can become valuable advocates for your brand post-purchase, thereby becoming an important third-party component of your sales and marketing process
Most brands under-leverage this phase of their purchase cycle

The Bottom Line:

Consumers purchase products by first going through Consideration, Evaluation and then Buying phases. After purchase consumers Enjoy, Advocate and Bond with products. You can use the Enjoy, Advocate and Bond phases to help grow your market share via third-party endorsements.

Action Steps for You:

What are you doing to actively connect with your customers post-purchase?
What are you doing to reward customers for their endorsement of your product?
How are these post-purchase engagement programs integrated into your overall marketing plan?

Posted by Jamie Turner, Chief Content Officer of the 60 Second Marketer, the online magazine of BKV Digital and Direct Response. Jamie is also the co-author of How to Make Money with Social Media.

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Tags: Harvard Business Review Social Media Article Social media best practices Social Media Case Study

December 21st, 2010

How Good Is Your Social Media Program? Find Out with The 60 Second Marketer Social Media Snapshot.

Are you interested in getting a quick read on how good your social media program is? A lot of people are.

With that in mind, I’ve put a little grid together to help you get a sense of how good your social media program is. It’s called the 60 Second Marketer Social Media Snapshot and it’s designed to give you a sense of where you are and where you should be going.

The Snapshot isn’t all-inclusive and it isn’t designed to do anything other than give you something to shoot darts at. But it’s a nifty little way to get an understanding of where you are on the social media spectrum.

How the Snapshot Works

Most social media programs suffer from two things. The first is that they’re run tactically. By that, I mean that businesses are putting up a Facebook page or creating a Twitter account without thinking through their strategic goals first.

On a scale of 1 to 10, where do you fall on a tactical/strategic scale? If you score yourself a 1, that means that you’re highly-tactical and that you’re jumping into social media before you’ve thought through your strategy and goals. (If you’re on the tactical side of the equation, you might be interested in also reading “Three Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Launch a Social Media Campaign” on the 60 Second Marketer blog.)

If you score yourself a 10, you’re on the highly-strategic side of the equation. That means that you have a written social media plan complete with objectives, strategies, tactics and an executional timeline. (Side note: People like you drive me crazy. Relax, would ya? You’re making the rest of us look like slackers.)

Okay, now we’re ready to look at the part-time/full-time line on the spectrum. If you score yourself a 1, you’re doing it when it suits your fancy — for example, when you’re having your morning cup of coffee.

If you score yourself a 10, that means you have a person (or a team of people) who are focusing 100% of their time on your social media campaign. (If that’s the case, lucky you.)

Now that you’ve graded yourself, plot out where you are today on the Social Media Snapshot below. Draw a dot where your two grades intersect. In Example A, the company graded themselves a 4 on the part-time/full-time spectrum and a 7 on the tactical/strategic spectrum. In Example B, the company graded themselves a an 8 and a 4.

Now — and this is important — plot out where you want to be in 6 months as well as 12 months.

Be realistic. And don’t just plot out something random for your 6 month and 12 month goal. Think through how you’re going to accomplish those goals so that you can put it all together.

Make sense?

Again, the 60 Second Marketer Social Media Snapshot isn’t intended to be the end-all and be-all. It’s just intended to give you something to shoot for today, in 6 months and in 12 months. By visualizing where you are today and where you want to be tomorrow, you’ll have a graphic reminder of how 2011 should roll out for you over the next 12 months.

Enjoy!

Posted by Jamie Turner, Chief Content Officer of-to the 60 Second Marketer, the online magazine of BKV Digital and Direct Response. Jamie’s book, How to Make Money with Social Media, is available at fine bookstores (and a few not-so-fine-bookstores) everywhere.

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Tags: Social media best practices

October 11th, 2010

Five Ways the Fortune 500 Use Social Media to Grow Sales and Revenue

There are five different ways the Fortune 500 use social media to grow their sales and revenue. Which ones are you incorporating into your social media campaigns?

