Big Business Pouring Money Into Social Tools

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Big Business Puts Dollars Into Internal Social Development (eMarketer)
Large companies aren’t just spending on social media in a way that touches customers directly. They’re also investing in developing social media capabilities within their own organizations. According to a study of worldwide companies with over 1,000 employees conducted by the The Altimeter Group, companies dedicated between 20% and 37% of their total social media development spending to “internal social media” in 2012. Larger companies were the biggest investors in internal social development, both in dollar terms and as a percentage of total social development spending. Companies with revenues between $1 billion and $10 billion spent an average $562,069 on internal social media, compared with $968,548 on external spending. Companies with revenues over $10 billion spent $1.3 million on average on internal measures and $2.9 million on outward-facing ones. Read >

Tips To Source And Create Great Content For Social Media (Jeff Bullas)
What most people and companies don’t realize is that they have great content, it just happens to be offline in files on computers that are waiting to be repurposed for online. It can be interviews or press releases that can be edited, summarized or combined. There are presentations you have used for clients, articles you have sent to clients, information from your suppliers that is sitting on your computer, there are training videos that could be edited for YouTube, videos taken at conferences. The core foundation for your content should be initially a blog as part of your own website’s domain— this will help with creating links that will improve your Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Read >

Social Media Linked To Poor Academic Performance (redOrbit)
Could texting, tweeting and other use of social media hurt one’s GPA? That’s what researchers from The Miriam Hospital’s Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine sought to discover, and the results are that the widespread use of social media among college students, which includes texting to chatting on mobile phones and even just posting status updates on Facebook, could take an academic toll. According to this new study, many students are engaged nearly half the day in some form of media use. The study found freshmen women were spending nearly 12 hours a day texting, using the Internet for social media networking, or listening to music and watching videos. Researchers found much of this high use of media was associated with lower grade point averages (GPAs) and other negative academic outcomes. Read >

How Small Businesses Are Using Social Media (Business2Community)
Social Media is a great way for small business owners to grow their visibility online. Case in point, in a recent survey by Manta of 600 small business owners across the United States: 90% of them said that they are actively engaged in social networking sites and 74% felt that social networking online was very valuable and that it was starting to outweigh networking in person. What can you do as a small business owner to grow your visibility and become active in social media? By using the acronym R.A.C.K.: Research, actively engage, connect and remember — knowledge is sharing. According to Intuit, some of the things that small business owners are doing can be found in the full infographic. Read >

Reasons That Business Blogging Is Better (Patricia Redsicker via Malhar Barai)
Business blogging should be one of the top initiatives in any brands' content strategy. This infographic gives 10 reasons why business blogging is better than using Facebook. Read >