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As technology adoption increases amongst small businesses, social media is an area social media is an area that more business owners are becoming more aware and interested in.

Alexis Lamster, VP of customers at Postling and creator of the below infographic mentioned that the company analysed 20,000 Postling users to obtain information on how small businesses are using social media.

Check out the data below.

According to Marketing Sherpa influencing brand reputation and increased brand reputation through social media has somewhat been an effective Web 2.0 tool. This also has the added benefit of improving search engine rankings and increasing website traffic. 

Social Media doesn't rank as high with B2B lead generation. The reason is that most marketers use quantitative metrics to measure effectiveness that the qualitative nature of social media is often overlooked. For example, it is not important the number of comments about your brand on a industry blog, the important factor here is the nature of the comments, what they are saying about your company brand. Are they all positive or do the comments have a negative spin that could damage your brand reputation?

According to the American Express OPEN fall 2010 "Small Business Monitor", small business owners have dramatically upped their usage of social media for marketing in the past year. While one in 10 business owners mentioned of using social networking for marketing last year, 39% indicated they did in September 2010. The impetus is driving sales by connecting with consumers. 

Facebook was the clear leader among small business owners, with 27% using the site to attract new customers VS 9% using Linkedin, 8% using Twitter and 5% maintaining a Blog. 

American Express found that among the businesses that use social media marketing, 39% said it increased the exposure of their business. 

According to Robin Goad, research director at Experian Hitwise, mentioned that Facebook market share of UK page views has trebled over the last five years, but growth has slowed significantly over the last six months.  Hitwise also reported that the average amount of time spent on Facebook by UK users fell from 30 minutes in December 2009 to 27.36 minutes during June and July 2010.
This is not to say that the power of Facebook is waning, but that the most likely cause of the slowdown in UK growth might be market maturity.  

Charles Arthur, writing in the Guardian in July 2010, suggested social networking itself has left its formative phase behind: "Where are all the new social networks? I don't think anyone is going to build a social network from scratch whose only purpose is to connect with people. We've got Facebook (personal & business), Linkedin (business) and Twitter (SMS-length mobile)."
The good news for Facebook is that -as Arthur comment implies- in 2010 the site has no serious rivals on the global stage.

We recently found an interesting case study from Marketing Sherpa on Social Media Strategies and how consumers are talking about brands on the different social networks. 

Kodak's social marketing efforts have been measured for the last two years. They mention how important is to engage in these conversations in order to develop a comprehensive and measurable social media strategy. Below are 6 lessons from Kodak on shifting brand perceptions and increasing online sales:

1. Listen before you speak 

Listening and researching your market are a most. Kodak listened to what their customers were saying about the brand, this was achieved by looking on forums, blogs, social networking sites and listening to what their customers were saying about the brand, products or services. 

2. Add value when joining conversations

Kodak saw that customers were talking about related topics for example digital printing. Kodak therefore developed resources to facilitate communication within this group as well as getting involved in some of the conversations by adding meaningful information depending on what was discussed within the group which can be anything from brand reputation, comparing products, complaining, correct misinformation, events and more. 

3.  Don't be intrusive 

Knowing when to participate is as important as knowing when not to. Kodak mentions that in the following case scenarios Kodak didn't wanted to become 'the stalker' and therefore refrain from participation; one-to-one conversations as this could be intrusive and could upset people, simple mentions if a customer has bought something and is giving a compliment to the product/service Kodak mentions that at most they would say that's great, thanks and offering promotions as this is not Kodak's strategy.

4. Use real people behind the brand 

Kodak's team has a balance between having social media participants speak for the brand and having them show their personality. Customers can be aware of the team and who they are talking to. The team can maintain a personal tone, however they know they are representing the company. 

5. Treat consumer and business customers differently 

Kodak treats these two market segments differently, with business customers they strive to establish leadership and add value in the form of creating relevant content, whitepapers, blog posts and contribute to online conversations

6. Transparency is a paramount

Kodak created a social media policy for all employees and have released a tips book which contains this guidelines some of this are: uphold Kodak's values, be transparent and be yourself, protect confidential information, avoid unsubstantiated product claims. Making this information public shows that Kodak has nothing to hide in the social space. Kodak social media policy

A simple explanation that tells the factors and influences shaping social media.

A simple redesign can make huge difference to your bottom line here are 5 insights as to how small changes can make a huge difference to your business if you are using social sharing on your marketing mix;

The chart of this week from Marketing Sherpa shows the metrics that organisations are monitoring and measuring. With 72% measuring visitors and sources of traffic, followed by network size this is the number of followers, fans or members and 56% measuring on brand or commentary about their products/services.

Google has launched a series of videos on its official Nexus One YouTube Channel documenting how Nexus One was created. Below is Episode 2 which talks about the Display, Resolution and 3D framework used.

Facebook celebrated its 6th Birthday yesterday as it was first launched on February 4th, 2004 and what a way to celebrate with a new traffic milestone of 400 million users. To celebrate this occasion Facebook decided to launch a complete homepage redesign. The video highlights the new redesign aspects with Mr. Deng explaining the primary focus of the redesign which is to help users find what they are looking for, also to help users discover the new application games directory as well as help users to communicate with their friends more effectively.