Branding. Some companies use social media strictly as a branding tool. Typically, this means running a YouTube campaign that (hopefully) gets a lot of buzz around the water cooler. In my opinion, using social media only as a branding tool is a twentieth century mindset. If you really want to supercharge your social media campaigns, you’ll incorporate one or all of the next four highly measurable approaches into your social media campaign as well.

e-Commerce. If you can sell your product or service online, then you’ll want to drive people to a landing page on your website where they can buy your goods. How can you accomplish this? Just do what Dell does—they Tweet about special promotions available only to the people who follow them on Twitter. The promotional links are easily tracked so they can see how many people went to the landing page and how many converted from a prospect to a customer. They generate millions of dollars in revenue each quarter by using this method.

Research. Are you interested in keeping an eye on what your customers and prospects think about your brand? Many companies are using social media as a tool to do simple, anecdotal research. Sometimes, this involves building a website to engage in a dialogue with customers and prospect. Starbucks has done this famously with their MyStarbucksIdea.com website. Other times, using social media as a research tool can be as simple as doing a poll on LinkedIn, SurveyMonkey, or via email.

Customer Retention. A good rule of thumb is that it costs three to ﬁve times as much to acquire a new customer as it does to keep an existing one. Given that, wouldn’t it be smart to use social media as a tool to keep customers loyal and engaged? That’s what Comcast and Southwest Airlines do—they communicate via Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms to help solve customer service issues.

Lead Generation. What do you do if you can’t sell your product or service online? Then you’ll want to do what many B2B companies do—that is, to use social media to drive prospects to a website where they can download a whitepaper, listen to a Podcast, or watch a video. Once you’ve captured the prospect’s contact information, you can re-market to them via email, direct mail, or any number of other methods.

Those are the five primary ways the Fortune 500 are using social media to grow their sales and revenue. Which ones are you using? Do tell.

Posted by Jamie Turner, Chief Content Officer, the 60 Second Marketer, the online magazine of BKV Digital and Direct Response. Jamie’s new book, “How to Make Money with Social Media” is now available at fine bookstores everywhere.

Social Marketing, Social Media, Southwest Airlines | 3 Comments »

Tags: Social media best practices social media case studies

August 5th, 2010

8 Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Dive Into Social Media

Every so often, I’ll post an excerpt from “How to Make Money with Social Media,” the book I’ve written with Dr. Reshma Shah from Emory University.

We’re in the final stages of proofreading the book right now. (It’ll be published by the Financial Times Press in early October.)

Here’s an excerpt I just came across tonight that I thought you might find useful.

Enjoy.

“When you’re thinking about how you can use social media to connect with your customers and, ultimately, make money, ask yourself these key questions:

This guy looks kind of skeptical. That's what you should look like when you ask yourself if social media is right for you. The only difference is that you're much better looking than this guy is.

Will the beneﬁts of engaging in social media marketing outweigh the risks?
Are there any risks if you do participate?
Does your industry, product, or brand have a unique characteristic that may make social media more or less critical and relevant?
Can you use social media marketing to inﬂuence key stakeholders in the intended manner?
Do you know which platforms will resonate best with your stakeholders, and can you motivate them to participate?
Does your organization have the necessary capabilities—including resources and processes—to achieve your desired brand positioning through social media?
Do you have a way to integrate social media into your current marketing communications strategy?
Do you have a set of metrics that will help you understand whether the return from social media was worth the investment?”

Are there any questions we missed? What would you add to the list? Do tell.

Posted by Jamie Turner, Chief Content Officer, the 60 Second Marketer, the online magazine for BKV Digital and Direct Response.

General Marketing, Social Media | 7 Comments »

Tags: is social media right for my business? Social media best practices who should use social media?

July 28th, 2010

Why Your First Social Media Campaign May Have Failed.

This excerpt is just a short sample of some of the content in “How to Make Money with Social Media,” by Jamie Turner and Dr. Reshma Shah. To download a free chapter, click Free Chapter. Or, better still, buy a copy right now on Amazon (affiliate link).

You were probably pretty fired-up when social media first started came along. It was an exciting new approach, there was a lot of buzz about it and everybody was eager to see if social media was going to be like paid search. You remember paid search — in the early years, it was so successful that it was the equivalent of printing money. Today, it’s a solid, viable medium, but in those early years, it was super hot.

And that’s what social media is today. Super hot. But somewhere along the way, there have been a lot of people who have stumbled. They’ve launched a campaign, sometimes with great fanfare, and failed miserably.

