If you’ve been listening to the social-media evangelists over the past couple of years, you could be forgiven for coming away with the idea that social media is free.

Sure, there’s no direct charge for putting up a Facebook page, and you won’t get a bill for tweeting.  However, as Uwe Hook put it in his recent post over at iMedia Connection:
“Social media is not free.   Social media is not cheap.   Social media requires a considerable investment of time and resources to make it work.”

The fact that the platforms are free has unfortunately encouraged [Read more...]

Citing a report by Mashable in his post for ClickZ, Jack Marshall reports that Twitter has been quietly beta-testing some new functionality with a limited number of its business accounts.  It’s expected that the new features will be rolled out gradually to more and more business accounts shortly.

Dubbed the Twitter Business Center, its components include the ability for businesses to… [Read more...]

We’ve seen (and reported on here) numerous studies of marketers’ increasing adoption of social media.  What’s been largely missing is analogous research on the demand or buy-side of the equation.

Until recently, that is, with two such studies appearing in close succession.  Most recent is a UK-based study conducted and analyzed by McCallum Layton for Base One and B2B Marketing Magazine.  It’s especially significant for limiting participation to buyers involved in the decision-making process for the purchase of a business product or service of value over £20,000 during the previous 12 months …in other words, a population very similar to the customers of many of our readers.

Posting on The Customer Collective, Ardath Albee has briefly summarized the study and points out a key finding… [Read more...]