Three women who’ll boost your social media knowledge. Day 5 – 30 Days of Social Media #30DSM

Hello and welcome to day 5 of 30 Days of Social Media.

Today we meet three social media mavens. All three women have influenced me over the last year and their work has helped me understand social media better. They’ve each contributed to my education and I think you’ll enjoy their work too.

Social Media Mavin #1 – Tara Hunt, Author of The Whuffie Factor

The first maven I’d like to introduce you to is Tara Hunt. Tara is the author of The Whuffie Factor: Using the Power of Social Networks to Build Your Business. I saw Tara speak at the South By South West conference in Austin in March.

I’ve read her book, I’ve listened to the audio version of her book and I’ve re-listened to her SXSW presentation. I guess you could say I’m a fan . What I like about Tara is that, not only is acutely cluey about the area of building social capital, but she’s also an entertaining presenter.

The book identifies the thinking and actions that build your social capital (and creates awareness about what will crush it).

I’m very passionate about the concepts she presents (and at the same time perturbed about how well I can implement them).  I’m sure I’ll ‘rinse and repeat’ my consumption of the book time and time again – the content is rich and the implementation of her message, while a big job, is essential for the effective growth of your social capital on the web.

I’ve attached a link to her presentation (Making Whuffie: Raising Social Capital in Online Communities) and have also linked to her Making Whuffie slideshow (which is hosted on social site slideshare.com – a great site on which to host your presentations so that you can share them with others).

Social Media Maven #2 – Charlene Li – CoAuthor, Groundswell

Charlene Li is the coauthor of Groundswell – Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies.

The book is a must-read for anyone who wants to do well using social media. It’s a comprehensive and intelligent look at the surge that is happening and how to make the most of it. It is especially important reading of businesses who want to better understand their clients

Charlene also presented at the South By South West conference earlier this year and I’ve included a link here to her presentation: The Future of Social Networks. (Grasp her concept of social networks becoming like air… and you’ll get the true power of her message.)

The website for the Groundswell book is worth visiting. Take a look at the consumer profile tool to better understand your customer (and whether they are creators, critics, collectors, joiners, spectators or inactive – a model explained in the book). You can also download and excerpt – though I highly recommend picking up a copy of the book (or taking a listen to the audio version which you can get from itunes or audible.com.)

Social Media Maven #3 – Michelle MacPhearson

I was first introduced to Michelle MacPherson while listening to a podcast of which she’s a part – Internet Marketing This Week. While it’s not strictly weekly (as the title would suggest), every episode of the IMTW podcast is valuable if you’re interested in Internet marketing. I recommend you subscribe to it. You can find it on itunes oar get details at internetmarketingthisweek.com.(By the way, the whole crew – Michelle MacPhearson, Ed Dale, Paul Colligan and Lynn Terry are all master Internet Marketers and good teaches of the subject.)

A little while back Michelle released a report called The Social Media Myth. It’s a practical 31-page report that blows away the smoke the mirrors that keep many people thinking that the way to be successful in social media is to just use it. She looks at the misconception of what really works with social media. A good read and a free download.

Notice Michelle’s use of video as well as the form to capture information on this download page. While we’re not covering best practise in Internet Marketing in this program, we’ll come across some useful examples of good internet marketing throughout the course of 30 Days of Social Media.

Until tomorrow,

Suzi

TODAY’S TASK

• Watch Charlene Li’s presentation
• Listen to Tara Hunt’s presentation
• Download The Social Media Myth by Michelle MacPhearson

Additional resources

• The Internet Marketing this Week Podcast
• Tara Hunt’s Website
• Michelle MacPherson’s Website
• Groundswell book site
• Audible.com – for Audio books
• Slideshare.com
• South by South West Conference – March 2010 – be there!