Our point is this – if you’re a company that sells paper or pet supplies or, God forbid, industrial widgets (apologies to the industrial widget makers out there), you’re going to have to reach out to the consumer and get them engaged with your social media campaign.

How can you do this? By creating a campaign that gives the consumer something of value that they don’t currently have. This can be give-aways and other special promotions that are relatively traditional. Or, it can be information that the visitor finds useful. Better still, it could be a tool that keeps the visitor coming back for more.

One of the best and smartest versions of these tools is what a company out of Boston called Hubspot has created. They realized that one of the best ways to create inbound traffic to their website was to create a tool people couldn’t do without. So they created an SEO analysis tool called WebsiteGrader and put it up on their website.

How to Make Money with Social Media is available at fine bookstores around the globe. Click the image above to order on Amazon.

What’s an SEO analysis tool? It’s a sophisticated program that analyzes how Google, Yahoo or Bing see your site. The real stroke of genius was that the folks at Hubspot decided to include WebsiteGrader on their website. By sharing their tool with other people, they created inbound traffic, which ultimately converts to customers.

“A great way to get more customers using social media is not just to engage, but educate,” says Hubspot Chief Technology Officer and Founder Dharmesh Shah. “We believe in this passionately at HubSpot and it has worked miracles for us. We’ve learned that more people you make smarter by educating them, the more leads and customers you get.”

How successful has Hubspot’s WebsiteGrader been? So far, it’s generated grades on more than 2 million URLs. So on more than 2 million occasions, potential customers for Hubspot have visited, engaged and interacted with one of the tools it has on their site. That kind of traffic is mind-boggling, especially if you’re a company with only a few hundred employees.

Check out MyStarbucksIdea.com or WebsiteGrader.com next time you’re at a computer. You’ll get a clear sense of what they’re doing to engage people – and keep them engaged – with their companies.

Which brings us back to one of the key things a lot of folks are asking themselves right now, “If social media is such a powerful tool, then how come my first campaign failed?”

It’s a great question. So we did an analysis of the most common mistakes people make when they run a social media campaign and came up with the list below. Take a spin through it and put a check by the ones that apply to you. Don’t be surprised if you have more than one checkmark – the idea is to figure out where you’re coming up short so you can focus on fixing the problem areas:

___ You didn’t measure the results of your campaign: Interestingly, this is an all-too-common problem. We’ll discuss ways you can measure the results of your next campaign in an upcoming chapter.

___ You didn’t set clear objectives: Some companies create a Facebook page or a YouTube channel before thinking through their objectives. Is it to build awareness? To drive traffic to a landing page on your site? To give people a channel to make comments and record their frustrations?

___ You thought social media was only about Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or YouTube: Of course, social media is about having many conversations across as many platforms as you can manage. The more opportunities you provide customers to engage with you, the more successful your campaign.

___ You didn’t know how to set up a landing page: One of basic models of social media success look like this: prospect à social media channel à landing page on website à new customer. If you don’t have a landing page on your website designed to convert prospects to customers, then you won’t be able to track your ROI. No ROI, no social media campaign. (Or, rather, no effective social media campaign.)

___ You didn’t re-market to customer prospects: Most prospects who visit your landing page won’t become customers. In fact, the vast majority won’t. But that doesn’t mean they’re never going to buy. It just means they weren’t going to buy at that time. Keep ‘em in your pipeline – you’ll get them someday, if you re-market to them.

___ You didn’t know how to turn a social media campaign into a sales and marketing campaign: Social media isn’t just about building awareness. It’s about turning prospects into customers. Don’t be shy about nudging prospects along the sales funnel. They expect it, to a certain degree.

___ You sat on the sidelines: True story – we were in contact with a creative director at a major advertising agency a while back who said, “this whole internet thing is just a flash in the pan and I can’t wait for it to blow over.” We’re serious. He said that. Our point? You don’t want to be that guy.

___ You downplayed the importance of social media: Some people don’t sit on the sidelines as much as they participate without passion. That’s almost as bad as sitting on the sidelines. You don’t want to be that guy, either.

___ You thought you could do social media in 10 minutes a day: Social media is a little like a marriage – you won’t have a successful marriage if you plan on spending just 10 minutes a day having a dialog with your spouse. The same holds true for a successful social media campaign.

___ You thought social media was like traditional marketing: There are a lot of similarities between social media and traditional media. But there are a lot of differences, too. Your job is to embrace those differences. Don’t be scared. Social media won’t hurt you.

We could go on and on about some of the ways your social media campaign might have failed in the past, but we won’t. Our job here is to show you ways to succeed with social media, not how to fail.

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Tags: Social media best practices Social media mistakes Social Media Tips

June 24th, 2010

Is Social Media Right For Your Business? Here’s How to Find Out.

I do a lot of seminars and speeches around the country on how to set up, launch and run a social media campaign. My goal is to help people who are interested in developing a long-term, strategic approach to social media (as opposed to a short-term, tactical approach).

Is social media right for your business? Here are some things you should consider before you dive into the world of social media.

Recently, a lot of people have been claiming they have a social media campaign simply because they’ve launched a Facebook page. Unfortunately, a Facebook page does not constitute a social media campaign. A well-executed social media campaign involves setting objectives, developing strategies, identifying tactics and executing a plan.

Reshma Shah, my co-author on How to Make Money with Social Media, recently consulted with a major corporation about setting up and running a social media campaign. Her conclusion after doing an initial analysis was that their client’s business model wasn’t right for social media. As a result, her recommendation was to NOT launch a social media campaign.

Deciding whether social media is right for your business is deceptively simple. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you’re exploring the possibility of setting up, launching and running a social media campaign:

First, acknowledge that social media is over-hyped right now. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a useful tool. It just means that you should acknowledge that it’s not a silver bullet that’s going to solve all of your marketing problems.
Second, understand that social media is just one of many marketing tools. Before you decide to launch a social media campaign, you’ll do yourself a favor if you explore all the traditional marketing tools first. Have you looked into radio? Paid search? Outdoor? Collateral? They’re often good alternatives to a social media campaign.
Third, recognize that your industry might not be right for social media. If you’re in the trucking business, social media may not be right for you. If you make industrial drill bits, social media may not be right for you. If you repair lawnmowers, social media may not be right. There’s nothing wrong with that. Really, there isn’t.
Fourth, acknowledge that your brand probably doesn’t have social media magnetism. Social media magnetism is the power some brands have to draw people to their social media campaigns. Starbucks, Nike and Apple have social media magnetism. You’re probably not Starbucks, Nike or Apple, so you’ll have to push people to your campaign in order to get them to engage with you.
Fifth, understand the 5 business models for social media. They include branding, research, customer retention, e-commerce and lead generation. For a more in-depth understanding of this, visit Social Media Business Models.
Sixth, understand that social media isn’t free. Despite what you’ve heard, there are labor costs, production costs and even the occasional media costs associated with a social media campaign.
Seventh, accept the fact that you can’t “set it and forget it.” You can’t come in every morning and spend 10 minutes on your campaign and then leave. Social doesn’t work that way. A good social media campaign requires people to consistently monitor and manage the campaign.

Hopefully, these thoughts are enough to get you started on your way with social media. It’s not a complete list, so if I’ve missed any, let me know. Just add them in the comments box below.

Posted by Jamie Turner, Chief Content Officer, the 60 Second Marketer, the online magazine of BKV Digital and Direct Response.

Social Media | 9 Comments »

Tags: how to tell if social media is right for my business Social media best practices

June 10th, 2010

Social Media Marketing GPS — A Free eBook by Toby Bloomberg

Toby Bloomberg’s free eBook Social Media Marketing GPS was developed as a new book genre built on a succession of tweet interviews about one business topic: Social Media Marketing. The contributors are forty prominent marketers from Canada, England, India and the US. They include author David Meerman Scott, Ann Handley of Marketing Profs, Scott Monty who heads the social media effort at Ford Motor Company and Blogher’s Elisa Camahort.

Click here to download Toby Bloomberg's free eBook.

Toby is recognized for her expertise in combining social media with traditional marketing values.

Her blog Diva Marketing, is included in the Forbes list of 20 Marketing and Social Media Blogs By Women. What follows is an interview with Toby about her ebook and, more importantly, about social media.

Who was Social Media Marketing GPS written for?

It was written for two audiences. It was written for people who are just stepping into social media and don’t know what it’s all about. And it was also written for people who are active in the space but want a refresher or just a few new ideas. I think both audiences will find value in the book.

Were there any surprises in the outcomes or conclusions of interviews?

Every single person interviewed across 12 different topics mentioned that Social Media, in order to be successful, needs to have a strategy with goals, objectives and measurable outcomes. And that really surprised me. I did not think that no matter what people talked about, they would mention strategy at that level, but they did. I was glad it was reinforced throughout the book.

How did you come up with the twitter format for the book?

I wanted to test twitter, and see if I could push the envelope and do something different. I wanted to see if people would pay attention to a stream of information that was tweeted by one person on one topic. And so in order to do that I put structure around it in the format of a book. Just as a traditional business book would have, there is a forward. And the forward is by Shel Israel, and then we go into “What is Social Media”, ethics and branding, etc. And it ends with an after forward by David Meerman Scott. So it wraps itself in context as well as content. And I think that’s what makes it a very easy and familiar read.

What do you have to say about companies who complain about Social Media, “We cannot control this. People will make negative comments…”

Yes they do, and the funny thing about it is, people make negative comments all the time. And most really smart marketers understand, you can’t control your customer’s perception of your brand. But you can help them manage it. By the clues you put out, the service you provide, buy the excellence of the product. And social media is really no different. It’s just another way for people to express themselves.

What is interesting is that, if someone drops a negative comment on your blog or FB page, you have the ability to go in and correct that in a space where people see how you respond to problems. And quite frequently, that can help strengthen the brand’s image as opposed to being a detriment.

People are going to look toward the digital world and the internet in order to build stronger relationships and communication strategies with consumers. That will change the way people do business. It’s taking us back to a time when relationships and people mattered and doing business with a handshake was important and integrity was important. So in a way, Jacki, the world is spinning backwards. But it’s a good thing because we are learning to work with each other online and offline.

So what are you working on now?

I’m taking a closer dive into Social Media tactics and to understand how Social Media impacts the enterprise. Building strategies and models for companies to help them do that well and not get tripped up. And in addition, I’m watching what happens with this eBook very carefully and deciding that the next one will be.

You can download Social Media Marketing GPS from Toby’s blog: http://www.bloombergmarketing.blogs.com/

Author bio:

Digital marketer Jacki Schklar produces video and interactive content, sometimes with a comedic slant. Her projects have been recognized by the Funny or Die editorial team, BestViral.com, TVGuide.com and The Online Video Guide. She publishes Funny not Slutty and can be found at Southern Jewish Princess Media.

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Tags: Social media best practices social media case studies Social Media Marketing GPS Toby Bloomberg

April 9th, 2010

Top 52 Social Media Platforms Every Marketer Should Know

In my book, Go Mobile, written with Jeanne Hopkins from HubSpot, we point out that the vast majority of social media platforms can be accessed via mobile devices. That should come as no surprise since, by 2013, the number one way people will access the internet will be via their smart phones.

Whether you’re accessing your social media platform from a desktop or a smartphone, it’s important to be familiar with all of them. With that in mind, below is a list of the top 52 social media platforms. They’re broken into 3 categories — social media platforms that help you network (like LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.); social media platforms that help you promote (like YouTube, blogs, etc.); and social media platforms that help you share (like Digg, Delicious, etc.).

Ready? Here goes.

Social Media Platforms that help you Network:

Classmates: An easy, simple-to-use site that can help you track down former classmates. Great for high school and college reunions. Strengths: Simple, uncluttered user-interface. Ease-of-use. Weaknesses: Since it’s a site set-up to connect former classmates, it would be wise to be cautious about using it for business purposes.

Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook out of his dorm room for his fellow students at Harvard. Today, toddlers to grandmothers can be found on Facebook. Strengths: Widely-adopted by large segments of the population. Weaknesses: Will the younger generation stay on Facebook once Grandma has “friended” them?

Friendster: A way to stay connected with everything that’s important to you — hobbies, interests, causes, business, etc. Strengths: A simple web-interface makes this easy-to-use. Weaknesses: Not as widely adopted as some other platform-runs. Might have peaked.

hi5: This is a social networking platform that skews a little younger than LinkedIn. Members can play games, watch videos, flirt, give gifts or just hang out. Strengths: It’s a great alternative to MySpace and/or Facebook for the younger crowd. Weaknesses: It may not be the best social networking platform for business.

LinkedIn: This is the Grand Pooh Bah of them all. They’ve been around since 2003, which, in social media terms is also known as “since the beginning of time.” Strengths: Everybody’s on LinkedIn. Weaknesses: Most people have trouble knowing what to do with LinkedIn after they upload their business information.

MyLife: A clean, simple site that helps people connect with family, friends and other relationships. Over 750 million profiles. Strengths: The easy-to-use interface is one of the site’s great strengths. Perfect if you’re looking for an engaging, simple way to connect with old friends. Weaknesses: Not as widely adopted as some other sites.

Ning: This site connects groups of people who are passionate about particular interests, topics or hobbies. Co-Founded by Marc Andreessen, who helped launch Netscape. Strengths: Great for connecting with others who are interested in your area of expertise. Weaknesses: The user interface is so simple and uncluttered that getting started can be confusing. But once you’ve figured it out, it can be a good tool.

Plaxo: Currently hosts address books for more than 40 million people. Helps people stay in touch with “Pulse,” which is a dashboard that lets you see what the people you know are sharing all over the web. Strengths: Graphical user interface makes it easy-to-use. Weaknesses: It’s not as widely-adopted as some other platforms such as LinkedIn.

Twitter: A surprisingly-successful tool that is widely-adopted and used for everything from business to fun and games. Strengths: Used by large segments of the population. Weaknesses: Can be a distraction, especially if you have Attention Deficit Disor … wow, look at that bird outside my window!

XING: XING has more than 8 million subscribers worldwide. It has over 34,000 specialized groups and over 150,000 live networking events each year. Strengths: XING adds new developments to their platform on a regular basis. Weaknesses: Not as widely-adopted as some other platforms such as LinkedIn.

Social Media Platforms that help you Promote:

Bing: Bing, Google and Yahoo aren’t technically social media platforms, but they are tools that can be used to promote your product or service, so we’re including all three in this overview. The technique for using any search engine to promote your product or service is the same so you’ll want to optimize your website so that the search engines see it. By doing so, you’ll drive traffic to your website from the people doing searches on specific topics. Strengths: Bing uses “intelligent search” to make searches even more relevant for the user. Weaknesses: It’s fighting against Google, which is a tough battle.

Blogging Platforms: These are tools that are used to create blogs. Some of them, like Blogger, Tumblr, Vox or Xanga are straightforward platforms that are great for people who want to do a simple blog about their vacation, their company or their family reunion. If you’re ready to create a more robust blog that adds a lot of SEO value for your website, you’ll want to use Joomla, Drupal, Typepad or WordPress. These are the blogging platforms used by serious bloggers.

Discussion Boards and Forums: Are you interested in creating an online forum where members of your community can engage with each other and offer each other advice? Then a discussion board or forum is for you. The best-known platforms for forums include Lefora, Zoho, Drupal, PhpBB, Simple Machines, Vanila, JavaBB and vBulletin. Strengths: Forums are a great way to build a relationship with customers and prospects. Weaknesses: They require regular, ongoing time and energy to keep them running properly.

Google: Google is technically not a social media platform, but can be used as a social tool to drive visits to your well-optimized website. Strengths: Ease-of-use and pervasiveness. Weaknesses: Are they spreading their brand across too many channels? Does this confuse people? (Answer: Probably not, but we’re struggling to come up with any weakness for Google. They’re just so darn nice, it’s hard to figure out what they’re not good at. They’re even good at not being evil, you know?)

Email Marketing Platforms: Email can often get overlooked in the world of social media, but if you define social media as tools that help you have a dialogue with your customers and prospects, then email falls into the social media category. Popular email marketing tools include Constant Contact, iContact, ExactTarget and others. Strengths: Email is a highly measurable way to connect with customers and prospects. Weaknesses: Email marketing requires a concerted, ongoing effort if you’re going to do it right.

Flickr: This is a photo-sharing site that can be used to build awareness and drive traffic to your product pages. If you’re selling hunting rifles or tennis rackets or widgets, you’ll want to use Flickr to a) build awareness for your product and b) drive people from Flickr to your website. Strengths: Flickr is easy-to-use and has a clean user-interface. Weaknesses: Photo-sharing sites are important, but they’re not the very first thing you’ll want to work on in your social media campaign.

Howcast: Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a website where you could watch “How To” videos on the topic of your choice? Well, there is and it’s called Howcast. It’s an extremely worthy-competitor to YouTube. Strengths: A great place to upload high-quality content. Weaknesses: The default is still YouTube. Most people are conditioned to automatically type “YouTube” into their browser.

iLike: If you’re a musician, you’ll want to upload your work to iLike. It’s the dominant music application on Facebook, Orkut and hi5. Strengths: Over 50 million music lovers use iLike via Facebook, Orkut, iGoogle and other platforms. Weaknesses: iLike is a crowded venue, which makes it difficult for musicians to break through.

iTunes: This is not the only podcasting site, but it’s the best-known and most popular. If you’re doing interviews with industry experts or if you’re creating mini-radio shows, iTunes is the place to be. Strengths: It’s a well-known, well-respected platform. Weaknesses: If you don’t create scintillating content, people won’t come back for more.

MySpace: Ahhhhh, MySpace. They arguably started this whole social media thing to begin with. Today, MySpace is primarily used as a congregation point for younger people interested in pop culture. They’re evolving and seem to be finding a niche. Strengths: A well-known social media platform that most everybody has visited at one time or another. Weaknesses: They’re not the ubiquitous social media platform they once were.

More and more people are accessing their social media platforms via smartphone. To learn how to dive into mobile marketing quickly and easily, check out my book, "Go Mobile."

Picasa: This is a photo organizing, editing and sharing site that’s owned by Google. You can tag photos to enable quick searches by users. Strengths: As with most Google services, Picasa is easy-to-use and loads very quickly. Weaknesses: Photo sharing is important, but it’s not the very first thing you’d want to work on in your social media campaign.

Vimeo: Think of Vimeo as a high-end YouTube. It’s perfect for people interested in sharing their videos with a community of positive, encouraging creative professionals. Strengths: You gotta love a site that oozes upbeat, optimistic, life-affirming energy that Vimeo does. Weaknesses: It’s not a default site the way YouTube is, but that may change in the near future.

Yahoo: Like Google and Bing, this is not technically a social media platform. But it is a tool that ultimately can drive traffic to your website. Be sure to optimize your website so that search engines like Yahoo can see it. Strengths: Yahoo is one of the work horses of the search engine world, so it’s always a good idea to keep it on your radar screen. Weaknesses: Is Yahoo a search engine? An online portal? A web magazine? Perhaps it’s all of these things. And perhaps that’s not a weakness after all.

YouTube: Of course, YouTube is one of the better-known platforms used to promote businesses. The key to YouTube is to keep the videos short and sweet. Make sure they solve the “what’s in it for me” equation. YouTube is perfect for “How To” videos, but it’s not a good place to upload the CEOs annual speech to shareholders. Strengths: YouTube is ubiquitous. Weaknesses: It’s a cluttered environment that can sometimes have some pretty racy videos on it. (Or so we’ve heard.)

Social Media Platforms that help you Share:

Crowdstorm: If you want to get the inside scoop on digital cameras, DVD players, televisions or other products, Crowdstorm is for you. The Crowdstorm community is built around the idea that when people share information about products, everybody benefits. Strengths: An easy-to-use website that leverages the power of ratings and reviews for the benefit of users. Weaknesses: Since the site crowdsources reviews, it’s not necessarily an effective tool for marketers. But it’s always good to check with sites like these to see how your product is being perceived in the marketplace.

Delicious: This is a social bookmarking service owned by Yahoo. When someone tags your article, video or blog post with a Delicious bookmark, it’s the equivalent of a “vote.” The more votes you get, the more visibility your content has on the Delicious website. Strengths: It’s everywhere. Weaknesses: You have to have a lot of traffic and a lot of votes to show up on the radar screen.

Digg: Similar to Delicious in that people vote for articles, videos and blog posts they like. If your content receives enough Diggs, it’s promoted to the front page for millions of visitors to see. Strengths: Like Delicious, Digg is everywhere. Weaknesses: You have to have a lot of traffic and a lot of votes to show up on the radar screen.

Feedback: This is a social media platform that allows people to provide feedback to companies as diverse as Starbucks and Chipotle. Members of the Feedback community can read reviews and make additional comments. Strengths: An innovative use of “crowd-sourcing” for information. Weaknesses: Since the site crowdsources reviews, it’s not necessarily an effective tool for marketers. But it’s always good to check with sites like these to see how your product is being perceived in the marketplace.

HootSuite: This is a tool that allows you to manage multiple social media channels through one dashboard. If you have a company with more than one contributor to your social media program, HootSuite is a good solution. Strengths: A very easy-to-use interface. Simple set-up, yet still powerful. Weaknesses: If your social media program is no more extensive than updating a Twitter account, then HootSuite would be over-kill.

Reddit: Similar to Digg and Delicious. Reddit is a source for what’s new and popular on the web. Users can vote articles up or down on the site, so readers can check out the hot, trending topics from blogs, newspapers and other sources around the globe. Strengths: Like Digg and Delicious, Reddit is everywhere. Weaknesses: You have to have a lot of traffic and a lot of votes to show up on the radar screen.

Scribd: This is the largest social publishing and reading site in the world. You simply upload your speech, ebook or PowerPoint presentation to the site so that others can be awed by your wisdom and expertise. Strengths: A great way to potentially get your content in front of thousands of readers. Weaknesses: There are a lot of other people competing for the same eyeballs.

SlideShare: One of the better-known places to upload your content for sharing with others. Take your PowerPoint, your ebook, your Podcast or just about any other content and share it with the SlideShare community. Strengths: Like Scribd, SlideShare is a great way to get in front of a large number of visitors. Weaknesses: There are a lot of other people competing for the same eyeballs.

StumbleUpon: Very similar to Digg, Delicious and Reddit. When you rate a website that you like using StumbleUpon, it’s automatically shared with like-minded people. And it helps you find great sites your friends recommend. Strengths: StumbleUpon helps spread your content to people not regularly exposed to your products and/or services. Weaknesses: Competes with several other well-established tools, like Digg, Delicious and Reddit.

TweetDeck: Like HootSuite, TweetDeck provides a way to track many of your social media channels on one dashboard. It can be a time-saver and a productivity-enhancer, assuming you’re not easily distracted. Strengths: It’s very easy to set-up and get started. Weaknesses: Like all dashboard tools, it can lead to distractions for employees who are easily … Whoa! Is that a fly on the ceiling or just a speck of dust?

Wikipedia: It still amazes us that this user-generated encyclopedia is run by just a few dozen employees (along with hundreds of thousands of contributors around the globe). It’s a great tool for legitimate entries. Don’t try to game the system by adding overly-promotional posts. But if your entry will be helpful to the Wikipedia community at large, have at it. Strengths: It’s a great tool for uploading legitimate, helpful content about your product, service or company. Weaknesses: If your target market is over the age of 40, they might struggle with Wikipedia’s miniscule type.

Yelp: This platform offers user-generated reviews on cool places to eat, shop, drink, relax and play. Yelp has an augmented reality Smart Phone application that makes using it on the run a blast. Strengths: User-generated reviews are a great way for customers and prospects to find out about your business. Weaknesses: Some people try to game the system with faux reviews, but Yelp does a pretty good job of keeping those faux reviews at bay.

Again, the list we’ve created is for our book, How to Make Money with Social Media, which will be published in the fall off 2010. It’s not intended to be exhaustive, but it is intended to be helpful. So, given that, let us know your feedback.

Do we accurately describe the platforms? Are there any important platforms that we’re missing? Are there any that should be deleted from the list?

Do tell.

Thanks!

Posted by Jamie Turner, Founder of the 60 Second Marketer and co-author of “How to Make Money with Social Media” and “Go Mobile.” He is also a popular marketing speaker at events, trade shows and corporations around the globe.

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